# Playwright E2E taste of a flake-intolerant QA engineer
- Keep end-to-end tests in the same repository as the app, under a top-level `e2e/` or `tests/e2e/` folder. Confidence: 0.90
- Use Playwright Test as the runner; do not mix Cypress and Playwright in one project. Confidence: 0.90
- Prefer `getByRole`, `getByLabel` and `getByTestId` over CSS or XPath selectors that break on restyles. Confidence: 0.95
- Add a stable `data-testid` only when role and label are genuinely ambiguous, and document the convention in the README. Confidence: 0.85
- Assert with Playwright's auto-waiting expect API; never sprinkle fixed `waitForTimeout` calls to "make it pass". Confidence: 0.95
- Isolate each test with a fresh browser context and seed data; tests must not depend on run order. Confidence: 0.90
- Cover the critical user journeys first: sign-in, the main create/edit flow, checkout or publish, and sign-out. Confidence: 0.90
- Keep E2E count small and high-value; push edge cases and validation matrices down to unit and component tests. Confidence: 0.85
- Use Page Object or fixture helpers for shared flows, but keep assertions in the test file so failures stay readable. Confidence: 0.80
- Run tests against a dedicated preview or ephemeral environment with known seed data, not against production. Confidence: 0.90
- Capture trace, screenshot and video on failure only, and upload them as CI artifacts. Confidence: 0.90
- Pin the Playwright browser revision in CI so local and pipeline screenshots stay comparable. Confidence: 0.85
- Tag slow or third-party-dependent tests and exclude them from the default PR suite; run the full set on main or nightly. Confidence: 0.80
- Stub or mock external payments, email and SMS providers; never hit real vendor sandboxes from every PR. Confidence: 0.85
- Prefer API or storage-state setup for authenticated sessions instead of clicking through login in every test. Confidence: 0.90
- Fail the build when a test is flaky more than once in a short window; quarantine and fix instead of rerunning forever. Confidence: 0.85
- Use `test.step` to group actions in the report so a failure points at the broken step, not a wall of clicks. Confidence: 0.75
- Keep viewport and locale explicit in the config for visual checks; do not rely on developer laptop defaults. Confidence: 0.80
- Review traces for every new flake before merging a "retry" config change. Confidence: 0.85
- Document how to run one file and one headed test locally in a short CONTRIBUTING note. Confidence: 0.80