Playwright Java

The Java client is a port of the JavaScript client in ../playwright/packages/playwright-core/src/client/. When implementing or changing a method, read the corresponding JS file first and mirror its logic.

Project checkouts (including the upstream playwright repo) live in the parent directory (../). Use the gh cli to interact with GitHub.

Build and test

scripts/download_driver.sh                           # the driver, once per DRIVER_VERSION
mvn -B install -D skipTests --no-transfer-progress   # build and install every module
mvn exec:java -e -D exec.mainClass=com.microsoft.playwright.CLI -D exec.args="install --with-deps" -f playwright/pom.xml --no-transfer-progress
BROWSER=chromium mvn test -f playwright/pom.xml -D test=TestPageScreenshot --no-transfer-progress

• mvn test -f playwright/pom.xml compiles the playwright module and its tests, so a change in playwright/src/main/ needs no separate build step. After a change in driver/ or driver-bundle/, run mvn -B install -D skipTests --no-transfer-progress -f <module>/pom.xml first: the playwright module takes those modules from the local Maven repository.
• The project targets Java 8. CI builds with JDK 8 (Zulu) and JDK 25. Do not use a newer language feature or library API.
• There is no lint or format check. The style is the Google Java Style with a two-space indent, and without comments. When you change a file under playwright/src/test/java/com/microsoft/playwright/tests/, run python3 scripts/check_test_registry.py.
• -D test=<Class> runs one class, -D test=<Class>#<method> one method. BROWSER is a comma-separated list of chromium, firefox and webkit; unset, it runs all three. HEADED=1 runs headed. A filter that matches no test passes with Tests run: 0, so check the count. Each test method has a 120 second timeout, set in the root pom.xml. Do not set PW_MAX_RETRIES, which reruns a failed test; CI sets it to 3. The reports are in playwright/target/surefire-reports/.

Tests

The tests are in playwright/src/test/java/com/microsoft/playwright/. A test is a @PlaywrightTest method that takes the fixtures it needs as parameters, resolved by type: Page page, BrowserContext context, Browser browser, BrowserType browserType, Playwright playwright, BrowserName browserName, Server server, HttpsServer httpsServer and @TempDir Path. The method runs once per selected browser, with a context and a page of its own; the browser and the servers are shared. A class overrides options with @Fixture methods, and skips a browser with @DisabledOnBrowser or @EnabledOnBrowser. Drive the page with page.setContent(...) or page.navigate(server.PREFIX + "/..."), and the server with server.setRoute(...), server.setRedirect(...), server.futureRequest(...) and server.EMPTY_PAGE.

Tag a regression test with the issue as the Java-only tests do: a comment with the full URL on the first line of the test body, // https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-java/issues/<n>. Good models: TestBrowserContextExposeFunction, shouldNotDispatchBindingOnAClosedPage (a binding, a popup and a context of its own in a try-with-resources block); TestTracing, shouldRecoverTracingAfterAFailedStop (a tagged test with @TempDir on context.tracing()).

Commit Convention

Semantic commit messages: label(scope): description

Labels: fix, feat, chore, docs, test, devops

git checkout -b fix-39562
# ... make changes ...
git add <changed-files>
git commit -m "$(cat <<'EOF'
fix(proxy): handle SOCKS proxy authentication

Fixes: https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-java/issues/39562
EOF
)"
# **Never `git push` without an explicit instruction to push.**
git push origin fix-39562
gh pr create --repo microsoft/playwright-java --head <user>:fix-39562 \
  --title "fix(proxy): handle SOCKS proxy authentication" \
  --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
## Summary
- <describe the change very! briefly>

Fixes https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-java/issues/39562
EOF
)"

Never add Co-Authored-By agents in commit message. Never add "Generated with" in commit message. Never add test plan to PR description. Keep PR description short — a few bullet points at most. Branch naming for issue fixes: fix-<issue-number>.

Never amend commits. Always create a new commit for follow-up changes, even when iterating on an open PR. Amending rewrites history and forces a force-push, losing the incremental review trail. Only amend if the user explicitly says so.

Never git push without an explicit instruction to push. Applies even when a PR is already open for the branch — additional commits are immediately visible to reviewers. Commit locally, report what was committed, and wait. Only push when the user's message contains "push", "upload", "create PR", "ship it", or equivalent.

Skills

• playwright-roll (.claude/skills/playwright-roll/SKILL.md) — roll Playwright Java to a new upstream version: bump the driver, regenerate the API, and port relevant upstream changes.
• playwright-java-release (.claude/skills/playwright-java-release/SKILL.md) — prepare a release after the rolling PR merges: cut the release branch, mark the Maven version, and draft the GitHub release.
• playwright-cherry-pick (upstream, ../playwright/.claude/skills/playwright-cherry-pick/SKILL.md) — cherry-pick a merged PR into a release-1.X branch as cherry-pick(#<pr>): <original title>. Use the same rules for this repo's release branches.