[Bug]: playwright-bdd depends on playwright, but it is not listed as a peer dependency (PNPM)

[woppa684]

Given

I've installed playwright-bdd and @playwright/test (the sole peer dependency of playwright-bdd) using PNPM.

When

I try to run bddgen

Then

I get the following error:

Error: Package "playwright" is not installed.
    at resolvePackageRoot (C:\Repos\MyRepo\node_modules\.pnpm\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\node_modules\playwright-bdd\src\utils\index.ts:28:11)
    at getPlaywrightRoot (C:\Repos\MyRepo\node_modules\.pnpm\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\node_modules\playwright-bdd\src\playwright\utils.ts:23:40)
    at getPlaywrightModulePath (C:\Repos\MyRepo\node_modules\.pnpm\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\node_modules\playwright-bdd\src\playwright\utils.ts:18:20)
    at requirePlaywrightModule (C:\Repos\MyRepo\node_modules\.pnpm\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\node_modules\playwright-bdd\src\playwright\utils.ts:13:62)
    at resolveConfigFile (C:\Repos\MyRepo\node_modules\.pnpm\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\node_modules\playwright-bdd\src\playwright\loadConfig.ts:31:79)
    at resolveConfigDir (C:\Repos\MyRepo\node_modules\.pnpm\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\node_modules\playwright-bdd\src\playwright\loadConfig.ts:26:39)
    at defineBddConfig (C:\Repos\MyRepo\node_modules\.pnpm\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\node_modules\playwright-bdd\src\config\index.ts:30:81)      
    at file:///C:/Repos/MyRepo/.bdd/bootstrapper/config/playwright.config.ts:6:17
    at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:263:25)
    at ModuleLoader.import (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:540:24)
    at requireOrImport (C:\Repos\MyRepo\node_modules\.pnpm\playwright@1.54.2\node_modules\playwright\lib\transform\transform.js:214:12)
    at loadUserConfig (C:\Repos\MyRepo\node_modules\.pnpm\playwright@1.54.2\node_modules\playwright\lib\common\configLoader.js:106:46)
    at loadConfig (C:\Repos\MyRepo\node_modules\.pnpm\playwright@1.54.2\node_modules\playwright\lib\common\configLoader.js:118:22)
    at loadConfigFromFile (C:\Repos\MyRepo\node_modules\.pnpm\playwright@1.54.2\node_modules\playwright\lib\common\configLoader.js:330:10)
    at runTests (C:\Repos\MyRepo\node_modules\.pnpm\playwright@1.54.2\node_modules\playwright\lib\program.js:166:18)
    at i.<anonymous> (C:\Repos\MyRepo\node_modules\.pnpm\playwright@1.54.2\node_modules\playwright\lib\program.js:65:7)

Expected Result

Either playwright is a peer dependency of playwright-bdd, or playwright-bdd uses only direct functionality of @playwright/test. PNPM only installs direct (peer-)dependencies in a place where require.resolve can find them. Playwright works fine on its own by only installing @playwright/test as a direct dependency.

Reproduction Demo URL

No response

Environment

Playwright-bdd environment info:

platform: win32
node: v20.19.1
playwright-bdd: v8.3.1
@playwright/test: v1.54.2
@cucumber/cucumber: v11.3.0
C:\Repos\MyRepo\node_modules\.pnpm\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\node_modules\playwright-bdd\dist\utils\index.js:49
        throw new Error(`Package "${packageName}" is not installed.`);
        ^

Error: Package "playwright" is not installed.

...

Workaround for now is to manually install the corresponding playwright version of course.

Priority Level

Medium

[vitalets]

Hey @woppa684

Thanks for pointing on that. I agree it could be an issue, but when I tried to reproduce, it works correctly:

1. I've installed all dependencies of playwright-bdd-example via pnpm
2. Ensured playwright is hoisted

3. When running npm t all tests pass.

I've logged how playwright is resolved and is shows correct path under .pnpm:

playwrightRoot /Users/vitalets/projects/playwright-bdd-example/node_modules/.pnpm/playwright@1.54.2/node_modules/playwright

Could you make a reproducible demo on playwright-bdd-example? Maybe some pnpm options matter?

[woppa684]

When I run the same steps as you did, I get your result, so that seems to work. I will check in the afternoon what is different in the setup of my project.

