[playwright-browser-tunnel] Add playwright-versioning and remove semver-coersion (#5669)

* feat: playwright-versioning

Allow manually passing in the version of playwright to use for the tunnel and still default to the playwright-core version if not provided.
This allows us to use the tunnel with different versions of playwright without needing to update the tunnel package itself.

* bugfix: remove-semver-coercion

Remove semver coercion from the Playwright version in the handshake message. This allows for more flexible version handling and avoids issues with prerelease version formats.

* misc: rush-change

Author: anarmawala

apps/playwright-browser-tunnel/package.json

@@ -48,7 +48,6 @@
     "@rushstack/terminal": "workspace:*",
     "@rushstack/ts-command-line": "workspace:*",
     "string-argv": "~0.3.1",
-    "semver": "~7.5.4",
     "ws": "~8.14.1",
     "playwright": "1.56.1"
   },

apps/playwright-browser-tunnel/src/PlaywrightBrowserTunnel.ts

@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@ import { once } from 'node:events';
 
 import type { BrowserServer, BrowserType, LaunchOptions } from 'playwright-core';
 import { type RawData, WebSocket, type WebSocketServer } from 'ws';
-import semver from 'semver';
 
 import { TerminalProviderSeverity, TerminalStreamWritable, type ITerminal } from '@rushstack/terminal';
 import { Executable, FileSystem, Async } from '@rushstack/node-core-library';
@@ -48,7 +47,7 @@ export interface IHandshake {
   action: 'handshake';
   browserName: BrowserName;
   launchOptions: LaunchOptions;
-  playwrightVersion: semver.SemVer;
+  playwrightVersion: string;
 }
 
 type TunnelMode = 'poll-connection' | 'wait-for-incoming-connection';
@@ -432,10 +431,7 @@ export class PlaywrightTunnel {
     if (action !== 'handshake') {
       throw new Error(`Invalid action: ${action}. Expected 'handshake'.`);
     }
-    const playwrightVersionSemver: semver.SemVer | null = semver.coerce(playwrightVersion);
-    if (!playwrightVersionSemver) {
-      throw new Error(`Invalid Playwright version: ${playwrightVersion}. Must be a valid semver version.`);
-    }
+
     if (!isValidBrowserName(browserName)) {
       throw new Error(
         `Invalid browser name: ${browserName}. Must be one of ${Array.from(validBrowserNames).join(', ')}.`
@@ -445,7 +441,7 @@ export class PlaywrightTunnel {
     return {
       action,
       launchOptions: launchOptions as LaunchOptions,
-      playwrightVersion: playwrightVersionSemver,
+      playwrightVersion,
       browserName
     };
   }

apps/playwright-browser-tunnel/src/tunneledBrowserConnection/TunneledBrowserConnection.ts

@@ -23,15 +23,14 @@ import type {
 } from './ITunneledBrowserConnection';
 import { DEFAULT_LISTEN_PORT, SUPPORTED_BROWSER_NAMES } from './constants';
 
-const { version: playwrightVersion } = playwrightPackageJson;
-
 /**
  * Creates a tunneled WebSocket endpoint that a local Playwright client can connect to.
  * @beta
  */
 export async function tunneledBrowserConnection(
   logger: ITerminal,
-  port: number = DEFAULT_LISTEN_PORT
+  port: number = DEFAULT_LISTEN_PORT,
+  playwrightVersion: string = playwrightPackageJson.version
 ): Promise<IDisposableTunneledBrowserConnection> {
   // Server that remote peer (actual browser host) connects to
   const remoteWsServer: WebSocketServer = new WebSocketServer({ port });

common/changes/@rushstack/playwright-browser-tunnel/fix-tunnel-flexibility_2026-02-24-23-50.json

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+{
+  "changes": [
+    {
+      "packageName": "@rushstack/playwright-browser-tunnel",
+      "comment": "Add playwright-versioning and remove semver",
+      "type": "patch"
+    }
+  ],
+  "packageName": "@rushstack/playwright-browser-tunnel"
+}

common/config/subspaces/default/pnpm-lock.yaml

@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@
 import type { Browser } from 'playwright-core';
 import { ITerminal } from '@rushstack/terminal';
 import type { LaunchOptions } from 'playwright-core';
-import semver from 'semver';
 
 // @beta
 export type BrowserName = 'chromium' | 'firefox' | 'webkit';
@@ -43,7 +42,7 @@ export interface IHandshake {
     // (undocumented)
     launchOptions: LaunchOptions;
     // (undocumented)
-    playwrightVersion: semver.SemVer;
+    playwrightVersion: string;
 }
 
 // @beta
@@ -112,7 +111,7 @@ export class PlaywrightTunnel {
 }
 
 // @beta
-export function tunneledBrowserConnection(logger: ITerminal, port?: number): Promise<IDisposableTunneledBrowserConnection>;
+export function tunneledBrowserConnection(logger: ITerminal, port?: number, playwrightVersion?: string): Promise<IDisposableTunneledBrowserConnection>;
 
 // @beta
 export type TunnelStatus = 'waiting-for-connection' | 'browser-server-running' | 'stopped' | 'setting-up-browser-server' | 'error';

common/reviews/api/playwright-browser-tunnel.api.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "playwright-local-browser-server",
-  "version": "0.1.2",
+  "version": "0.1.3",
   "repository": {
     "type": "git",
     "url": "https://github.com/microsoft/rushstack.git",