Playwright Pulse

A live dashboard in Paseo for the Playwright test run in a worktree. You see the run as it happens: the test running now and its current step, how far through the run it is, and each failure with its error, screenshot, video and trace.

What it shows

• Header pill: while a workspace's tests run, its header shows a pill with the count so far (Tests 12/40, or 1 failed · 12/40 with a red spinner once a test fails). It stays for two minutes after the run ends with the result. Press it to open the panel.
• Header: whether the run is starting up, running, passed, failed or interrupted, with a clock, the command that started it, and a progress bar split into passed, failed, skipped and stopped.
• Stop: ends a live run the way Ctrl+C in its terminal would: Playwright stops the running test, runs teardown and shuts its web servers. The first press asks to confirm; if the run hasn't ended 8 seconds later, the button offers to force it.
• Starting up: while Playwright boots web servers and runs global setup, before the first test.
• Running now: one row per worker, each a fixed size so the panel doesn't jump while you read: the test's title and file, its live step (Click getByTestId('save'), inside its test.step or hook), the last few steps, and how much of its timeout it has used. The heading counts the busy workers, like 3 of 4 busy, and gives each worker a dot that fills while it runs a test.
• Failures: pinned above the running tests and the rest, with the error, the failing step, the code around it, and buttons to preview the screenshot, open the video, open the trace in Playwright's trace viewer, or copy the error.
• Time left: an estimate from the run's pace so far, once a few tests have finished.
• Folders and Slowest tabs: one card, two tabs (the same tabs as Progress's history card).
  • Slowest: the five longest so far, each against its timeout, amber past three quarters of it.
  • Folders: the suite by folder, or Files when the specs share one folder, in run order, with how far each has got and what failed, was flaky or was skipped. Folders that haven't started show too. Press one for its tests.

Open it from Explorer, or with Open Playwright Pulse in the Command Center.

Setup

1. Install the plugin:

   paseo plugin add npm:@stevecastaneda/paseo-playwright-pulse
   

2. The plugin writes its reporter to ~/.local/share/playwright-pulse/reporter.mjs when it starts, keeps it up to date, and removes it when it stops (including when you remove the plugin). It never replaces or removes a file it didn't write.

3. Add the reporter to your playwright.config.ts, only when that file is the plugin's own and never in CI:

   import { readFileSync } from "node:fs";
   import { homedir } from "node:os";
   import { join } from "node:path";
   import { defineConfig, type ReporterDescription } from "@playwright/test";
   
   const pulseReporter = join(homedir(), ".local/share/playwright-pulse/reporter.mjs");
   const pulse: ReporterDescription[] = !process.env.CI && isPulseReporter(pulseReporter) ? [[pulseReporter]] : [];
   
   // Any other file at that path could keep Playwright from starting, so check the plugin's first line.
   function isPulseReporter(path: string): boolean {
     try {
       return readFileSync(path, "utf8").startsWith("// Written by the playwright-pulse Paseo plugin.");
     } catch {
       return false;
     }
   }
   
   export default defineConfig({
     reporter: [["list"], ...pulse],
   });
   

   While Paseo or the plugin isn't running, runs print the list reporter as usual.

4. Run tests without a --reporter flag. That flag replaces every reporter in the config, Pulse included. To add one for a single run, use --add-reporter instead.

How it works

The reporter writes a snapshot of the run to ~/.local/state/playwright-pulse/<worktree>-<hash>/runs/<run-id>.json, outside the repo, so git never sees it, and points latest.json beside it at the newest run. The worktree is the nearest folder with .git above where Playwright runs. Each new run clears out the files of earlier ones, so a run that starts while another is still going takes over the panel. When the plugin starts it deletes the runs of worktrees that no longer exist.

The reporter is plain JavaScript with no dependencies. It never fails a run: a write that fails is skipped. It writes at most four times a second, and right away when a test or the run ends. A run whose process dies without ending shows as interrupted.

Screenshots preview inside Paseo. Videos open in their default app, and traces in the worktree's own node_modules/.bin/playwright show-trace. Only files that the latest run lists, and that sit inside the worktree, can be opened.

Set PLAYWRIGHT_PULSE=0 to turn the reporter off for one run.

Requirements

Paseo 0.11 or later and Node.js 22.18 or later on the daemon host. Built and tested with Playwright 1.63.

Changelog

1.1.1

• The plugin store page now links to Setup, which has the config to add to playwright.config.ts.

1.1.0

• The Running now heading shows how many workers are busy, like 3 of 4 busy. Each worker gets a dot that fills while it runs a test, so you can watch workers go idle as a run winds down. Past 12 workers, or 8 in a narrow panel, the heading drops the dots and keeps the words.
• The worker count now matches the using 4 workers line Playwright prints. Pulse used to show the most workers your config allows, so a small run could show empty rows for workers Playwright never started.
• New screenshot of the panel in this README.

1.0.0

• Version 1.0. Nothing you use changes. From now on, a new first number means an update breaks something, a new middle number means a new feature, and a new last number means a fix.
• Running tests read Search › e2e/catalog/search.spec.ts:29 again. The space after the last › had gone missing.
• The failure preview skips blank lines, so Playwright's usual message shows both Expected and Received without pressing Show all and the code.
• The Playwright project a run uses, like chromium, shows as a grey tag after the command instead of on a line of its own. A run with several projects gets one tag each.
• New screenshot of the panel in this README.

0.1.2

• The plugin store now takes the screenshots from each release, so they match the version you install.
• New screenshots in this README.

0.1.1

• The list of test runs at the top of Paseo's sidebar is gone, along with the Playwright Pulse Options panel that turned it off. The header pill still shows a workspace's run while it goes. Press it to open the panel.
• The README now has screenshots of the panel and its Folders and Slowest tabs.

0.1.0

• First release. Shows a worktree's Playwright run live: the tests running now and their steps, failures with their screenshots, videos and traces, a Stop button, time left, and the run broken down by folder and by the slowest tests.
• A header pill and a list at the top of Paseo's sidebar show runs from any workspace. Press either one to open the panel. Playwright Pulse Options turns the sidebar list off.
• Needs Paseo 0.11 or later.