Scaffold runnable Playwright TypeScript tests from your Gherkin .feature files. Right-click a feature, get Page Objects + specs ready to run.
Features
Right-click any .feature file in the Explorer → bdd2pw: Scaffold Playwright tests from this feature. The extension parses the Gherkin, scans the live page for elements, picks the most stable Playwright locators (getByRole > getByLabel > getByTestId > locator(css)), and writes a Playwright project — playwright.config.ts, the POM, the spec, and a BDD_REVIEW.md report — into a sibling folder next to your feature.
30+ deterministic step rules cover the common BDD dialects: I enter "X" as username, I should see "Welcome", URL contains "/dashboard", the login page is displayed, and many more. Steps that don't match a rule can optionally fall through to a governed LLM (Anthropic Claude) — every prompt is sanitized through a local sidecar before it leaves your machine.
Activity-bar panel showing recent runs, quick actions, and config shortcuts.
Status-bar button when a .feature file is open — one click to scaffold.
In-process — no subprocess, no global install. The extension imports @vijaypjavvadi/bdd2pw directly, so failures land as actionable errors instead of opaque exit codes.
Quick start
Install the extension (you're presumably reading this from the Marketplace listing — click Install).
Open a workspace containing at least one .feature file.
Open VS Code Settings (Ctrl+, → search bdd2pw) and set:
Base URL — the live URL the scaffolder visits to discover form fields / buttons / etc. Required.
POM class name — defaults to LoginPage. Override per-project.
Anthropic API key — optional. Leave blank to run rule-only.
Right-click your .feature file in the Explorer → bdd2pw: Scaffold Playwright tests from this feature.
Watch the progress notification. When it finishes, open BDD_REVIEW.md to see what was matched, what fell to TODO, and any tsc warnings.
Settings
Setting
Default
What it does
bdd2pw.baseUrl
empty
Base URL for page discovery. Prompted at scaffold time if empty.
bdd2pw.pomClassName
LoginPage
Page Object class name to generate.
bdd2pw.outputRepo
empty
Absolute path to write the scaffolded project. Defaults to a playwright-out/ folder next to the .feature.
bdd2pw.anthropicApiKey
empty
Anthropic API key for LLM fallback. Leave empty to disable. Store in user settings, not workspace settings — don't commit it.
bdd2pw.governanceUrl
http://localhost:4900
ai-governance sidecar URL — every prompt routes through /sanitize before reaching Anthropic.
bdd2pw.skipGovernance
false
Dev-only escape hatch. Never enable in production.
bdd2pw.maxLlmCalls
50
Per-scaffold LLM call budget.
bdd2pw.selfHealing
false
Wrap emitted locators in healOrThrow() for runtime self-healing.
bdd2pw.noDiscovery
false
Skip live element scan. Use when the target URL is unreachable.
Requirements
VS Code 1.85 or newer.
Node 18+ (matches the bdd2pw library requirement). The extension bundles bdd2pw, so you don't need it installed globally.
Optional: @playwright/test in the project where the scaffold lands, if you intend to run the generated tests immediately.
Known limitations
The folder-scaffold action is non-recursive — it walks the immediate children of the chosen folder. Recurse manually if you need deeper coverage.
The LLM fallback is Anthropic-only in this release. OpenAI / Gemini providers are on the bdd2pw library roadmap (v2.1+).
The extension trusts the workspace it's running in — it writes files to disk via the bdd2pw library. Do not run it in untrusted workspaces.
Issues & feedback
Bugs, feature requests, and step-pattern reports go to the bdd2pw GitHub issues. Reports that include the offending .feature step + the generated TS snippet make the fastest fixes.
