Use one of three supported Playwright patterns to run Headless Chrome with an authenticated session: launch a dedicated persistent profile, save and restore a storageState file, or attach to an already-running Chromium process over CDP. Use a persistent profile for continuity, storageState for repeatable isolated runs, and CDP when the live browser already owns the session. Do not point automation at the Chrome profile you use for normal browsing.
Choose the session-sharing method
Headless mode does not remove cookies or local storage. It changes how the browser is displayed. The important decision is where the authenticated browser state lives and whether your script creates or joins the browser process.
| Method | What happens | Best fit | Main caution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Persistent context | Playwright creates Chromium with a specified user-data directory and keeps its cookies, local storage and other profile data. | Long-lived automation that should stay signed in between runs. | Use a separate automation directory; Chrome profile locking prevents safe concurrent ownership. |
storageState |
An interactive login exports authentication state to JSON. Later contexts import that file. | CI, test projects and reproducible, isolated runs. | The file is a credential. Protect it, rotate it and regenerate it after expiry. |
| CDP attachment | Playwright connects to an existing Chromium instance through its remote debugging endpoint. | A human or another process already has the required tabs and live session. | Anyone who can reach the endpoint can control the logged-in browser. |
Prerequisites and a safe directory layout
- Install a current Playwright package and its Chromium browser.
- Create directories owned by the automation account, such as
browser-data/andplaywright/.auth/. - Keep both directories outside version control. Add the authentication directory and any profile directory to
.gitignore. - Use one profile or state file per account when jobs run for different users.
Authentication can include cookies, local storage, IndexedDB, origin private file-system data and virtual WebAuthn credentials. Which items are needed depends on the site. A login token in IndexedDB, for example, will not be replaced by copying only cookies.
Pattern 1: launch a dedicated persistent profile
launchPersistentContext(userDataDir) starts Chromium with a profile directory that survives process shutdown. Log in once with a visible browser, then run the same directory headlessly.
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Log in once
import { chromium } from 'playwright';
const context = await chromium.launchPersistentContext('./browser-data/account-a', {
headless: false,
});
const page = await context.newPage();
await page.goto('https://your-app.example/login', { waitUntil: 'domcontentloaded' });
console.log('Complete the login and MFA in the opened browser. Press Enter here when finished.');
process.stdin.once('data', async () => {
await context.close();
process.exit(0);
});Wait until redirects finish and the application has written its cookies and origin data. Complete any multi-factor step in this interactive run rather than trying to bypass it.
Reuse the profile headlessly
import { chromium } from 'playwright';
const context = await chromium.launchPersistentContext('./browser-data/account-a', {
headless: true,
viewport: { width: 1440, height: 900 },
});
try {
const page = context.pages()[0] || await context.newPage();
await page.goto('https://your-app.example/dashboard', {
waitUntil: 'domcontentloaded',
timeout: 60_000,
});
await page.waitForLoadState('networkidle');
await page.screenshot({ path: 'dashboard.png', fullPage: true });
} finally {
await context.close();
}Do not use the normal Chrome “User Data” directory. Playwright warns that doing so can leave pages unloaded or cause the browser to exit. Browsers also prevent multiple instances from launching with the same user-data directory, so serialize jobs that use one profile or assign each job its own directory.
Pattern 2: save and restore Playwright storageState
This pattern separates the one-time login from every later run. It is usually easier to reproduce in clean contexts and in CI.
Export state after an interactive login
import { chromium } from 'playwright';
const browser = await chromium.launch({ headless: false });
const context = await browser.newContext();
const page = await context.newPage();
await page.goto('https://your-app.example/login', { waitUntil: 'domcontentloaded' });
console.log('Finish login and MFA, then press Enter.');
process.stdin.once('data', async () => {
await context.storageState({
path: 'playwright/.auth/user.json',
indexedDB: true,
});
await browser.close();
process.exit(0);
});Use the indexedDB option when the application stores authentication data there. Storage-state snapshots can also include origin data and supported virtual WebAuthn credentials; use the options documented by the Playwright version installed in your project.
