---
id: inspector
title: "Inspector"
---

Playwright Inspector is a GUI tool that helps authoring and debugging Playwright scripts.

<img width="712" alt="Playwright Inspector" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/883973/108614092-8c478a80-73ac-11eb-9597-67dfce110e00.png">

<!-- TOC -->

## Open Playwright Inspector

There are several ways of opening Playwright Inspector:

- Set the `PWDEBUG` environment variable to run your scripts in debug mode. This
configures Playwright for debugging and opens the inspector.
  ```sh js
  # Linux/macOS
  $ PWDEBUG=1 npm run test

  # Windows
  $ set PWDEBUG=1
  $ npm run test
  ```

  ```sh python
  # Linux/macOS
  $ PWDEBUG=1 pytest -s

  # Windows
  $ set PWDEBUG=1
  $ pytest -s
  ```

  Additional useful defaults are configured when `PWDEBUG` is set:
  - Browsers launch in the headed mode
  - Default timeout is set to 0 (= no timeout)

- Call [`method: Page.pause`] method from your script when running in headed browser.

  ```js
  // Pause on the following line.
  await page.pause();
  ```

  ```java
  // Pause on the following line.
  page.pause();
  ```

  ```python async
  # Pause on the following line.
  await page.pause()
  ```

  ```python sync
  # Pause on the following line.
  page.pause()
  ```

- Use `open` or `codegen` commands in the Playwright [CLI](./cli.md):
  ```sh js
  $ npx playwright codegen wikipedia.org
  ```

  ```sh python
  $ playwright codegen wikipedia.org
  ```

## Stepping through the Playwright script

When `PWDEBUG` is set, Playwright Inspector window will be opened and the script will be
paused on the first Playwright statement:

<img width="557" alt="Paused on line" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/883973/108614337-71761580-73ae-11eb-9f61-3d29c52c9520.png">

Now we know what action is about to be performed and we can look into the details on that
action. For example, when stopped on an input action such as `click`, the exact point Playwright is about to click is highlighted with the large red dot on the inspected page:

<img width="344" alt="Red dot on inspected page" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/883973/108614363-b69a4780-73ae-11eb-8f5e-51f9c91ec9b4.png">

By the time Playwright has paused on that click action, it has already performed actionability checks that can be found in the log:

<img width="712" alt="Action log" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/883973/108614564-72a84200-73b0-11eb-9de2-828b28d78b36.png">

If actionability can't be reached, it'll show action as pending:

<img width="712" alt="Screen Shot 2021-02-20 at 7 36 06 PM" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/883973/108614840-e6e3e500-73b2-11eb-998f-0cf31b2aa9a2.png">

You can step over each action using the "Step over" action or resume script without further pauses:

<center><img width="98" alt="Stepping toolbar" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/883973/108614389-f9f4b600-73ae-11eb-8df2-8d9ce9da5d5c.png"></center>


## Debugging Selectors

- Click the Explore button to hover over elements in the screen and click them to
automatically generate selectors for those elements.
- To verify where selector points, paste it into the inspector input field:

<img width="602" alt="Screen Shot 2021-02-20 at 7 27 20 PM" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/883973/108614696-ad5eaa00-73b1-11eb-81f5-9eebe62543a2.png">

## Recording scripts

At any moment, clicking Record action enables recorder (codegen) mode.
Every action on the target page is turned into the generated script:

<img width="712" alt="Screen Shot 2021-02-20 at 7 40 02 PM" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/883973/108614897-85704600-73b3-11eb-8bcd-f2e129786c49.png">

You can copy entire generated script or clear it using toolbar actions.
