feat: add a playwright feature

[ashwin153]

Softlight Overview

UX Score: 5/5

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Adds a playwright feature that installs the Playwright CLI globally and downloads a Chromium build at image-build time, so containers do not pay for an npm install and a browser download on every start.

This is the feature from orianna-ai/devcontainer#82, moved here so it is published and shared rather than living locally under that repo's .devcontainer/features.

Changes

• src/playwright/devcontainer-feature.json — sets PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH via containerEnv, declares installsAfter on common-utils and node, and exposes a version option for the @playwright/cli npm package.
• src/playwright/install.sh — sources nvm when npm is not already on PATH, installs @playwright/cli, then runs install-deps chromium and install chromium through the playwright-core CLI (@playwright/cli never links that binary). Restores the pre-existing ownership of the global module tree afterwards, so the node feature's remote user can keep installing global packages at run time.
• src/playwright/README.md — generated with devcontainer features generate-docs.
• test/playwright/ — a scenario on base:ubuntu-22.04 plus the node feature, checking that playwright-cli is on PATH, that PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH is exported, that a Chromium build landed there, and that the path is still readable and traversable as the remote user.

Notes

Browsers land in /usr/local/share/ms-playwright rather than Playwright's default $HOME/.cache, because a sandbox may point HOME at a per-pod volume — anything baked into the image's home directory is invisible there. PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH is declared in devcontainer-feature.json so it is baked into the image environment, which points both the install and every later run at the same directory.

The version option defaults to latest here, matching cloud-sql-proxy; the pin to 0.1.17 from the original PR moves to the call site in the devcontainer repo.

Testing

pre-commit run --all-files passes, and the manifest validates against the devcontainer feature schema. The scenario test needs Docker, so it runs in CI rather than locally.

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Generated by Claude Code

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Note

Low Risk
New optional devcontainer feature and install script only; no changes to existing runtime services or auth/data paths.

Overview
Adds a new playwright devcontainer feature that bakes @playwright/cli and a Chromium build into the image at build time, avoiding npm install and browser download on every container start.

The feature sets PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH to /usr/local/share/ms-playwright (HOME-independent for sandboxes with per-pod HOME), depends on node and common-utils, and exposes a version option for the CLI package. install.sh installs the global CLI, runs Chromium install-deps / install via playwright-core, restores global npm tree ownership for the remote user, and makes the browsers directory world-readable.

Documentation and an Ubuntu 22.04 scenario test assert playwright-cli on PATH, the env var, Chromium under the shared path, and remote-user read/execute access.

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 02a87d8. Configure here.}

Greptile Summary

Adds a Playwright devcontainer feature that installs the global CLI, Chromium, and its Debian/Ubuntu system dependencies during image construction.

• Publishes a configurable @playwright/cli version and shared browser path.
• Preserves npm-tree ownership for the remote user.
• Adds generated documentation and an Ubuntu scenario test.

Confidence Score: 4/5

The PR is not yet safe to merge because its primary standalone example still causes image builds without Node to fail.

The reply says the missing Node dependency was addressed through documentation, but the README’s primary Example Usage still omits Node, while the installer exits whenever npm is unavailable; users copying that example therefore encounter the same previously reported failure.

Files Needing Attention: src/playwright/README.md

Important Files Changed

Filename	Overview
src/playwright/install.sh	Installs the selected Playwright CLI and Chromium, rejects unsupported package-manager environments early, and restores shared-directory ownership.
src/playwright/devcontainer-feature.json	Defines the feature metadata, browser environment path, install ordering, and configurable CLI version.
src/playwright/README.md	Documents feature usage, prerequisites, supported distributions, and the shared browser path.
test/playwright/ubuntu.sh	Verifies CLI availability, browser installation, environment propagation, and remote-user access.

_{Reviews (2): Last reviewed commit: "style: trim the playwright feature to th..." | Re-trigger Greptile}

[ashwin153]

Declining dependsOn — it would break the consumer this feature exists for, so I documented the requirement instead.

The spec deduplicates Features only when the id and the options match exactly ("two Features are identical if their manifest digests are equal, and the options executed against the Feature are equal"). orianna-ai/devcontainer already selects ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/node:2 with {"version": "24.18.0"}. A dependsOn entry has to name some tag and some options, and whatever I pick will not match that, so both copies install and whichever runs last wins the nvm default alias — silently unpinning a node version renovate manages. Hardcoding node:2 + 24.18.0 into a shared feature to dodge that is worse.

The other suggestion, having the installer provision node itself, reimplements the node feature inside this one and hits the same collision.

So: NOTES.md now gives the README a Requirements section showing node selected alongside playwright, and the installer keeps failing fast with npm was not found; this feature has to install after the node feature. The documented setup is the two-feature one; the single-feature example above it is generated from the manifest and I cannot edit it.

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Generated by Claude Code

[ashwin153]

Took the second option — an explicit supported-distribution check. Playwright only knows how to install Chromium's shared libraries with apt, so there is no Fedora/RHEL branch to implement; the feature is inherently Debian and Ubuntu only.

install.sh now checks for apt-get before the npm install, so a non-Debian build stops in a second with apt-get was not found; this feature only supports debian and ubuntu base images instead of after a package download. NOTES.md documents the constraint and it shows up in the generated README.

Not adding the non-Ubuntu scenario: devcontainer features test scenarios assert that a build succeeds and the checks pass, so there is no way to express "this build should fail" — the scenario would just be a red job.

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Generated by Claude Code

[ashwin153]

@greptileai

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Generated by Claude Code

[ashwin153]

@softlight

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Generated by Claude Code