microsoft/playwright · error · Error

Skill source directory not found: ${sourceDir}

Error message

Skill source directory not found: ${sourceDir}

What it means

Thrown by installSkills() when the skill source directory computed by libPath('tools','skills',<name>) does not exist. libPath resolves inside the installed playwright-core package, so the error means the requested skill's assets were not shipped/present in the package layout. allSkills enumerates the supported names ('playwright-cli','playwright-component-testing','playwright-trace').

Source

Thrown at packages/playwright-core/src/tools/utils/installSkills.ts:36

import fs from 'fs';
import os from 'os';
import path from 'path';

import { libPath } from '../../package';

export const allSkills = ['playwright-cli', 'playwright-component-testing', 'playwright-trace'] as const;

export type SkillName = typeof allSkills[number];
export type SkillTarget = 'claude' | 'agents';

export async function installSkills(skills: readonly SkillName[], target: SkillTarget = 'claude', options?: { global?: boolean }) {
  const cwd = process.cwd();
  const baseDir = options?.global ? os.homedir() : cwd;
  for (const skill of skills) {
    const sourceDir = libPath('tools', 'skills', skill);
    if (!fs.existsSync(sourceDir))
      throw new Error(`Skill source directory not found: ${sourceDir}`);
    const destDir = path.join(baseDir, `.${target}`, 'skills', skill);
    await fs.promises.cp(sourceDir, destDir, { recursive: true });
    console.log(`✅ Skill installed to \`${options?.global ? destDir : path.relative(cwd, destDir)}\`.`);
  }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to c8fc3bf8d3)

Solutions

1. Use one of the supported skill names: playwright-cli, playwright-component-testing, or playwright-trace.
2. Reinstall the Playwright package cleanly (rm -rf node_modules and npm install) to restore missing bundled assets.
3. If running from a git checkout, run the build/watch so that skill assets are placed under tools/skills/.
4. Upgrade Playwright to a version that ships the skill you requested.

Example fix

// before
npx playwright install-skills playwright-snapshot
// after
npx playwright install-skills playwright-trace

import fs from 'fs';
import { allSkills } from '../tools/utils/installSkills';
function assertSkillAvailable(name: string) {
  if (!(allSkills as readonly string[]).includes(name))
    throw new Error(`Unknown skill: ${name}. Valid: ${allSkills.join(', ')}`);
  if (!fs.existsSync(libPath('tools', 'skills', name)))
    throw new Error(`Skill not shipped in this install: ${name}`);
}

function isSkillName(name: string): name is typeof allSkills[number] {
  return (allSkills as readonly string[]).includes(name);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `npx playwright install-skills <name>` with a name not in allSkills, or against an installation where the tools/skills/<name> directory is missing (corrupted/partial install, dev build without bundling, wrong package).

Common situations: Using a dev/git checkout where skill assets are not generated/copied; partial npm install; typo in skill name; version that does not yet ship the requested skill.

Related errors

• --output-dir cannot point to a system directory: ${path.reso
• Init script file does not exist: ${script}
• Init page file does not exist: ${page}
• Trace file not found: ${filePath}
• Attachment name '${fileName}' escapes output directory

AI-assisted analysis of microsoft/playwright@c8fc3bf8d3 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8a7c90e7aebc173f. Report an issue: GitHub.