Impact Score: 5/10
Playwright v1.40.0 — Release Notes & Engineering Impact
Source available — automated, not human-reviewed
Component: playwright · Channel: stable. Automated analysis, not a compatibility certification. How this works.
Analysis updated: 2026-11-01.
⚡ Executive Summary (TL;DR)
Playwright v1.40.0. Source highlight: Test Generator Update
Who Does This Impact? (Role-Based Analysis)
💻 Software Engineers & Devs
Check the source notes against the package and APIs you use before upgrading.
📊 Product & Engineering Leads
Use the documented changes to assess relevance to your product; release frequency alone is not a quality measure.
⚙️ DevOps & Security
Verify the target version, runtime requirements and rollback procedure in the official documentation.
📄 View Raw Release Notes (Original Developer Log)
## Test Generator Update
New tools to generate assertions:
- "Assert visibility" tool generates [expect(locator).toBeVisible()](https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-locatorassertions#locator-assertions-to-be-visible).
- "Assert value" tool generates [expect(locator).toHaveValue(value)](https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-locatorassertions#locator-assertions-to-have-value).
- "Assert text" tool generates [expect(locator).toContainText(text)](https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-locatorassertions#locator-assertions-to-contain-text).
Here is an example of a generated test with assertions:
```js
import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';
test('test', async ({ page }) => {
await page.goto('https://playwright.dev/');
await page.getByRole('link', { name: 'Get started' }).click();
await expect(page.getByLabel('Breadcrumbs').getByRole('list')).toContainText('Installation');
await expect(page.getByLabel('Search')).toBeVisible();
await page.getByLabel('Search').click();
await page.getByPlaceholder('Search docs').fill('locator');
await expect(page.getByPlaceholder('Search docs')).toHaveValue('locator');
});
```
## New APIs
- Option `reason` in [page.close()](https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-page#page-close), [browserContext.close()](https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-browsercontext#browser-context-close) and [browser.close()](https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-browser#browser-close). Close reason is reported for all operations interrupted by the closure.
- Option `firefoxUserPrefs` in [browserType.launchPersistentContext(userDataDir)](https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-browsertype#browser-type-launch-persistent-context).
## Other Changes
- Methods [download.path()](https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-download#download-path) and [download.createReadStream()](https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-download#download-create-read-stream) throw an error for failed and cancelled downloads.
- Playwright [docker image](https://playwright.dev/docs/docker) now comes with Node.js v20.
## Browser Versions
* Chromium 120.0.6099.28
* Mozilla Firefox 119.0
* WebKit 17.4
This version was also tested against the following stable channels:
* Google Chrome 119
* Microsoft Edge 119