#5 Digest
This week’s roundup dives into the cutting edge of Playwright testing with a strong focus on how AI is reshaping automation workflows—from mastering the new Playwright MCP protocol to tackling the quirks of AI-generated tests and building smarter, self-healing test suites. Plus, you’ll find practical tips on using locators in 2026 and creative ways to automate accessibility. Let’s jump in and level up your Playwright game!
What is Playwright MCP? and how to use it in your testing ...
This article explains Playwright MCP, an open protocol enabling AI-driven browser automation, and details how to set it up and integrate with AI tools like VS Code for streamlined testing workflows, while also comparing it to the specialized AI testing tool QA Copilot.
Why AI Can't Write Good Playwright Tests (And How To Fix It)
This in-depth article discusses the challenges AI faces in writing robust Playwright tests due to limited accessibility snapshots and proposes Verdex, a tool leveraging progressive disclosure and structural DOM exploration primitives, combined with AI assistant configurations to generate stable, container-scoped Playwright selectors efficiently.
Demystifying Playwright Test Agents' seed.spec.ts: What I Learned from Reading the MCP Code
This article explains the purpose and role of seed.spec.ts in Playwright Test Agents, clarifying how it sets up the page context for AI agents like the Planner and Generator before test generation begins, and details best practices for using seed files effectively.
Why Do AI Agents Fail in Production? (And How to Fix the "Silent Click")
This article discusses a robust approach to building reliable AI-powered web automation agents by combining the vision model Qwen2-VL, the Set-of-Mark JavaScript injection technique, and Playwright for deterministic execution, improving accuracy and mitigating silent failures.
The Death of Brittle Scripts: Architecting a Self-Healing AI Automation Ecosystem
This article proposes a next-generation AI-powered, self-healing test automation architecture that integrates Playwright alongside other tools to create resilient, intent-driven test scripts that adapt automatically to UI changes.
Why Verdex Uses CDP Directly
This detailed article explains why Verdex, a test authoring tool, uses the Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) directly instead of building on Playwright, highlighting architectural differences between authoring-time DOM analysis and execution-time test running with Playwright, and discussing multi-role session management, isolated worlds, and persistent element references.
How to Build an AI Agent That Tracks Your Competitors Using Stagehand & Browserbase
This article explains how to build scalable and resilient automation agents using Stagehand and Browserbase—tools that integrate AI with Playwright for robust browser automation, demonstrated through a practical pricing page tracker example.
How We Automate Accessibility Testing with Playwright ...
This article explains how Subito integrates Playwright with Axe-core to automate accessibility testing within their CI pipeline, including configuration, implementation, reporting, and practical benefits.
How to use Playwright locators in 2026
This comprehensive guide explains Playwright locators in detail, covering types, syntax, best practices, accessibility strategies, and tools like Codegen and Locator Inspector to create stable, efficient tests.
AI and Playwright MCP for web testing
This talk by Jaswanth Manigundan explores how AI and the Playwright MCP server enhance web testing workflows by automating browser actions, generating test plans, and supporting test execution while emphasizing human oversight and collaboration.