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Tracing

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

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');
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.

Usage

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

Arguments

  • options Object (optional)

    • 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

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