MCP client for playwright failed to start: program not found #2945

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1. SphaeroX

   added

   bugSomething isn't workingSomething isn't working

   on Aug 30, 2025
2. davidsloiko commented on Aug 30, 2025

   

   davidsloiko

   on Aug 30, 2025

   Last edited by davidsloiko

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   Same thing happened to me. All MCP servers seem to be bugged or something. Here's what I added to my config.toml

   [mcp_servers.supabase]
   command = "npx"
   args = ["-y", "@supabase/mcp-server-supabase@latest", "--access-token", "my_access_token"]

   I even tried doing this:

   [mcp_servers.supabase]
   command = "cmd"
   args = ["/c", "npx", "-y", "@supabase/mcp-server-supabase@latest", "--access-token", "my_access_token"]

   But got:

   MCP client for supabase failed to start: program not found

   👍React with 👍2Reacted by ebulku and Carlos Matias Flor Sanchez
3. adsqx commented on Aug 30, 2025

   

   adsqx

   on Aug 30, 2025

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   @SphaeroX
   First, run Playwright in the terminal—you can stop it afterwards, and then it works. There might be an issue that Playwright starts up more slowly than Codex, so they’re not synchronized
4. davidsloiko commented on Aug 30, 2025

   

   davidsloiko

   on Aug 30, 2025

   Last edited by davidsloiko

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   @SphaeroX First, run Playwright in the terminal—you can stop it afterwards, and then it works. There might be an issue that Playwright starts up more slowly than Codex, so they’re not synchronized

   how can I do that? If I just run the command in a terminal, codex doesn't pick it up. I'm using the vs code extension atm

   edit: actually, same thing happens in the codex CLI upon startup:

   🖐  MCP client for supabase failed to start: program not found

   👍React with 👍5Reacted by SphaeroX, deathraceDj, Henrique Pinheiro, Ovi Savescu and ebulku
5. adsqx commented on Aug 30, 2025

   

   adsqx

   on Aug 30, 2025

   Last edited by adsqx

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   @sloikod

   Before starting Codex, run:

   npx playwright test

   or, for a specific browser:

   npx playwright open chromium https://example.com

   npx playwright open firefox https://example.com

   After that, when you launch Codex, Playwright should not throw an error and will start correctly.

   I don't have access to a computer right now to confirm this precisely, but that's the general idea.

   Playwright will simply start faster the second time, and there won’t be an error caused by incorrect synchronization.
6. SphaeroX commented on Aug 30, 2025

   

   SphaeroX

   on Aug 30, 2025

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   @sloikod

   Before starting Codex, run:

   npx playwright test

   or, for a specific browser:

   npx playwright open chromium https://example.com

   npx playwright open firefox https://example.com

   After that, when you launch Codex, Playwright should not throw an error and will start correctly.

   I don't have access to a computer right now to confirm this precisely, but that's the general idea.

   doesnt work for me, i can open example.com but codex wont find the mcp server.

   >_ You are using OpenAI Codex in C:\Users\...
   
    To get started, describe a task or try one of these commands:
   
    /init - create an AGENTS.md file with instructions for Codex
    /status - show current session configuration and token usage
    /approvals - choose what Codex can do without approval
    /model - choose what model and reasoning effort to use
   
   🖐  MCP client for `playwright` failed to start: program not found       
   
7. adsqx commented on Aug 30, 2025

   

   adsqx

   on Aug 30, 2025

   Last edited by adsqx

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   @SphaeroX
   First, install Playwright locally. Then check on GPT how to do it

   If you still can’t get it working, I’ll upload it in a few hours once I’m back at my PC."

   👍React with 👍1Reacted by SphaeroX
8. SphaeroX commented on Aug 30, 2025

   

   SphaeroX

   on Aug 30, 2025

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   I have Playwright installed, and I also installed Microsoft’s MCP server. I can run Playwright normally without any issues, but whenever I start Codex, I keep getting this error message. I don’t think this is just happening to me, other people using Windows are running into the same problem as well.

   For example, with Kilo Code I don’t have any issues. Even Microsoft confirmed on GitHub that this isn’t a problem with the MCP server itself, but rather an issue with Codex.
9. sfz009900 commented on Aug 30, 2025

   

   sfz009900

   on Aug 30, 2025

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   Take a look at this #2905
10. SphaeroX commented on Aug 30, 2025

    

    SphaeroX

    on Aug 30, 2025

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    Take a look at this #2905

    Yes, thank you very much, but I would still prefer if the bug could be fixed directly in Codex before I start trying to work around the problem. It would make more sense to address the root cause first.
11. sfz009900 commented on Aug 30, 2025

    

    sfz009900

    on Aug 30, 2025

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    @SphaeroX Yeah, I hope they can fix it directly in the update. I'm not a developer either, so I can't submit code.
12. jtuttas commented on Aug 30, 2025

    

    jtuttas

    on Aug 30, 2025

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    I have the same Problem under win 11 - no MCP Server would like to start :-( ! I have installed codex-cli 0.27.0 !!

    

    👍React with 👍5Reacted by David Sloiko, deathraceDj, Henrique Pinheiro, mwhesse and Dmitriy
13. adsqx commented on Aug 30, 2025

    

    adsqx

    on Aug 30, 2025

    Last edited by adsqx

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    @SphaeroX @jtuttas I wrote the reason why.
    Each of the above will work if you run it before Codex.

    

    npx @playwright/mcp@latest --browser=chromium

    
14. davidsloiko commented on Aug 30, 2025

    

    davidsloiko

    on Aug 30, 2025

    Last edited by davidsloiko

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    @AdsQnn

    are you on windows?
15. adsqx commented on Aug 30, 2025

    

    adsqx

    on Aug 30, 2025

    Last edited by adsqx

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    @AdsQnn

    are you on windows?

    I’m using Ubuntu, but it doesn’t matter.
    It’s just that Codex starts before MCP is loaded. You see that after the initial call, it loads fine.
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