playwright-electron-cli

A CLI tool to run Playwright commands against Electron applications.

Installation

npm install -g playwright-electron-cli

Or run directly with npx:

npx playwright-electron-cli <command>

Usage

The CLI uses a session-based architecture: you first open an Electron app, which starts a background session. Then you can run multiple commands against the running app without restarting it each time.

1. Start a session

Open an Electron application and keep it running:

# Open from a specific path
pw-electron open -p /path/to/electron/app

This launches the app and starts a local session server. The session persists until you close it.

Options:

• -p, --path <electron-path> - Path to the Electron application (required)
• -a, --args <args...> - Arguments to pass to the Electron app
• -t, --timeout <ms> - Timeout for launch (default: 30000)
• --port <port> - Port for the session server (default: 9847)

2. Run commands against the app

Once a session is active, you can run commands against it:

Execute an inline script

# Using -e option
pw-electron -e "await window.click('button')"

# Using eval command
pw-electron eval "await window.click('button')"

The script has access to:

• app - The Playwright ElectronApplication instance
• window - The first browser window (Page instance)

Examples:

# Click a button
pw-electron -e "await window.click('button#submit')"

# Fill a form field
pw-electron -e "await window.fill('input[name=\"username\"]', 'testuser')"

# Get text content
pw-electron -e "return await window.textContent('h1')"

# Get the window title
pw-electron -e "return await window.title()"

# Access Electron APIs
pw-electron -e "return await app.evaluate(({ app }) => app.getName())"

# Multiple commands
pw-electron -e "
  await window.fill('input', 'hello');
  await window.click('button');
  await window.waitForSelector('.result');
"

Take a screenshot

pw-electron screenshot output.png

Check session status

pw-electron status

3. Close the session

When you're done, close the running app:

pw-electron close

Or press Ctrl+C in the terminal where pw-electron open is running.

Programmatic Usage

You can also use this package programmatically:

import { launchElectron, getAppInfo } from 'playwright-electron-cli';

// Launch and interact manually
const app = await launchElectron({
  executablePath: '/path/to/electron/app',
  args: ['--some-flag'],
});

const info = await getAppInfo(app);
console.log(info);

const window = await app.firstWindow();
await window.click('button');

await app.close();

Or use the session-based approach:

import { startServer, evalScript, takeScreenshot, closeApp } from 'playwright-electron-cli';

// In one process: start the server
await startServer({ appPath: '/path/to/electron/app' });

// In another process: connect and run commands
const result = await evalScript("await window.click('button')");
await takeScreenshot('screenshot.png');
await closeApp();

Requirements

• Node.js >= 18.0.0
• An Electron application to test (with electron in its node_modules)

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build
npm run build

# Watch mode
npm run dev

# Link globally for testing
npm link

License

MIT