diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index bdb8bf25..d62a81e3 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -43,3 +43,6 @@ artifacts/
 .agents/
 .handoffs/
 HANDOFF.md
+
+# Local CI / dogfood logs and screenshots (per-session, never committed)
+.ci-logs/
diff --git a/docs/user-guide/getting-started.md b/docs/user-guide/getting-started.md
index f3109d4b..4f371c2a 100644
--- a/docs/user-guide/getting-started.md
+++ b/docs/user-guide/getting-started.md
@@ -92,6 +92,9 @@ You can also watch the same pipeline run live in the browser on the **Showcase**
   migrations are applied (`uv run alembic upgrade head`).
 - **API keys** — the AI agent and RAG features need `OPENAI_API_KEY` and/or
   `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` set in `.env`. Forecasting and the dashboard work without them.
+- **Browser dogfood / UI verification** — run `./scripts/dogfood-browser.sh` to
+  verify Playwright + snap chromium are ready for headless dashboard exercises;
+  pass a Python file path to execute it through the prepared environment.
 
 ## Next Steps
 
diff --git a/scripts/dogfood-browser.sh b/scripts/dogfood-browser.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..61add50c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/dogfood-browser.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# scripts/dogfood-browser.sh — wrapper that prepares the environment for
+# native-Python Playwright dogfooding against snap chromium.
+#
+# Background: on the maintainer's WSL host, the Playwright MCP and
+# `npx playwright install` both fail; the only path that works is native
+# Python Playwright pointed at `/snap/bin/chromium`. This script removes
+# the rediscovery cost. See issue #262 and PRP-31 system review §
+# "Update Browser-Dogfood automation".
+#
+# Usage:
+#   ./scripts/dogfood-browser.sh                   # verify prereqs + print launch snippet
+#   ./scripts/dogfood-browser.sh path/to/script.py # verify prereqs + exec the script with uv
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+CHROMIUM_PATH="${CHROMIUM_PATH:-/snap/bin/chromium}"
+LAUNCH_ARGS='["--no-sandbox", "--disable-setuid-sandbox", "--disable-dev-shm-usage"]'
+
+echo "scripts/dogfood-browser.sh"
+echo "================================================================"
+
+# 1. snap chromium present?
+if [ ! -x "$CHROMIUM_PATH" ]; then
+  echo "ERROR: $CHROMIUM_PATH not found or not executable" >&2
+  echo "Install with: sudo snap install chromium" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+echo "OK   chromium executable: $CHROMIUM_PATH"
+
+# 2. playwright importable from the project venv?
+if ! uv run python -c "from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+  echo "WARN playwright not importable from .venv — installing now"
+  uv pip install playwright
+fi
+echo "OK   playwright importable: $(uv run python -c 'import playwright; print(playwright.__version__)' 2>/dev/null)"
+
+# 3. backend + frontend up?
+if ! curl -s -m 3 http://localhost:8123/health >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+  echo "WARN uvicorn :8123 unreachable — start with 'uv run uvicorn app.main:app --port 8123'"
+fi
+if ! curl -s -m 3 -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' http://localhost:5173/ | grep -q 200 2>/dev/null; then
+  echo "WARN vite :5173 unreachable — start with 'cd frontend && ./node_modules/.bin/vite --host 0.0.0.0'"
+fi
+
+echo "================================================================"
+echo "Use this Playwright launch snippet in your dogfood script:"
+echo ""
+echo "    from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright"
+echo "    with sync_playwright() as p:"
+echo "        browser = p.chromium.launch("
+echo "            headless=True,"
+echo "            executable_path=\"$CHROMIUM_PATH\","
+echo "            args=$LAUNCH_ARGS,"
+echo "        )"
+echo ""
+
+# Optional: exec a passed script
+if [ "$#" -ge 1 ]; then
+  echo "================================================================"
+  echo "Executing: uv run python $*"
+  exec uv run python "$@"
+fi