Viewing Reports

When to Use

Opening a generated report to triage failures.

Pattern: Open Latest Report

npx playwright show-report

Defaults to http://localhost:9323.

Pattern: Open Specific Report

npx playwright show-report ./playwright-report
npx playwright show-report ./reports/run-2026-05-08

Pattern: Change Port / Host

npx playwright show-report --port 8080
npx playwright show-report --host 0.0.0.0     # bind on all interfaces (LAN sharing)

Why a Real HTTP Server?

show-report starts a small static server. This is required because traces and some XHR-loaded attachments need correct MIME types and same-origin fetches. Opening index.html via file:// breaks the trace viewer iframe.

Auto-Open Behavior

Context	Default
Local, run failed	Auto-opens browser to the report
Local, run passed	Doesn't open
CI (CI=true)	Doesn't open

Environment Variables (override config without editing)

Var	Purpose
PLAYWRIGHT_HTML_REPORT	Override outputFolder
PLAYWRIGHT_HTML_OPEN	always | never | on-failure
PLAYWRIGHT_HTML_HOST	Bind host
PLAYWRIGHT_HTML_PORT	Bind port

Common Mistakes

• Opening index.html via file:// — trace viewer breaks; always use show-report or another HTTP server
• Port 9323 collision — error message is explicit; use --port or PLAYWRIGHT_HTML_PORT
• show-report from wrong cwd — opens an old report from elsewhere; always pass an explicit path

See Also

• Generation
• Running Modes
• Sharing