playwright trace viewer shows no trace: how to enable

TL;DR

The trace viewer is empty because tracing was never enabled. Set trace: 'on' (or retain-on-failure) in the config, re-run, and open the resulting trace.zip.

Error

No trace found: npx playwright show-trace found no trace file for this test.

Steps

1. Check playwright.config.ts for the trace option under use. Expected: you find it missing or set to 'off'.
2. Enable it: use: { trace: 'retain-on-failure' }. Expected: traces are captured for failing tests.
3. Re-run the failing test. Expected: a trace.zip appears in test-results.
4. Open it: npx playwright show-trace test-results/.../trace.zip. Expected: the viewer shows actions, network, and DOM snapshots.
5. For always-on tracing during debugging, use trace: 'on', then switch back to retain-on-failure for CI. Expected: full traces while debugging, small artifacts in CI.

When to use

• The viewer opens but shows nothing, or the trace file does not exist.
• You are setting up tracing for the first time.

When not to use

• The trace exists but you cannot interpret it (ask about the specific view).
• You need video instead (separate option).

Tool compatibility

• Playwright 1.30 through latest; trace option in config.

Variant phrasings

playwright show-trace no trace file

The file was never written; enable the option first.

trace.zip not generated on failure

Same cause; check the trace setting, not the reporter.

Why it happens

Tracing is opt-in because traces are large. Without the option, Playwright records nothing and the viewer has nothing to open.

Edge cases

• retain-on-failure only keeps traces for failures; passing tests leave nothing, which is usually what you want.
• Traces include network bodies; check your data-retention policy before uploading them.
• trace: 'on-first-retry' is the sweet spot for flaky tests: traces only the retries.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_31N015-Z72aT82TefJkmaw