---
id: trace-viewer
title: "Trace Viewer"
---
Playwright Trace Viewer is a GUI tool that helps exploring recorded Playwright traces after the script ran.
## Recording a trace
* langs: js
Set the `trace: 'on-first-retry'` option in the test configuration file. This will produce `trace.zip` file for each test that was retried.
```js js-flavor=js
// @ts-check
/** @type {import('@playwright/test').PlaywrightTestConfig} */
const config = {
retries: 1,
use: {
trace: 'on-first-retry',
},
};
module.exports = config;
```
```js js-flavor=ts
import { PlaywrightTestConfig } from '@playwright/test';
const config: PlaywrightTestConfig = {
retries: 1,
use: {
trace: 'on-first-retry',
},
};
export default config;
```
```js js-flavor=library
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' });
```
You can also use `trace: 'retain-on-failure'` if you do not enable retries but still want traces for failed tests.
Available options to record a trace:
- `'off'` - Do not record a trace.
- `'on'` - Record a trace for each test.
- `'retain-on-failure'` - Record a trace for each test, but remove it from successful test runs.
- `'on-first-retry'` - Record a trace only when retrying a test for the first time.
If you are not using Playwright Test, use the [`property: BrowserContext.tracing`] API instead.
## Recording a trace
* langs: java, csharp, python
Traces can be recorded using the [`property: BrowserContext.tracing`] API as follows:
```java
Browser browser = browserType.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.navigate("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:
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:
You can hover over the film strip to see a magnified image:
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 type 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.|
Here is what the typical Action snapshot looks like:
Notice how it highlights both, the DOM Node as well as the exact click position.
## Viewing remote Traces
You can open remote traces using it's URL.
They could be generated in a CI run and makes it easy to view the remote trace without having to manually download the file.
```bash js
npx playwright show-trace https://example.com/trace.zip
```
```bash java
mvn exec:java -e -Dexec.mainClass=com.microsoft.playwright.CLI -Dexec.args="show-trace https://example.com/trace.zip"
```
```bash python
playwright show-trace https://example.com/trace.zip
```
```bash csharp
playwright show-trace https://example.com/trace.zip
```