[desrosj]

Backport of the runner update in #15518 to the 6.5 branch.

Changes

• Changes the GitHub-hosted Ubuntu runners used by this branch's workflows from ubuntu-latest to ubuntu-26.04, matching trunk. GitHub is moving ubuntu-latest from 24.04 to 26.04 between 2026-10-19 and 2026-11-19.
• Pins windows-latest to windows-2025 and macos-latest to macos-15, matching trunk, in a separate commit. windows-latest already points to windows-2025, so the Windows jobs are unchanged. macos-latest currently points to macos-26, so the macOS jobs move to the version used by trunk and 6.8+.
• Updates @playwright/test from 1.49.1 to 1.64.1, matching trunk. 1.49.1 still works on Ubuntu 26.04 (it falls back to the 24.04 browser build), so this is not required on this branch. It keeps a single Playwright version across trunk and all branches that use it.

The Playwright changes are in their own commit so they can be reviewed separately.

Playwright 1.49.1 → 1.64.1 review

• Lockfile: only @playwright/test, playwright and playwright-core change, each to 1.64.1, and no 1.49.1 copy is left.
• Older copy: @wordpress/scripts 27.2.6 still pins playwright-core 1.39.0. It only uses it to install browsers when PLAYWRIGHT_SKIP_BROWSER_DOWNLOAD is unset, and the E2E workflow sets that variable, so it never runs in CI.
• Test discovery: playwright test --list output is identical before and after: e2e 21, performance 120, visual-regression 22.
• API changes: none of the removed or changed APIs in the 1.50–1.64 release notes are used. The editor test's frameLocator('[name=editor-canvas]') points at a visible iframe, so 1.64's hidden-iframe change doesn't apply.
• Requirements: 1.64.1 requires Node >=20, and this branch uses Node 20.
• Visual changes: 1.64 forwards the 1920×1080 screen from devices['Desktop Chrome'] in the @wordpress/scripts base config, and 1.57 switched Chromium to Chrome for Testing builds. Either could change toHaveScreenshot output, but the visual regression suite isn't run in CI and has no committed baselines. If the old screen behaviour is needed, add screen: undefined to the config's use.

Trac ticket: Core-66499

Use of AI Tools

Claude Code (Claude Opus 5.5) made these changes, reviewed the Playwright update, ran the fork-based test runs, and drafted this description. Draft PRs should be considered unverified and unreviewed by a human.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[github-actions]

Test using WordPress Playground

The changes in this pull request can previewed and tested using a WordPress Playground instance.

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Some things to be aware of

• All changes will be lost when closing a tab with a Playground instance.
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• A fresh instance is created each time the link below is clicked.
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  it's possible that the most recent build failed, or has not completed. Check the list of workflow runs to be sure.

For more details about these limitations and more, check out the Limitations page in the WordPress Playground documentation.

Test this pull request with WordPress Playground.

[github-actions]

The following accounts have interacted with this PR and/or linked issues. I will continue to update these lists as activity occurs.

Core Committers: Use this line as a base for the props when committing in SVN:

Props desrosj.

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[lancewillett]

Checked against the branch's workflows: every ubuntu-latest label is now ubuntu-26.04, Windows and macOS are pinned to windows-2025 and macos-15 as in #15518, and Playwright is 1.64.1 (the branch is on Node 20, which it needs). CI is green (65 passed, 21 skipped). Reusable workflows on this branch run from trunk, so the jobs that use them still ran on ubuntu-24.04 here. Please land #15518 first, then this.

_{AI review · claude-opus-5-5}