feat: blockResources option for all web helpers

blockResources aborts requests of the listed resource types (image,
media, font, stylesheet) before they reach the network. Unknown types
fail on helper construction.

- Playwright: context route with resourceType, registered with a
  predicate so stopMockingRoute cannot remove it
- Puppeteer: cooperative request interception on every page; mockRoute,
  stopMockingRoute and traffic recording continue requests
  cooperatively so the blocker and mocks work together. stopMockingRoute
  no longer throws on RegExp urls
- CDPBrowser: Fetch.enable with resourceType patterns and
  Fetch.failRequest BlockedByClient
- WebDriver: BiDi network intercept matching the request destination
- Appium: no-op

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: DavertMik

docs/configuration.md

@@ -126,6 +126,28 @@ webServer: [
 
 The server is started as part of bootstrap, right before the `bootstrap` hook (or `bootstrapAll` for `run-workers` and `run-multiple`), and stopped after `teardown` (`teardownAll`). It starts once in the main process; workers and child processes reuse it. The interactive `shell` starts it too, `dry-run` and `check` only with `--bootstrap`. CodeceptJS stops the command and every process it spawned, including when the run is interrupted with Ctrl+C.
 
+## Blocking Resources
+
+Web helpers can skip loading resources a test doesn't check. Set `blockResources` in the helper config:
+
+```js
+helpers: {
+  Playwright: {
+    url: 'http://localhost:3000',
+    blockResources: ['image', 'font', 'media'],
+  },
+}
+```
+
+Allowed values are `image`, `media`, `font` and `stylesheet`. Any other value fails on startup. Matching requests are aborted before they reach the network, so tests no longer exercise those resources.
+
+| Helper | How it blocks | Notes |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| Playwright | context route on every page, tab and session | Routing disables Playwright's HTTP cache. A `mockRoute` for a blocked URL still serves the mock. |
+| Puppeteer | request interception on every page | Request interception disables Puppeteer's page cache. A `mockRoute` for a blocked URL still serves the mock. |
+| CDPBrowser | CDP `Fetch` domain | Works in Chrome. Lightpanda doesn't load images in the first place. Obscura doesn't block: it ignores `Fetch.failRequest`. |
+| WebDriver | WebDriver BiDi network interception, matching the request destination | Needs BiDi, which is on by default. Every request makes a round trip to the test process. Ignored when BiDi is off. Appium ignores the option. |
+
 ## Dynamic configuration
 
 A JS/TS config file is plain code, so you can read environment variables and build the config at runtime:

docs/helpers/Kitesurf.md

@@ -85,6 +85,7 @@ Type: [object][4]
 *   `pollInterval` **[number][8]?** interval between checks while waiting, in milliseconds.
 *   `getPageTimeout` **[number][8]?** maximum time to wait for a page to load, in seconds.
 *   `waitForNavigation` **[string][3]?** when a navigation is considered finished: `load`, `domcontentloaded`, or `networkidle`.
+*   `blockResources` **[Array][15]<[string][3]>?** resource types to skip loading: `'image'`, `'media'`, `'font'`, `'stylesheet'`. Matching requests are aborted before they reach the network.
 
 
 

docs/helpers/Lightpanda.md

@@ -102,6 +102,7 @@ Type: [object][4]
 *   `pollInterval` **[number][8]?** interval between checks while waiting, in milliseconds.
 *   `getPageTimeout` **[number][8]?** maximum time to wait for a page to load, in seconds.
 *   `waitForNavigation` **[string][3]?** when a navigation is considered finished: `load`, `domcontentloaded`, or `networkidle`.
+*   `blockResources` **[Array][15]<[string][3]>?** resource types to skip loading: `'image'`, `'media'`, `'font'`, `'stylesheet'`. Matching requests are aborted before they reach the network.
 
 
 

docs/helpers/Moli.md

@@ -91,6 +91,7 @@ Type: [object][4]
 *   `pollInterval` **[number][8]?** interval between checks while waiting, in milliseconds.
 *   `getPageTimeout` **[number][8]?** maximum time to wait for a page to load, in seconds.
 *   `waitForNavigation` **[string][3]?** when a navigation is considered finished: `load`, `domcontentloaded`, or `networkidle`.
+*   `blockResources` **[Array][15]<[string][3]>?** resource types to skip loading: `'image'`, `'media'`, `'font'`, `'stylesheet'`. Matching requests are aborted before they reach the network.
 
