Attach

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

Commands

Command	Description
`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 MCP Bridge extension

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".

Chrome remote debugging settings at chrome://inspect/#remote-debugging

# 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

Browser extension

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

Playwright MCP Bridge extension in Chrome Web Store

playwright-cli attach --extension

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

Named sessions

Attach creates a session. Use -s to name it:

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

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

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

Commands​

Attach by channel name​

CDP endpoint​

Playwright server endpoint​

Browser extension​

When to use extension mode​

Named sessions​

Workflow: connect to your running Chrome​

Workflow: debugging a remote browser​