Profile & State

Playwright MCP manages browser state through profiles. By default, login state and cookies persist between sessions automatically.

Profile modes

Persistent (default)

Login state, cookies, and localStorage are preserved between sessions. Each project gets a separate profile automatically based on the workspace.

Platform	Default location
macOS	~/Library/Caches/ms-playwright/mcp-{channel}-profile
Linux	~/.cache/ms-playwright/mcp-{channel}-profile
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\ms-playwright\mcp-{channel}-profile

Override the profile location:

["@playwright/mcp@latest", "--user-data-dir=/path/to/profile"]

note

The CLI uses in-memory state by default (cookies persist between commands but are lost when the browser closes). Use --persistent to enable disk persistence. See Sessions & Dashboard for CLI-specific session management.

Isolated

Each session starts fresh with no saved state. Pass --isolated to enable:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "playwright": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@playwright/mcp@latest", "--isolated"]
    }
  }
}

Load initial state into an isolated session with --storage-state:

["@playwright/mcp@latest", "--isolated", "--storage-state=./auth-state.json"]

Browser extension

Connect to your existing browser tabs instead of launching a new browser. See Browser Extension.

Saving and restoring state

Save authenticated state for reuse across sessions:

// Login, then save
→ browser_storage_state
  State saved to: auth-state.json

// Later: restore
→ browser_set_storage_state { path: "./auth-state.json" }

Or load state automatically on server startup with --storage-state. See Storage & Authentication for the full workflow.