🪄 Testing with AI

CodeceptJS is the first open-source test automation framework with AI features to improve the testing experience. CodeceptJS uses AI provider like OpenAI or Anthropic to auto-heal failing tests, assist in writing tests, and more...

Think of it as your testing co-pilot built into the testing framework

🪄 AI features for testing are experimental. AI works only for web based testing with Playwright, WebDriver, etc. Those features will be improved based on user's experience.

How AI Improves Automated Testing

LLMs like ChatGPT can technically write automated tests for you. However, ChatGPT misses the context of your application so it will guess elements on page, instead of writing the code that works.

CodeceptJS can share the testing context with AI provider when asked questions about a test.

So, instead of asking "write me a test" it can ask "write a test for this page". GPT knows how to write CodeceptJS code, how to build good-looking semantic locators and how to analyze HTML to match them. Even more, GPT suggestions can be tested in real-time in a browser, making a feedback loop.

CodeceptJS AI can do the following:

• 🏋️‍♀️ assist writing tests in pause() or interactive shell mode
• 🚑 self-heal failing tests (can be used on CI)
• 💬 send arbitrary prompts to AI provider from any tested page attaching its HTML contents

How it works

As we can't send a browser window with ChatGPT we are not be able to fully share the context. But we can chare HTML of the current page, which is quite enough to analyze and identify if a page contains an element which can be used in a test.

AI providers have limits on input tokens but HTML pages can be huge. However, some information from a web page may be irrelevant for testing. For instance, if you test a blog, you won't need text contents of a post, as it can't be used in locators. That's why CodeceptJS sends HTML with all non-interactive HTML elements removed. So, only links, buttons, fields, etc will be sent to AI as a context. In case you have clickable <div> but with no role="button" it will be ignored. Also, we minify HTML before sending.

Even though, the HTML is still quite big and may exceed the token limit. So we recommend using models with at least 16K input tokens, (approx. 50K of HTML text), which should be enough for most web pages. It is possible to strictly limit the size of HTML to not exceed tokens limit.

❗AI features require sending HTML contents to AI provider. Choosing one may depend on the descurity policy of your company. Ask your security department which AI providers you can use.

Set up AI Provider

To enable AI features in CodeceptJS you should pick an AI provider and add ai section to codecept.conf file. This section should contain request function which will take a prompt from CodeceptJS, send it to AI provider and return a result.

ai: {
  request: async (messages) => {
    // implement OpenAI or any other provider like this
    const ai = require('my-ai-provider')
    return ai.send(messages);
  }
}

In request function messages is an array of prompt messages in format

[{ role: 'user', content: 'prompt text'}]

Which is natively supported by OpenAI, Anthropic, and others. You can adjust messages to expected format before sending a request. The expected response from AI provider is a text in markdown format with code samples, which can be interpreted by CodeceptJS.

Once AI provider is configured run tests with --ai flag to enable AI features

npx codeceptjs run --ai

Below we list sample configuration for popular AI providers

OpenAI GPT

Prerequisite:

• Install openai package
• obtain OPENAI_API_KEY from OpenAI
• set OPENAI_API_KEY as environment variable

Sample OpenAI configuration:

ai: {
  request: async (messages) => {
    const OpenAI = require('openai');
    const openai = new OpenAI({ apiKey: process.env['OPENAI_API_KEY'] })

    const completion = await openai.chat.completions.create({
      model: 'gpt-3.5-turbo-0125',
      messages,
    });
    
    return completion?.choices[0]?.message?.content;
  }
}

Mixtral

Mixtral is opensource and can be used via Cloudflare, Google Cloud, Azure or installed locally.

The simplest way to try Mixtral on your case is using Groq Cloud (opens new window) which provides Mixtral access with GPT-like API:

Prerequisite:

• Install groq-sdk package
• obtain GROQ_API_KEY from OpenAI
• set GROQ_API_KEY as environment variable

Sample Groq configuration with Mixtral model:

ai: {
  request: async (messages) => {
    const chatCompletion = await groq.chat.completions.create({
        messages,
        model: "mixtral-8x7b-32768",
    });
    return chatCompletion.choices[0]?.message?.content || "";
  }
}

Groq also provides access to other opensource models like llama or gemma

Anthropic Claude

Prerequisite:

