microsoft/playwright · error · Error

No trace opened. Run 'npx playwright trace open <file>' firs

Error message

No trace opened. Run 'npx playwright trace open <file>' first.

What it means

Thrown by ensureTraceOpen() when the .playwright-cli/trace directory does not exist. This directory is created by openTrace(); other trace sub-commands (snapshot, etc.) call loadTrace() which calls ensureTraceOpen(), so they require a trace to have been opened first.

Source

Thrown at packages/playwright-core/src/tools/trace/traceUtils.ts:57

    this.loader = loader;
    this.ordinalToCallId = ordinals.ordinalToCallId;
    this.callIdToOrdinal = ordinals.callIdToOrdinal;
  }

  resolveActionId(actionId: string): ActionEntry | undefined {
    const ordinal = parseInt(actionId, 10);
    if (!isNaN(ordinal)) {
      const callId = this.ordinalToCallId.get(ordinal);
      if (callId)
        return this.model.actions.find(a => a.callId === callId);
    }
    return this.model.actions.find(a => a.callId === actionId);
  }
}

function ensureTraceOpen(): string {
  if (!fs.existsSync(traceDir))
    throw new Error(`No trace opened. Run 'npx playwright trace open <file>' first.`);
  return traceDir;
}

export async function closeTrace() {
  if (fs.existsSync(traceDir))
    await fs.promises.rm(traceDir, { recursive: true });
}

export async function openTrace(traceFile: string) {
  const filePath = path.resolve(traceFile);
  if (!fs.existsSync(filePath))
    throw new Error(`Trace file not found: ${filePath}`);
  await closeTrace();
  await fs.promises.mkdir(traceDir, { recursive: true });
  if (filePath.endsWith('.zip'))
    await extractTrace(filePath, traceDir);
  else
    await fs.promises.writeFile(path.join(traceDir, '.link'), filePath, 'utf-8');

View on GitHub (pinned to c8fc3bf8d3)

Solutions

1. Run `npx playwright trace open <file>` first, then the sub-command.
2. Confirm you are running the commands from the same working directory where the trace was opened (the state lives in .playwright-cli/trace).
3. If the directory was removed, re-open the trace file to recreate it.

Example fix

// before
npx playwright trace snapshot 5
// after
npx playwright trace open trace.zip
npx playwright trace snapshot 5

import fs from 'fs';
const traceOpen = fs.existsSync('.playwright-cli/trace');
if (!traceOpen) {
  throw new Error("No trace opened. Run 'npx playwright trace open <file>' first.");
}

function isTraceOpen(): boolean {
  return fs.existsSync('.playwright-cli/trace');
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running a trace sub-command (e.g. `npx playwright trace snapshot 5`) before running `npx playwright trace open <file>`; or after the trace directory was deleted/cleaned.

Common situations: Fresh checkout or clean working directory; running snapshot directly after install; CI step that cleared .playwright-cli between stages.

Related errors

• Unknown command: ${args._[0]}
• Trace file not found: ${filePath}
• Cannot find .trace file
• Invalid viewport size format: use "width,height", for exampl
• Invalid geolocation format, should be "lat,long". For exampl

AI-assisted analysis of microsoft/playwright@c8fc3bf8d3 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2224873a8da1bfd8. Report an issue: GitHub.