Running Playwright in Docker: The Reliable Way

Why Docker?

Playwright ships an official image with browsers and system dependencies pre-installed — perfect for consistent CI, Kubernetes jobs, or debugging OS-specific flakes.

A Working Dockerfile

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/playwright:v1.47.0-jammy
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci
COPY . .
CMD ["npx", "playwright", "test"]

docker-compose for Local Runs

services:
  e2e:
    build: .
    ipc: host
    volumes:
      - ./playwright-report:/app/playwright-report
    environment:
      - BASE_URL=http://host.docker.internal:3000

Gotchas

• Always set ipc: host — Chromium needs it to avoid crashes.
• Pin the Playwright image version to match your @playwright/test version exactly.
• Use --network host on Linux to reach services on the host machine.