WSL pw-mcp integration

[FerEnoch]

Setup:

• Windows 10
• WSL v2
• Ubuntu 24
• Node.js 22 (in WSL - no Node.js in Windows)
• VSCode running on Windows with remote connection to wsl this way

Issue

The official docs about the pw-mcp add on to the user settings json file in vscode doesn't seem to work in WSL.
This config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "playwright": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "@playwright/mcp@latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Is giving me this error:

[info] Starting server playwright
[info] Connection state: Starting
[info] Starting server from LocalProcess extension host
[info] Connection state: Starting
[info] Connection state: Error spawn npx ENOENT

Same thing replacing the "npx" command with the complete absolute path.

Solution I found (although partial)

This article tells about Server Sent Events (SSE), so I got it working like this:

1. After installing the Playwright/mcp server, get it up and running with a port:

npx @playwright/mcp@latest --port 8931

2. Then, configure the client settings with your endpoint:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "playwright": {
     "type": "sse",
      "url": "http://localhost:8931/sse"
    }
  }
}

3. Reload vscode window and reestart the client.

Question

Is there any other solution to make vscode automatically start the server without any problems? Please, let me know.

[pavelfeldman]

@digitarald do you know where VS Code is connecting to the MCP from?

[pavelfeldman]

Sounds like we don't have a good idea on the WSL MCP story, but I doubt it is Playwright-specific, so I hope you found your solution elsewhere.

[FerEnoch]

Thanks for the reply.

I confirm that the configuration for PW MCP on VSCode using WSL, which runs on Node.js with npx, requires Node and npm to be installed on Windows.
This is because VSCode runs on Windows, and is remotely connected to a GNU/Linux distro in WSL.

With this, this standard config works:

"mcp": {
        "servers": {
            "playwright": {
                "command": "npx",
                "args": [
                    "-y",
                    "@playwright/mcp@latest",
                    "--headless",
                ]
            }
        }
    },