[woppa684]

Using NODE_DEBUG=module I see that it is trying these locations:

MODULE 44516: looking for "playwright/package.json" in [
    "C:\\Repos\\MyProject\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\\node_modules\\playwright-bdd\\dist\\utils\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Repos\\MyProject\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\\node_modules\\playwright-bdd\\dist\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Repos\\MyProject\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\\node_modules\\playwright-bdd\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Repos\\MyProject\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Repos\\MyProject\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Repos\\MyProject\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Repos\\node_modules",
    "C:\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Repos\\MyProject\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\\node_modules\\playwright-bdd\\dist\\cli\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Repos\\MyProject\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\\node_modules\\playwright-bdd\\dist\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Repos\\MyProject\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\\node_modules\\playwright-bdd\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Repos\\MyProject\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Repos\\MyProject\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Repos\\MyProject\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\nx@21.3.2_@swc-node+register@1.10.10_@swc+core@_b0028d2562da779f5af01bd1646d3de1\\node_modules\\nx\\bin\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Repos\\MyProject\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\nx@21.3.2_@swc-node+register@1.10.10_@swc+core@_b0028d2562da779f5af01bd1646d3de1\\node_modules\\nx\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Repos\\MyProject\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\nx@21.3.2_@swc-node+register@1.10.10_@swc+core@_b0028d2562da779f5af01bd1646d3de1\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Repos\\MyProject\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Users\\MyUserName\\.node_modules",
    "C:\\Users\\MyUserName\\.node_libraries",
    "C:\\Tools\\NodeJS\\20.19.1-R01\\lib\\node"
]

Error: Cannot find module 'playwright/package.json'

So indeed, it's not in one of these locations, since it's in

C:\\Repos\\MyProject\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\playwright@1.54.2\\node_modules\\playwright

What could be different in this setup?

[woppa684]

When running the example with node debug, I get

MODULE 40204: looking for "playwright/package.json" in [
    "C:\\Protos\\playwright-bdd-example-main\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\\node_modules\\playwright-bdd\\dist\\utils\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Protos\\playwright-bdd-example-main\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\\node_modules\\playwright-bdd\\dist\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Protos\\playwright-bdd-example-main\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\\node_modules\\playwright-bdd\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Protos\\playwright-bdd-example-main\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Protos\\playwright-bdd-example-main\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Protos\\playwright-bdd-example-main\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Protos\\node_modules",
    "C:\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Protos\\playwright-bdd-example-main\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\\node_modules\\playwright-bdd\\dist\\cli\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Protos\\playwright-bdd-example-main\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\\node_modules\\playwright-bdd\\dist\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Protos\\playwright-bdd-example-main\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\\node_modules\\playwright-bdd\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Protos\\playwright-bdd-example-main\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\playwright-bdd@8.3.1_@playwright+test@1.54.2\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Protos\\playwright-bdd-example-main\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\node_modules",
    "C:\\Users\\MyUserName\\.node_modules",
    "C:\\Users\\MyUserName\\.node_libraries",
    "C:\\Tools\\NodeJS\\20.19.1-R01\\lib\\node"
]

and it finds it via a sym link in

    "C:\\Protos\\playwright-bdd-example-main\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\node_modules",

and in my other project the sym link to playwright is not there!

quoting pnpm on this:

Unfortunately, many packages in the ecosystem are broken — they use dependencies that are not listed in their package.json. To minimize the number of issues new users encounter, pnpm hoists all dependencies by default into node_modules/.pnpm/node_modules. To disable this hoisting, set hoist to false.

So, what was now the case: I have a pnpm-workspace.yaml file in this workspace (which does not mention hoist!) but when I set hoist to true in that file, it all works. So, hoisting is needed to make playwright-bdd work? Apparently it also didn't automatically work in my workspace ... There is something strange going on however, because when I now remove the hoist: true again and do a clean pnpm i it still works. So I guess it has something to do with some remaining stuff in my repo, because pnpm should still hoist by default. This might change in the future of course, and then it would be wise to list playwright as an actual dependency, because it IS :)

[vitalets]

Thanks for the investigation!
I also tried the example setup with pnpm-workspace.yaml and hoist: true / false - worked for me in both cases.
Is it right, that in your workspace it now works with your pnpm-workspace.yaml without any changes?

Anyway I'll keep this issue open for now, to keep track on it.

[woppa684]

Is it right, that in your workspace it now works with your pnpm-workspace.yaml without any changes?

Yeah, it works now without any changes, also on CI. It was probably a mishap by PNPM, when I removed playwright from my package.json I guess. Thanks!