MCP server crashes when downloading files with persistent profile on Windows

Environment:

• OS: Windows 10 Enterprise
• Node.js: v22.x
• @playwright/mcp: latest (v0.0.81)
• Claude Code (VSCode extension)

Description:
When using Playwright MCP with a persistent profile (default behavior), any file download operation causes the MCP server to crash with error MCP error -32000: Connection closed.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Install Playwright MCP via Claude Code: claude mcp add playwright npx @playwright/mcp@latest
2. Navigate to any website with a download button (e.g., Moka HR system's interview recording download)
3. Click the download button (either programmatically or manually in the opened browser)
4. Observe the MCP server crashes with MCP error -32000: Connection closed

Expected behavior:
The download should complete successfully without crashing the MCP server.

Actual behavior:

• MCP server process exits when download starts
• The file is still downloaded successfully to ~/Downloads/
• MCP connection is lost, requiring reconnect

Workaround:
We currently handle this by:

1. Accepting the crash as expected behavior
2. Finding the downloaded file (often with .tmp extension) in ~/Downloads/
3. Waiting for MCP to reconnect automatically
4. Continuing the workflow

Additional context:

• This happens with any download operation, not just specific websites
• The download itself completes successfully; only the MCP server crashes
• This seems related to how Playwright MCP handles download events with persistent profiles
• Non-persistent profiles may not have this issue, but we need persistent profiles to maintain login state

Related issues:

• microsoft/playwright-mcp#658 (similar connection closed error, but different cause - Windows npx invocation)