I Built a VS Code Extension That Turns Playwright Into an Interactive REPL

Writing Playwright tests follows the same loop: write code, run it, wait for the browser, see it fail, tweak a locator, run again. Each cycle takes seconds. I wanted something more interactive — type a command, see the result immediately. So I built a VS Code extension that adds an interactive REPL, visual element picker, assertion builder, and recorder on top of Playwright's Test Explorer. Everything shares one persistent browser — no restarts between runs. The workflow: Record → Pick → Assert → Run The extension adds three panels to VS Code's bottom bar: REPL, Locator, and Assert. Launch Browser Click "Launch Browser" in the Testing sidebar. Chrome opens and stays open between test runs — zero startup overhead on each run. REPL Panel Type keyword commands directly: pw> goto https://demo.playwright.dev/todomvc/ pw> fill "What needs to be done?" Buy groceries pw> press Enter pw> snapshot pw> verify text 1 item left Instead of writing page.locator('[placeholder="What need