Bug Fixes

• #41989 [Regression]: tsconfig "extends" bare specifier isn't resolved via node_modules walk-up like tsc (fatal since 1.62)
• #41998 [Regression]: directory-form tsconfig project references ("path": "../pkg") fail to resolve (fatal since 1.62)
• #41985 Accessibility snapshot drops button name when text is nested inside spans with aria-hidden SVG
• #42000 [Regression]: page.evaluate() arg of a branded primitive type (string & { brand }) no longer type-checks since 1.62
• #42013 [BUG]Image-type actionable elements are not presented in the snapshot.

🧱 New component testing model

Component testing moves to a stories and galleries model.
A story wraps your component in one specific scenario — hard-coded props, mock data, providers — and a gallery page that you serve renders stories on demand.
The new fixtures.mount() fixture navigates to the gallery, mounts a story by id, and returns a Locator scoped to the story's root element:

test('click should expand', async ({ mount }) => {
  const component = await mount('components/Expandable/Stateful');
  await component.getByRole('button').click();
  await expect(component.getByTestId('expanded')).toHaveValue('true');
});

Pass a story type as a template argument to type-check its props, and use update(props) / unmount() on the returned locator to re-render or tear down within a test.

🛑 Cancel operations with AbortSignal

Most operations and web-first assertions now accept a signal option that takes an AbortSignal, letting you cancel long-running actions, navigations, waits, and assertions:

const controller = new AbortController();
setTimeout(() => controller.abort(), 1000);

await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Submit' }).click({ signal: controller.signal });
await expect(page.getByText('Done')).toBeVisible({ signal: controller.signal });

Providing a signal does not disable the default timeout; pass timeout: 0 to disable it.

🖼️ WebP screenshots

expect(page).toHaveScreenshot() and expect(locator).toHaveScreenshot() can now store snapshots in the WebP format — just give the snapshot a .webp name:

// Visual comparisons store the golden snapshot as lossless WebP.
await expect(page).toHaveScreenshot('homepage.webp');

// Standalone screenshots can trade quality for size with lossy WebP.
await page.screenshot({ path: 'homepage.webp', quality: 50 });

page.screenshot() and [locator.screenshot() (https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-locator#locator-screenshot) also accept webp as a type, where quality 100 (the default) is lossless and lower values use lossy compression.

🧩 Custom test filtering with Reporter.preprocess()

New reporter.preprocess() hook runs after the configuration is resolved and before reporter.onBegin(), letting a reporter mark individual tests as skipped, excluded, fixed, or failing through a TestRun object:

class MyReporter {
  async preprocess({ config, suite, testRun }) {
    for (const test of suite.allTests()) {
      if (shouldSkip(test))
        testRun.skip(test);
    }
  }
}

🔁 Isolated retries

New testConfig.retryStrategy controls when failed tests are retried.
The default 'immediate' retries as soon as a worker is free; 'isolated' runs all retries at the end, one by one in a single worker, to minimize interference with the rest of the suite:

// playwright.config.ts
export default defineConfig({
  retries: 2,
  retryStrategy: 'isolated',
});

New APIs

Browser and Context

• New option credentials includes the context's virtual WebAuthn Credentials (passkeys) in the storage state, so they can be persisted and re-seeded into later contexts.

Actions

• New scroll option ("auto" | "none") on actions to opt out of Playwright's automatic scroll-into-view.

Network

• New apiResponse.timing() returns resource timing information for an API response.

Evaluation

• New locator.waitForFunction() waits until a function — called with the matching element — returns a truthy value.
• page.evaluate() and related methods now accept functions as evaluate arguments.
• page.addInitScript() / browserContext.addInitScript() now accept functions as init-script arguments.

Command line & MCP

• Playwright now bundles the Playwright MCP server and playwright-cli, runnable via npx playwright mcp and npx playwright cli.

Reporters

• The HTML report's Merge files grouping — previously only a UI toggle — can now be enabled from the config with the new mergeFiles reporter option:

// playwright.config.ts
export default defineConfig({
  reporter: [['html', { mergeFiles: true }]],
});

Announcements

• ⚠️ Debian 11 is not supported anymore.

Browser Versions

• Chromium 151.0.7922.34
• Mozilla Firefox 153.0
• WebKit 26.5

This version was also tested against the following stable channels:

• Google Chrome 151
• Microsoft Edge 151