Playwright · infra · fg-0313

Browsers installed during the Docker build are missing at runtime because the user or PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH changed

Executable doesn't exist at /home/node/.cache/ms-playwright/chromium-1208/chrome-linux/chrome

Verified 2026-10-15 · Confirmed by 0 builders · Trust 50/100

Cause

Browsers go to the current user's cache folder unless PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH is set, and the runtime looks in the same per-user default. A different user, HOME, or a missing env var at runtime points the lookup at an empty folder.

Fix

Set PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH to one shared folder for both the install step and the runtime, and copy that folder into the final stage. Use 0 to keep browsers inside node_modules instead. The variable does not move branded Chrome or Edge installs.

Apply

ENV PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=/ms-playwright
RUN npx playwright install --with-deps chromium && chmod -R o+rx /ms-playwright
# final stage
COPY --from=build /ms-playwright /ms-playwright
ENV PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=/ms-playwright

Affects: All Playwright versions in Docker, CI caches and multi-user hosts

Sources

• https://playwright.dev/docs/browsers
• https://github.com/microsoft/playwright/issues/31316

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