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import { chromium } from 'playwright';
const browser = await chromium.launch({ headless: true });
const context = await browser.newContext({
storageState: 'playwright/.auth/user.json',
});
try {
const page = await context.newPage();
await page.goto('https://your-app.example/dashboard', {
waitUntil: 'domcontentloaded',
timeout: 60_000,
});
await page.screenshot({ path: 'dashboard.png', fullPage: true });
} finally {
await context.close();
await browser.close();
}Regenerate the file when the session expires. Treat it like a password: cookies and headers inside it can impersonate the account. Restrict filesystem permissions, never commit it, and remove old copies from CI artifacts and logs.
When the site uses sessionStorage
sessionStorage is tied to a page and is not persisted by Playwright’s storage-state API. Serialize it in the logged-in page, then install it before application scripts run.
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// Run while the page is authenticated
const sessionStorageData = await page.evaluate(() => {
const data = {};
for (let i = 0; i < sessionStorage.length; i++) {
const key = sessionStorage.key(i);
data[key] = sessionStorage.getItem(key);
}
return data;
});
// Save sessionStorageData as a protected JSON file.
// In the later run, before navigation:
await context.addInitScript(({ origin, data }) => {
if (location.origin === origin) {
for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(data)) {
sessionStorage.setItem(key, value);
}
}
}, { origin: 'https://your-app.example', data: sessionStorageData });Install the init script before page.goto; otherwise the application may read an empty session and redirect to login.
Pattern 3: attach to an existing Chromium browser with CDP
CDP is useful when the desired profile and tabs already belong to a running Chromium process. Start that process with a protected debugging endpoint and a dedicated user-data directory.
google-chrome
--headless=false
--remote-debugging-address=127.0.0.1
--remote-debugging-port=9222
--user-data-dir="$HOME/browser-data/cdp-account"Complete the login in that browser. Then connect from Playwright:
import { chromium } from 'playwright';
const browser = await chromium.connectOverCDP('http://127.0.0.1:9222');
const contexts = browser.contexts();
if (!contexts.length) throw new Error('No browser context is available');
const context = contexts[0];
const page = context.pages()[0] || await context.newPage();
await page.goto('https://your-app.example/dashboard', {
waitUntil: 'domcontentloaded',
timeout: 60_000,
});
await page.screenshot({ path: 'attached-dashboard.png', fullPage: true });
await browser.close();Closing the Playwright connection may close the browser depending on the connection and process lifecycle, so decide which process owns shutdown before using this in a service. CDP attachment is supported for Chromium-based browsers; it is not a general Firefox or WebKit connection method.
Capture only after authentication is confirmed
A successful navigation does not prove that the session is valid. Check a page-specific selector or URL before collecting data or images.
await page.waitForURL('**/dashboard');
await page.locator('[data-testid="account-menu"]').waitFor({ state: 'visible', timeout: 30_000 });
const loginFormVisible = await page.locator('form[action*="login"]').isVisible().catch(() => false);
if (loginFormVisible) throw new Error('Session expired or authentication was rejected');Prefer a stable application marker over a title string. Also wait for the content that must be captured; domcontentloaded only means the initial document was parsed, while images and client-rendered data may still be loading.
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Or skip the browser setup
If your goal is a clean screenshot rather than controlling a logged-in browser, ScreenshotNeo returns an image or PDF from one request. It can accept custom headers, cookies or an Authorization value for services that expose those credentials, while browser-session reuse remains your responsibility.
For the complete parameter list, see the ScreenshotNeo API documentation.
curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://stripe.com -o shot.webpimport requests
r = requests.get("https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot", params={"access_key": "YOUR_API_KEY", "url": "https://stripe.com"}, timeout=90)
open("shot.webp", "wb").write(r.content)const q = new URLSearchParams({ access_key: 'YOUR_API_KEY', url: 'https://stripe.com' });
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Security checklist for authenticated automation
- Use a dedicated persistent profile or a short-lived state file, never your everyday Chrome profile.
