📄 playwright-python/dotnet/docs/running-tests

File: running-tests.md | Updated: 11/18/2025

Source: https://playwright.dev/dotnet/docs/running-tests

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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


Run all tests

Use the following command to run all tests.

dotnet test

Run tests in headed mode

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

Run tests on different browsers: Browser env

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

Run tests on different browsers: launch configuration

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.

Run specific tests

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"

Run tests with multiple workers:

  • 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

debugging tests with playwright inspector

Check out our debugging guide to learn more about the Playwright Inspector as well as debugging with Browser Developer tools .

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