playwright-app-testing

Playwright App Testing

When to Use This Skill

Use Playwright testing when:

• User requests testing the App in a browser
• Verifying fixes or improvements you've made to UI/frontend code
• Debugging UI issues

Proactively use after making frontend changes to verify your work functions correctly.

Prerequisites Check

Before using Playwright tools, verify the dev server is running:

ps aux | grep "webpack" | grep -v grep

If server not running: Inform user to start with cd App && npm run web

Dev Server Details

• URL: https://dev.new.expensify.com:8082/

Playwright Testing Workflow

1. Verify server: Check webpack process is running
2. Navigate: Open https://dev.new.expensify.com:8082/ in the browser
3. Interact: Use Playwright MCP tools to inspect, click, type, and navigate

Do NOT add arbitrary waits after actions. Instead, take a snapshot to check the result and only add short waits if the page hasn't updated yet.

Dev Environment Sign-In

When signing in to dev environment:

• Email: Generate random Gmail address (e.g., user+throwaway<random>@gmail.com)
  • New Account: Press join to create account
  • Existing Account: Magic code: Always 000000
• Onboarding: The SKIP_ONBOARDING env flag is set to false by default in .env. When false, onboarding screens will appear after sign-in for new accounts. Unless you are specifically asked to test onboarding, update the flag to true before starting the dev server so that onboarding is bypassed entirely:

  sed -i '' 's/SKIP_ONBOARDING=false/SKIP_ONBOARDING=true/' .env
  

  If you need to test onboarding flows, set it back to false:

  sed -i '' 's/SKIP_ONBOARDING=true/SKIP_ONBOARDING=false/' .env
  

  You can check the current value with:

  grep SKIP_ONBOARDING .env
  

  Important: After changing SKIP_ONBOARDING in .env, the web dev server must be restarted for the change to take effect.

Example Usage

Scenario 1: User requests testing
User: "Test sign in to app"
→ Use this skill to verify server and test sign-in flow

Scenario 2: After making UI changes
You: "I've updated the expense form validation"
→ Proactively use this skill to verify the changes work in browser

Scenario 3: Investigating bug
User: "The submit button doesn't work on this page"
→ Use this skill to reproduce and verify the issue

When NOT to Use This Skill

Skip Playwright for:

• Backend service testing
• Unit tests
• Type checking
• Mobile native app testing (requires emulators/simulators)