- Keep auth JSON, cookies, bearer headers and passkey-related credentials out of source control, logs, screenshots and build artifacts.
- Set restrictive directory permissions and delete expired or unused state.
- Bind the CDP endpoint to a protected interface such as
127.0.0.1; do not expose port 9222 to the public internet. - Separate profiles or state files for separate accounts and environments.
- Use a secret manager for API keys and credentials rather than embedding them in scripts.
Troubleshooting common failures
The page redirects to login
The state may have expired, the login was saved before redirects completed, or the application stores its token in IndexedDB or sessionStorage. Re-run the interactive login, save state only after the final authenticated page appears, enable IndexedDB capture when needed, and apply the sessionStorage init script before navigation.
Chromium exits or pages never load
Another process may own the same user-data directory, or the script may be using your regular Chrome directory. Stop the competing process and switch to a new automation directory. Do not launch two jobs against one persistent profile simultaneously.
CDP reports a connection error
Confirm that Chromium was started with the debugging port, that the address is reachable from the Playwright process, and that a firewall or container network is not blocking it. Keep the endpoint local and use the exact port exposed by the browser process.
The screenshot is blank or incomplete
Wait for a stable selector, client-rendered content or network idle instead of relying only on the first navigation event. For lazy-loaded pages, scroll or use the site’s own loading trigger before calling screenshot.
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Two accounts appear to share data
They are probably using the same profile directory or state file. Assign a unique directory or JSON file to each account and clear any previously copied artifacts before rerunning.
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MFA succeeds manually but fails in CI
Export the state after completing MFA in an interactive, trusted environment, then deliver the protected state file to CI through its secret mechanism. Do not attempt to automate or weaken the second factor merely to make a headless job pass.
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Startup and reuse
A persistent context avoids repeating login work, while a fresh context loaded from storageState gives stronger isolation between tests. Reuse a browser process for a batch of pages, but create separate contexts when jobs need independent cookies or local storage.
Parallel jobs
Parallelize with separate state files or profile directories. Sharing one profile introduces file locks and cross-test mutations; sharing one state file can also produce account mix-ups if a job refreshes or overwrites it.
Network waits
Set explicit navigation and selector timeouts appropriate to your application. A blanket long timeout hides genuine outages, while an overly short timeout misclassifies slow authentication redirects. Record the final URL and a small diagnostic screenshot when a run fails, but ensure diagnostics cannot expose secrets.
Operational cost
Playwright and Chromium consume compute, memory and storage on the machine that runs them; the documentation does not establish a universal latency or success-rate benchmark. ScreenshotNeo charges only for clean shots and offers 1,000 free shots monthly, with paid plans beginning at $5 for 3,000 shots, which can be simpler when you need rendered images rather than browser control.
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FAQ
Can I move a saved state file between operating systems?
Cookies and origin data are generally portable, but browser versions, encryption facilities, filesystem paths and hardware-backed credentials can affect portability. Validate the state in the same browser family and regenerate it when a site rejects it.
How do I know whether a session is still valid without opening a dashboard?
Call a lightweight authenticated endpoint or load a page that has a deterministic signed-in marker, then treat an unexpected login redirect or unauthorized response as an expired session.
Should a service keep one browser open permanently?
Only when the live session and CDP ownership are operational requirements. Otherwise, short-lived contexts loaded from protected state are easier to isolate, restart and rotate.
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Only if the state was created for those sites and their origins; storage state is origin-scoped, so a file from one service does not authenticate an unrelated domain.
What should I rotate after a suspected credential leak?
Invalidate the account sessions or tokens at the service, delete every affected profile and state copy, issue new credentials, and recreate the automation state from a trusted login.
Quick Recap
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