/playwright-recording

name: playwright-recording
description: Record browser interactions as video using Playwright. Use for capturing demo videos, app walkthroughs, and UI flows for Remotion videos. Triggers include recording a demo, capturing browser video, screen recording a website, or creating walkthrough footage.

Playwright Video Recording

Playwright can record browser interactions as video - perfect for demo footage in Remotion compositions.

Quick Start

Installation

# In your video project
npm init -y
npm install -D playwright @playwright/test
npx playwright install chromium

Basic Recording Script

// scripts/record-demo.ts
import { chromium } from 'playwright';

async function recordDemo() {
  const browser = await chromium.launch();
  const context = await browser.newContext({
    viewport: { width: 1920, height: 1080 },
    recordVideo: {
      dir: './recordings',
      size: { width: 1920, height: 1080 }
    }
  });

  const page = await context.newPage();

  // Your recording actions
  await page.goto('https://example.com');
  await page.waitForTimeout(2000);
  await page.click('button.demo');
  await page.waitForTimeout(3000);

  // Close to save video
  await context.close();
  await browser.close();

  console.log('Recording saved to ./recordings/');
}

recordDemo();

Run with:

npx ts-node scripts/record-demo.ts
# or
npx tsx scripts/record-demo.ts

Recording Configuration

Viewport Sizes

// Standard 1080p (recommended for Remotion)
viewport: { width: 1920, height: 1080 }

// 720p (smaller files)
viewport: { width: 1280, height: 720 }

// Square (social media)
viewport: { width: 1080, height: 1080 }

// Mobile
viewport: { width: 390, height: 844 } // iPhone 14

Video Quality Settings

const context = await browser.newContext({
  viewport: { width: 1920, height: 1080 },
  recordVideo: {
    dir: './recordings',
    size: { width: 1920, height: 1080 } // Match viewport for crisp output
  },
  // Slow down for visibility
  // Note: slowMo is on browser launch, not context
});

// For slow motion, launch browser with slowMo
const browser = await chromium.launch({
  slowMo: 100 // 100ms delay between actions
});

Recording Patterns

Form Submission Demo

import { chromium } from 'playwright';

async function recordFormDemo() {
  const browser = await chromium.launch({ slowMo: 50 });
  const context = await browser.newContext({
    viewport: { width: 1920, height: 1080 },
    recordVideo: { dir: './recordings', size: { width: 1920, height: 1080 } }
  });
  const page = await context.newPage();

  await page.goto('https://myapp.com/form');
  await page.waitForTimeout(1000);

  // Type with realistic speed
  await page.fill('#name', 'John Smith', { timeout: 5000 });
  await page.waitForTimeout(500);

  await page.fill('#email', 'john@example.com');
  await page.waitForTimeout(500);

  // Click submit
  await page.click('button[type="submit"]');

  // Wait for result
  await page.waitForSelector('.success-message');
  await page.waitForTimeout(2000);

  await context.close();
  await browser.close();
}

Multi-Page Navigation

async function recordNavDemo() {
  const browser = await chromium.launch({ slowMo: 100 });
  const context = await browser.newContext({
    viewport: { width: 1920, height: 1080 },
    recordVideo: { dir: './recordings', size: { width: 1920, height: 1080 } }
  });
  const page = await context.newPage();

  // Page 1
  await page.goto('https://myapp.com');
  await page.waitForTimeout(2000);

  // Navigate to page 2
  await page.click('nav a[href="/features"]');
  await page.waitForLoadState('networkidle');
  await page.waitForTimeout(2000);

  // Navigate to page 3
  await page.click('nav a[href="/pricing"]');
  await page.waitForLoadState('networkidle');
  await page.waitForTimeout(2000);

  await context.close();
  await browser.close();
}

Scroll Demo

async function recordScrollDemo() {
  const browser = await chromium.launch();
  const context = await browser.newContext({
    viewport: { width: 1920, height: 1080 },
    recordVideo: { dir: './recordings', size: { width: 1920, height: 1080 } }
  });
  const page = await context.newPage();

  await page.goto('https://myapp.com/long-page');
  await page.waitForTimeout(1000);

  // Smooth scroll
  await page.evaluate(async () => {
    const delay = (ms: number) => new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, ms));
    for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
      window.scrollBy({ top: 200, behavior: 'smooth' });
      await delay(300);
    }
  });

  await page.waitForTimeout(1000);
  await context.close();
  await browser.close();
}

Login Flow

async function recordLoginDemo() {
  const browser = await chromium.launch({ slowMo: 75 });
  const context = await browser.newContext({
    viewport: { width: 1920, height: 1080 },
    recordVideo: { dir: './recordings', size: { width: 1920, height: 1080 } }
  });
  const page = await context.newPage();

  await page.goto('https://myapp.com/login');
  await page.waitForTimeout(1000);

  await page.fill('#email', 'demo@example.com');
  await page.waitForTimeout(300);

  await page.fill('#password', '••••••••');
  await page.waitForTimeout(500);

  await page.click('button[type="submit"]');

  // Wait for dashboard
  await page.waitForURL('**/dashboard');
  await page.waitForTimeout(3000);

  await context.close();
  await browser.close();
}

Cursor Highlighting

Playwright doesn't show cursor by default. Add visual indicators:

CSS Cursor Highlight

// Inject cursor visualization
await page.addStyleTag({
  content: `
    * { cursor: none !important; }
    .playwright-cursor {
      position: fixed;
      width: 24px;
      height: 24px;
      background: rgba(255, 100, 100, 0.5);
      border: 2px solid rgba(255, 50, 50, 0.8);
      border-radius: 50%;
      pointer-events: none;