 
 

docs/helpers/Obscura.md

@@ -118,6 +118,7 @@ Type: [object][4]
 *   `pollInterval` **[number][8]?** interval between checks while waiting, in milliseconds.
 *   `getPageTimeout` **[number][8]?** maximum time to wait for a page to load, in seconds.
 *   `waitForNavigation` **[string][3]?** when a navigation is considered finished: `load`, `domcontentloaded`, or `networkidle`.
+*   `blockResources` **[Array][15]<[string][3]>?** resource types to skip loading: `'image'`, `'media'`, `'font'`, `'stylesheet'`. Matching requests are aborted before they reach the network.
 
 
 

docs/helpers/Playwright.md

@@ -79,6 +79,7 @@ Type: [object][8]
 *   `bypassCSP` **[boolean][26]?** bypass Content Security Policy or CSP
 *   `highlightElement` **[boolean][26]?** highlight the interacting elements. Default: false. Note: only activate under verbose mode (--verbose).
 *   `visibleLocator` **[boolean][26]?** append [`visible()`][49] to locators, so only visible elements are matched. Requires Playwright 1.63 or newer. Switch it off for a single step with `stepOpts({ visibleLocator: false })`. Not applied to `dragAndDrop`, which passes selectors to Playwright directly, nor to steps that must reach hidden elements: `grab*` methods, `scrollTo`, `seeElementInDOM`, `dontSeeElementInDOM` and `seeNumberOfElements`. When enabled, a locator matching only hidden elements fails as "element not found" instead of timing out on actionability, `strict` mode ignores hidden duplicates, and elements hidden by CSS (like a custom checkbox built on a visually hidden `input`) are no longer found.
+*   `blockResources` **[Array][9]<[string][7]>?** resource types to skip loading: `'image'`, `'media'`, `'font'`, `'stylesheet'`. Matching requests are aborted before they reach the network.
 *   `recordHar` **[object][8]?** record HAR and will be saved to `output/har`. See more of [HAR options][3].
 *   `testIdAttribute` **[string][7]?** locate elements based on the testIdAttribute. See more of [locate by test id][50].
 *   `storageState` **([string][7] | [object][8])?** Playwright storage state (path to JSON file or object)

docs/helpers/Puppeteer.md

@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ Type: [object][6]
 *   `browser` **[string][5]?** can be changed to `firefox` when using [puppeteer-firefox][2].
 *   `chrome` **[object][6]?** pass additional [Puppeteer run options][31].
 *   `highlightElement` **[boolean][25]?** highlight the interacting elements. Default: false. Note: only activate under verbose mode (--verbose).
+*   `blockResources` **[Array][18]<[string][5]>?** resource types to skip loading: `'image'`, `'media'`, `'font'`, `'stylesheet'`. Matching requests are aborted before they reach the network.
 
 ## findElement
 

docs/helpers/WebDriver.md

@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ Type: [object][19]
 *   `url` **[string][18]** base url of website to be tested.
 *   `browser` **[string][18]** Browser in which to perform testing.
 *   `bidiProtocol` **[boolean][34]?** WebDriver Bidi Protocol. Default: false. More info: [https://webdriver.io/docs/api/webdriverBidi/][38]
+*   `blockResources` **[Array][30]<[string][18]>?** resource types to skip loading: `'image'`, `'media'`, `'font'`, `'stylesheet'`. Matching requests are aborted before they reach the network.
 *   `basicAuth` **[string][18]?** (optional) the basic authentication to pass to base url. Example: {username: 'username', password: 'password'}
 *   `host` **[string][18]?** WebDriver host to connect.
 *   `port` **[number][23]?** WebDriver port to connect.

