v1.59.0
New page.screencast API provides a unified interface for capturing page content with:
- Screencast recordings
- Action annotations
- Visual overlays
- Real-time frame capture
- Agentic video receipts
Screencast recording — record video with precise start/stop control, as an alternative to the recordVideoDir option:
page.screencast().start(new Screencast.StartOptions().setPath(Paths.get("video.webm")));
// ... perform actions ...
page.screencast().stop();
Action annotations — enable built-in visual annotations that highlight interacted elements and display action titles during recording:
page.screencast().showActions(new Screencast.ShowActionsOptions().setPosition("top-right"));
screencast.showActions() accepts position ("top-left", "top", "top-right", "bottom-left", "bottom", "bottom-right"), duration (ms per annotation), and fontSize (px). Returns a disposable to stop showing actions.
Visual overlays — add chapter titles and custom HTML overlays on top of the page for richer narration:
page.screencast().showChapter("Adding TODOs",
new Screencast.ShowChapterOptions()
.setDescription("Type and press enter for each TODO")
.setDuration(1000));
page.screencast().showOverlay("<div style=\"color: red\">Recording</div>");
Real-time frame capture — stream JPEG-encoded frames for custom processing like thumbnails, live previews, AI vision, and more:
page.screencast().start(new Screencast.StartOptions()
.setOnFrame(frame -> sendToVisionModel(frame.data)));
Agentic video receipts — coding agents can produce video evidence of their work. After completing a task, an agent can record a walkthrough video with rich annotations for human review:
page.screencast().start(new Screencast.StartOptions()
.setPath(Paths.get("receipt.webm")));
page.screencast().showActions(new Screencast.ShowActionsOptions().setPosition("top-right"));
page.screencast().showChapter("Verifying checkout flow",
new Screencast.ShowChapterOptions()
.setDescription("Added coupon code support per ticket #1234"));
// Agent performs the verification steps...
page.locator("#coupon").fill("SAVE20");
page.locator("#apply-coupon").click();
assertThat(page.locator(".discount")).containsText("20%");
page.screencast().showChapter("Done",
new Screencast.ShowChapterOptions()
.setDescription("Coupon applied, discount reflected in total"));
page.screencast().stop();
The resulting video serves as a receipt: chapter titles provide context, action annotations highlight each interaction, and the visual walkthrough is faster to review than text logs.
- Method page.ariaSnapshot() to capture the aria snapshot of the page — equivalent to
page.locator("body").ariaSnapshot(). - Options
depthandmodein locator.ariaSnapshot(). - Method locator.normalize() converts a locator to follow best practices like test ids and aria roles.
- Method page.pickLocator() enters an interactive mode where hovering over elements highlights them and shows the corresponding locator. Click an element to get its Locator back. Use page.cancelPickLocator() to cancel.
- page.screencast provides video recording, real-time frame streaming, and overlay management.
- Methods screencast.start() and screencast.stop() for recording and frame capture.
- Methods screencast.showActions() and screencast.hideActions() for action annotations.
- Methods screencast.showChapter() and screencast.showOverlay() for visual overlays.
- Methods screencast.showOverlays() and screencast.hideOverlays() for overlay visibility control.
- Method browserContext.setStorageState() clears existing cookies, local storage, and IndexedDB for all origins and sets a new storage state — no need to create a new context.
- Methods page.clearConsoleMessages() and page.clearPageErrors() to clear stored messages and errors.
- Option
filterin page.consoleMessages() and page.pageErrors() controls which messages are returned. - Method consoleMessage.timestamp().
- browserContext.debugger() provides programmatic control over the Playwright debugger.
- Method browserContext.isClosed().
- Method request.existingResponse() returns the response without waiting.
- Method response.httpVersion() returns the HTTP version used by the response.
- Option
livein tracing.start() for real-time trace updates. - Option
artifactsDirin browserType.launch() to configure the artifacts directory.
New browser.bind() API makes a launched browser available for playwright-cli, @playwright/mcp, and other clients to connect to.
Bind a browser — start a browser and bind it so others can connect:
Browser.BindResult serverInfo = browser.bind("my-session",
new Browser.BindOptions().setWorkspaceDir("/my/project"));
Connect from playwright-cli — connect to the running browser from your favorite coding agent.
playwright-cli attach my-session
playwright-cli -s my-session snapshot
Connect from @playwright/mcp — or point your MCP server to the running browser.
@playwright/mcp --endpoint=my-session
Connect from a Playwright client — use API to connect to the browser. Multiple clients at a time are supported!
Browser browser = chromium.connect(serverInfo.endpoint);
Pass host and port options to bind over WebSocket instead of a named pipe:
Browser.BindResult serverInfo = browser.bind("my-session",
new Browser.BindOptions().setHost("localhost").setPort(0));
// serverInfo.endpoint is a ws:// URL
Call browser.unbind() to stop accepting new connections.
Run playwright-cli show to open the Dashboard that lists all the bound browsers, their statuses, and allows interacting with them:
- See what your agent is doing on the background browsers
- Click into the sessions for manual interventions
- Open DevTools to inspect pages from the background browsers.
- Removed macOS 14 support for WebKit. We recommend upgrading your macOS version, or keeping an older Playwright version.
- Chromium 147.0.7727.15
- Mozilla Firefox 148.0.2
- WebKit 26.4
This version was also tested against the following stable channels:
- Google Chrome 146
- Microsoft Edge 146