Fix
>-
$ npx promptcreek add fixAuto-detects your installed agents and installs the skill to each one.
What This Skill Does
This skill diagnoses and fixes failing or flaky Playwright tests using a systematic approach. It helps developers categorize the failure, reproduce the issue, and apply targeted fixes based on a defined taxonomy of common test failure causes.
When to Use
- Diagnose a test that fails intermittently in CI.
- Reproduce a failing test locally to investigate the cause.
- Categorize a test failure as timing, isolation, environment, or infrastructure related.
- Apply targeted fixes for timing/async issues.
- Address test isolation problems by removing shared state.
- Account for environment differences between local and CI.
Key Features
Installation
$ npx promptcreek add fixAuto-detects your installed agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, etc.) and installs the skill to each one.
View Full Skill Content
Fix Failing or Flaky Tests
Diagnose and fix a Playwright test that fails or passes intermittently using a systematic taxonomy.
Input
$ARGUMENTS contains:
- A test file path:
e2e/login.spec.ts - A test name: ""should redirect after login"
- A description: "the checkout test fails in CI but passes locally"
Steps
1. Reproduce the Failure
Run the test to capture the error:
npx playwright test <file> --reporter=listIf the test passes, it's likely flaky. Run burn-in:
npx playwright test <file> --repeat-each=10 --reporter=listIf it still passes, try with parallel workers:
npx playwright test --fully-parallel --workers=4 --repeat-each=52. Capture Trace
Run with full tracing:
npx playwright test <file> --trace=on --retries=0Read the trace output. Use /debug to analyze trace files if available.
3. Categorize the Failure
Load flaky-taxonomy.md from this skill directory.
Every failing test falls into one of four categories:
| Category | Symptom | Diagnosis |
|---|---|---|
| Timing/Async | Fails intermittently everywhere | --repeat-each=20 reproduces locally |
| Test Isolation | Fails in suite, passes alone | --workers=1 --grep "test name" passes |
| Environment | Fails in CI, passes locally | Compare CI vs local screenshots/traces |
| Infrastructure | Random, no pattern | Error references browser internals |
4. Apply Targeted Fix
Timing/Async:
- Replace waitForTimeout()
with web-first assertions - Add await
to missing Playwright calls - Wait for specific network responses before asserting
- Use toBeVisible()
before interacting with elements
Test Isolation:
- Remove shared mutable state between tests
- Create test data per-test via API or fixtures
- Use unique identifiers (timestamps, random strings) for test data
- Check for database state leaks
Environment:
- Match viewport sizes between local and CI
- Account for font rendering differences in screenshots
- Use docker
locally to match CI environment - Check for timezone-dependent assertions
Infrastructure:
- Increase timeout for slow CI runners
- Add retries in CI config (retries: 2
) - Check for browser OOM (reduce parallel workers)
- Ensure browser dependencies are installed
5. Verify the Fix
Run the test 10 times to confirm stability:
npx playwright test <file> --repeat-each=10 --reporter=listAll 10 must pass. If any fail, go back to step 3.
6. Prevent Recurrence
Suggest:
- Add to CI with retries: 2
if not already - Enable trace: 'on-first-retry'` in config
- Add the fix pattern to project's test conventions doc
Output
- Root cause category and specific issue
- The fix applied (with diff)
- Verification result (10/10 passes)
- Prevention recommendation
Supported Agents
Attribution
Details
- License
- MIT
- Source
- seeded
- Published
- 3/17/2026
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