agui-playwright-validate

Testing & Quality

Manually validate a running web app or docs site with the Playwright MCP server — navigate pages, assert headings/text/status, check for console errors, hover/click to exercise interactions, take screenshots for human review, and verify visual details such as an icon's color in light vs dark mode by reading computed styles. USE FOR: "validate with Playwright", "open the browser and check", visually verifying a UI or docs change, confirming a CSS/SVG/icon edit rendered, checking a page for console errors, comparing light/dark mode appearance. DO NOT USE FOR: writing automated unit/E2E test files (dojo e2e lives in agui-dojo); docs-site content/structure checks specific to the .NET SDK docs (use agui-dotnet-sdk-docs). INVOKES: browser_navigate, browser_snapshot, browser_take_screenshot, browser_evaluate, browser_hover, browser_click, browser_console_messages Playwright MCP tools.

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How to use this skill

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Playwright MCP Validation

Technique skill for manually validating a live web app or docs site through the playwright MCP server (configured in this repo's .mcp.json as @playwright/mcp@latest). The agent calls the browser_* MCP tools directly — never write or wrap them in scripts. This captures the validated workflow used to verify the docs sidebar icon and dojo pages, including the gotchas an agent otherwise rediscovers slowly.

When to reach for this

Use Playwright-MCP validation for what a unit test can't give you:

Confirming something actually renders (layout, an icon/SVG, a color).
Verifying interactive states — hover, click, theme toggle, dialogs.
Catching console errors that only surface in a real browser.
Producing a screenshot for a human to eyeball a visual change.

If a deterministic assertion in code would suffice, write a test instead.

Prerequisites

The app/docs site must be running. If you start a dev server, note the port and URL; you own stopping it during cleanup.
The playwright MCP server must be connected (its browser_* tools appear in your tool list). On first use it may install a browser — allow time.

Validation loop

Cheap-to-expensive. Stop as soon as you have a confident answer.

Navigate — browser_navigate to the page URL.
Snapshot — browser_snapshot returns the accessibility tree (text + roles + refs). This is token-cheap and the primary assertion surface. Confirm the expected heading/text/landmark is present here before screenshotting.
Console — browser_console_messages and assert 0 errors (warnings may be acceptable; judge by context). Do this on every page you validate.
Screenshot — browser_take_screenshot only when a human needs to see it, or when a visual detail can't be asserted from the tree (color, spacing, image rendering).
Report pass/fail per check with the concrete evidence (the heading text you saw, the console count, the computed color).

❌ Don't screenshot-diff when an accessibility snapshot already proves the text/structure is correct — the snapshot is cheaper and more reliable.

Techniques that matter

Read computed styles for color/visual checks

Screenshots can't be asserted programmatically. Use browser_evaluate to read getComputedStyle and compare elements rather than hard-coding a color string (which differs across themes):

() => {
  const icon = document.querySelector('aside a.active svg');
  const text = document.querySelector('aside a.active span');
  return {
    icon: getComputedStyle(icon).color,
    text: getComputedStyle(text).color,
    matches: getComputedStyle(icon).color === getComputedStyle(text).color,
  };
}

Asserting icon.color === text.color survives a theme change; asserting color === 'rgb(...)' does not.

Light/dark mode

Most frameworks toggle a .dark (or data-theme) class on <html>. Toggle it and re-check computed styles in both modes:

() => { document.documentElement.classList.toggle('dark'); }

Prefer clicking the site's real theme switch when one exists (so you exercise the actual code path); fall back to toggling the class only to read styles.

Hover needs a target

browser_hover requires an element/selector target — a bare ref with no element errors. Pass the element described in the latest snapshot.

Force a hard reload for CSS/SVG/asset changes

A soft browser_navigate can serve cached CSS/SVG/JS, so your edit "doesn't appear." Bypass the cache: navigate to a cache-busted URL (?v=<timestamp>) or evaluate location.reload(true) after the asset changed.

❌ Don't trust a soft reload when validating a changed stylesheet, SVG, or bundled asset — you'll validate the stale version and report a false pass/fail.

Overlays intercept clicks

If a click/hover fails with "intercepted" or "not clickable," a dialog, cookie banner, or menu is on top. Press Escape (browser_press_key Escape) to dismiss it, then retry.

Element ids set via evaluate are ephemeral

Anything you inject with browser_evaluate (an id, a marker class) can be lost on re-render/navigation. Re-query from a fresh snapshot each step rather than relying on a handle you set earlier.

Cleanup discipline

Before finishing, leave no trace:

Delete screenshot artifacts you generated and the .playwright-mcp/ output folder.
Stop any dev server / free the port you started for validation.
Don't leave a browser context or toggled theme state that misleads later runs.

❌ Don't finish a validation task with leftover screenshots, a running dev server, or a .playwright-mcp/ folder committed into the repo.

Anti-patterns

❌ Writing a script that calls Playwright — use the browser_* MCP tools directly.
❌ Reporting "looks fine" from a screenshot without a snapshot/console-error assertion to back it.
❌ Hard-coding an expected rgb(...) for a color check instead of comparing to a sibling element across themes.
❌ Soft-reloading after a CSS/asset edit and trusting the result.
❌ Leaving artifacts, a .playwright-mcp/ folder, or a dev server running.