File: running-tests.md | Updated: 11/18/2025
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Introduction
You can run a single test, a set of tests or all tests. Tests can be run on different browsers. By default, tests are run in a headless manner, meaning no browser window will be opened while running the tests and results will be seen in the terminal. If you prefer, you can run your tests in headed mode by using the headless test run parameter.
You will learn
Running tests
Use the following command to run all tests.
dotnet test
Use the following command to run your tests in headed mode opening a browser window for each test.
Bash
PowerShell
Batch
HEADED=1 dotnet test
$env:HEADED="1"dotnet test
set HEADED=1dotnet test
Specify which browser you would like to run your tests on via the BROWSER environment variable.
Bash
PowerShell
Batch
BROWSER=webkit dotnet test
$env:BROWSER="webkit"dotnet test
set BROWSER=webkitdotnet test
Specify which browser you would like to run your tests on by adjusting the launch configuration options:
dotnet test -- Playwright.BrowserName=webkit
To run your test on multiple browsers or configurations, you need to invoke the dotnet test command multiple times. There you can then either specify the BROWSER environment variable or set the Playwright.BrowserName via the runsettings file:
dotnet test --settings:chromium.runsettingsdotnet test --settings:firefox.runsettingsdotnet test --settings:webkit.runsettings
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <RunSettings> <Playwright> <BrowserName>chromium</BrowserName> </Playwright> </RunSettings>
For more information see selective unit tests in the Microsoft docs.
To run a single test file, use the filter flag followed by the class name of the test you want to run.
dotnet test --filter "ExampleTest"
To run a set of test files, use the filter flag followed by the class names of the tests you want to run.
dotnet test --filter "ExampleTest1|ExampleTest2"
To run a test with a specific title use the filter flag followed by Name~ and the title of the test.
dotnet test --filter "Name~GetStartedLink"
MSTest
NUnit
xUnit
xUnit v3
dotnet test -- NUnit.NumberOfTestWorkers=5
dotnet test -- MSTest.Parallelize.Workers=5
dotnet test -- xUnit.MaxParallelThreads=5
See here for more information to run tests in parallel with xUnit.
note
We recommend xUnit 2.8+ which uses the conservative parallelism algorithm
by default.
dotnet test -- xUnit.MaxParallelThreads=5
See here for more information to run tests in parallel with xUnit v3.
note
xUnit v3 uses the conservative parallelism algorithm
by default.
Debugging Tests
Since Playwright runs in .NET, you can debug it with your debugger of choice in e.g. Visual Studio Code or Visual Studio. Playwright comes with the Playwright Inspector which allows you to step through Playwright API calls, see their debug logs and explore locators .
Bash
PowerShell
Batch
PWDEBUG=1 dotnet test
$env:PWDEBUG=1dotnet test
set PWDEBUG=1dotnet test
Check out our debugging guide to learn more about the Playwright Inspector as well as debugging with Browser Developer tools .
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