Continuous Integration | Playwright Python

Introduction​

Playwright tests can be executed in CI environments. We have created sample configurations for common CI providers.

3 steps to get your tests running on CI:

1. Ensure CI agent can run browsers: Use our Docker image in Linux agents or install your dependencies using the CLI.

2. Install Playwright:

   pip install playwright
   playwright install --with-deps
   

3. Run your tests:

CI configurations​

The Command line tools can be used to install all operating system dependencies in CI.

GitHub Actions​

On push/pull_request​

Tests will run on push or pull request on branches main/master. The workflow will install all dependencies, install Playwright and then run the tests.

name: Playwright Tests
on:
  push:
    branches: [ main, master ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ main, master ]
jobs:
  test:
    timeout-minutes: 60
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v5
    - name: Set up Python
      uses: actions/setup-python@v6
      with:
        python-version: '3.13'
    - name: Install dependencies
      run: |
        python -m pip install --upgrade pip
        pip install -r requirements.txt
    - name: Ensure browsers are installed
      run: python -m playwright install --with-deps
    - name: Run your tests
      run: pytest --tracing=retain-on-failure
    - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v5
      if: ${{ !cancelled() }}
      with:
        name: playwright-traces
        path: test-results/

Via Containers​

GitHub Actions support running jobs in a container by using the jobs.<job_id>.container option. This is useful to not pollute the host environment with dependencies and to have a consistent environment for e.g. screenshots/visual regression testing across different operating systems.

name: Playwright Tests
on:
  push:
    branches: [ main, master ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ main, master ]
jobs:
  playwright:
    name: 'Playwright Tests'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    container:
      image: mcr.microsoft.com/playwright/python:v1.60.0-noble
      options: --user 1001
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v5
      - name: Set up Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@v6
        with:
          python-version: '3.13'
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: |
          python -m pip install --upgrade pip
          pip install -r local-requirements.txt
          pip install -e .
      - name: Run your tests
        run: pytest

On deployment​

This will start the tests after a GitHub Deployment went into the success state. Services like Vercel use this pattern so you can run your end-to-end tests on their deployed environment.

name: Playwright Tests
on:
  deployment_status:
jobs:
  test:
    timeout-minutes: 60
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event.deployment_status.state == 'success'
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v5
      uses: actions/setup-python@v6
      with:
        python-version: '3.13'
    - name: Install dependencies
      run: |
        python -m pip install --upgrade pip
        pip install -r requirements.txt
    - name: Ensure browsers are installed
      run: python -m playwright install --with-deps
    - name: Run tests
      run: pytest
      env:
        # This might depend on your test-runner
        PLAYWRIGHT_TEST_BASE_URL: ${{ github.event.deployment_status.target_url }}

Docker​

We have a pre-built Docker image which can either be used directly or as a reference to update your existing Docker definitions. Make sure to follow the Recommended Docker Configuration to ensure the best performance.

Azure Pipelines​

For Windows or macOS agents, no additional configuration is required, just install Playwright and run your tests.

For Linux agents, you can use our Docker container with Azure Pipelines support running containerized jobs. Alternatively, you can use Command line tools to install all necessary dependencies.

For running the Playwright tests use this pipeline task:

trigger:
- main
pool:
  vmImage: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- task: UsePythonVersion@0
  inputs:
    versionSpec: '3.13'
  displayName: 'Use Python'
- script: |
    python -m pip install --upgrade pip
    pip install -r requirements.txt
  displayName: 'Install dependencies'
- script: playwright install --with-deps
  displayName: 'Install Playwright browsers'
- script: pytest
  displayName: 'Run Playwright tests'

Azure Pipelines (containerized)​

trigger:
- main
pool:
  vmImage: ubuntu-latest
container: mcr.microsoft.com/playwright/python:v1.60.0-noble
steps:
- task: UsePythonVersion@0
  inputs:
    versionSpec: '3.13'
  displayName: 'Use Python'
- script: |
    python -m pip install --upgrade pip
    pip install -r requirements.txt
  displayName: 'Install dependencies'
- script: pytest
  displayName: 'Run tests'

CircleCI​

Running Playwright on CircleCI is very similar to running on GitHub Actions. In order to specify the pre-built Playwright Docker image, simply modify the agent definition with docker: in your config like so:

executors:
  pw-noble-development:
    docker:
      - image: mcr.microsoft.com/playwright/python:v1.60.0-noble

Note: When using the docker agent definition, you are specifying the resource class of where playwright runs to the 'medium' tier here. The default behavior of Playwright is to set the number of workers to the detected core count (2 in the case of the medium tier). Overriding the number of workers to greater than this number will cause unnecessary timeouts and failures.

Jenkins​

Jenkins supports Docker agents for pipelines. Use the Playwright Docker image to run tests on Jenkins.

pipeline {
   agent { docker { image 'mcr.microsoft.com/playwright/python:v1.60.0-noble' } }
   stages {
      stage('e2e-tests') {
         steps {
            sh 'pip install -r requirements.txt'
            sh 'pytest'
         }
      }
   }
}

Bitbucket Pipelines​

Bitbucket Pipelines can use public Docker images as build environments. To run Playwright tests on Bitbucket, use our public Docker image (see Dockerfile).

image: mcr.microsoft.com/playwright/python:v1.60.0-noble

GitLab CI​

To run Playwright tests on GitLab, use our public Docker image (see Dockerfile).

stages:
  - test
tests:
  stage: test
  image: mcr.microsoft.com/playwright/python:v1.60.0-noble
  script:
  ...

Caching browsers​

Caching browser binaries is not recommended, since the amount of time it takes to restore the cache is comparable to the time it takes to download the binaries. Especially under Linux, operating system dependencies need to be installed, which are not cacheable.

If you still want to cache the browser binaries between CI runs, cache these directories in your CI configuration, against a hash of the Playwright version.

Debugging browser launches​

Playwright supports the DEBUG environment variable to output debug logs during execution. Setting it to pw:browser is helpful while debugging Error: Failed to launch browser errors.

Running headed​

By default, Playwright launches browsers in headless mode. See in our Running tests guide how to run tests in headed mode.

On Linux agents, headed execution requires Xvfb to be installed. Our Docker image and GitHub Action have Xvfb pre-installed. To run browsers in headed mode with Xvfb, add xvfb-run before the actual command.