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What does this do that playwright-cli doesn't? https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-cli https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-cli

jofzar 7mo ago
These aren't really comparable, OP's is something that records, captures and reproduces with steps.
- mohsen1 7mo ago
  playwright can do all of that too. I'm confused why this is necessary. If coding agents are given the Playwright access they can do it better actually because using Chrome Developer Tools Protocol they can interact with the browser and experiment with things without having to wait for all of this to complete before making moves. For instance I've seen Claude Code captures console messages from a running Chrome instance and uses that to debug things...
  - theshrike79 7mo ago
    I've also had Claude run javascript code on a page using playwright-cli to figure out why a button wasn't working as it should.
  - 4ndrewl 7mo ago
    Because LLM users are NIH factories?
- onion2k 7mo ago
  That's exactly what Playwright does, but also something you don't really need in order to debug a problem.
nunodonato 7mo ago
I think playwright doesnt capture video, right?
- vunderba 7mo ago
  Yeah I’ve never seen it capture video before, but if you specify in your `AGENTS.md` that you want to test certain types of workflows, it will take progressive screenshots using a sleep interval or by interacting with the DOM.
- hungryhobbit 7mo ago
  It does. I literally just watched a video of a Playwright test run a few minutes ago.
- deleted 7mo ago
  [deleted]
- abletonlive 7mo ago
  Yes it does. https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-cli?tab=readme-ov-file#devtools https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-cli?tab=readme-ov-fi... I'm pretty sure OP wrote their own version of playwright because they didn't know this existed.
jberthom 7mo ago
Maker here. Playwright is great, I use it too. The difference is really about who’s driving. ProofShot is meant for agents that just need shell commands, start to open the browser and begin recording, exec to interact with the page, stop to bundle everything up. You get video, screenshots, console errors, server logs, and an interactive HTML viewer in one artifacts folder you can drop on a PR with proofshot pr. With Playwright the agent needs to write a test script, run it, collect screenshots, parse output separately… it’s a lot of glue code. Also agent-browser’s element references are ~93% smaller than Playwright’s accessibility tree, which adds up when you’re paying per token.
- abletonlive 7mo ago
  > With Playwright the agent needs to write a test script, run it, collect screenshots, parse output separately… it’s a lot of glue code. It most certainly does not require any glue code. Playwright cli gives you basically all of this out of the box. https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-cli?tab=readme-ov-file#devtools https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-cli?tab=readme-ov-fi...
  - jberthom 7mo ago
    ProofShot isn’t a Playwright alternative, it’s built on agent-browser (from Vercel Labs), which is a different runtime. The value isn’t “can control a browser” — playwright does that fine, and in fact agent-browser is built on top of Playwright, hence so is ProofShot :) The value is bundling video + screenshots + console errors + server logs + action timeline into a single viewer.html and uploading it to the PR. That’s what saves me review time. If your workflow doesn’t need that bundle, playwright-cli works great.

jofzar 7mo ago

These aren't really comparable, OP's is something that records, captures and reproduces with steps.

mohsen1 7mo ago
playwright can do all of that too. I'm confused why this is necessary. If coding agents are given the Playwright access they can do it better actually because using Chrome Developer Tools Protocol they can interact with the browser and experiment with things without having to wait for all of this to complete before making moves. For instance I've seen Claude Code captures console messages from a running Chrome instance and uses that to debug things...
- theshrike79 7mo ago
  I've also had Claude run javascript code on a page using playwright-cli to figure out why a button wasn't working as it should.
- 4ndrewl 7mo ago
  Because LLM users are NIH factories?
onion2k 7mo ago
That's exactly what Playwright does, but also something you don't really need in order to debug a problem.

nunodonato 7mo ago

I think playwright doesnt capture video, right?

vunderba 7mo ago
Yeah I’ve never seen it capture video before, but if you specify in your `AGENTS.md` that you want to test certain types of workflows, it will take progressive screenshots using a sleep interval or by interacting with the DOM.
hungryhobbit 7mo ago
It does. I literally just watched a video of a Playwright test run a few minutes ago.
deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]
abletonlive 7mo ago
Yes it does. https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-cli?tab=readme-ov-file#devtools https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-cli?tab=readme-ov-fi... I'm pretty sure OP wrote their own version of playwright because they didn't know this existed.

jberthom 7mo ago

Maker here. Playwright is great, I use it too. The difference is really about who’s driving. ProofShot is meant for agents that just need shell commands, start to open the browser and begin recording, exec to interact with the page, stop to bundle everything up. You get video, screenshots, console errors, server logs, and an interactive HTML viewer in one artifacts folder you can drop on a PR with proofshot pr. With Playwright the agent needs to write a test script, run it, collect screenshots, parse output separately… it’s a lot of glue code. Also agent-browser’s element references are ~93% smaller than Playwright’s accessibility tree, which adds up when you’re paying per token.

abletonlive 7mo ago
> With Playwright the agent needs to write a test script, run it, collect screenshots, parse output separately… it’s a lot of glue code. It most certainly does not require any glue code. Playwright cli gives you basically all of this out of the box. https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-cli?tab=readme-ov-file#devtools https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-cli?tab=readme-ov-fi...
- jberthom 7mo ago
  ProofShot isn’t a Playwright alternative, it’s built on agent-browser (from Vercel Labs), which is a different runtime. The value isn’t “can control a browser” — playwright does that fine, and in fact agent-browser is built on top of Playwright, hence so is ProofShot :) The value is bundling video + screenshots + console errors + server logs + action timeline into a single viewer.html and uploading it to the PR. That’s what saves me review time. If your workflow doesn’t need that bundle, playwright-cli works great.