How Playwright and Microsoft MCP Server are Reshaping AI Testing?

AI Automation with Playwright & Microsoft MCP Server

Added by Auther

Microsoft has officially released the Playwright Model Context Protocol (MCP), a groundbreaking tool that empowers Large Language Models (LLMs) to interact with web pages using structured accessibility snapshots. This innovation eliminates the need for pixel-based inputs or vision models, making browser automation faster, more deterministic, and LLM-friendly. In this blog, we’ll dive deep into how to set up and use the Playwright MCP server, along with practical examples that include LLM prompts to demonstrate its capabilities.

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What is Playwright MCP?

Playwright MCP is a server that provides browser automation capabilities using Playwright’s accessibility tree. It allows LLMs to interact with web pages through structured data, bypassing the need for screenshots or visually-tuned models. This approach is fast, lightweight, and deterministic, making it ideal for tasks like web navigation, form-filling, data extraction, and automated testing.

Setting Up the Playwright MCP Server

Prerequisites

• Node.js installed (v16 or later)
• Playwright installed (npm install playwright)

Installation
1. Install the Playwright MCP package globally:

npm install -g @playwright/mcp

2. Verify the installation:

npx @playwright/mcp --version

Basic Configuration
To start the MCP server, create a configuration file (`mcp.config.json`) with the following content:

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

Run the server:

npx @playwright/mcp

Running in Headless Mode
For background or batch operations, you can run the browser in headless mode by adding the --headless…