playwright-rs 0.12.0

Rust bindings for Microsoft Playwright
Documentation

Playwright for Rust

crates.io docs.rs CI License Playwright

Rust language bindings for Microsoft Playwright — the industry standard for cross-browser end-to-end testing.

Status: Pre-1.0, API stabilizing. See coverage for the path to v1.0.

🎯 Why playwright-rust?

Read our WHY.md to understand the vision, timing, and philosophy behind this project.

TL;DR: Rust is emerging as a serious web development language, with frameworks like Axum and Actix gaining traction. AI coding assistants are making Rust accessible to more developers. Test-Driven Development is experiencing a renaissance as the optimal way to work with AI agents. These trends are converging now, and they need production-quality E2E testing. playwright-rust fills that gap by bringing Playwright's industry-leading browser automation to the Rust ecosystem.

Roadmap and Goals

See Development Roadmap for plans and status of the development approach for playwright-rust.

Goal: Build this library to a production-quality state for broad adoption as @playwright/rust or playwright-rs. Provide official-quality Rust bindings for Microsoft Playwright, following the same architecture as playwright-python, playwright-java, and playwright-dotnet.

Quick Comparison: Python vs Rust

The API matches Playwright's cross-language conventions — if you know playwright-python, you know playwright-rust:

from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright

with sync_playwright() as p:
    browser = p.chromium.launch()
    page = browser.new_page()
    page.goto("https://example.com")

    # Locator with auto-waiting
    heading = page.locator("h1")
    assert heading.text_content() == "Example Domain"

    # Response body access
    resp = page.goto("https://api.example.com/data")
    data = resp.json()

    browser.close()

use playwright_rs::Playwright;

let pw = Playwright::launch().await?;
let browser = pw.chromium().launch().await?;
let page = browser.new_page().await?;
page.goto("https://example.com", None).await?;

// Locator with auto-waiting
let heading = page.locator("h1").await;
assert_eq!(heading.text_content().await?, Some("Example Domain".into()));

// Response body access
let resp = page.goto("https://api.example.com/data", None).await?.unwrap();
let data: serde_json::Value = resp.json().await?;

browser.close().await?;

Coverage

Full Python API parity + agent integration. All Playwright Python classes and methods are implemented, plus Browser::bind() / Browser::unbind() (Playwright 1.59) for exposing a Rust-launched browser to external clients like @playwright/mcp, the Playwright CLI, or third-party agent tooling.

The remaining path to v1.0 is multi-month dogfooding, API polish, and performance tuning rather than new surface area. See the v1.0 gap analysis for the detailed state of each class.

How It Works

playwright-rust follows Microsoft's proven architecture for language bindings:

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ playwright-rs (Rust API)                     │
│ - High-level, idiomatic Rust API             │
│ - Async/await with tokio                     │
│ - Type-safe bindings                         │
└─────────────────────┬────────────────────────┘
                      │ JSON-RPC over stdio
┌─────────────────────▼────────────────────────┐
│ Playwright Server (Node.js/TypeScript)       │
│ - Browser automation logic                   │
│ - Cross-browser protocol abstraction         │
│ - Maintained by Microsoft Playwright team    │
└─────────────────────┬────────────────────────┘
                      │ Native protocols
        ┌─────────────┼─────────────┐
        ▼             ▼             ▼
    Chromium      Firefox       WebKit

This means:

  • ✅ Full feature parity with Playwright (JS/Python/Java/.NET)
  • ✅ Cross-browser support (Chromium, Firefox, WebKit)
  • ✅ Automatic updates when Playwright server updates
  • ✅ Minimal maintenance - protocols handled by Microsoft's server
  • ✅ Production-tested architecture used by millions

API Design Philosophy

Following Playwright's cross-language consistency:

  1. Match Playwright API exactly - Same method names, same semantics
  2. Idiomatic Rust - Use Result, async/await, builder patterns where appropriate
  3. Type safety - Leverage Rust's type system for compile-time safety
  4. Auto-waiting - Built-in smart waits like other Playwright implementations
  5. Testing-first - Designed for reliable end-to-end testing

Installation

Add to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
playwright-rs = "0.12"  # Auto-updates to latest 0.12.x
tokio = { version = "1", features = ["full"] }

See the CHANGELOG for version history and features.

Browser Installation (Required)

Browsers must be installed before use. Install once, then run tests as many times as needed.

# Install all browsers
npx playwright@1.59.1 install

# Or install specific browsers
npx playwright@1.59.1 install chromium firefox webkit

In CI/CD: Add this to your GitHub Actions workflow:

- name: Install Playwright Browsers
  run: npx playwright@1.59.1 install chromium firefox webkit --with-deps

Programmatic installation: For setup scripts, Docker images, or tools built on playwright-rs, you can install browsers from Rust code:

use playwright_rs::install_browsers;

install_browsers(None).await?;                          // all browsers
install_browsers(Some(&["chromium"])).await?;            // specific browsers

Why version matters: The library bundles Playwright driver 1.59.1. Each release expects specific browser builds. Using the matching version ensures compatible browsers.

What happens if I don't install browsers? You'll get a helpful error message with the correct install command when trying to launch a browser.

Development

Prerequisites

  • Rust 1.88+
  • Node.js 18+ (for Playwright server and browser installation)
  • tokio async runtime

Building from Source

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/playwright-rust.git
cd playwright-rust

# Install pre-commit hooks
pip install pre-commit
pre-commit install

# Build
cargo build

Installing Browsers

After building, install browsers as described in Browser Installation above:

cargo build
npx playwright@1.59.1 install chromium firefox webkit

The build script automatically downloads the Playwright driver to drivers/ (gitignored). CI handles browser installation automatically - see .github/workflows/test.yml.

Platform Support: ✅ Windows, macOS, Linux

Known limitation: WebKit launch_persistent_context() fails on native Windows with "Initial load failed" — this is an upstream Playwright issue (microsoft/playwright#36936, also tracked as playwright-rust #39). Microsoft is building a channel: "webkit-wsl" replacement (microsoft/playwright#37036). Chromium and Firefox persistent contexts work on all platforms. Non-persistent WebKit (browser.new_context()) works on Windows. Use WSL or macOS/Linux for WebKit persistent contexts.

Running Tests

This project uses cargo-nextest. Install once: cargo install cargo-nextest

cargo nextest run                                    # All tests
cargo nextest run -p playwright-rs --lib             # Unit tests only (~2s, no browsers)
cargo nextest run -p playwright-rs -E 'test(locator)' # Pattern match
cargo test --doc --workspace -- --ignored            # Doc-tests (requires browsers)

Running Examples

See examples/ for usage examples.

cargo run --package playwright-rs --example basic

Star History

Star History Chart

Contributing

This project aims for production-quality Rust bindings matching Playwright's standards. Contributions should:

  • Follow Playwright API conventions
  • Include comprehensive tests
  • Maintain type safety
  • Document public APIs with examples
  • Pass CI checks (fmt, clippy, tests)

License

Apache-2.0 (same as Microsoft Playwright)

Acknowledgments

  • Microsoft Playwright Team - For the amazing browser automation framework
  • playwright-python - API design reference