Run Test Plan

SkillAI & models

Execute YAML test plan, stop on first failure, output rich debug prompt

Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.

Connect ahel once, and every AI you use reads what you have installed.

Then ask your AI: use the Run Test Plan skill

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by existential-birds/beagle in plugins/beagle-testing/skills/run-test-plan/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.

Execute a YAML test plan, run setup commands, health checks, and each test sequentially. Stop on first failure with rich debug output.

Prerequisites

  • agent-browser CLI: Browser tests require the agent-browser command-line tool to be available on PATH

Arguments

  • --plan <path>: Path to test plan (default: docs/testing/test-plan.yaml)
  • --skip-setup: Skip setup commands and health checks (for re-running after failure)

Step 1: Parse Test Plan

Read and validate the test plan:

# Resolve plan path from --plan (default shown)
PLAN_PATH="${PLAN_PATH:-docs/testing/test-plan.yaml}"

# Check file exists
ls "$PLAN_PATH" || { echo "Error: Test plan not found: $PLAN_PATH"; exit 1; }

# Validate YAML
python3 -c "import yaml; yaml.safe_load(open('$PLAN_PATH'))" || { echo "Error: Invalid YAML: $PLAN_PATH"; exit 1; }

Extract from the YAML:

  • setup.commands: List of setup commands
  • setup.health_checks: List of URLs to poll
  • tests: Array of test cases

Step 2: Run Setup (unless --skip-setup)

2a. Check Prerequisites

If setup.prerequisites exists, verify each one:

# For each prerequisite in setup.prerequisites
<prerequisite.check> || { echo "Prerequisite not met: <prerequisite.name>"; exit 1; }

2b. Set Environment Variables

If setup.env exists, export each variable. Variables using ${VAR} syntax should be resolved from the current environment:

# For each key/value in setup.env
export <key>="<value>"

2c. Build

If setup.build exists, execute build commands sequentially:

# For each command in setup.build
<command> || { echo "Build failed: <command>"; exit 1; }

2d. Start Services

If setup.services exists, start long-running processes and wait for health checks:

# For each service in setup.services
nohup <service.command> > .beagle/service-<index>.log 2>&1 &
echo $! > .beagle/service-<index>.pid

For each service with a health_check, poll until ready:

timeout=<service.health_check.timeout or 30>
url=<service.health_check.url>
elapsed=0

while [ $elapsed -lt $timeout ]; do
  if curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" "$url" | grep -qE "^(200|301|302)"; then
    echo "✓ Health check passed: $url"
    break
  fi
  sleep 2
  elapsed=$((elapsed + 2))
done

if [ $elapsed -ge $timeout ]; then
  echo "✗ Health check timeout: $url"
  exit 1
fi

2e. Legacy Setup Format

If the plan uses the older flat format (setup.commands + setup.health_checks instead of prerequisites/build/services), fall back to executing setup.commands sequentially and polling setup.health_checks as before.

Step 3: Gate — setup ready before tests

Do not start Step 4 until each condition you can check is true:

  1. Plan load: The file from --plan (default docs/testing/test-plan.yaml) exists and parses as YAML (same checks as Step 1).
  2. Setup branch:
    • If not using --skip-setup: Every setup.prerequisites check that exists exited 0; every setup.build command succeeded; every service health_check reached HTTP 200, 301, or 302 within its timeout or legacy setup.health_checks passed after setup.commands.
    • If using --skip-setup: Before TC-01, confirm anything the plan still needs is alive—at minimum one successful curl (or equivalent) to each URL in setup.health_checks or each setup.services[].health_check.url that the tests depend on.
  3. Evidence path: mkdir -p docs/testing/evidence succeeds and the directory exists.

If any gate fails, stop, fix setup or flags, and do not execute tests.

Step 4: Execute Tests Sequentially

For each test in the plan:

4a. Log Test Start

## Running: TC-XX - <test.name>

Context: <test.context>

4b. Execute Steps

For each step in test.steps, determine the step type and execute accordingly:

Shell commands (run: steps):

The most common step type. Execute the command via Bash and capture stdout, stderr, and exit code:

# Execute the command, capture output and exit code
<command> 2>&1
echo "EXIT_CODE: $?"

Capture all output for evaluation in step 4c. Shell steps cover:

  • CLI binary invocations (e.g., ./target/debug/myapp status --all)
  • Database queries (e.g., psql "${DATABASE_URL}" -c "SELECT ...")
  • File inspection (e.g., ls -la /path/to/expected/output)
  • Process lifecycle checks (e.g., timeout 5 ./myapp 2>&1 || true)
  • Any other command a human would type in a terminal

curl actions (action: curl steps):

curl -X <method> \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  <additional headers> \
  -d '<body>' \
  "<url>" \
  -o response.json \
  -w "%{http_code}" > status_code.txt

# Capture response for evaluation
cat response.json
cat status_code.txt

agent-browser CLI actions:

Steps starting with agent-browser are browser automation commands:

# Navigate
agent-browser open <url>

# Snapshot interactive elements (always do before interacting)
agent-browser snapshot -i

# Interact using refs from snapshot output (@e1, @e2, etc.)
agent-browser fill @<ref> "<value>"
agent-browser click @<ref>

# Wait for conditions
agent-browser wait --url "<pattern>"
agent-browser wait --text "<text>"
agent-browser wait --load networkidle

# Capture evidence
agent-browser screenshot docs/testing/evidence/<test.id>.png

Important: Always run agent-browser snapshot -i before interacting with elements to get valid refs, and re-snapshot after navigation or significant DOM changes.

