Playwright browser download timeout / proxy failure in CI

playwright install opened the download but the transfer stalled past its timeout or the connection reset. This is transient network flakiness (a slow proxy, a large archive, packet loss) rather than a forbidden or missing file.

What this error means

The install step prints "Downloading Chromium ..." then fails with a socket timeout, "ECONNRESET", or "Download failed: connection timed out", sometimes after partially fetching the archive.

Playwright

Downloading Chromium 124.0.6367.29 (playwright build v1140)
Error: Download failed: connect ETIMEDOUT
    at ClientRequest.<anonymous> (.../playwright-core/lib/utils/download.js)

Common causes

A slow or congested proxy

The browser archive is large; a slow egress proxy makes the transfer exceed the download timeout on a single attempt.

Transient packet loss mid-transfer

The connection resets partway through, and without a cache the whole download must start over.

How to fix it

Cache the browsers so downloads are rare

Persist the Playwright browsers directory so a slow network is not on the path every run.

.github/workflows/ci.yml

- uses: actions/cache@v4
  with:
    path: ~/.cache/ms-playwright
    key: pw-${{ hashFiles('package-lock.json') }}
- run: npx playwright install --with-deps

Retry the install step

Wrap the install so a transient stall gets another attempt instead of failing the job.

Terminal

for i in 1 2 3; do npx playwright install --with-deps && break; sleep 10; done

How to prevent it

Cache the browsers directory keyed on the lockfile.
Retry the install step so a single stalled download does not fail the run.
Use an internal PLAYWRIGHT_DOWNLOAD_HOST mirror on slow external links.