How to capture video in Playwright?

The Answer

Playwright can record a video of every test by enabling the `video` option in the configuration. Videos are saved per test and are invaluable for debugging failures in CI.

Deep Dive Explanation

Use `retain-on-failure` in CI to save disk space — videos are only kept when a test fails. The video file is finalized after the page/context is closed, so always close the context before reading the video path.

example.spec.ts

// In playwright.config.ts
export default defineConfig({
  use: {
    video: 'retain-on-failure', // Options: 'on', 'off', 'retain-on-failure', 'on-first-retry'
  },
});

// Manually saving video path in a test
test('record video', async ({ page }, testInfo) => {
  await page.goto('/dashboard');
  // ... test steps
  // Video is automatically saved after test completes
  const videoPath = await page.video()?.path();
  console.log('Video saved at:', videoPath);
});