Re-run failed Playwright tests

Re-run takes a finished test run and executes only the test cases that failed or were flaky in it. Start one from the test run page, a terminal, or an AI agent.

Re-run requires the @testdino/playwright npm package at 2.7.0 or later, and Playwright 1.56 or later. Check yours with npm ls @testdino/playwright. An earlier version exits with error: unknown option '--rerun'.

Quick Reference

Topic	Link	Best for
Dashboard button	Start a re-run from the dashboard	A test run you are already reading
Scope the selection	Choose which test cases run	Narrowing to your own failures
Same or new code	Choose which code runs	Telling a flaky test from a real failure
Repository setup	Enable the dashboard button	Turning on one-click re-runs
Terminal	Re-run from the command line	CI without GitHub, or scripting
Agents	Re-run from an AI agent	Agent-driven fix loops

Start a re-run from the dashboard

Re-run sits in the action row right of the tab strip on a test run’s page, next to Debug with AI. It appears once the test run has finished and carries at least 1 failed or flaky test case. A test run reporting passed still shows it when the run carries flaky test cases. Re-run panel open on a test run page showing the Failed scope, the selected count, the Run against choice, the workflow, and the Re-run button

Re-run panel open on a test run page showing the Failed scope, the selected count, the Run against choice, the workflow, and the Re-run button

The panel shows the count that will run as 7 of 9 selected, the code choice, and the workflow that will run it. The button states what happens:

Button reads	Meaning
`Re-run 6 failed tests`	The scope’s test cases, on the original commit
`Re-run 11 tests on latest`	The scope’s test cases, on the branch tip
`Re-run 3 selected tests`	A hand-picked subset
`Select tests to re-run`	Nothing is ticked, so the button is disabled

The new test run appears in the run list once CI picks it up, linked to the run it came from.

Choose which test cases run

Choice	Selects
Failed	Test cases that failed, including timeouts. The default.
Flaky	Test cases that passed only after a retry.
Both	Failed and flaky together.
Custom	Test cases you tick by hand.

Custom appears when there is more than 1 test case to choose between. On large test runs it adds a search box and a group-by choice for spec file, failure reason, or browser. Re-run panel in Custom scope showing hand-ticked test cases, the search box, and the group-by choice

Re-run panel in Custom scope showing hand-ticked test cases, the search box, and the group-by choice

Choose which code runs

Run against offers 2 options, and they answer different questions:

Option	What runs	What the result tells you
This commit	The commit the original test run used	Still failing is a real failure. Passing now means the test case is flaky.
Latest on `<branch>`	The current branch tip	Whether a fix that landed since works.

This commit is unavailable, with the reason shown, when the original test run recorded no commit or recorded uncommitted changes alongside it. Latest is unavailable when the branch is gone; the re-run then dispatches on the default branch, still pinned to the original commit.

Enable the dashboard button

Connect GitHub to the project in Project settings, under Integrations, and grant the TestDino GitHub App permission to start workflows. Then declare the re-run inputs on a workflow. Either shape works, because TestDino offers any active workflow that declares testdino_rerun_from:

Choice	Pick it when
Existing workflow	You want one workflow definition to maintain. It keeps its normal triggers and gains a re-run path.
Separate workflow	You want re-runs isolated: their own logs, their own concurrency, no change to the workflow CI already runs.

Existing workflow
Separate workflow

Add workflow_dispatch and the inputs to the workflow you already run Playwright with. The if [ -n "$TD_RERUN_FROM" ] guard is what keeps a normal push unchanged: on a push the input is empty, so no re-run arguments are added.

.github/workflows/playwright.yml

on:
  push:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      testdino_rerun_from:
        required: true
      testdino_rerun_scope:
        default: failed
      testdino_rerun_test_ids:
        required: false
      testdino_rerun_exclude_ids:
        required: false
      testdino_rerun_sha:
        required: false

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          ref: ${{ inputs.testdino_rerun_sha || github.sha }}
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 22
      - run: npm ci
      - name: Run tests
        env:
          TESTDINO_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.TESTDINO_TOKEN }}
          TD_RERUN_FROM: ${{ inputs.testdino_rerun_from }}
          TD_RERUN_SCOPE: ${{ inputs.testdino_rerun_scope }}
          TD_RERUN_TEST_IDS: ${{ inputs.testdino_rerun_test_ids }}
          TD_RERUN_EXCLUDE_IDS: ${{ inputs.testdino_rerun_exclude_ids }}
        shell: bash
        run: |
          args=()
          if [ -n "$TD_RERUN_FROM" ]; then
            args+=(--rerun "${TD_RERUN_SCOPE:-failed}" --from-run "$TD_RERUN_FROM")
            if [ -n "$TD_RERUN_TEST_IDS" ]; then
              args+=(--test-ids "$TD_RERUN_TEST_IDS")
            fi
            if [ -n "$TD_RERUN_EXCLUDE_IDS" ]; then
              args+=(--exclude-ids "$TD_RERUN_EXCLUDE_IDS")
            fi
          fi
          npx tdpw test "${args[@]}"

A workflow that only ever runs a re-run needs no guard: workflow_dispatch is its only trigger and testdino_rerun_from is required, so the input is always present.

