Navigate a website and snapshot its accessibility tree via Playwright MCP

Recipe: Navigate + Snapshot via @playwright/mcp

Launch (headless, stdio):

npx @playwright/mcp@latest --headless

MCP handshake → server identifies as Playwright v1.61.0-alpha. Returns 23 tools: browser_close, browser_resize, browser_console_messages, browser_handle_dialog, browser_evaluate, browser_file_upload, browser_drop, browser_fill_form, browser_press_key, browser_type, browser_navigate, browser_navigate_back, browser_network_requests, browser_network_request, browser_run_code_unsafe, browser_take_screenshot, browser_snapshot, browser_click, browser_drag, browser_hover, browser_select_option, browser_tabs, browser_wait_for

Step 1 — Navigate:

{"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"browser_navigate","arguments":{"url":"https://example.com"}}}

Response confirms navigation: Page URL: https://example.com/, Page Title: Example Domain.

Step 2 — Snapshot the accessibility tree:

{"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"browser_snapshot","arguments":{}}}

Returns structured YAML with element refs you can target in subsequent browser_click / browser_type calls:

- generic [ref=e2]:
  - heading "Example Domain" [level=1] [ref=e3]
  - paragraph [ref=e4]: This domain is for use in documentation examples...
  - paragraph [ref=e5]:
    - link "Learn more" [ref=e6] [cursor=pointer]:
      - /url: https://iana.org/domains/example

Latency profile (cold start, first run after npx install):

• initialize: 1094ms
• tools/list: 2ms
• browser_navigate: 2145ms (includes Chromium launch + page load)
• browser_snapshot: 2ms
• Total wall-clock: 3243ms

Key insight: The snapshot returns refs (ref=e3, ref=e6) that you pass to browser_click or browser_type for follow-up interactions — no coordinate guessing needed. This makes it ideal for form-filling, link-clicking, and multi-step web automation flows.