chore(playwright): remove chromatic

[jmelahman]

Description

We currently don't use chromatic, so remove it. I intend to replace it in #8311 and want to keep that diff focused on the new screenshot workflow.

How Has This Been Tested?

Captured by existing

Additional Options

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Summary by cubic

Removed Chromatic from the web app and CI, and switched all E2E tests to native Playwright. This simplifies our test setup and removes unused visual diff tooling.

• Refactors
  • Removed Chromatic deps and version-comment; cleaned the lockfile.
  • Deleted Chromatic job from pr-playwright-tests.yml.
  • Updated all E2E imports from @chromatic-com/playwright to @playwright/test.
  • Removed admin_pages.spec.ts and chromaticSnapshots.json.
  • Cleaned docs/config: removed README upload step and set Playwright reporter to list.

^{Written for commit 87f887e. Summary will update on new commits.}

[github-actions]

Preview Deployment

Status	Preview	Commit	Updated
✅	https://onyx-preview-f3w4iuw72-danswer.vercel.app	87f887e	2026-02-11 18:33:34 UTC

[greptile-apps]

Greptile Overview

Greptile Summary

Removes all Chromatic visual regression testing infrastructure that's no longer in use. The changes include removing the @chromatic-com/playwright and chromatic npm packages, deleting the Chromatic-specific test file (admin_pages.spec.ts) and snapshots configuration (chromaticSnapshots.json), updating all test imports to use standard @playwright/test, and removing documentation and CI workflow references.

• Removed 2 npm dependencies: @chromatic-com/playwright and chromatic
• Deleted Chromatic-specific test file and snapshot configuration
• Updated 20 test files to import from @playwright/test instead of @chromatic-com/playwright
• Removed commented-out CI job definition for Chromatic
• Cleaned up documentation referencing Chromatic usage

Confidence Score: 5/5

• This PR is safe to merge with minimal risk
• This is a straightforward dependency removal that properly cleans up all references to Chromatic. The changes are mechanical (import statement updates), well-scoped, and remove unused code. All test files were updated consistently to use the standard Playwright import, and the dependency removal was properly reflected in both package.json and package-lock.json. The only minor issue is an outdated comment in playwright.config.ts.
• No files require special attention

Important Files Changed

Filename	Overview
.github/workflows/pr-playwright-tests.yml	Removed commented-out Chromatic job definition - clean removal of unused CI step
web/README.md	Removed Chromatic upload documentation - appropriate cleanup
web/package.json	Removed Chromatic dependencies and version comment - clean dependency removal
web/tests/e2e/admin_pages.spec.ts	Deleted Chromatic-specific test file that was using chromaticSnapshots.json
web/tests/e2e/chromaticSnapshots.json	Deleted Chromatic snapshots configuration file

[greptile-apps]

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[cubic-dev-ai]

No issues found across 24 files