.github/workflows/rerun.yml

name: Re-run failed tests

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      testdino_rerun_from:
        required: true
      testdino_rerun_scope:
        default: failed
      testdino_rerun_test_ids:
        required: false
      testdino_rerun_exclude_ids:
        required: false
      testdino_rerun_sha:
        required: false

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          ref: ${{ inputs.testdino_rerun_sha || github.sha }}
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 22
      - run: npm ci
      - name: Run the selected tests
        env:
          TESTDINO_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.TESTDINO_TOKEN }}
          TD_RERUN_FROM: ${{ inputs.testdino_rerun_from }}
          TD_RERUN_SCOPE: ${{ inputs.testdino_rerun_scope }}
          TD_RERUN_TEST_IDS: ${{ inputs.testdino_rerun_test_ids }}
          TD_RERUN_EXCLUDE_IDS: ${{ inputs.testdino_rerun_exclude_ids }}
        shell: bash
        run: |
          args=(--rerun "${TD_RERUN_SCOPE:-failed}" --from-run "$TD_RERUN_FROM")
          if [ -n "$TD_RERUN_TEST_IDS" ]; then
            args+=(--test-ids "$TD_RERUN_TEST_IDS")
          fi
          if [ -n "$TD_RERUN_EXCLUDE_IDS" ]; then
            args+=(--exclude-ids "$TD_RERUN_EXCLUDE_IDS")
          fi
          npx tdpw test "${args[@]}"

TestDino reads the workflow files on the branch and offers only the ones that declare these inputs:

Input	Required?	Without it
`testdino_rerun_from`	Yes	The workflow is not offered for re-runs.
`testdino_rerun_scope`	Recommended	Only Failed can be sent.
`testdino_rerun_test_ids` and `testdino_rerun_exclude_ids`	For Custom	The workflow cannot receive a hand-picked list, and the panel says so.
`testdino_rerun_sha`	For This commit	Only Latest can be sent.

A workflow that declares testdino_rerun_sha without passing it to checkout reports a same-commit re-run while running current code. The ref: line above is what makes the pin real.

The workflow file itself always comes from the branch tip, so a same-commit re-run runs the original test code under your current pipeline definition.

Re-run from the command line

Without a GitHub connection the panel gives you this command under Run manually, with the id lists filled in:

npx tdpw test --rerun failed --from-run test_run_a66fa0ee4f7a28ef5986e907

Before running anything, the CLI checks the selection against the code you have checked out. Test cases renamed, moved, or deleted since the original test run are reported and skipped. If none of them match, the CLI stops with an error rather than reporting a green test run that executed nothing.

CLI flags

Flag	Description
`--rerun <scope>`	`failed`, `flaky`, or `failed-and-flaky`.
`--from-run <runId>`	The test run to re-run from. Required with `--rerun`.
`--test-ids <ids>`	Comma-separated test case ids to run, overriding the scope.
`--exclude-ids <ids>`	Comma-separated test case ids to drop from the scope.

--rerun is refused alongside a Playwright argument that would fight the selection: --grep, --grep-invert, --last-failed, --test-list, and --shard. Full flag reference in @testdino/playwright.

Re-run from an AI agent

Tool	Does
`get_rerun_selection`	Resolves which test cases would run, plus the command. Nothing starts.
`rerun_test`	Starts the GitHub Actions workflow for that selection.

rerun_test runs only after you have seen the selection and said yes, so an agent cannot spend CI minutes on its own. Parameters for both are in the MCP tools reference.

Troubleshooting

error: unknown option '--rerun'

The project resolves npx tdpw to a CLI older than 2.7.0, which passes the flag through to Playwright. Upgrade @testdino/playwright to 2.7.0 or later.

No workflow is offered in the panel

No workflow on the branch declares a testdino_rerun_from input, or the TestDino GitHub App lacks permission to start workflows. The panel falls back to the terminal command. See Enable the dashboard button.

Results are still being processed

The test run finished seconds ago and its results are still being read. The panel updates itself; the CLI waits. This is not the same as having nothing to re-run.

Some test cases are listed as needing a manual run

Playwright identifies a test case by its full name, splitting the parts on › and trimming each one, with no escape for either. A title containing that separator, or starting or ending with a space, a non-breaking space, or a line break, cannot be requested exactly.Those test cases are listed separately everywhere the selection appears, and the selected count excludes them, so a re-run never reports success for a test case it could not execute. Run them with your usual Playwright command, or rename the test case.

This commit is unavailable

The original test run recorded no commit, or recorded uncommitted changes alongside one, so pinning to it would run different code than the test run did. Use Latest, or re-run from a test run whose working tree was clean.

Debug with AI

Hand a failure to your coding agent from the same action row.

Flaky tests

How TestDino decides a test case is flaky.

Test run details

The run page this panel opens from.

GitHub Actions

Reporting Playwright results from GitHub Actions.

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Quick Reference

Start a re-run from the dashboard

Choose which test cases run

Choose which code runs

Enable the dashboard button

Re-run from the command line

CLI flags

Re-run from an AI agent

Troubleshooting

Debug with AI

Flaky tests

Test run details

GitHub Actions

​Quick Reference

​Start a re-run from the dashboard

​Choose which test cases run

​Choose which code runs

​Enable the dashboard button

​Re-run from the command line

​CLI flags

​Re-run from an AI agent

​Troubleshooting

​Related

Debug with AI

Flaky tests

Test run details

GitHub Actions

Quick Reference

Start a re-run from the dashboard

Choose which test cases run

Choose which code runs

Enable the dashboard button

Re-run from the command line

CLI flags

Re-run from an AI agent

Troubleshooting

Related