userDataDir in config file is ignored, browser always launches with in-memory profile

[chris-fundamental]

Description

userDataDir set in the config file has no effect. The browser always launches with user-data-dir: regardless of the config. The --profile CLI flag works correctly for the same path.

Steps to reproduce

Create .playwright/cli.config.json:

{
  "browser": {
    "browserName": "chromium",
    "userDataDir": "/Users/chris/.my-profile",
    "launchOptions": {
      "headless": false
    },
    "contextOptions": {
      "viewport": {
        "width": 1280,
        "height": 900
      }
    }
  }
}

Run:

npx playwright-cli open https://example.com --config .playwright/cli.config.json

Output shows:

- user-data-dir: <in-memory>

Also tried:
playwright-cli.json, ~/.playwright at project root and I tried changing between userDataDir abs path and relative path at project root - same result.

Expected behavior

Browser should launch with user-data-dir: /Users/chris/.my-profile and persist cookies/state across sessions.

Actual behavior
user-data-dir is always . Login state is lost when the browser closes.

Workaround

Passing --profile directly works:

npx playwright-cli open https://example.com --profile=/Users/chris/.kaggle-playwright-profile