• Install @anthropic-ai/sdk package
• obtain CLAUDE_API_KEY from Anthropic
• set CLAUDE_API_KEY as environment variable

ai: {
  request: async(messages) => {
    const Anthropic = require('@anthropic-ai/sdk');

    const anthropic = new Anthropic({
      apiKey: process.env.CLAUDE_API_KEY,
    });

    const resp = await anthropic.messages.create({
      model: 'claude-2.1',
      max_tokens: 1024,
      messages
    });      
    return resp.content.map((c) => c.text).join('\n\n');
  }
}

Azure OpenAI

Prerequisite:

• Install @azure/openai package
• obtain Azure API key, resource name and deployment ID

ai: {
  request: async(messages) => {
    const { OpenAIClient, AzureKeyCredential } = require("@azure/openai");

    const client = new OpenAIClient(
      "https://<resource name>.openai.azure.com/", 
      new AzureKeyCredential("<Azure API key>")
    );
    const { choices } = await client.getCompletions("<deployment ID>", messages);

    return choices[0]?.message?.content;
  }
}

Writing Tests with AI Copilot

If AI features are enabled when using interactive pause with pause() command inside tests:

For instance, let's create a test to try ai features via gt command:

npx codeceptjs gt

Name a test and write the code. We will use Scenario.only instead of Scenario to execute only this exact test.

Feature('ai');

Scenario.only('test ai features', ({ I }) => {
  I.amOnPage('https://getbootstrap.com/docs/5.1/examples/checkout/')
  pause();
});

Now run the test in debug mode with AI enabled:

npx codeceptjs run --debug --ai

When pause mode started you can ask GPT to fill in the fields on this page. Use natural language to describe your request, and provide enough details that AI could operate with it. It is important to include at least a space char in your input, otherwise, CodeceptJS will consider the input to be JavaScript code.

 I.fill checkout form with valid values without submitting it

GPT will generate code and data and CodeceptJS will try to execute its code. If it succeeds, the code will be saved to history and you will be able to copy it to your test.

This AI copilot works best with long static forms. In the case of complex and dynamic single-page applications, it may not perform as well, as the form may not be present on HTML page yet. For instance, interacting with calendars or inputs with real-time validations (like credit cards) can not yet be performed by AI.

Please keep in mind that GPT can't react to page changes and operates with static text only. This is why it is not ready yet to write the test completely. However, if you are new to CodeceptJS and automated testing AI copilot may help you write tests more efficiently.

👶 Enable AI copilot for junior test automation engineers. It may help them to get started with CodeceptJS and to write good semantic locators.

Self-Healing Tests

In large test suites, the cost of maintaining tests goes exponentially. That's why any effort that can improve the stability of tests pays itself. That's why CodeceptJS has concept of heal recipes, functions that can be executed on a test failure. Those functions can try to revive the test and continue execution. When combined with AI, heal recipe can ask AI provider how to fix the test. It will provide error message, step being executed and HTML context of a page. Based on this information AI can suggest the code to be executed to fix the failing test.

AI healing can solve exactly one problem: if a locator of an element has changed, and an action can't be performed, it matches a new locator, tries a command again, and continues executing a test. For instance, if the "Sign in" button was renamed to "Login" or changed its class, it will detect a new locator of the button and will retry execution.

You can define your own heal recipes that won't use AI to revive failing tests.

Heal actions work only on actions like click, fillField, etc, and won't work on assertions, waiters, grabbers, etc. Assertions can't be guessed by AI, the same way as grabbers, as this may lead to unpredictable results.

If Heal plugin successfully fixes the step, it will print a suggested change at the end of execution. Take it as actionable advice and use it to update the codebase. Heal plugin is supposed to be used on CI, and works automatically without human assistance.

To start, make sure AI provider is connected, and heal recipes were created and included into codecept.conf.js or codecept.conf.ts config file. Then enable heal plugin:

plugins: {
  heal: {
    enabled: true
  }
}

If you tests in AI mode and test fails, a request to AI provider will be sent

npx codeceptjs run --ai

When execution finishes, you will receive information on token usage and code suggestions proposed by AI. By evaluating this information you will be able to check how effective AI can be for your case.

Arbitrary GPT Prompts

What if you want to take ChatGPT on the journey of test automation and ask it questions while browsing pages?

This is possible with the new AI helper. Enable it in your config and it will automatically attach to Playwright, WebDriver, or another web helper you use. It includes the following methods:

• askGptOnPage - sends GPT prompt attaching the HTML of the page. Large pages will be split into chunks, according to chunkSize config. You will receive responses for all chunks.
• askGptOnPageFragment - sends GPT prompt attaching the HTML of the specific element. This method is recommended over askGptOnPage as you can reduce the amount of data to be processed.
• askGptGeneralPrompt - sends GPT prompt without HTML.

