playwright test.only accidentally committed: how to detect in CI

TL;DR

Run your CI test command with the --forbid-only flag; any committed test.only (or describe.only) fails the run immediately. Add it to the CI script once and it guards every future PR. Pair it with a lint rule so editors catch it before commit.

Problem

A test.only slipped into a merged PR, so CI ran one test, reported green, and the rest of the suite never executed.

Steps

1. Add --forbid-only to the CI test command: npx playwright test --forbid-only. Expected: the command exits non-zero if any focused test exists.
2. Push a branch containing a test.only and watch CI fail fast. Expected: CI fails with a forbid-only error before running any tests.
3. Add the no-focused-test rule from eslint-plugin-playwright to your lint config so it is caught locally too. Expected: the linter flags test.only lines on the next run.
4. Remove the committed .only and merge. Expected: the full suite runs green in CI.

When to use

• Setting up a CI pipeline for a Playwright suite.
• A focused test was committed before and you want it to never happen again.
• You want a fast, zero-maintenance guard rather than code review vigilance.

When not to use

• Debugging why only one test runs on your machine (just delete the .only).
• Choosing which tests to run per PR (use projects, tags, or grep for that).
• You use a different runner where --forbid-only does not exist.

Tool compatibility

• Playwright 1.40 through 1.5x (--forbid-only is a long-standing CLI flag).
• eslint-plugin-playwright 1.x and 2.x for the no-focused-test rule.

Variant phrasings

how to block test.only in playwright CI pipeline

Same answer: --forbid-only on the CI command.

detect focused tests before merge playwright

Same guard; the lint rule adds a pre-commit layer on top.

Why it happens

test.only is meant for local debugging, but nothing stops it from being committed. Without a guard, CI happily runs the single focused test, reports green, and nobody notices the other 500 tests never ran.

Edge cases

• --forbid-only in the shared npm script also affects local runs; keep it in the CI yaml command or gate it behind an env check.
• A test.only inside a skipped file still trips the flag; remove all of them.
• Monorepo with several configs: the flag must be on every playwright test invocation.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_VHlpjJaKP7eyHRvd5MbsmQ