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Tracing

API for collecting and saving Playwright traces. Playwright traces can be opened in Trace Viewer after Playwright script runs.

note

You probably want to enable tracing in your config file instead of using context.tracing.

The context.tracing API captures browser operations and network activity, but it doesn't record test assertions (like expect calls). We recommend enabling tracing through Playwright Test configuration, which includes those assertions and provides a more complete trace for debugging test failures.

Start recording a trace before performing actions. At the end, stop tracing and save it to a file.

const browser = await chromium.launch();
const context = await browser.newContext();
await context.tracing.start({ screenshots: true, snapshots: true });
const page = await context.newPage();
await page.goto('https://playwright.dev');
expect(page.url()).toBe('https://playwright.dev');
await context.tracing.stop({ path: 'trace.zip' });

Methods​

group​

Added in: v1.49 tracing.group
caution

Use test.step instead when available.

Creates a new group within the trace, assigning any subsequent API calls to this group, until tracing.groupEnd() is called. Groups can be nested and will be visible in the trace viewer.

Usage

// use test.step instead
await test.step('Log in', async () => {
  // ...
});

Arguments

  • name string#

    Group name shown in the trace viewer.

  • options Object (optional)

    • location Object (optional)#

      Specifies a custom location for the group to be shown in the trace viewer. Defaults to the location of the tracing.group() call.

Returns

groupEnd​

Added in: v1.49 tracing.groupEnd

Closes the last group created by tracing.group().

Usage

await tracing.groupEnd();

Returns

start​

Added in: v1.12 tracing.start

Start tracing.

note

You probably want to enable tracing in your config file instead of using Tracing.start.

The context.tracing API captures browser operations and network activity, but it doesn't record test assertions (like expect calls). We recommend enabling tracing through Playwright Test configuration, which includes those assertions and provides a more complete trace for debugging test failures.

Usage

await context.tracing.start({ screenshots: true, snapshots: true });
const page = await context.newPage();
await page.goto('https://playwright.dev');
expect(page.url()).toBe('https://playwright.dev');
await context.tracing.stop({ path: 'trace.zip' });

Arguments

  • options Object (optional)

    • live boolean (optional) Added in: v1.59#

      When enabled, the trace is written to an unarchived file that is updated in real time as actions occur, instead of caching changes and archiving them into a zip file at the end. This is useful for live trace viewing during test execution.

    • name string (optional)#

      If specified, intermediate trace files are going to be saved into the files with the given name prefix inside the tracesDir directory specified in browserType.launch(). To specify the final trace zip file name, you need to pass path option to tracing.stop() instead.

    • screenshots boolean (optional)#

      Whether to capture screenshots during tracing. Screenshots are used to build a timeline preview.

    • snapshots boolean (optional)#

      If this option is true tracing will

      • capture DOM snapshot on every action
      • record network activity

    • sources boolean (optional) Added in: v1.17#

      Whether to include source files for trace actions.

    • title string (optional) Added in: v1.17#

      Trace name to be shown in the Trace Viewer.

Returns

startChunk​

Added in: v1.15 tracing.startChunk

Start a new trace chunk. If you'd like to record multiple traces on the same BrowserContext, use tracing.start() once, and then create multiple trace chunks with tracing.startChunk() and tracing.stopChunk().

Usage

await context.tracing.start({ screenshots: true, snapshots: true });
const page = await context.newPage();
await page.goto('https://playwright.dev');

await context.tracing.startChunk();
await page.getByText('Get Started').click();
// Everything between startChunk and stopChunk will be recorded in the trace.
await context.tracing.stopChunk({ path: 'trace1.zip' });

await context.tracing.startChunk();
await page.goto('http://example.com');
// Save a second trace file with different actions.
await context.tracing.stopChunk({ path: 'trace2.zip' });

Arguments

  • options Object (optional)

    • name string (optional) Added in: v1.32#

      If specified, intermediate trace files are going to be saved into the files with the given name prefix inside the tracesDir directory specified in browserType.launch(). To specify the final trace zip file name, you need to pass path option to tracing.stopChunk() instead.

    • title string (optional) Added in: v1.17#

      Trace name to be shown in the Trace Viewer.

Returns

startHar​

Added in: v1.60 tracing.startHar

Start recording a HAR (HTTP Archive) of network activity in this context. The HAR file is written to disk when tracing.stopHar() is called, or when the returned Disposable is disposed.

Only one HAR recording can be active at a time per BrowserContext.

Usage

await context.tracing.startHar('trace.har');
const page = await context.newPage();
await page.goto('https://playwright.dev');
await context.tracing.stopHar();

Arguments

  • path string#

    Path on the filesystem to write the HAR file to. If the file name ends with .zip, the HAR is saved as a zip archive with response bodies attached as separate files.

  • options Object (optional)

    • content "omit" | "embed" | "attach" (optional)#

      Optional setting to control resource content management. If omit is specified, content is not persisted. If attach is specified, resources are persisted as separate files or entries in the ZIP archive. If embed is specified, content is stored inline the HAR file as per HAR specification. Defaults to attach for .zip output files and to embed for all other file extensions.

    • mode "full" | "minimal" (optional)#

      When set to minimal, only record information necessary for routing from HAR. This omits sizes, timing, page, cookies, security and other types of HAR information that are not used when replaying from HAR. Defaults to full.

    • resourcesDir string (optional)#

      Only used together with content: 'attach'. When set, response bodies are placed in this directory instead of next to the HAR file. Not compatible with a .zip HAR file.

    • urlFilter string | RegExp (optional)#

      A glob or regex pattern to filter requests that are stored in the HAR. Defaults to none.

Returns

stop​

Added in: v1.12 tracing.stop

Stop tracing.

Usage

await tracing.stop();
await tracing.stop(options);

Arguments

  • options Object (optional)

    • path string (optional)#

      Export trace into the file with the given path.

Returns

stopChunk​

Added in: v1.15 tracing.stopChunk

Stop the trace chunk. See tracing.startChunk() for more details about multiple trace chunks.

Usage

await tracing.stopChunk();
await tracing.stopChunk(options);

Arguments

Returns

stopHar​

Added in: v1.60 tracing.stopHar

Stop HAR recording and save the HAR file to the path given to tracing.startHar().

Usage

await tracing.stopHar();

Returns