Implementation:Microsoft Playwright Chromium BrowserType

Knowledge Sources	Microsoft_Playwright
Domains	Browser Automation, Chromium Engine
Last Updated	2026-02-12 00:00 GMT

Overview

Concrete tool for launching and connecting to Chromium-based browsers provided by the Playwright library.

Description

The `Chromium` class extends the abstract `BrowserType` to provide Chromium-specific browser launch and connection logic. It manages Chromium command-line switches, DevTools integration via `CRDevTools`, and supports both CDP (Chrome DevTools Protocol) and BiDi (WebDriver Bidirectional) transports. The class handles Chromium-specific features like `connectOverCDP` for connecting to existing Chrome instances, constructs the appropriate launch arguments including GPU settings, font rendering, and sandbox configuration, and manages artifact folder cleanup. It delegates to `CRBrowser.connect` for establishing the protocol connection and supports a fallback to the BiDi protocol through the `_bidiChromium` reference.

Usage

Use this class to launch or connect to Chromium, Chrome, or Edge browsers. It is the entry point for all Chromium-based browser automation on the server side.

Code Reference

Source Location

• Repository: Microsoft_Playwright
• File: packages/playwright-core/src/server/chromium/chromium.ts

Signature

export class Chromium extends BrowserType {
  private _devtools: CRDevTools | undefined;
  private _bidiChromium: BrowserType;

  constructor(parent: SdkObject, bidiChromium: BrowserType);
  async connectToTransport(transport: ConnectionTransport, options: BrowserOptions): Promise<Browser>;
  async connectOverCDP(metadata: CallMetadata, wsEndpoint: string, options: channels.BrowserTypeConnectOverCDPParams): Promise<Browser>;
}

Import

import { Chromium } from '../server/chromium/chromium';

I/O Contract

Inputs

Name	Type	Required	Description
parent	SdkObject	Yes	Parent SDK object for instrumentation
bidiChromium	BrowserType	Yes	BiDi-based Chromium browser type for WebDriver BiDi fallback
transport	ConnectionTransport	Yes	Transport connection to the browser process
options	BrowserOptions	Yes	Browser launch configuration
wsEndpoint	string	Yes	WebSocket endpoint for CDP connection (connectOverCDP)

Outputs

Name	Type	Description
Browser	CRBrowser	Connected Chromium browser instance

Usage Examples

const chromium = new Chromium(parentSdkObject, bidiChromiumType);

// Launch a new browser
const browser = await chromium.launch({
  headless: true,
  args: ['--disable-gpu'],
});

// Or connect to existing Chrome via CDP
const browser = await chromium.connectOverCDP(metadata, 'ws://localhost:9222/devtools/browser/...');

Related Pages

• Environment:Microsoft_Playwright_Node_Runtime_Environment