QA automation

Record once. Replay. Export to CI.

Interact with the task app below, hit Stop, then Play — the app rewinds to your starting state and replays every action with visual highlights. Hit Export Playwright to get a ready-to-commit .spec.ts with real expect() assertions for DOM, classes, styles, hidden, disabled, aria-*, network requests, and WebSocket messages.

What is captured — and what is not

The recorder uses a DOM event listener + a scoped MutationObserver. Understanding the boundaries helps you write zero-maintenance tests.

Captured automatically

✓ Click, input value, checkbox state, change, scroll
✓ DOM nodes added / removed inside the observed scope
✓ CSS class changes (JS-driven) e.g. task-item--done
✓ Inline style changes e.g. display:none → block
✓ aria-*, hidden, disabled attribute changes
✓ Network requests via fetch → mocked in Playwright export

Not captured — easy to fix

✗ Pure CSS :hover / :focus appearance — no DOM mutation fires
Fix: toggle a class in a mouseover handler, or use page.screenshot() visual regression in Playwright
✗ Canvas / WebGL visual output
✗ Browser-native UI: file picker, date picker, alert()

Recording approach for assessors

Use this workflow to speed up assessor checks and generate tests from real user flows.

Open the app (or staging URL) you need to verify.
Call o.startRecording(observeRoot) — e.g. o.startRecording('#task-app') or o.startRecording('#app') to scope recording to the relevant root.
Perform the user flows to be verified (clicks, inputs, scrolls, submit, keydown, focus, blur).
Call o.stopRecording() and store the result.
Export: o.exportTest(recording) for Objs tests, or o.exportPlaywrightTest(recording) for Playwright.
Optional: in dev builds, o.playRecording(recording) to verify replay before exporting.

Best practices

Use stable selectors (data-qa / o.autotag) so exports survive CSS and layout changes.
Pass an observe selector to limit MutationObserver and assertion noise to the app container.
Review auto-generated assertions in the exported file before committing.

Strict vs lenient replay

By default, DOM assertions are lenient: list items can shift by one index, visible text can match via substring search, and nodes recorded as removed skip matching automatically. For tighter regression checks, pass options to o.playRecording (or o.runRecordingAssertions): e.g. strictPlay: true, or individually strictAssertions, strictNetwork (request body must match the mock), strictWebSocket (outbound frames must match), strictRemoved (verify absence instead of auto-pass). You can persist defaults on the JSON by starting recording with o.startRecording({ observe: '#app', strictCaptureNetwork: true, … }).

Live demo

Scope: o.startRecording('#task-app') — only mutations inside the task app are observed, so the dev panel and page chrome produce no noise in assertions. Try adding tasks, toggling checkboxes, pressing Enter to submit — all events, attribute changes, and assertions are captured. After replay you get an optional manual check (e.g. hover effects).

Show success tests results

No actions recorded yet.

# 1. paste → tests/recorded.spec.ts # 2. review assertions (expect(), network, WebSocket) # 3. npx playwright test

data-qa selectors survive CSS refactors — no maintenance

Try the test overlay

The 🧪 Tests overlay (bottom-right) shows results of all test runs: auto steps and manual checks. For assessors: after replay, open the overlay to see if all auto tests passed and which manual checks failed. Run the example below — then click the overlay button to see pass/fail for each step.

Test function examples

Complete test functions you can paste into your app or get from Export Objs test. Run any example to see pass/fail.

Unit test — o.addTest

o.addTest('Task list sanity', [
  ['list container exists', () => !!document.querySelector('#task-app')],
  ['store has tasks array', () => Array.isArray(taskStore.tasks)],
]);

With before/after hooks

let fixture;
o.addTest('With hooks', [
  ['fixture is set', () => fixture === 1],
], { before: () => { fixture = 1; }, after: () => { fixture = 0; } });

From recording — o.exportTest() style

o.addTest('Recorded test', [
  ['click on [data-qa="task-add-btn"]', () => {
    const el = document.querySelector('[data-qa="task-add-btn"]');
    if (!el) return 'element not found';
    el.click(); return true;
  }],
], () => { /* teardown */ });

Manual check — o.testConfirm (dev-only)

const r = await o.testConfirm('Manual check', ['Item verified']);
// r.ok === true if all checked; r.errors = unchecked labels