This method attaches Playwright to an existing browser instance. When connecting to another browser launched via
BrowserType.launchServer in Node.js, the major and minor version needs to match the client version (1.2.3 → is
compatible with 1.2.x).
A browser websocket endpoint to connect to.
Optional options: ConnectOptionsThis method attaches Playwright to an existing browser instance. When connecting to another browser launched via
BrowserType.launchServer in Node.js, the major and minor version needs to match the client version (1.2.3 → is
compatible with 1.2.x).
This method attaches Playwright to an existing browser instance using the Chrome DevTools Protocol.
The default browser context is accessible via browser.contexts().
NOTE Connecting over the Chrome DevTools Protocol is only supported for Chromium-based browsers.
Usage
const browser = await playwright.chromium.connectOverCDP('http://localhost:9222');
const defaultContext = browser.contexts()[0];
const page = defaultContext.pages()[0];
A CDP websocket endpoint or http url to connect to. For example http://localhost:9222/ or
ws://127.0.0.1:9222/devtools/browser/387adf4c-243f-4051-a181-46798f4a46f4.
Optional options: ConnectOverCDPOptionsThis method attaches Playwright to an existing browser instance using the Chrome DevTools Protocol.
The default browser context is accessible via browser.contexts().
NOTE Connecting over the Chrome DevTools Protocol is only supported for Chromium-based browsers.
Usage
const browser = await playwright.chromium.connectOverCDP('http://localhost:9222');
const defaultContext = browser.contexts()[0];
const page = defaultContext.pages()[0];
Returns the browser instance.
Usage
You can use ignoreDefaultArgs to filter out --mute-audio from default arguments:
const browser = await chromium.launch({ // Or 'firefox' or 'webkit'.
ignoreDefaultArgs: ['--mute-audio']
});
Chromium-only Playwright can also be used to control the Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge browsers, but it works best with the version of Chromium it is bundled with. There is no guarantee it will work with any other version. Use
executablePathoption with extreme caution.If Google Chrome (rather than Chromium) is preferred, a Chrome Canary or Dev Channel build is suggested.
Stock browsers like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge are suitable for tests that require proprietary media codecs for video playback. See this article for other differences between Chromium and Chrome. This article describes some differences for Linux users.
Optional options: LaunchOptionsReturns the persistent browser context instance.
Launches browser that uses persistent storage located at userDataDir and returns the only context. Closing this
context will automatically close the browser.
Path to a User Data Directory, which stores browser session data like cookies and local storage. More details for
Chromium and
Firefox. Note that Chromium's
user data directory is the parent directory of the "Profile Path" seen at chrome://version. Pass an empty
string to use a temporary directory instead.
Optional options: { Optional acceptWhether to automatically download all the attachments. Defaults to true where all the downloads are accepted.
Optional args?: string[]Additional arguments to pass to the browser instance. The list of Chromium flags can be found here.
Optional baseURL?: stringWhen using page.goto(url[, options]),
page.route(url, handler[, options]),
page.waitForURL(url[, options]),
page.waitForRequest(urlOrPredicate[, options]),
or
page.waitForResponse(urlOrPredicate[, options])
it takes the base URL in consideration by using the
URL() constructor for building the corresponding URL.
Examples:
http://localhost:3000 and navigating to /bar.html results in http://localhost:3000/bar.htmlhttp://localhost:3000/foo/ and navigating to ./bar.html results in
http://localhost:3000/foo/bar.htmlhttp://localhost:3000/foo (without trailing slash) and navigating to ./bar.html results in
http://localhost:3000/bar.htmlOptional bypassCSP?: booleanToggles bypassing page's Content-Security-Policy.
Optional channel?: stringBrowser distribution channel. Supported values are "chrome", "chrome-beta", "chrome-dev", "chrome-canary", "msedge", "msedge-beta", "msedge-dev", "msedge-canary". Read more about using Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.
Optional chromiumEnable Chromium sandboxing. Defaults to false.
Optional colorEmulates 'prefers-colors-scheme' media feature, supported values are 'light', 'dark', 'no-preference'. See
page.emulateMedia([options]) for more details.
Passing null resets emulation to system defaults. Defaults to 'light'.
Optional deviceSpecify device scale factor (can be thought of as dpr). Defaults to 1.
Optional devtools?: booleanChromium-only Whether to auto-open a Developer Tools panel for each tab. If this option is true, the
headless option will be set false.
Optional downloadsIf specified, accepted downloads are downloaded into this directory. Otherwise, temporary directory is created and is deleted when browser is closed. In either case, the downloads are deleted when the browser context they were created in is closed.
