Playwright - Microsandbox

Headless Chromium does not require GPU acceleration. This example uses Microsoft's Playwright image to capture a screenshot and optionally run a persistent browser server for a host-side test runner or agent.

<Note> The Playwright image is large. Its first pull can take several minutes, while cached browser launches are much faster. Consider turning a prepared browser sandbox into a [snapshot](/examples/sandboxing/warm-workers) for repeated jobs. </Note>

Use Playwright

<Tooltip tip="Headless capture works on microsandbox cloud after omitting replace-on-create from this command."><span className="msb-badge-limited">Limited on cloud <Icon icon="circle-info" size={11} /></span></Tooltip>

<CodeGroup> ```sh macOS & Linux msb run --name playwright-shot --replace \ --cpus 2 --memory 2G --root-disk 4G \ mcr.microsoft.com/playwright:v1.61.0-noble -- sh -lc ' npx -y [email protected] screenshot \ --browser chromium \ https://example.com \ /root/example.png && stat -c "%s bytes" /root/example.png ' ```

powershell

msb run --name playwright-shot --replace `
  --cpus 2 --memory 2G --root-disk 4G `
  mcr.microsoft.com/playwright:v1.61.0-noble -- sh -lc '
    npx -y [email protected] screenshot \
      --browser chromium \
      https://example.com \
      /root/example.png &&
    stat -c "%s bytes" /root/example.png
  '

</CodeGroup>

Copy the artifact out of the stopped sandbox:

msb cp playwright-shot:/root/example.png ./example.png

The smoke test used for this example produced a valid 15,909-byte PNG. Rendering can vary slightly between releases and hosts, so verify the file rather than asserting an exact byte count.

</Step> <Step title="Optional: run a remote server">

<Tooltip tip="Publishing the browser server to a port on the computer running the client is not available on microsandbox cloud."><span className="msb-badge-local">Local-only <Icon icon="circle-info" size={11} /></span></Tooltip>

<CodeGroup> ```sh macOS & Linux msb run -d --name playwright-server --replace \ --cpus 2 --memory 2G --root-disk 4G \ -p 127.0.0.1:3000:3000 \ mcr.microsoft.com/playwright:v1.61.0-noble -- sh -lc ' exec npx -y [email protected] run-server \ --host 0.0.0.0 \ --port 3000 ' ```

powershell

msb run -d --name playwright-server --replace `
  --cpus 2 --memory 2G --root-disk 4G `
  -p 127.0.0.1:3000:3000 `
  mcr.microsoft.com/playwright:v1.61.0-noble -- sh -lc '
    exec npx -y [email protected] run-server \
      --host 0.0.0.0 \
      --port 3000
  '

</CodeGroup>

Verify the forwarding path:

<CodeGroup> ```sh macOS & Linux curl http://127.0.0.1:3000/ ```

powershell

curl.exe http://127.0.0.1:3000/

</CodeGroup>

The server returns Running and logs its WebSocket endpoint:

msb logs playwright-server

Connect a matching Playwright client to ws://127.0.0.1:3000/. Keep the client and server versions aligned.

<Warning> The remote server has no application-level authentication. This example binds the host side to loopback intentionally. Do not publish it on `0.0.0.0` or an internet-facing interface without an authenticated proxy. </Warning> </Step> <Step title="Clean up">

Remove the sandboxes:

msb rm -f playwright-shot playwright-server

Delete the copied screenshot only if you no longer need it:

<CodeGroup> ```sh macOS & Linux rm ./example.png ```

powershell

Remove-Item ./example.png

</CodeGroup> </Step> </Steps>