microsoft / microsoft/playwright
[Feature]: add a custom --after filter for test execution
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- Dominant language
- TypeScript
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Description
### 🚀 Feature Request
Add support for a CLI flag that allows users to run only the tests discovered after a specified test name, while preserving the existing parallel/serial test runner behavior.
Example:
`npx playwright test --after "login"`
This should run only the tests that appear after the matching test in the discovered test order, without running earlier tests.
### Example
Currently, Playwright supports selecting tests by file or grep, but it does not provide a way to select a subset based on execution order relative to another test. This is useful in workflows where:
- a setup or prerequisite test must run first
- a user wants to rerun only the remaining tests after a known checkpoint
- a large suite is being debugged incrementally
Proposed behavior
Add a new CLI option:
`--after `
Behavior:
- Playwright discovers all tests in the configured order
- it finds the matching test name
- it removes all tests before that match
- it schedules only the remaining tests for execution
- the remaining tests can still be distributed across workers in parallel/serial mode
This means the flag acts as a pre-distribution filter, not as a strict runtime dependency.
Example:
If the discovered order is:
- setup
- login
- checkout
- payment
- logout
Then:
`npx playwright test --after "login"`
should run:
- checkout
- payment
- logout
and not setup or login.
### Motivation
This gives users a lightweight way to:
- continue execution from a known stage
- rerun only post-setup flow
- reduce debugging time for large test suites
- avoid editing files or test names just to select a subset
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start at Playwright's test CLI option handling and follow how discovered tests are filtered before worker distribution. Check the existing test-selection and parallel/serial runner tests first; done means --after excludes the named test and all earlier tests while preserving the remaining execution behavior.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- typescript
- Domain
- cli, testing
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Active
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 52/100