supabase/e2e/docs

Docs E2E tests

This guide explains how to run Playwright end-to-end checks against docs pages this repo owns.

Use this suite when you change guides, troubleshooting entries, or shared partials under apps/docs/content. It loads each in-scope page, checks that the article renders, and verifies that docs-owned links in the article resolve.

This page covers:

• Set up — install the browser once
• Run the tests — the usual local command
• Choose a target URL — production, preview, or local docs
• Override which pages run — when the default git scope is wrong
• What the suite covers — in-scope paths and limits
• Accessibility scans — WCAG coverage and skipped rules
• Debug failures — reports and traces
• How CI uses this suite — pull request behavior

Set up

1. From this directory, install the Playwright Chromium browser once:

   cd e2e/docs
   pnpm exec playwright install chromium
   

Run the tests

By default, pnpm e2e:docs tests pages affected by your current changes: commits since origin/master, plus staged and unstaged working-tree files. If nothing in scope changed, the command exits successfully without starting Playwright.

1. From the repository root, point the suite at a deployed docs site and run it:

   PLAYWRIGHT_BASE_URL=https://supabase.com pnpm e2e:docs
   

2. Optional: open Playwright UI mode for the same scoped run:

   PLAYWRIGHT_BASE_URL=https://supabase.com pnpm e2e:docs:ui
   

You can also run from e2e/docs with pnpm run e2e:docs.

Choose a target URL

Tests use PLAYWRIGHT_BASE_URL. When unset, they default to the local docs dev server at http://localhost:3001.

Prefer a deployed site for day-to-day checks. Use the local server only when you need unpublished content that production does not serve yet.

Deployed site

PLAYWRIGHT_BASE_URL=https://supabase.com pnpm e2e:docs

For a protected Vercel preview, also set VERCEL_AUTOMATION_BYPASS_SECRET.

Local docs server

1. From the repository root, start docs in a separate terminal:

   pnpm dev:docs
   

2. Run the suite without PLAYWRIGHT_BASE_URL, or set it to http://localhost:3001.

The local server needs a full monorepo install and credentials for some content.

Local runs are unreliable for pages whose docs-owned links point into /docs/reference/* or /docs/guides/auth/server-side/*: reference pages can take over a minute to compile on first request in dev mode, which exceeds the suite's per-test timeout, and server-side auth guides have a known local-only routing issue that 404s even though the page serves correctly in production. Prefer a deployed site for pages that link into either of those sections.

Override which pages run

Leave DOCS_E2E_PAGE_PATHS unset to keep the default changed-files scope.

To test specific pages instead of the git diff:

DOCS_E2E_PAGE_PATHS=/docs/guides/getting-started/quickstarts/nextjs \
  PLAYWRIGHT_BASE_URL=https://supabase.com pnpm e2e:docs

To compare against a different base ref:

DOCS_E2E_BASE_REF=origin/develop \
  PLAYWRIGHT_BASE_URL=https://supabase.com pnpm e2e:docs

DOCS_E2E_PAGE_PATHS accepts a comma- or newline-separated list of /docs/... paths.

Run every in-scope page

To test every guide and troubleshooting entry instead of a changed-files scope — for example, a periodic full-site check — run:

PLAYWRIGHT_BASE_URL=https://supabase.com pnpm e2e:docs:all

This ignores DOCS_E2E_PAGE_PATHS and the 20-page cap described in Limits, and tests every page listed by pnpm -C e2e/docs resolve-docs-scope across the whole guides and troubleshooting trees — several hundred pages as of this writing. --all runs also default to --max-failures=0, so a full run isn't cut short by playwright.config.ts's global maxFailures: 3. Expect a long run: the suite runs one worker by default, so pass --workers to parallelize it, for example:

PLAYWRIGHT_BASE_URL=https://supabase.com pnpm e2e:docs:all -- --workers=4

Run this against a deployed site, not the local dev server — see Local docs server for why local runs are unreliable for pages linking into reference docs or server-side auth guides.

What the suite covers

In scope

Changed path	Behavior
apps/docs/content/guides/**/*.mdx	Test /docs/guides/<slug>, excluding federated sections
apps/docs/content/troubleshooting/**/*.mdx	Test /docs/guides/troubleshooting/<slug>
apps/docs/content/_partials/**	Test owned pages that include that partial

Out of scope

• Federated guide sections: graphql, database/extensions/wrappers, ai/python, deployment/terraform, deployment/ci
• Reference docs under /docs/reference
• Non-docs routes such as /dashboard and /ui, which the link checker skips

Limits

Resolved scope is capped at 20 pages so a widely shared partial cannot explode runtime. If a change resolves to more pages than that, only the first 20 in sorted order are tested and the rest are silently dropped from that run. To test beyond the cap, use pnpm e2e:docs:all instead of raising it. See Run every in-scope page.

To inspect the resolved list without running Playwright, replicate the same scope pnpm e2e:docs uses by default: commits since origin/master, plus staged and unstaged working-tree changes.

{
  git diff --name-only --diff-filter=ACMR origin/master...HEAD
  git diff --name-only --diff-filter=ACMR
  git diff --name-only --diff-filter=ACMR --cached
} | pnpm -C e2e/docs resolve-docs-scope

Accessibility scans

The @a11y-tagged test scans each in-scope page for WCAG 2.1 A/AA violations using @axe-core/playwright, limited to the main article.

PLAYWRIGHT_BASE_URL=https://supabase.com pnpm e2e:docs:a11y

Which pages get scanned comes from your branch, but the content comes from whatever you point PLAYWRIGHT_BASE_URL at. Production won't have your edits and will 404 on a page you just added, so use your pull request's preview to scan your own content.

EXCLUDED_RULES in utils/axe-helpers.ts lists the rules the scan skips. color-contrast is most of the scan time and finds nothing inside an article, since docs contrast comes from shared tokens and chrome. The rest target <html>, <head>, and <body>, which an article-scoped scan can't reach.

Cross-origin frames are skipped, so a third-party embed isn't reported as ours.

Not covered: /docs/reference/*, shared chrome, and most of WCAG. Keyboard navigation, focus management, and screen reader behavior need manual testing.

Debug failures

1. Open the HTML report after a run:

   pnpm -C e2e/docs exec playwright show-report
   

2. Inspect traces and screenshots under test-results/ for failed runs.

How CI uses this suite

The workflow at .github/workflows/docs-e2e.yml runs on pull requests that touch owned docs content, partials, or e2e/docs.

1. Diff the pull request against its base branch and resolve in-scope page paths.
2. Skip Playwright when nothing in scope changed.
3. When apps/docs changed, wait for the Vercel docs preview and set PLAYWRIGHT_BASE_URL to that preview. When no preview resolves, skip rather than test against production.
4. Run the suite with DOCS_E2E_PAGE_PATHS set to the resolved list.

Draft pull requests stay skipped until you mark them ready for review. Manual workflow_dispatch runs require a page_paths input and accept an optional base_url, which defaults to production.