web-e2e-overview

What is web E2E testing

Web end-to-end (E2E) testing exercises a web application the way a real user would: a browser is launched, pages are loaded, interactions are performed (clicks, form fills, navigations), and outcomes are asserted against what the user should see. Per playwright.dev/docs/intro: "Playwright Test is an end-to-end test framework for modern web apps. It bundles test runner, assertions, isolation, parallelization and rich tooling." E2E tests sit at the top of the testing pyramid - they are the most realistic but also the slowest and most resource-intensive layer, so they complement, rather than replace, unit and integration tests.

Step 1 - Decide on a framework

If you are not sure which tool to use, pick based on your stack: Playwright is the modern default for new projects; stay with Cypress, Selenium, Puppeteer, TestCafe, or WebdriverIO if the team already uses one. Check your project (package.json, any existing config files) for a framework already in place before adding another.

Step 2 - Three skills to start with

Start with playwright-testing unless your stack points elsewhere (see Step 1).

Step 3 - Your first commands

Per playwright.dev/docs/intro:

# 1. Scaffold - prompts for TypeScript/JS, tests folder, CI workflow, browser binaries
npm init playwright@latest

# 2. Run the generated example to confirm the install is healthy
npx playwright test

The init wizard creates playwright.config.ts, updates package.json, and writes tests/example.spec.ts. Running npx playwright test immediately after install runs the bundled example spec across Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit - all three should pass on a clean machine (playwright.dev/docs/intro).

After the example passes, open tests/example.spec.ts, read it, then follow playwright-testing for authoring your real tests.

Web E2E testing skills

Hard-reject rule

Any revision to this skill that removes inline source citations from the commands or quoted text in "What is web E2E testing" makes the component a hard reject. All concrete claims about tool behavior must stay cited to playwright.dev/docs/intro at the point of use.