How to run Playwright in E2B

This example sandbox template shows how to run Playwright inside an E2B sandbox.

Usage Example

This project contains a ready-to-use example of running Playwright in an E2B sandbox.

Setup

1. Copy the environment variables file and add your API keys:

   cp example.env .env

2. Edit the .env file and add your API keys:

   # Fill in your E2B API key and OpenAI API key here
   # You can get your E2B API key from https://e2b.dev/dashboard
   # You can get your OpenAI API key from https://platform.openai.com/account/api-keys
   E2B_API_KEY=your_e2b_api_key_here
   OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key_here
   

3. Edit the script.mjs file to contain your Playwright script:

   import { chromium } from 'playwright'
   
   const browser = await chromium.launch()
   const context = await browser.newContext()
   const page = await context.newPage()
   
   await page.goto('https://playwright.dev/');
   await page.screenshot({ path: '/home/user/example.png' });
   
   await browser.close()
   
   console.log('done')

4. Install dependencies and run the example:

   npm install
   npm run start

The example will:

• Create a new E2B sandbox with Playwright pre-installed
• Run the Playwright script
• Copy output files to the output directory
• Clean up the sandbox

You can find the complete example code in the app.ts file.

E2B JavaScript SDK

To run Playwright scripts via the E2B SDK:

import { Sandbox } from 'e2b'
const sbx = await Sandbox.create('playwright-chromium')

// Run the command verifying that Playwright is installed
const result = await sbx.commands.run('PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=0 npx playwright --version', {
  cwd: '/app' // Important: Commands must run from the /app directory
})
console.log(result.stdout)

await sbx.kill()

Important

All Playwright scripts must be run from the /app directory, as this is where the Playwright browsers are installed and configured.

Important

The environment variable PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=0 is necessary to tell Playwright to look for browser binaries in the current Node.js project directory.

How to build your own sandbox that supports running Playwright

1. Run npm i -g @e2b/cli@latest to install the latest version of the E2B CLI.
2. Run e2b template init in your project directory.
3. Copy the e2b.Dockerfile into your project.
4. Run e2b template build to build your sandbox.
5. Start the sandbox either via our SDK or the E2B CLI like this e2b sandbox spawn <sandbox-template-id>.

Warning

This template only works with the node:20-slim base image as shown in the Dockerfile. It is not compatible with the e2bdev/code-interpreter base image due to specific dependencies required for Playwright.