1. In the root level of your testing folder, install the @axe-core/watcher package and all of its dependencies using npm or your preferred package manager (for example, Yarn or pnpm).

    npm install --save-dev @axe-core/watcher
  2. In your test file or files, import the playwrightConfig() function, the wrapPlaywright() function, and the PlaywrightController class from @axe-core/watcher:

    import {
      wrapPlaywrightPage,
      playwrightConfig,
      PlaywrightController
    } from '@axe-core/watcher';
  3. In your test setup code (typically in a before or beforeAll block), wrap any existing code for creating a browserContext instance with a call to playwrightConfig while providing your API key:

    import { chromium, BrowserContext } from 'playwright';
    import { playwrightConfig } from '@axe-core/watcher';
    
    const API_KEY = process.env.API_KEY
    
    const browserContext: BrowserContext = await chromium.launchPersistentContext(
      /**
       * We set userDataDir to an empty string which saves
       * browser data to a temporary directory
       * @see https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-browsertype#browser-type-launch-persistent-context
       */
      '',
      playwrightConfig({
        axe: {
          apiKey: API_KEY
        },
        /**
         * We support both headless and headed mode with Chrome.
         * 
         * For headless mode:
         * - Use '--headless=chrome' for browsers v94-108.
         * - Use '--headless=new' for browsers v109+.
         * 
         * For headed mode:
         * - Remove the '--headless' flag.
         * 
         * @see https://playwright.dev/docs/chrome-extensions#headless-mode
         */
        headless: false,
        args: ['--headless=new']
      })
    );
  4. Once you have a page instance, create an instance of the PlaywrightController class and wrap your browserContext:

    // Create a page instance, using your browser context.
    let page = await browserContext.newPage();
    
    // Initialize the PlaywrightController by passing in the Playwright page.
    const controller = new PlaywrightController(page);
    
    // Use the new wrapped Playwright page instance.
    page = wrapPlaywrightPage(page, controller);
  5. Finally, ensure all test results from axe Watcher are flushed out. To do this, add the following block of code to your test teardown code (typically in an afterEach block):

    afterEach(async () => {
      await controller.flush()
    })