/playwright-cli

Driving a logged-in browser

To act inside a session that's already authenticated (an SSO'd internal app, a site behind a login you don't want to automate), attach to a running Chrome over the DevTools protocol instead of launching a fresh one.

Attach to a running Chrome

Start Chrome with remote debugging exposed, then attach:

playwright-cli attach --cdp=http://localhost:9222

The CLI also accepts a channel name when the browser isn't already listening:

playwright-cli attach --cdp=chrome
playwright-cli attach --cdp=msedge

Once attached, every command drives that real browser and its existing cookies and tabs. detach releases it and leaves the browser running; close would terminate it.

Persisting auth without attaching

When you control the launch, a persistent profile carries cookies between runs:

playwright-cli open --persistent
playwright-cli open --profile=/path/to/profile   # explicit directory

Or capture and replay storage state (cookies + localStorage):

playwright-cli state-save auth.json   # after logging in once
playwright-cli state-load auth.json   # in a later run

Notes

• attach repoints the session slot to the attached browser. If a default session was already in use, attaching reuses that slot — name the session (-s=work) to keep them separate.
• The underlying Chrome keeps running after detach; re-attach with the same --cdp endpoint to resume.