browser-automation

Reliable Playwright tests use user-facing locators like getByRole instead of CSS or XPath selectors, rely on Playwright's auto-waiting instead of manual timeouts, and run each test in full isolation with fresh state.

Playwright is the recommended choice for most projects due to its auto-waiting, multi-browser support, and modern API. Choose Puppeteer only if you need its stealth plugin ecosystem or are Chrome-only.

Avoid detection by using stealth plugins, adding delays between requests, and setting a consistent viewport. Detection systems are one of the three main causes of automation failure alongside bad selectors and missing waits.

Arbitrary timeouts make tests slow and still flaky because fixed delays cannot match variable page load conditions. Playwright's auto-wait mechanism waits for actual element readiness, so all waitForTimeout calls should be removed.

Wait for the popup event before triggering the action that opens it, using page.waitForEvent('popup') or context.waitForEvent('page'). Setting up the listener first prevents race conditions where the popup is missed.