fix: install-browser now actually installs browsers

[leonletto]

What's broken

playwright-cli install-browser webkit tells you to run playwright-cli install-browser webkit. That's the whole bug — the install command points at itself.

The bundled program.js has no case for install-browser in its switch statement. It falls through to the default path, which tries to connect to a running browser session and forward the command to the daemon. The daemon checks for the browser, doesn't find the right version, and tells you to run the command you just ran.

The fix

Intercept install-browser in playwright-cli.js before it ever reaches the bundled Playwright code. Use playwright-core's registry directly to find and install the exact browser version matching the CLI's bundled Playwright.

Both syntaxes work:

playwright-cli install-browser webkit
playwright-cli install-browser --browser=webkit

Error messages are useful:

$ playwright-cli install-browser
Browser name is required. Usage: playwright-cli install-browser <browser>
Possible values: chromium, firefox, webkit, chrome, msedge

$ playwright-cli install-browser bogus
Unknown browser: "bogus". Possible values: chromium, firefox, webkit, chrome, msedge

Why fix it here and not in the Playwright monorepo

The real source lives in the Playwright monorepo. The proper long-term fix is adding an install-browser case to the switch in program.js there. That's a reasonable follow-up.

But this fix is self-contained, lives entirely in the one file this repo controls (playwright-cli.js), and solves the problem now. No waiting on upstream. If you'd rather I submit the fix to the Playwright monorepo instead, happy to do that.

Tests

Four new tests covering the happy path (positional arg, --browser flag) and error cases (unknown browser, missing name). All pass alongside the existing test.

Test plan

• playwright-cli install-browser webkit — installs successfully
• playwright-cli install-browser --browser=webkit — installs successfully
• playwright-cli install-browser bogus — clear error, exit 1
• playwright-cli install-browser (no arg) — clear error, exit 1
• playwright-cli --help — still works
• playwright-cli open / other commands — unaffected
• npm test — all 5 tests pass

[leonletto]

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