Use Retest from an agent

A coding agent can run Retest the way a person does. When it does, the output gets shorter, and every event and result can be read as JSON.

The short report #Link to The short report

When Retest detects a coding agent, retest run prints the agent report. It waits for the run to end, then prints the counts, one block per failure and the next command.

retest: 1 failed, 1 passed (2) in 6.1s, exit 1fail tests/tasks.retest.ts:7 saves a task  check_failed toHaveText getByTestId('saved-task')  expected "Release checklist" received "Saving…" waited 5003ms for toHaveText, looked 14 times, limit 5000ms  compared whole text, ends trimmed, each run of spaces or line breaks read as one space  screenshot .retest/runs/<time>/artifacts/…/screenshot-failure-1.pngnext: npx retest inspect .retest/runs/<time> --test "tests/tasks.retest.ts > saves a task" --json

• The first line has the counts, the time and the exit code. A passing run is two lines.
• Each failure gives its line, its kind, the call, both values and the wait, each fact once.
• The next: line is the command that shows more, usually retest inspect on the first failure.
• Retest detects an agent from the variables agents set in their shells, such as AGENT or AI_AGENT. --agent turns the report on, and --no-agent turns it off.

Exit codes #Link to Exit codes

JSON to read #Link to JSON to read

Events and results follow schema version 1 and have published JSON Schemas. The output of list --json has no published schema yet.

Agent sessions #Link to Agent sessions

An agent that explores an app can drive a browser without a test file. An agent session uses the same drivers, commands and looks a test uses. Its API is AgentHost, from @rehearsal-labs/retest/agent.

import { AgentHost } from '@rehearsal-labs/retest/agent'const host = new AgentHost({ targets: { chrome: { engine: 'chromium', executablePath } }, budget, logFolder, secrets: { values: { password: { value } } } })const opened = await host.open({ owner: 'worker-1', app: 'owner', purpose: 'discovery', target: 'chrome', engine: 'chromium', baseUrl })if (!opened.ok) throw new Error(opened.failure.message)const { session } = openedawait session.act({ kind: 'goto', url: '/login' })const field = await session.observe({ by: 'testId', value: 'user' })const [first] = field.ok ? field.look.elements : []if (first !== undefined) await session.act({ kind: 'fill', ref: first.ref, value: 'owner-a' })const saved = await session.saveState()await session.end()await host.close()

• act sends one command a test's page takes, to a locator or to a reference from a look. The answer says how far the input got: not sent, sent or unknown.
• observe reads a locator's matches once and gives each a reference. A reference acts only on the element it names, and is refused once the page has changed.
• recipe turns a reference into a locator a saved test can keep, only when a read proves it finds that same element.
• The host holds the secrets. A fill of { secret: 'password' } types only on origins the host allows.
• Every session holds a lease. A session nobody calls for a minute is ended, and its browser context is given back.
• An agent session writes no events and no run folder.