Recording with the Cloud Recorder

The Cloud Recorder is the default way to author a web test. When you create one, Testsnag opens a live browser session inside your dashboard that mirrors your site exactly as a real user would see it. Nothing needs to be installed, no permissions need to be granted on your machine, and no network configuration is required on your side. Everything runs in the cloud, which means the recording you capture today is reproducible from anywhere tomorrow.

12345

1. 1The live browser session. Your site renders here exactly as a customer sees it.
2. 2Use Browser hands you manual control: your clicks and keystrokes are captured as steps.
3. 3Use AI describes what you want in plain English instead.
4. 4Never record with real credentials or production data.
5. 5Every interaction lands here as an editable step.

Recording a session

Click "Start Recording" in the header and use your site as you normally would. That one button is the whole control: it opens the session, starts capturing, and stops both when you click it again. Every click, key press, navigation, and form submission is captured as a structured step that appears in the panel beside the browser. Each step has a type (click, type, navigate, wait, and so on), a target (the element it acts on), and an optional description you can edit. Recording the action is only half of a test. The other half is asserting state, and that part is what turns a recorded session into a meaningful, durable check.

Starting where you left off

When a test already has steps, starting a new session replays them before handing control back to you. The steps list shows the replay working through them and marks anything that failed, so you are put back at the end of the flow with the app in the right state instead of at a blank home page. It also means a broken step is surfaced the moment you sit down to extend the test, rather than on the next scheduled run.

Adding assertions

Add an assertion whenever you want Testsnag to confirm something is true. Useful assertions include "this button now reads Subscribed", "this banner has disappeared", "the URL contains /thank-you", "this element is visible", and "this text is present on the page". Without assertions a test just clicks through the motions, and if your site silently breaks (for example, the form posts but the success page never renders) the test will still pass. With assertions, each step does its work and verifies the work had the expected effect, which is the actual definition of a passing run.

Describing steps in plain English

For complex steps you can also describe what you want in plain English in the AI chat panel. Telling Testsnag "click the dropdown and select United Kingdom" will translate into the right step, which is faster than hunting for a tricky selector in a dynamic UI. When you are happy with the recording, replay it once to confirm everything still works, fix any flakes by adjusting waits or assertions, and save.

Human in the Loop

The Human in the Loop toggle is worth knowing about. In the current recorder it means manual browser control during authoring, not a special paused step during later runs. Turn it on when you want to drive the live browser directly with your own cursor and keyboard while Testsnag captures what you do. Turn it off when you want AI browser control to take over again. It is most useful for fiddly UI work, flows that are easier to demonstrate than describe, and moments when you want a person to steer the recording precisely.

Those two, AI control and Human in the Loop, are the modes the recorder offers. The live browser is shown in a floating window you can drag out of the way or expand to fill the screen.