Description

n8n-nodes-playwright-automation

Community Playwright integration for n8n.
Run reliable headless browser automations (scraping, form filling, login flows, PDF/screenshots, E2E checks) powered by Playwright — directly inside n8n workflows.

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🚀 Features

This node allows you to control a headless browser to automate complex web tasks.

Session

| Operation | Description |
|———–|————-|
| Create | Start a new browser session (Chromium/Firefox/WebKit) |
| Close | Close an active session |
| Get Storage State | Retrieve cookies and storage state (e.g., to save and reuse login sessions) |

Page Interaction

| Operation | Description |
|———–|————-|
| Navigate | Go to a specific URL |
| Click | Click elements using smart selectors |
| Type/Fill | Fill forms and input fields |
| Wait | Wait for a specific duration or for elements to appear |
| Get Text/HTML/Attribute | Extract data from the page |
| Count Elements | Count occurrences of an element |
| Upload File | Upload files to input fields |

Capture

| Operation | Description |
|———–|————-|
| Screenshot | Capture visible page or full page screenshots |
| PDF | Generate a PDF of the current page |

Script (Advanced)

| Operation | Description |
|———–|————-|
| Run Script | Execute custom JavaScript code with full Playwright API access |

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📜 Custom Script Feature

For advanced automation scenarios where predefined operations aren’t sufficient, you can run custom Playwright scripts.

How It Works

The Script → Run Script operation allows you to write JavaScript code that has direct access to:

• page – The Playwright Page object
• context – The Playwright BrowserContext object

Example Usage

// Get page information
const title = await page.title();
const url = page.url();
// Interact with elements
await page.click('button.submit');
await page.fill('#email', 'user@example.com');
// Wait for network requests
await page.waitForResponse(resp => resp.url().includes('/api/'));
// Extract data
const items = await page.$$eval('.product', els => 
  els.map(el => ({
    name: el.querySelector('.name').textContent,
    price: el.querySelector('.price').textContent
  }))
);
// Return data to the n8n workflow
return { title, url, items };

Output

The script’s return value is included in the node output:

{
  "success": true,
  "action": "runScript",
  "returnValue": {
    "title": "Example Shop",
    "url": "https://example.com/products",
    "items": [ ]
  },
  "executionTimeMs": 142
}

> [!TIP]
> Use custom scripts for complex scenarios like multi-step login flows, infinite scroll handling, or interacting with dynamic SPAs.

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📦 Installation

n8n Community Nodes

1. Go to Settings → Community Nodes
2. Select Install
3. Enter n8n-nodes-playwright-automation
4. Agree to the risks and select Install

The node will automatically download the required browser binaries the first time you execute it.

> [!IMPORTANT]
> Linux Users (Docker/Self-hosted):
>
> We strongly recommend using our Docker setup to avoid any issues.
> It uses the official Playwright image which comes pre-loaded with all required system libraries and browsers.
>
> If you choose to use a different or custom n8n image, you MUST ensure your environment has all Playwright system dependencies installed (e.g., libnspr4, libnss3, libgbm1). The node will not work without these libraries.
>
> Using custom Docker image?
> We strongly recommend basing your image on the official Playwright image:
>

> FROM mcr.microsoft.com/playwright:v1.58.0-noble
> 

Manual Installation

If you prefer to install manually:

cd ~/.n8n/nodes
npm install n8n-nodes-playwright-automation

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🐳 Docker Support

> [!TIP]
> Why use our Docker setup?
>
> Our Docker image is pre-configured with all the necessary system dependencies and libraries required for Playwright to run correctly.
>
> If you use a different n8n image, you will likely run into issues unless you manually install all the required libraries for headless browsers.

To run this node in Docker, we provide a docker-compose.yml file that:
1. Installs all required Playwright browser dependencies
2. Mounts the built node code into n8n
3. Persists n8n data

Quick Start (Development Mode)

This project includes a Docker setup optimized for development, running npm run dev inside a Node.js container with all Playwright dependencies pre-installed.

1. Start the Development Container:
Using Docker directly:

   docker compose up -d --build
   

Alternative (Shorthand):

   npm run dev:docker
   

This will build the image, install dependencies, and start n8n in development watch mode.

2. Access n8n:
Open http://localhost:5678 in your browser.

3. Development:
The source code is mounted into the container. Changes to the code will automatically trigger a rebuild/restart of the node (handled by n8n-node dev).

Configuration

The provided docker-compose.yml uses a custom Dockerfile based on the official Playwright Docker image (mcr.microsoft.com/playwright:v1.58.0-noble).
This ensures Node.js 22, all system dependencies, and required browsers are pre-installed and optimized.

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! We’d love to have you help improve this project.

Please read our Contributing Guidelines for:

• 🛠️ Development setup & available scripts
• 📝 How to submit pull requests
• ✅ Coding standards and best practices
• 🐛 Reporting issues

Please note that this project is released with a

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👨‍💻 Maintainer

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