Testplane's AI Tools
Testplane provides a set of AI integration tools that help agents write, inspect, debug, and fix your Testplane tests.
The goal of these tools is to turn a generic coding agent into Testplane expert that understands how Testplane projects are usually structured, how tests should be written, and how failures should be investigated.
Capabilities
- Let AI agents explore your app and "see" what's happening through token-efficient DOM snapshots
- Generate new tests based on the actual application state
- See how agents follow best practices when writing tests out of the box
- Handle authentication without reading secrets
- Enable agents investigate failures from CI reports
- Let agents debug tests via REPL
Available Tools
Testplane Skill teaches AI agents how to work with Testplane projects end to end, how to use @testplane/cli. It's packed with best practices and comprehensive documentation that agents can make use of.
Testplane CLI is what powers the Testplane Skill and makes browser automation accessible right from the CLI.
Testplane MCP matches the capabilities of @testplane/cli, but offers another way to interact with the browser: through the MCP protocol.
Which tool to use?
If unsure, prefer Testplane Skill. It works great for most workflows and is the best pick overall: coding agents love CLIs, it's token-efficient and provides enough context about all things Testplane.
| Skill | CLI | MCP | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it works | LLM reads a markdown file with instructions, reaches out to | LLM runs shell commands to interact with the browser | LLM interacts with the browser via MCP tool calls |
| Token efficiency | High, progressive discovery | High, concise CLI calls | Lower, depends on the agent harness |
| Default browser mode | Headless | Headless | Headful |
| Supported scenarios | Complex workflows + browser automation | Interaction with browser, reports inspection | Same as CLI |
Comparison with other solutions
Overall, we recommend using Testplane AI toolkit when working with Testplane projects, because it was designed specifically around this use case and provides deep integrations with Testplane ecosystem, allowing agents to:
- Read what Testplane code that was run on each Testplane CLI/MCP tool call and copy+paste it when writing tests
- Analyze Testplane reports (both local and from CI) and fix failed tests
- Inspect Time Travel snapshots to debug what went wrong and adjust tests as your app evolves
- Debug tests with agents-friendly REPL debugger
- Understand Testplane's capabilities and usage patterns through concise reference in Testplane Skill
We've studied other tools for agentic browser automation — below is a brief comparison of the most notable projects in the field, hopefully helping you navigate through possible options.
Built-in browser in Cursor, CC, Cline, etc.
Cursor's Browser and Cline's Browser Automation are built-in ways to interact with the browser, providing tools for navigation, taking page snapshots, various interactions and reading browser's console logs.
Cursor's built-in browser has a neat design sidebar that allows you to quickly modify your app's design and point at certain elements when writing prompts.
However, these tools have major limitations when trying to use them for web apps testing:
- Cline doesn't have DOM snapshot tool at all — it relies solely on screenshots
- Cursor's snapshot tool returns accessibility tree which lacks CSS classes, almost all HTML attributes and has a flat structure, losing all DOM hierarchy data
- They offer very limited support for browsers: only Chrome with no mobile emulation and no special capabilities
- No way of securely handling auth data
Playwright
Playwright CLI is a powerful and popular tool for browser automation. Its notable features include network requests inspection and devtools capabilities.
The main limitations are:
- No report analysis, Time Travel snapshot inspection, or REPL debugging
- Tool responses are focused on Playwright code, which may confuse agents working with Testplane
- Snapshots are based on accessibility trees, without CSS classes, precise DOM structure, or many useful HTML attributes
Playwright CLI is a popular choice, but it lacks several features that unlock powerful workflows and it doesn't have the Testplane-specific context.
Chrome DevTools MCP
Chrome Devtools MCP besides regular browser tools provides niche features like taking memory snapshots and browser extension management.
For Testplane projects, the main limitations are:
- It is specific to Chrome
- Snapshots are based on the accessibility tree, without CSS classes or precise DOM structure
- It doesn't integrate with Testplane tooling, reports, Time Travel snapshots, or the Testplane REPL
Overall, it provides deep low-level integration with Chrome's devtools capabilities, but is not focused on web apps testing and doesn't have integrations with testplane tooling.
Vercel's agent-browser
Vercel's agent-browser is a generic browser automation, with a large set of tools, including network inspection and profiling.
Its strength is flexibility, but it is not tied to any particular test runner or testing workflow.
For Testplane usage, this means:
- It is not focused specifically on web app testing
- Snapshots are based on accessibility trees
- It doesn't integrate with Testplane tooling, reports, Time Travel snapshots, or the Testplane REPL
agent-browser can be useful for general browser automation, but it lacks the Testplane-specific integrations agents need to write, debug, and fix tests effectively.
Staying informed
Stumbled upon a bug, have a question or an idea? Let us now:
You can track new releases over here.