Optional env?: { Specify environment variables that will be visible to the browser. Defaults to process.env.
Optional executablePath to a browser executable to run instead of the bundled one. If executablePath is a relative path, then it is
resolved relative to the current working directory. Note that Playwright only works with the bundled Chromium,
Firefox or WebKit, use at your own risk.
Optional extraHTTPHeaders?: { An object containing additional HTTP headers to be sent with every request.
Optional forcedEmulates 'forced-colors' media feature, supported values are 'active', 'none'. See
page.emulateMedia([options]) for more details.
Passing null resets emulation to system defaults. Defaults to 'none'.
Optional geolocation?: { Optional accuracy?: numberNon-negative accuracy value. Defaults to 0.
Latitude between -90 and 90.
Longitude between -180 and 180.
Optional handleSIGHUP?: booleanClose the browser process on SIGHUP. Defaults to true.
Optional handleSIGINT?: booleanClose the browser process on Ctrl-C. Defaults to true.
Optional handleSIGTERM?: booleanClose the browser process on SIGTERM. Defaults to true.
Optional hasSpecifies if viewport supports touch events. Defaults to false.
Optional headless?: booleanOptional httpCredentials for HTTP authentication.
Optional ignoreIf true, Playwright does not pass its own configurations args and only uses the ones from args. If an array is
given, then filters out the given default arguments. Dangerous option; use with care. Defaults to false.
Optional ignoreHTTPSErrors?: booleanWhether to ignore HTTPS errors when sending network requests. Defaults to false.
Optional isWhether the meta viewport tag is taken into account and touch events are enabled. Defaults to false. Not
supported in Firefox.
Optional javaWhether or not to enable JavaScript in the context. Defaults to true.
Optional locale?: stringSpecify user locale, for example en-GB, de-DE, etc. Locale will affect navigator.language value,
Accept-Language request header value as well as number and date formatting rules.
Optional logger?: LoggerLogger sink for Playwright logging.
Optional offline?: booleanWhether to emulate network being offline. Defaults to false.
Optional permissions?: string[]A list of permissions to grant to all pages in this context. See browserContext.grantPermissions(permissions[, options]) for more details.
Optional proxy?: { Network proxy settings.
Optional bypass?: stringOptional comma-separated domains to bypass proxy, for example ".com, chromium.org, .domain.com".
Optional password?: stringOptional password to use if HTTP proxy requires authentication.
Proxy to be used for all requests. HTTP and SOCKS proxies are supported, for example http://myproxy.com:3128 or
socks5://myproxy.com:3128. Short form myproxy.com:3128 is considered an HTTP proxy.
Optional username?: stringOptional username to use if HTTP proxy requires authentication.
Optional recordEnables HAR recording for all pages into recordHar.path file.
If not specified, the HAR is not recorded. Make sure to await
browserContext.close() for the HAR to
be saved.
Optional content?: "omit" | "embed" | "attach"Optional setting to control resource content management. If omit is specified, content is not persisted. If
attach is specified, resources are persisted as separate files or entries in the ZIP archive. If embed is
specified, content is stored inline the HAR file as per HAR specification. Defaults to attach for .zip output
files and to embed for all other file extensions.
Optional mode?: "full" | "minimal"When set to minimal, only record information necessary for routing from HAR. This omits sizes, timing, page,
cookies, security and other types of HAR information that are not used when replaying from HAR. Defaults to full.
Optional omitOptional setting to control whether to omit request content from the HAR. Defaults to false. Deprecated, use
content policy instead.
Path on the filesystem to write the HAR file to. If the file name ends with .zip, content: 'attach' is used by
default.
Optional urlA glob or regex pattern to filter requests that are stored in the HAR. When a baseURL via the context options was
provided and the passed URL is a path, it gets merged via the
new URL() constructor.
Optional recordEnables video recording for all pages into recordVideo.dir directory. If not specified videos are not recorded.
Make sure to await
browserContext.close() for videos to
be saved.
Path to the directory to put videos into.
Optional size?: { Optional dimensions of the recorded videos. If not specified the size will be equal to viewport scaled down to
fit into 800x800. If viewport is not configured explicitly the video size defaults to 800x450. Actual picture of
each page will be scaled down if necessary to fit the specified size.
Video frame height.
Video frame width.
Optional reducedEmulates 'prefers-reduced-motion' media feature, supported values are 'reduce', 'no-preference'. See
page.emulateMedia([options]) for more details.
Passing null resets emulation to system defaults. Defaults to 'no-preference'.
Optional screen?: { Emulates consistent window screen size available inside web page via window.screen. Is only used when the
viewport is set.
page height in pixels.
page width in pixels.
