feat(ui-test): Playwright ui tests foundation stage 0

[cjlg-soloio]

Description

Adds the Stage 0 foundation for Playwright page-level E2E testing of the kagent UI, running against a mocked backend with no cluster required.

The suite targets the one gap nothing else covers — multi-step user flows across components:

Tool	Covers
Storybook / Chromatic	Component render states
Jest	Logic
Cypress	Page-load smoke
Playwright (this PR)	Cross-component user flows

The core design challenge: the UI fetches data server-side via Next.js server actions, so browser-level page.route("**/api/**") intercepts nothing. Instead, this PR boots a dependency-free stub backend and redirects Next's server-side fetch to it via BACKEND_INTERNAL_URL — which getBackendUrl() in ui/src/lib/utils.ts already honors. Playwright's webServer block starts both the stub (:8899) and next dev (:8001) automatically.

This is foundation-only: config, stub backend, shared fixture, CI workflow, and a single smoke test. The helper/driver library and per-test scenarios land in Stage 1; feature flows in Stage 3 (see ui/playwright/README.md).

Files

New

File	Purpose
ui/playwright.config.ts	Boots stub + dev server; chromium project; CI-aware retries/workers; trace & screenshot on failure
ui/playwright/mocks/server.mjs	Dependency-free stub backend (Node http only); serves happy-path payloads mirroring src/types/index.ts; exposes /__mock/health & /__mock/reset
ui/playwright/mocks/data.ts	Typed spec-side data builders mirroring the stub's shapes
ui/playwright/fixtures/test.ts	Shared test/expect fixture; resets stub per test and bypasses first-run onboarding
ui/playwright/tests/smoke.spec.ts	Stage 0 smoke test — asserts the Agents list renders against the mock
ui/playwright/tsconfig.json	Extends UI tsconfig with node + Playwright types
ui/playwright/README.md	Test strategy, mocking rationale, conventions, roadmap
.github/workflows/ui-playwright.yaml	Standalone CI workflow (paths-filtered to ui/**); installs chromium, runs test:pw, uploads report

Modified

• ui/package.json — @playwright/test dev dep + test:pw / test:pw:ui / test:pw:debug scripts
• ui/package-lock.json — lockfile updates
• ui/.gitignore — ignores playwright-report, playwright/test-results, playwright/.cache

Testing

cd ui
npm install
npx playwright install chromium   # first time only
npm run test:pw

Playwright starts the stub backend and dev server automatically. The smoke test passes when the home page renders the Agents, no "Error Encountered" state appears, and no uncaught page errors occur. CI runs the same on any ui/** change.

Change type

test / ci — new test infrastructure and CI workflow. No product or runtime code changed.

Changelog

Stage 1 of 3 playwright tests for ui

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Introduces a Stage 0 Playwright E2E testing foundation for the ui/ Next.js app, running against a local stub backend to enable cross-component flow testing without requiring a Kubernetes cluster.

Changes:

• Adds Playwright configuration, fixtures, a stub backend, and an initial smoke test for the Agents page.
• Adds a dedicated GitHub Actions workflow to run Playwright on ui/** changes and upload reports/artifacts.
• Removes Cypress E2E scaffolding and related CI/Dockerfile knobs in favor of Playwright.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 15 out of 16 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
ui/playwright.config.ts	Playwright runner config that boots the stub backend + next dev via webServer.
ui/playwright/fixtures/test.ts	Shared fixture that resets the stub and bypasses onboarding for deterministic tests.
ui/playwright/tests/smoke.spec.ts	Stage 0 smoke test asserting the Agents page renders and no fatal page errors occur.
ui/playwright/mocks/server.mjs	Dependency-free Node http stub backend serving /api/* happy-path responses plus control/health endpoints.
ui/playwright/mocks/data.ts	Typed mock builders for spec-side assertions / future scenario injection.
ui/playwright/tsconfig.json	TS config for Playwright tests/types, extending the UI’s TS config.
ui/playwright/README.md	Documentation for scope, mocking approach (server-side fetch redirection), conventions, and roadmap.
.github/workflows/ui-playwright.yaml	New CI workflow to run Playwright against the stubbed backend and upload reports.
ui/package.json	Adds @playwright/test and Playwright scripts; maps test:e2e to Playwright.
ui/package-lock.json	Lockfile updates for Playwright/Cypress dependency changes.
ui/.gitignore	Ignores Playwright report and test-results outputs.
ui/Dockerfile	Removes CYPRESS_INSTALL_BINARY since Cypress is no longer used.
.github/workflows/ui-chromatic.yaml	Removes Cypress-related env var from UI dependency install step.
.github/workflows/ci.yaml	Removes Cypress-related env var from UI dependency install step.
ui/cypress/e2e/smoke.cy.ts	Removes Cypress smoke/regression E2E spec.
ui/cypress.config.ts	Removes Cypress configuration.

Files not reviewed (1)

• ui/package-lock.json: Generated file

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