lib/helper/Appium.js

@@ -314,6 +314,8 @@ class Appium extends Webdriver {
     ]
   }
 
+  async _blockResources() {}
+
   async _startBrowser() {
     if (this.appiumV2 === true) {
       this.options.capabilities = this._convertAppiumV2Caps(this.options.capabilities)

lib/helper/CDPBrowser.js

@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ import { ariaSnapshotFromAXNodes } from '../aria.js'
 import Locator from '../locator.js'
 import output from '../output.js'
 import store from '../store.js'
-import { xpathLocator, normalizePath, resolveUrl, toCamelCase, convertCssPropertiesToCamelCase, normalizeSpacesInString, fileExists, base64EncodeFile, getMimeType, isFile, isWindows, screenshotOutputFolder } from '../utils.js'
+import { ucfirst, xpathLocator, normalizePath, resolveUrl, toCamelCase, convertCssPropertiesToCamelCase, normalizeSpacesInString, fileExists, base64EncodeFile, getMimeType, isFile, isWindows, screenshotOutputFolder } from '../utils.js'
 import ElementNotFound from './errors/ElementNotFound.js'
 import MultipleElementsFound from './errors/MultipleElementsFound.js'
 import { includes as stringIncludes } from '../assert/include.js'
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ import WebElement from '../element/WebElement.js'
 import CDPElementHandle from './extras/CDPElementHandle.js'
 import { checkFocusBeforeType, checkFocusBeforePressKey } from './extras/focusCheck.js'
 import { CLIPBOARD_READ_TIMEOUT_MS, readClipboardScript, writeClipboardScript, clipboardExpression } from './extras/clipboard.js'
-import { dontSeeTraffic, seeTraffic, grabRecordedNetworkTraffics, flushNetworkTraffics } from './network/actions.js'
+import { dontSeeTraffic, seeTraffic, grabRecordedNetworkTraffics, flushNetworkTraffics, validateBlockResources } from './network/actions.js'
 import { assembleApng, isPng } from './extras/apngAssembler.js'
 
 /**
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ import { assembleApng, isPng } from './extras/apngAssembler.js'
  * @prop {number} [pollInterval=25] - interval between checks while waiting, in milliseconds.
  * @prop {number} [getPageTimeout=30] - maximum time to wait for a page to load, in seconds.
  * @prop {string} [waitForNavigation=load] - when a navigation is considered finished: `load`, `domcontentloaded`, or `networkidle`.
+ * @prop {string[]} [blockResources] - resource types to skip loading: `'image'`, `'media'`, `'font'`, `'stylesheet'`. Matching requests are aborted before they reach the network.
  */
 const config = {}
 
@@ -127,8 +128,10 @@ class CDPBrowser extends Helper {
       pollInterval: 25,
       getPageTimeout: 30,
       waitForNavigation: 'load',
+      blockResources: [],
       ...config,
     }
+    validateBlockResources(this.options.blockResources)
     this.cdp = null
     this.sessionId = null
     this.targetId = null
@@ -359,6 +362,13 @@ class CDPBrowser extends Helper {
     const endpoint = await this._resolveEndpoint()
     this.cdp = new CDPConnection(endpoint, { headers: this.options.headers, timeout: this.options.getPageTimeout * 1000 })
     await this.cdp.connect()
+    this.cdp.on('Fetch.requestPaused', (params, sessionId) => {
+      if (this.options.blockResources.includes(params.resourceType.toLowerCase())) {
+        this.cdp.send('Fetch.failRequest', { requestId: params.requestId, errorReason: 'BlockedByClient' }, sessionId).catch(err => this.debugSection('blockResources', err.message))
+        return
+      }
+      this.cdp.send('Fetch.continueRequest', { requestId: params.requestId }, sessionId).catch(err => this.debugSection('blockResources', err.message))
+    })
   }
 
   _beforeStep() {
@@ -384,6 +394,9 @@ class CDPBrowser extends Helper {
     await this.cdp.send('Page.enable', {}, this.sessionId).catch(() => null)
     await this.cdp.send('Runtime.enable', {}, this.sessionId).catch(() => null)
     await this.cdp.send('Page.setLifecycleEventsEnabled', { enabled: true }, this.sessionId).catch(() => null)
+    if (this.options.blockResources.length) {
+      await this.cdp.send('Fetch.enable', { patterns: this.options.blockResources.map(type => ({ urlPattern: '*', resourceType: ucfirst(type) })) }, this.sessionId)
+    }
     await this._probeCapabilities()
   }