Skip to main content

wdio-pw-driver

A WebdriverIO driver that runs your tests through Playwright's native automation engine instead of W3C WebDriver HTTP — no chromedriver, no geckodriver, no remote endpoint. Same WDIO commands, dramatically faster session startup and per-command latency.

Why​

The standard webdriver package in WebdriverIO sends every command as an HTTP request to a driver process (chromedriver, geckodriver, etc.). That's a roundtrip per click. PW drops that layer: it talks to the browser in-process via Playwright.

What you get:

  • ⚡ Faster startup — no driver process to spawn
  • ⚡ Lower per-command latency — no HTTP roundtrip
  • 🧩 Same WDIO API — your existing test code does not change
  • 🌐 Cross-browser — Chromium, Firefox, WebKit
  • 📹 Built-in trace + video — without paying the chromedriver tax

Install​

npm install --save-dev wdio-pw-driver playwright-core
npx wdioPW install            # downloads chromium (default)
# or:
npx wdioPW install all        # chromium + firefox + webkit

30-second setup​

wdio.conf.ts
import PWService from 'wdio-pw-driver'

export const config = {
  runner: 'local',
  automationProtocol: 'wdio-pw-driver',     // ← tells WDIO to load this driver
  services: [[PWService, {}]],              // ← auto-injects browser binary path

  capabilities: [{
    browserName: 'chromium',
    'wdio:pwOptions': { headless: true },
  }],

  framework: 'mocha',
  specs: ['./specs/**/*.spec.ts'],
  reporters: ['spec'],
}
specs/example.spec.ts
import { browser, expect } from '@wdio/globals'

describe('site', () => {
  it('loads', async () => {
    await browser.url('https://example.com')
    expect(await browser.getTitle()).toMatch(/Example/)
  })
})
pnpm wdio

Where to go next​