fix(ct): Don't bloat metainfo.json file when # or ? is present in id

[mikstime]

Proposal

Remove the ? or # part from dependencies in the metainfo.json file.

Description

@playwright/experimental-ct-core generates a metainfo.json file used for caching and other optimizations performed by Playwright under the hood.

The current implementation relies on a Vite plugin to generate this file. However, Vite prohibits the usage of # and ? in file names, meaning there is no reason to store them in the metainfo.json file.

Both # and ? are reserved for compatibility with browser URLs.

-- patak-dev

We experienced two major issues with the current behavior:

• Our metainfo.json file exceeded 512MB, which is the hard limit for the JSON.parse() method, resulting in unexpected crashes

• This data was serialized and deserialized each time tests ran, resulting in a 4x slowdown of tests in our project

Example

Metainfo.json file is reduced from 1.4M to 4.0K in provided example

1.4M    current/playwright/.cache/metainfo.json
4.0K    patched/playwright/.cache/metainfo.json

https://github.com/mikstime/playwright

[dgozman]

@mikstime Thank you for the PR! Is there any way you can share a repro, or even better - turn that into a test? That would help us to review and prevent future regressions.

[github-actions]

Test results for "tests 1"

6 failed
❌ [firefox-library] › library/browsercontext-events.spec.ts:103 › dialog event should work in popup @firefox-ubuntu-22.04-node20
❌ [firefox-library] › library/browsercontext-events.spec.ts:135 › dialog event should work in immediately closed popup @firefox-ubuntu-22.04-node20
❌ [firefox-page] › page/page-event-popup.spec.ts:61 › should be able to capture alert @firefox-ubuntu-22.04-node20
❌ [playwright-test] › reporter-html.spec.ts:1078 › merged › should use file-browser friendly extensions for buffer attachments based on contentType @macos-latest-node20
❌ [playwright-test] › ui-mode-test-network-tab.spec.ts:146 › should format JSON request body @windows-latest-node20
❌ [playwright-test] › ui-mode-test-network-tab.spec.ts:301 › should copy network request @windows-latest-node20

4 flaky

⚠️ [chromium-library] › library/inspector/cli-codegen-3.spec.ts:226 › cli codegen › should generate frame locators (4) `@chromium-ubuntu-22.04-node24`
⚠️ [firefox-library] › library/beforeunload.spec.ts:188 › does not get stalled by beforeUnload `@firefox-ubuntu-22.04-node20`
⚠️ [firefox-library] › library/inspector/cli-codegen-1.spec.ts:1082 › cli codegen › should not throw csp directive violation errors `@firefox-ubuntu-22.04-node20`
⚠️ [firefox-page] › page/page-wait-for-function.spec.ts:104 › should work with strict CSP policy `@firefox-ubuntu-22.04-node20`

34255 passed, 662 skipped

---

Merge workflow run.

[github-actions]

Test results for "MCP"

4 failed
❌ [chrome] › mcp/cli-save-as.spec.ts:20 › screenshot @mcp-macos-15
❌ [chrome] › mcp/cli-session.spec.ts:92 › session-delete non-existent session @mcp-macos-15
❌ [chrome] › mcp/launch.spec.ts:21 › test reopen browser @mcp-macos-15
❌ [firefox] › mcp/cli-session.spec.ts:68 › session-delete @mcp-macos-15

3816 passed, 145 skipped

---

Merge workflow run.

[mikstime]

@mikstime Thank you for the PR! Is there any way you can share a repro, or even better - turn that into a test? That would help us to review and prevent future regressions.

Here is an example https://github.com/mikstime/playwright

[dgozman]

@mikstime Thank you for the PR! Is there any way you can share a repro, or even better - turn that into a test? That would help us to review and prevent future regressions.

Here is an example https://github.com/mikstime/playwright

Wonderful! Could you please add a test to tests/playwright-test/playwright.ct-build.spec.ts that follows this example? You can run it with npm run ttest playwright.ct-build.spec:<line>.

[mikstime]

@microsoft-github-policy-service agree

[mikstime]

@mikstime Thank you for the PR! Is there any way you can share a repro, or even better - turn that into a test? That would help us to review and prevent future regressions.

Here is an example https://github.com/mikstime/playwright

Wonderful! Could you please add a test to tests/playwright-test/playwright.ct-build.spec.ts that follows this example? You can run it with npm run ttest playwright.ct-build.spec:<line>.

Sure. Thank you for the instructions.

Running 1 test using 1 worker

  ✓  1 [playwright-test] › tests/playwright-test/playwright.ct-build.spec.ts:740:5 › should remove ? or # from deps in metainfo.json (3.1s)

  1 passed (3.8s)