Optional serviceWhether to allow sites to register Service workers. Defaults to 'allow'.
'allow': Service Workers can be
registered.'block': Playwright will block all registration of Service Workers.Optional slowSlows down Playwright operations by the specified amount of milliseconds. Useful so that you can see what is going on.
Optional strictIf set to true, enables strict selectors mode for this context. In the strict selectors mode all operations on selectors that imply single target DOM element will throw when more than one element matches the selector. This option does not affect any Locator APIs (Locators are always strict). See [Locator] to learn more about the strict mode.
Optional timeout?: numberMaximum time in milliseconds to wait for the browser instance to start. Defaults to 30000 (30 seconds). Pass 0
to disable timeout.
Optional timezoneChanges the timezone of the context. See ICU's metaZones.txt for a list of supported timezone IDs.
Optional tracesIf specified, traces are saved into this directory.
Optional userSpecific user agent to use in this context.
Optional videoUse recordVideo instead.
Video frame height.
Video frame width.
Optional videosUse recordVideo instead.
Optional viewport?: null | { Emulates consistent viewport for each page. Defaults to an 1280x720 viewport. null disables the default viewport.
Returns the browser app instance. You can connect to it via browserType.connect(wsEndpoint[, options]), which requires the major/minor client/server version to match (1.2.3 → is compatible with 1.2.x).
Usage
Launches browser server that client can connect to. An example of launching a browser executable and connecting to it later:
const { chromium } = require('playwright'); // Or 'webkit' or 'firefox'.
(async () => {
const browserServer = await chromium.launchServer();
const wsEndpoint = browserServer.wsEndpoint();
// Use web socket endpoint later to establish a connection.
const browser = await chromium.connect(wsEndpoint);
// Close browser instance.
await browserServer.close();
})();
Optional options: { Optional args?: string[]Additional arguments to pass to the browser instance. The list of Chromium flags can be found here.
Optional channel?: stringBrowser distribution channel. Supported values are "chrome", "chrome-beta", "chrome-dev", "chrome-canary", "msedge", "msedge-beta", "msedge-dev", "msedge-canary". Read more about using Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.
Optional chromiumEnable Chromium sandboxing. Defaults to false.
Optional devtools?: booleanChromium-only Whether to auto-open a Developer Tools panel for each tab. If this option is true, the
headless option will be set false.
Optional downloadsIf specified, accepted downloads are downloaded into this directory. Otherwise, temporary directory is created and is deleted when browser is closed. In either case, the downloads are deleted when the browser context they were created in is closed.
Optional env?: { Specify environment variables that will be visible to the browser. Defaults to process.env.
Optional executablePath to a browser executable to run instead of the bundled one. If executablePath is a relative path, then it is
resolved relative to the current working directory. Note that Playwright only works with the bundled Chromium,
Firefox or WebKit, use at your own risk.
Optional firefoxFirefox user preferences. Learn more about the Firefox user preferences at
about:config.
Optional handleSIGHUP?: booleanClose the browser process on SIGHUP. Defaults to true.
Optional handleSIGINT?: booleanClose the browser process on Ctrl-C. Defaults to true.
Optional handleSIGTERM?: booleanClose the browser process on SIGTERM. Defaults to true.
Optional headless?: booleanOptional ignoreIf true, Playwright does not pass its own configurations args and only uses the ones from args. If an array is
given, then filters out the given default arguments. Dangerous option; use with care. Defaults to false.
Optional logger?: LoggerLogger sink for Playwright logging.
Optional port?: numberPort to use for the web socket. Defaults to 0 that picks any available port.
Optional proxy?: { Network proxy settings.
Optional bypass?: stringOptional comma-separated domains to bypass proxy, for example ".com, chromium.org, .domain.com".
Optional password?: stringOptional password to use if HTTP proxy requires authentication.
Proxy to be used for all requests. HTTP and SOCKS proxies are supported, for example http://myproxy.com:3128 or
socks5://myproxy.com:3128. Short form myproxy.com:3128 is considered an HTTP proxy.
Optional username?: stringOptional username to use if HTTP proxy requires authentication.
Optional timeout?: numberMaximum time in milliseconds to wait for the browser instance to start. Defaults to 30000 (30 seconds). Pass 0
to disable timeout.
Optional tracesIf specified, traces are saved into this directory.
Optional wsPath at which to serve the Browser Server. For security, this defaults to an unguessable string.
NOTE Any process or web page (including those running in Playwright) with knowledge of the wsPath can take
control of the OS user. For this reason, you should use an unguessable token when using this option.
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BrowserType provides methods to launch a specific browser instance or connect to an existing one. The following is a typical example of using Playwright to drive automation: