Generating tests
Don't hand-write locators — pick them. The taqwright inspector is a browser-based device viewer that ranks candidate selectors against the live screen, and codegen is the same inspector with recording on, emitting a runnable spec as you drive the app.
Inspector & codegen
The inspector is a browser-based device viewer + locator picker. Run:
npx taqwright codegenIt boots a local server (default port 5274) and opens your browser. From the inspector you can:
- Connect to a device — local Appium (the inspector will spawn Appium if nothing is listening) or a cloud provider (BrowserStack, LambdaTest).
- Pick a locator — tap any element on the live screen. The inspector verifies multiple candidate locators against the device and ranks them by uniqueness and stability. Non-unique candidates get auto-suffixed with
.nth(i)so you always get a unique selector. - Drive the device — click, double-tap, long press, fill, swipe, scroll, pinch, drag, hardware buttons, check/uncheck, focus/blur, press, selectOption.
- Assert — visible / hidden / enabled / checked / text / value / count / attribute / editable / focused / empty / inViewport / attached. Each assertion verifies on the live device first; if it would fail, you get a "Record anyway?" prompt.
Codegen
Codegen is the same inspector with recording on by default:
npx taqwright codegenEvery action you perform appends a line of taqwright source to the generated spec, which you can copy out as a runnable test. The emitted file is a full import { test, expect } from 'taqwright'; test('recorded test', …) spec — drop it under tests/ and npx taqwright test runs it as-is.
Debug a live test
await mobile.pause() mid-test. When the test hits that line, the inspector attaches to the running WebDriver session (no new Appium boot), opens in your browser, and the test resumes when you click Resume in the UI. Set PWDEBUG=0 to make pause() a no-op in CI without removing it.
This is the interactive counterpart to post-mortem tracing — pause when you want to poke at a stuck step by hand, trace when you want the whole timeline after the fact.