Blog # 21: 🏷️ How I Simulate Tagging in Playwright – A Beginner's Journey

 Hi friends! 👋

As part of my ongoing Playwright blog series (I’ve already written 20 posts so far!), I’m learning new ways to organize and streamline my tests. Today, I wanted to share something that’s been helping me a lot recently: tagging tests.

Playwright doesn’t have built-in tag support like some other frameworks, but I found a simple workaround that works well for me. If you’re new to Playwright or just starting to organize your test suite, this might help you too!

🧠 Why Tags Matter in Testing

Tags = Organizational Superpower

They help categorize tests for:

✅ Targeted test execution (@smoke, @regression)

🌐 Environment-specific runs (@staging, @prod)

🧪 Browser-specific validation (@firefox, @mobile)

Common Tagging Strategy

💡 My Playwright Tagging Workflow

Step 1: Add Tags to Test Titles

//Simple [@tag] syntax in the names
test.describe('Tagging Example', () => {
    test('Test with @smoke tag', async ({ page }) => {
        // This test is tagged as @smoke
        console.log('Running smoke test');
    });
    test('Test with @regression tag', async ({ page }) => {
        // This test is tagged as @regression
        console.log('Running regression test');
    });
    test('Test with @smoke and @regression tags', async ({ page }) => {
        // This test is tagged as both @smoke and @regression
        console.log('Running smoke and regression test');
    });
});

Step 2: Run Tag-Specific Tests

# Run smoke tests only
npx playwright test --grep @smoke
# Skip regression tests
npx playwright test --grep-invert @regression

Step 3: Combine Tags for Precision

# Run mobile smoke tests

npx playwright test --grep "@smoke && @regression"

This approach helps you be more intentional with test execution, especially in CI pipelines or multi-environment testing.

📝 Wrapping Up

Tagging might seem like a small detail, but it can make a big difference when working with large or growing test suites. It’s helped me stay organized, save time, and run only what truly matters — and I hope it helps you too!

Let me know in the comments:
👉 How do YOU organize your test suites?
Do you use tags, folders, metadata, or something else entirely?

Thanks for reading! 🙌
Stay tuned for more Playwright tips and tricks in my blog series. 💻🧪