diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 770f2f54475..9b9f93c7bc5 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -191,6 +191,8 @@ compilation-stats.json
 /e2e/build_results.zip
 /e2e/extensions
 !/e2e/extensions/.keep
+/e2e-playwright/extensions
+!/e2e-playwright/extensions/.keep
 /e2e/extensions-suite
 /test-results/
 /playwright-report/
diff --git a/e2e-playwright/extensions/.keep b/e2e-playwright/extensions/.keep
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e69de29bb2d
diff --git a/e2e-playwright/start-server b/e2e-playwright/start-server
index 6685cd472d0..e7c219d9350 100755
--- a/e2e-playwright/start-server
+++ b/e2e-playwright/start-server
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
+# Ensure we're in the Grafana root directory
+cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/.." || exit 1
+
 . scripts/grafana-server/variables
 
 LICENSE_PATH=""
diff --git a/pkg/build/e2e-playwright/main.go b/pkg/build/e2e-playwright/main.go
index a7cff28cff0..97f4caf2e0e 100644
--- a/pkg/build/e2e-playwright/main.go
+++ b/pkg/build/e2e-playwright/main.go
@@ -144,8 +144,8 @@ func run(ctx context.Context, cmd *cli.Command) error {
 			"public/app/core/icons/cached.json",
 
 			// packages we use in playwright tests
-			"packages",           // TODO: do we need all of this?
-			"public/app/plugins", // TODO: do we need all of this?
+			"packages",
+			"public",
 
 			// e2e files
 			"e2e-playwright",
diff --git a/playwright.config.ts b/playwright.config.ts
index 279ceb8a3f4..fae810c796f 100644
--- a/playwright.config.ts
+++ b/playwright.config.ts
@@ -3,11 +3,11 @@ import path, { dirname } from 'path';
 
 import { PluginOptions } from '@grafana/plugin-e2e';
 
-const testDirRoot = 'e2e-playwright';
+export const testDirRoot = 'e2e-playwright';
 const pluginDirRoot = path.join(testDirRoot, 'plugin-e2e');
-const DEFAULT_URL = 'http://localhost:3001';
+export const DEFAULT_URL = 'http://localhost:3001';
 
-function withAuth(project: Project): Project {
+export function withAuth(project: Project): Project {
   project.dependencies ??= [];
   project.use ??= {};
 
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ function withAuth(project: Project): Project {
   return project;
 }
 
-export default defineConfig<PluginOptions>({
+export const baseConfig: PlaywrightTestConfig<PluginOptions, {}> = {
   fullyParallel: true,
   /* Retry on CI only */
   retries: process.env.CI ? 2 : 0,
@@ -44,6 +44,10 @@ export default defineConfig<PluginOptions>({
     permissions: ['clipboard-read', 'clipboard-write'],
     provisioningRootDir: path.join(process.cwd(), process.env.PROV_DIR ?? 'conf/provisioning'),
   },
+};
+
+export default defineConfig<PluginOptions>({
+  ...baseConfig,
   ...(!process.env.GRAFANA_URL && {
     webServer: {
       command: 'yarn e2e:plugin:build && ./e2e-playwright/start-server',