Save screenshots to docs/testing/evidence/<test.id>.png

4c. Evaluate Result

Gate — artifacts before PASS/FAIL:

  • run: steps: Stdout and stderr captured; exit code recorded (e.g. EXIT_CODE: line or equivalent).
  • action: curl steps: Response body and HTTP status captured to known paths (e.g. response.json, status_code.txt or paths the plan specifies).
  • agent-browser steps: After any navigation or DOM change, a fresh agent-browser snapshot -i exists before asserting; if the test records evidence, the screenshot file path is created or failure is explicit.

Then, using agent reasoning, compare actual outcome against test.expected:

  • Read the expected behavior description
  • Compare with actual response/screenshot
  • Determine PASS or FAIL

4d. On PASS

✓ TC-XX PASSED: <test.name>

Continue to next test.

4e. On FAIL

Stop immediately. Go to Step 6.

Step 5: On All Tests Pass

## Test Results: ALL PASSED

| ID | Name | Result |
|----|------|--------|
| TC-01 | <name> | ✓ PASS |
| TC-02 | <name> | ✓ PASS |
| ... | ... | ... |

**Total:** N/N tests passed

### Evidence

Screenshots saved to `docs/testing/evidence/`

### Cleanup

Stopping background services...

Clean up:

# Kill background services
for pidfile in .beagle/service-*.pid .beagle/dev-server.pid; do
  if [ -f "$pidfile" ]; then
    kill $(cat "$pidfile") 2>/dev/null
    rm "$pidfile"
  fi
done

Step 6: On Failure - Generate Debug Prompt

When a test fails, generate rich debug output:

6a. Gather Context

# Get changed files relevant to the failure
git diff --name-only $(git merge-base HEAD origin/main)..HEAD

# Get recent changes in files mentioned in test.context
git diff $(git merge-base HEAD origin/main)..HEAD -- <relevant_files>

6b. Output Debug Report

## Test Failure: TC-XX - <test.name>

### What Failed

**Test:** <test.name>
**Expected:**
<test.expected>

**Actual:**
<Describe what actually happened - response code, error message, screenshot description>

### Relevant Changes in This PR

<For each file mentioned in test.context or related to the failure:>
- `<file>` (lines X-Y) - <brief description of changes>

### Evidence

<If screenshot exists:>
- Screenshot: `docs/testing/evidence/<test.id>.png`

<If API response:>
- Status code: <code>
- Response body:
```json
<response>

Error Details

Suggested Investigation

<Based on the error, suggest 2-3 specific things to check:>

  1. <Third thing about environment/setup>

Debug Session Prompt

Copy this to start a new agent session:


I'm debugging a test failure in branch <branch>.

Test: <test.name> Error:

Relevant files:

Help me investigate why .


### 6c. Preserve Evidence

```bash
# Ensure evidence directory exists
mkdir -p docs/testing/evidence

# Save failure context
cat > docs/testing/evidence/<test.id>-failure.md << 'EOF'
# Failure Report: <test.id>

<Full debug report content>
EOF

6d. Cleanup and Exit

# Kill background services
for pidfile in .beagle/service-*.pid .beagle/dev-server.pid; do
  if [ -f "$pidfile" ]; then
    kill $(cat "$pidfile") 2>/dev/null
    rm "$pidfile"
  fi
done

Test Results Summary Table

Always output a summary table showing progress:

## Test Results

| ID | Name | Result |
|----|------|--------|
| TC-01 | <name> | ✓ PASS |
| TC-02 | <name> | ✗ FAIL |
| TC-03 | <name> | - SKIP |

**Passed:** 1/3
**Failed:** TC-02

Tests after a failure are marked as SKIP (not executed).

Verification

Before completing:

# Verify evidence directory exists
ls -la docs/testing/evidence/

# List captured evidence
ls docs/testing/evidence/*.png docs/testing/evidence/*.md 2>/dev/null

Pass conditions (all must be true to call the run complete):

  • ls -la docs/testing/evidence/ exits 0 (directory exists).
  • Every test that ran has an explicit PASS or FAIL (not only “felt right”).
  • If any test failed: a failure artifact exists (docs/testing/evidence/<test.id>-failure.md or equivalent) or the debug report was emitted with expected vs actual.
  • Cleanup ran: no stale .beagle/service-*.pid pointing at live processes you started, unless the plan says to leave them up.

Verification Checklist:

  • Setup commands executed successfully (or --skip-setup with live dependencies confirmed)
  • Health checks passed before test execution (Step 3 gate)
  • Each executed test has recorded result
  • Evidence captured in docs/testing/evidence/
  • On failure: debug prompt includes expected vs actual
  • On failure: relevant PR changes listed
  • Background processes cleaned up

Gates (ordered)

  1. Plan valid: YAML parses; required keys for your branch (setup / tests) are present.
  2. Setup healthy: Step 3 pass conditions met before TC-01.
  3. Per-test artifacts: Step 4c gate satisfied before marking PASS.
  4. Stop on fail: First failure → Step 6; later tests = SKIP in the summary table.
  5. Cleanup: Step 5 or Step 6d executed so background PIDs from this run are released.

Rules

  • Stop on first test failure (do not continue to other tests)
  • Always capture evidence (screenshots, responses)
  • Include file:line references in debug prompts when possible
  • Use --skip-setup flag to re-run after fixing issues
  • Never hardcode secrets - use environment variables
  • Clean up background processes even on failure
  • Preserve failure evidence for debugging
  • Make debug prompts copy-paste ready for new sessions

Signals

GitHub stars
81
Forks
8
Last commit
Aug 2026
Advanced
Catalog kind
skill
Gateway key
run-test-plan
Source
github.com/existential-birds/beagle