How to fix "playwright: command not found"?

playwright: command not found (or 'playwright' is not recognized as an internal or external command on Windows, zsh: command not found: playwright on macOS) means your shell can't find a playwright executable on its PATH. Playwright is installed as a project dependency, not as a system command. For Node.js, the playwright binary lives in node_modules/.bin/, which is only on PATH when you run it through npx, a package script, or pnpm exec. For Python, pip install playwright puts the script in a user bin directory (such as ~/.local/bin) that is often not on PATH.

Common mistake

# Node: package is installed, but node_modules/.bin is not on PATH
npm install -D @playwright/test
playwright install
# zsh: command not found: playwright

# Python: pip installed the package, but the script dir is not on PATH
pip install playwright
playwright install
# bash: playwright: command not found

Also common: the package was never installed in this directory, or you installed it in a different Node version (nvm) than the one active in the current shell.

The fix

Node.js: run the CLI through your package runner instead of calling playwright directly.

# npm
npx playwright install
npx playwright test

# pnpm
pnpm exec playwright install

# yarn
yarn playwright install

If the command is part of a workflow, put it in package.json scripts. Scripts get node_modules/.bin on PATH automatically:

{
  "scripts": {
    "pw:install": "playwright install --with-deps",
    "test:e2e": "playwright test"
  }
}

npm run pw:install

If you see command not found even with npx, the package is missing. Install it first:

npm install -D @playwright/test
npx playwright install

Python: call it as a module, which bypasses PATH entirely:

pip install playwright
python -m playwright install
python -m playwright install --with-deps chromium

If you prefer the bare playwright command, add the script directory to PATH:

# Linux / macOS (add to ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc)
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

On macOS with a framework Python the directory may be ~/Library/Python/3.x/bin. Run python -m site --user-base and append /bin to see where pip puts scripts. On Windows, use py -m playwright install or add the Scripts folder of your Python install to PATH.

Global install (not recommended): if you really want a system-wide command, install it globally and make sure npm's global bin directory is on PATH:

npm install -g playwright
npm config get prefix   # global bin is <prefix>/bin
export PATH="$(npm config get prefix)/bin:$PATH"

Docker and CI: use npx (or python -m playwright) in the RUN step and install dependencies before it:

FROM node:20-bookworm-slim
WORKDIR /app
COPY package.json package-lock.json ./
RUN npm ci
RUN npx playwright install --with-deps chromium

Why it works

A shell resolves a command by walking the directories in PATH. npm install doesn't modify your PATH; it drops symlinks into node_modules/.bin, and only npx, pnpm exec, yarn, and npm run add that directory for the duration of the call. Likewise pip writes console scripts into a per-user or per-environment bin directory that your shell only sees if it's listed in PATH or the virtualenv is activated. python -m playwright skips the lookup because Python finds the module through its own import path rather than through the shell.

Tips

After the command works, you may still hit Executable doesn't exist. That means the CLI runs but the browser binaries haven't been downloaded. playwright install fixes it.
With a Python virtualenv, activate it (source .venv/bin/activate) before running playwright. A fresh terminal or a CI step that doesn't activate the venv won't see the script.
With nvm, a new shell may switch to a different Node version, and global packages installed under another version disappear. Prefer project-local installs plus npx.
In monorepos, run npx playwright from the package that depends on @playwright/test, or use pnpm --filter <package> exec playwright install.
Pin the @playwright/test version in package.json so npx never downloads a different version on the fly.
On Linux CI images, add --with-deps so the OS libraries Chromium needs are installed too. See CI missing OS deps and fonts if the browser installs but crashes on launch.

Scraping with Playwright?

If you're setting up Playwright for a scraper, see Web Scraping with Playwright for waiting, memory, blocking and deployment fixes in one place. If you only need the page content and not a browser session, one API request returns it as Markdown or HTML without installing or running Chromium yourself.