Navigation

Commands

Command	Description
open [url]	Open browser, optionally navigate to URL
goto <url>	Navigate to a URL
go-back	Go back to the previous page
go-forward	Go forward to the next page
reload	Reload the current page
close	Close the browser
detach	Detach from an attached browser, leaving it running

Opening a browser

# Open browser without navigating
playwright-cli open

# Open and navigate
playwright-cli open https://example.com

# With options
playwright-cli open https://example.com --headed
playwright-cli open https://example.com --browser=firefox
playwright-cli open https://example.com --persistent
playwright-cli open https://example.com --mobile
playwright-cli open https://example.com --device="iPhone 15"
playwright-cli open https://example.com --config=cli.config.json

open closes any browser already running under the same session name, then starts a fresh one. See Configuration for the full list of options.

Navigating

$ playwright-cli goto https://demo.playwright.dev/todomvc
### Page
- Page URL: https://demo.playwright.dev/todomvc/#/
- Page Title: React - TodoMVC
### Snapshot
- [Snapshot](.playwright-cli/page-2026-02-14T19-22-42-679Z.yml)

History navigation

$ playwright-cli goto https://example.com/page1
$ playwright-cli goto https://example.com/page2
$ playwright-cli go-back
# Now at page1

$ playwright-cli go-forward
# Now at page2

$ playwright-cli reload
# page2 reloaded

Closing

playwright-cli close                    # close this session's browser
playwright-cli -s=name close            # close a named session's browser
playwright-cli close-all                # close every browser session
playwright-cli kill-all                 # force kill stale browser processes

For a session created with attach, use detach instead — it ends the session without closing the browser you attached to.

Workflow: navigation with history

$ playwright-cli open https://demo.playwright.dev/todomvc
$ playwright-cli fill e5 "Buy groceries" --submit
$ playwright-cli goto https://example.com
$ playwright-cli go-back
$ playwright-cli snapshot
# - heading "todos" [level=1]
# - textbox "What needs to be done?" [ref=e5]
# - listitem:
#   - checkbox "Toggle Todo" [ref=e10]
#   - text: "Buy groceries"