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Kevin Veen-Birkenbach df66e3547e feat: add standalone Playwright recorder tool with Docker-based codegen

- introduce repo-local, ephemeral Playwright codegen workflow
- add executable codegen script using official Playwright Docker image
- persist generated recordings under recordings/ (git-ignored, .gitkeep)
- add minimal Makefile with install and codegen targets
- switch project license to MIT
- improve README with clear usage, requirements, and design rationale
- add MIRRORS file for multi-remote setup
- clean up gitignore for generated artifacts and node tooling

2026-02-05 14:56:46 +01:00

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🎭 playwright-recorder

A small, reproducible Playwright recording / codegen tool
built around Docker, X11/XWayland, and ephemeral workspaces

🔗 Homepage: https://github.com/kevinveenbirkenbach/playwright-recorder

✨ What is this?

playwright-recorder is a developer tool for recording Playwright tests via the official Playwright codegen feature — without polluting your project:

🎥 GUI-based recording (Playwright Inspector)
🧼 Always fresh (no reused state, no lockfile pain)
🐳 Runs fully in Docker
🗂️ Repo-local, git-ignored workspace
📄 Only generated tests are persisted
🚫 No /tmp usage

Perfect for:

recording login flows
capturing UI regressions
generating first test drafts
infra-heavy projects where Playwright does not belong in the main repo

recordings/ is ignored by git
.gitkeep ensures the folder exists
ephemeral workspace lives in recordings/.work/ and is auto-cleaned

🚀 Usage

1️⃣ Requirements

Docker
X11 or XWayland (Wayland-only will NOT work)
xhost

On Arch Linux:

⚙️ Installation (one-time)

Prepare the recorder script:

make install

This makes scripts/codegen.sh executable.

🎥 Start recording

make codegen

Or with a start URL:

./scripts/codegen.sh https://example.com/login

📤 Output

📄 Generated test:
```
recordings/codegen.spec.ts
```
🧼 Ephemeral workspace (auto-deleted):
```
recordings/.work/
```

Nothing else touches your repo.

⚙️ Configuration (optional)

Environment variables:

Variable	Default	Description
`PLAYWRIGHT_VERSION`	`1.58.1`	Playwright version
`PLAYWRIGHT_IMAGE`	auto	Docker image tag
`RECORDINGS_DIR`	`recordings`	Output directory
`OUTPUT_FILE`	`codegen.spec.ts`	Generated file name
`TARGET`	`playwright-test`	Codegen target
`DISPLAY`	`:0`	X11 display

Example:

OUTPUT_FILE=login.spec.ts make codegen

🧠 Design philosophy

❌ Not a test runner
❌ Not CI tooling
❌ Not framework glue
✅ A focused recording utility
✅ One job, done well

🔐 Security note

xhost +local:docker is used temporarily to allow GUI access. Access is revoked automatically when the script exits.

🧑‍💻 Author

Kevin Veen-Birkenbach 📧 kevin@veen.world 🏡 www.veen.world

📜 License

MIT License – see LICENSE

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