# How Developers Can Test Their Feature Branch Against Various Playwright Configurations Before Creating a Merge Request in GitLab CI/CD

DevFeed: [How Developers Can Test Their Feature Branch Against Various Playwright Configurations Before Creating a Merge Request in GitLab CI/CD](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/how-developers-can-test-their-feature-branch-against-various-playwright-configurations-before-creating-a-merge-request-in-gitlab-ci-cd-22417.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.tjmaher.com/2026/08/how-developers-can-test-their-feature.html>)

Author: T.J. Maher (noreply@blogger.com)

Published: 2026-08-28T20:18:08Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [T.J. Maher](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/t-j-maher.md>)

Topics: [GitLab](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/gitlab.md>), [CI/CD](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cicd.md>), [Playwright](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/playwright.md>), [YAML](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/yaml.md>), [Development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/development.md>)

Tags: [bun-create-playwright](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/bun-create-playwright.md>), [chromium](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/chromium.md>), [ci-cd](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ci-cd.md>), [firefox](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/firefox.md>), [gitlab](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/gitlab.md>), [gitlab-ci](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/gitlab-ci.md>), [playwright](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/playwright.md>), [tests](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/tests.md>), [yaml](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/yaml.md>)

## AI overview

This tutorial shows how to configure a GitLab CI/CD pipeline so developers can test a feature branch before creating a merge request. It uses spec inputs in a YAML configuration to let users choose the branch, Playwright test suite, and browser, including Chromium, Firefox, WebKit, or all browsers.

## Source excerpt

Developers need the option to test out their feature branch before merging it into main. In the last section, we set up a GitLab CI/CD Pipeline in our bun-create-playwright project to check every GitLab Merge Request. Now, we will be giving developers option to create a new pipeline where they can choose: Which feature branch to test against. Which test suite to execute (LoginPage tests? Secure Area? Or all of them?) Which Playwright browser to use: Chromium, Firefox, WebKit, or all. All these features can be set up using our .gitlab-ci.yaml file! Go to to bun-create-playwright, view the Pipelines section, and select the New Pipeline button. Run a New Bun-Create-Playwright Pipeline If you go to the Run new pipeline page at https://gitlab.com/tjmaher/bun-create-playwright/-/pipelines/new you can see the following default values I've set: https://gitlab.com/tjmaher/bun-create-playwright/-/pipelines/new By default: Branch name is "main", TEST_SUITE is "all", BROWSER is "all". ... But all these values can be set, with the developer choosing the options laid out in the .gitlab-ci.yaml file. Collect User Data With Spec Inputs We are going to be adding to the GitLab Pipeline we built in our last post Setting up a CI/ CD pipeline with GitLab: Quality, Test and Report. First, we are going to add a "spec" section to the header of the YAML file to define the behavior of a pipeline, and within that spec header, we will ask the person who triggered a new pipeline to set user defined inputs for the pipeline. spec: inputs: browser: description: "Browser project to run against." default: "all" options: ["all", "chromium", "firefox", "webkit"] suite: description: "Select full regression suite, or a single spec" default: "all" options: ["all", "login.spec.ts", "secure-area.spec.ts"] This is where we declare the "browser" and "suite" variables that appear when a user creates a new pipeline. We've given them a choice to run their feature branch code against: Browser: All, Chromium, Fir