OpenAI helper won't remove non-interactive elements, so it is recommended to manually control the size of the sent HTML.

Here are some good use cases for this helper:

• get page summaries
• inside pause mode navigate through your application and ask to document pages
• etc...

// use it inside test or inside interactive pause
// pretend you are technical writer asking for documentation
const pageDoc = await I.askGptOnPageFragment('Act as technical writer, describe what is this page for', '#container');

As of now, those use cases do not apply to test automation but maybe you can apply them to your testing setup.

Advanced Configuration

GPT prompts and HTML compression can also be configured inside ai section of codecept.conf file:

ai: {
  // define how requests to AI are sent 
  request: (messages) => {
    // ...
  }
  // redefine prompts 
  prompts: {
    // {}
  },
  // how to process HTML content
  html: {
    // {}
  }
  // limit the number of tokens to be
  // used during one session
  maxTokens: 100000
}

Default prompts for healing steps or writing steps can be re-declared. Use function that accepts HTML as the first parameter and additional information as second and create a prompt from that information. Prompt should be an array of messages with role and content data set.

ai: {
  prompts: {
    writeStep: (html, input) => [{ role: 'user', content: 'As a test engineer...' }]
    healStep: (html, { step, error, prevSteps }) => [{ role: 'user', content: 'As a test engineer...' }]
  }
}

HTML is processed before sending it to GPT to reduce the number of tokens used. You may need to adjust default settings to work with your application. For instance, the default strategy may remove some important elements, or contrary keep HTML elements that have no use for test automation.

Here is the default config:

ai: {
  html: {
    maxLength: 50000,
    simplify: true,
    minify: true,
    interactiveElements: ['a', 'input', 'button', 'select', 'textarea', 'option'],
    textElements: ['label', 'h1', 'h2'],
    allowedAttrs: ['id', 'for', 'class', 'name', 'type', 'value', 'tabindex', 'aria-labelledby', 'aria-label', 'label', 'placeholder', 'title', 'alt', 'src', 'role'],
    allowedRoles: ['button', 'checkbox', 'search', 'textbox', 'tab'],
  }
}

• maxLength: the size of HTML to cut to not reach the token limit. 50K is the current default but you may try to increase it or even set it to null.
• simplify: should we process HTML before sending to GPT. This will remove all non-interactive elements from HTML.
• minify: shold HTML be additionally minified. This removed empty attributes, shortens notations, etc.
• interactiveElements: explicit list of all elements that are considered interactive.
• textElements: elements that contain text which can be used for test automation.
• allowedAttrs: explicit list of attributes that may be used to construct locators. If you use special data- attributes to enable locators, add them to the list.
• allowedRoles: list of roles that make standard elements interactive.

It is recommended to try HTML processing on one of your web pages before launching AI features of CodeceptJS.

To do that open the common page of your application and using DevTools copy the outerHTML of <html> element. Don't use Page Source for that, as it may not include dynamically added HTML elements. Save this HTML into a file and create a NodeJS script:

const { removeNonInteractiveElements } = require('codeceptjs/lib/html');
const fs = require('fs');

const htmlOpts = {
  interactiveElements: ['a', 'input', 'button', 'select', 'textarea', 'label', 'option'],
  allowedAttrs: ['id', 'for', 'class', 'name', 'type', 'value', 'aria-labelledby', 'aria-label', 'label', 'placeholder', 'title', 'alt', 'src', 'role'],
  textElements: ['label', 'h1', 'h2'],
  allowedRoles: ['button', 'checkbox', 'search', 'textbox', 'tab'],
};

html = fs.readFileSync('saved.html', 'utf8');
const result = removeNonInteractiveElements(html, htmlOpts);

console.log(result);

Tune the options until you are satisfied with the results and use this as html config for ai section inside codecept.conf file. It is also recommended to check the source of removeNonInteractiveElements (opens new window) and if needed propose improvements to it.

For instance, if you use data-qa attributes to specify locators and you want to include them in HTML, use the following config:

{
  // inside codecept.conf.js
  ai: {
    html: {
      allowedAttrs: [
        'data-qa', 'id', 'for', 'class', 'name', 'type', 'value', 'aria-labelledby', 'aria-label', 'label', 'placeholder', 'title', 'alt', 'src', 'role'
      ]
    }
  }
}

Debugging

To debug AI features run tests with DEBUG="codeceptjs:ai" flag. This will print all prompts and responses from AI provider

DEBUG="codeceptjs:ai" npx codeceptjs run --ai