A full parallel run intermittently failed the first few tests: unmocked
/api/v1 calls fell through to the dev proxy, whose backend isn't running
under E2E, so each incurred a slow ECONNREFUSED round-trip + Vite error
logging that piled up across 8 workers at cold start.
- Add e2e/fixtures.ts: a shared `test` whose auto-use fixture installs an
`**/api/v1/**` fallback (fast 503, logged) for any endpoint a spec
didn't mock. Registered before the test body, so per-test routes still
win; only genuine gaps land here. Turns silent mock-gap hangs into
instant, attributable failures — and cuts the full run ~96s → ~25s.
- Point all 22 specs at ./fixtures instead of @playwright/test.
- retries: 1 in the config as a safety net for the residual Vite
cold-compile timing (re-runs on the now-warm server).
Two consecutive full runs: 110 passed, 0 flaky, no retries consumed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>