---
id: trace-viewer
title: "Trace Viewer"
---

Playwright Trace Viewer is a GUI tool that helps exploring recorded Playwright traces after the script ran.

<img width="1212" alt="Playwright Trace Viewer" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/883973/120585896-6a1bca80-c3e7-11eb-951a-bd84002480f5.png"></img>

<!-- TOC -->

## Recording a trace

Traces can be recorded using the [`property: BrowserContext.tracing`] API as follows:

```js
const browser = await chromium.launch();
const context = await browser.newContext();

// Start tracing before creating / navigating a page.
await context.tracing.start({ screenshots: true, snapshots: true });

const page = await context.newPage();
await page.goto('https://playwright.dev');

// Stop tracing and export it into a zip archive.
await context.tracing.stop({ path: 'trace.zip' });
```

```java
Browser browser = chromium.launch();
BrowserContext context = browser.newContext();

// Start tracing before creating / navigating a page.
context.tracing.start(new Tracing.StartOptions()
  .setScreenshots(true)
  .setSnapshots(true);

Page page = context.newPage();
page.goto("https://playwright.dev");

// Stop tracing and export it into a zip archive.
context.tracing.stop(new Tracing.StopOptions()
  .setPath(Paths.get("trace.zip")));
```

```python async
browser = await chromium.launch()
context = await browser.new_context()

# Start tracing before creating / navigating a page.
await context.tracing.start(screenshots=True, snapshots=True)

await page.goto("https://playwright.dev")

# Stop tracing and export it into a zip archive.
await context.tracing.stop(path = "trace.zip")
```

```python sync
browser = chromium.launch()
context = browser.new_context()

# Start tracing before creating / navigating a page.
context.tracing.start(screenshots=True, snapshots=True)

page.goto("https://playwright.dev")

# Stop tracing and export it into a zip archive.
context.tracing.stop(path = "trace.zip")
```

```csharp
await using var browser = playwright.Chromium.LaunchAsync();
await using var context = await browser.NewContextAsync();

// Start tracing before creating / navigating a page.
await context.Tracing.StartAsync(new TracingStartOptions
{
  Screenshots: true,
  Snapshots: true
});

var page = context.NewPageAsync();
await page.GotoAsync("https://playwright.dev");

// Stop tracing and export it into a zip archive.
await context.Tracing.StopAsync(new TracingStopOptions
{
  Path: "trace.zip"
});
```

This will record the trace and place it into the file named `trace.zip`.

## Viewing the trace

You can open the saved trace using Playwright CLI:

```bash js
npx playwright show-trace trace.zip
```

```bash java
mvn exec:java -e -Dexec.mainClass=com.microsoft.playwright.CLI -Dexec.args="show-trace trace.zip"
```

```bash python
playwright show-trace trace.zip
```

```bash csharp
playwright show-trace trace.zip
```

## Actions

Once trace is opened, you will see the list of actions Playwright performed on the left hand side:

<img width="301" alt="Actions" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/883973/120588303-d39dd800-c3eb-11eb-9e8b-bfea8b775354.png"></img>

Selecting each action reveals:
- action snapshots,
- action log,
- source code location,
- network log for this action

in the properties pane. You will also see rendered DOM snapshots associated with each action.

## Screenshots

When tracing with the [`option: screenshots`] option turned on, each trace records screencast and renders it as a film strip:

<img width="353" alt="Film strip" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/883973/120588069-5d997100-c3eb-11eb-97a3-acbd5e0eb358.png"></img>

You can hover over the film strip to see a magnified image:

<img width="617" alt="Magnify" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/883973/120588147-8f123c80-c3eb-11eb-864b-19d800619234.png"></img>

That helps locating the action of interest very quickly.

## Snapshots

When tracing with the [`option: snapshots`] option turned on, Playwright captures a set of complete DOM snapshots for each action. Depending on the typ of the action, it will capture:

| Type | Description |
|------|-------------|
|Before|A snapshot at the time action is called.|
|Action|A snapshot at the moment of the performed input. This type of snapshot is especially useful when exploring where exactly Playwright clicked.|
|After|A snapshot after the action.|

<br/>

Here is what the typical Action snapshot looks like:

<img width="682" alt="Snapshots" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/883973/120588728-879f6300-c3ec-11eb-85d6-e67b0e92e4e3.png">
</img>

Notice how it highlights both, the DOM Node as well as the exact click position.
