Attach & Detach

Connect to an existing browser instead of launching a new one.

Commands

Command	Description
attach <name>	Attach to a bound Playwright browser by name
attach --cdp=<channel>	Connect to a running browser by channel name
attach --cdp=<url>	Connect via Chrome DevTools Protocol endpoint
attach --endpoint=<url>	Connect to a Playwright server endpoint
attach --extension	Connect via Playwright Extension (defaults to Chrome)
attach --extension=<channel>	Connect via Playwright Extension to a specific channel
detach	Tear down the session, leaving the external browser running

Exactly one target may be given — combining a positional name with --cdp, --endpoint, or --extension is an error.

Finding something to attach to

playwright-cli list --all

Alongside the open sessions, this lists the Playwright browser servers bound in any workspace and the local Chrome/Edge profiles it found, each with the exact attach command to use:

### Browsers available to attach via CDP
- chrome:
  - data-dir: /Users/me/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome
  - attach (extension): `playwright-cli attach --extension=chrome`
  - attach (remote debugging): enable at chrome://inspect/#remote-debugging

Attach by channel name

Connect to a running Chrome or Edge instance by its channel name. The browser must have remote debugging enabled — navigate to chrome://inspect/#remote-debugging in the target browser and check "Allow remote debugging for this browser instance".

# Attach to Chrome
playwright-cli attach --cdp=chrome

# Attach to Chrome Canary
playwright-cli attach --cdp=chrome-canary

# Attach to Microsoft Edge
playwright-cli attach --cdp=msedge

# Attach to Edge Dev
playwright-cli attach --cdp=msedge-dev

Supported channels: chrome, chrome-beta, chrome-dev, chrome-canary, msedge, msedge-beta, msedge-dev, msedge-canary.

This is the simplest way to connect — no need to start Chrome with special flags or know the debugging port.

CDP endpoint

Connect to any Chromium-based browser with a Chrome DevTools Protocol endpoint:

# Start Chrome with remote debugging
google-chrome --remote-debugging-port=9222

# Connect from the CLI
playwright-cli attach --cdp=http://localhost:9222
playwright-cli snapshot
playwright-cli click e5

Works with:

• Chrome / Chromium with --remote-debugging-port
• Edge with remote debugging
• Electron apps exposing CDP
• Cloud browser services (Browserbase, etc.)

Playwright server endpoint

Connect to a remote Playwright server:

playwright-cli attach --endpoint=ws://localhost:3000
playwright-cli snapshot

Attach by bound name

A Playwright browser can bind itself under a name — this is how npx playwright test --debug=cli exposes a paused test. Pass the name as a positional argument:

playwright-cli attach tw-a3f19c

See Test Debugging.

Browser extension

Connect to your existing browser tabs using the Playwright Extension. This lets you reuse your logged-in sessions, cookies, and installed extensions.

# Attach to Chrome (default)
playwright-cli attach --extension

# Attach to a specific channel
playwright-cli attach --extension=chrome-canary
playwright-cli attach --extension=msedge
playwright-cli attach --extension=msedge-dev

If no channel is specified, the extension attaches to Chrome by default.

When to use extension mode

• SSO / 2FA — skip complex login flows by reusing your authenticated session
• Browser extensions — interact with pages that depend on installed extensions
• Existing tabs — automate pages you already have open

Session naming

Attach creates a session. When --session is not given, the session is named after the target — --cdp=msedge creates a session called msedge, and attach tw-a3f19c creates one called tw-a3f19c — so parallel attaches to Chrome and Edge don't collide on default.

playwright-cli attach --cdp=chrome -s=debug-session
playwright-cli -s=debug-session snapshot
playwright-cli -s=debug-session click e5

Detaching

detach ends the session without touching the browser it attached to. Use close only for browsers the CLI launched itself.

playwright-cli detach                   # detach the default attached session
playwright-cli -s=msedge detach         # detach a named attached session

Workflow: connect to your running Chrome

# 1. In Chrome, go to chrome://inspect/#remote-debugging
#    and enable "Allow remote debugging for this browser instance"

# 2. Attach by channel name
playwright-cli attach --cdp=chrome

# 3. Interact with your existing tabs
playwright-cli snapshot
playwright-cli screenshot --filename=current-state.png

# 4. Save state for future headless sessions
playwright-cli state-save auth.json

# 5. Leave Chrome running
playwright-cli -s=chrome detach

Workflow: debugging a remote browser

# On the remote machine: start Chrome with debugging
google-chrome --remote-debugging-port=9222

# On your machine: connect via SSH tunnel
ssh -L 9222:localhost:9222 user@remote-host

# Attach and inspect
playwright-cli attach --cdp=http://localhost:9222
playwright-cli snapshot
playwright-cli screenshot --filename=remote-state.png
playwright-cli console error