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Hybrid Strategies -- Using Both Together
11.1🔒Why Hybrid?In 2025 the hybrid argument was capability-based: CLI tools could not understand pages semantically, so you needed MCP for discovery…
11.2🔒Strategy 1: Snapshot for Discovery, Refs for ExecutionIn the 2025 era, discovery-vs-execution was the split between MCP and the CLI. Today the split lives inside the CLI:
11.3🔒Strategy 2: CLI by Default, Re-Snapshot as Fallback, MCP for No-Disk EnvironmentsThe happy path costs ~55 tokens; the fallback costs one snapshot read (~2,000-5,000 tokens) plus a retry. At 90% ref stability the average…
11.4🔒Strategy 3: Different Tools for Different Test TypesRead the accessibility row twice, because it inverts the 2025 advice: auditing used to be the canonical "you need MCP" case, but the CLI's…
11.5🔒Strategy 4: Phased AdoptionPhase 1: CLI + skill only (weeks 1-2). npm install -g @playwright/cli@latest, then playwright-cli install --skills; write flows as…
11.6🔒A Worked Hybrid FlowA coding agent executing against a redesigned page it has never seen:
11.7🔒Anti-Patterns to AvoidDo not use MCP for every click when you have a filesystem. The most common failure mode in teams that adopted MCP in 2025 and never…
11.8🔒Key Takeaways- The 2026 hybrid boundary is environmental, not capability-based: CLI wherever the agent has a filesystem, MCP where it does not or where…
11.9🔒Q&ASelf-Assessment Quiz1. What is the fundamental routing rule of a 2026 hybrid architecture, in one sentence? 2. In Strategy 1, what does discovery cost, what…
11.10🔒Exercises[Beginner] Exercise 11.1: Take a page you know well and write out a Strategy 1 flow by hand: the discovery commands, the YAML elements you…
11.11🔒Career Translation- Designed a hybrid skills + MCP browser automation architecture routed by environment: Playwright CLI for all filesystem-equipped agents…
11.12🔒Q&AInterview Depth CheckPrompt: Design the routing logic for a hybrid skills/MCP framework. What signals does it consider, and at what granularity does it operate?