sitelooper

sitelooper

Write browser tests in plain English. Run them in CI as plain Playwright. Repair them automatically when the app changes.

sitelooper is a CLI with a small LLM agent inside. You give it one instruction at a time, such as "sign in as [email protected], create a ticket titled 'k7 Bench' and report its id". It works the live browser and returns one verified result. Every step it gets right is compiled into a procedure that replays with no model, no tokens and no cost, and can be exported as a standalone @playwright/test spec.

Recorded once against the in-repo repair-desk app (24s, 28s and 42s with the agent driving). The app is reset, the same flow replays in 16s with zero model calls, and then the app's own state is queried.

How it works

1. Record. A cheap model follows your instructions. As it works, sitelooper records durable locators, where each value came from, and what each step changed on the page.
2. Replay. The recording replays deterministically. If the app has changed under a step, only that step goes back to the model, and a recovery that validates is pinned into the flow, so the flow heals itself over runs.
3. Compile. sitelooper build emits a Playwright spec with effect checks on every step. It runs in CI with no sitelooper daemon and no model.

Results

Ten self-hosted apps, each job done once to record it, then twice more with no model, then as a compiled Playwright spec. The comparator is agent-browser driven by an LLM, which redoes the job on every run. Every run was scored against the app's own database or API, never against the tool's own report. September 2026:

app	sitelooper, first run	sitelooper replay ×2	compiled spec	agent-browser, GPT-6 Luna	agent-browser, GPT-6.1 Sol
repair-desk	6/6 · $0.02 · 187s	6/6 · $0 · 52s	6/6	6/6 · $0.01	6/6 · $0.29
Odoo	6/6 · $0.07 · 589s	6/6 · $0 · 193s	6/6	3/6 · $0.02	6/6 · $0.37
Grafana	6/6 · $0.09 · 615s	6/6 · $0 · 145s	pass	5/6, then 6/6 · $0.04	4/6 · $0.33
Kanboard	6/6 · $0.05 · 357s	6/6 · $0 · 56s	4/4 + 2 report-only	6/6, duplicate comment · $0.005	6/6 · $0.23
OpenProject	7/7 · $0.05 · 377s	7/7 · $0 · 93-132s	5/5 + 2 report-only	7/7, duplicate comment · $0.02	7/7 · $0.38
Gitea	7/7 · $0.04 · 324s	7/7 · $0 · 76s	5/5 + 2 report-only	6/7 · $0.09	7/7 · $0.25
Vikunja	7/7 · $0.04 · 270s	7/7 · $0 · 76s	5/5 + 2 report-only	7/7, duplicate comment · $0.01	7/7 · $0.28
EspoCRM	7/7 · $0.06 · 454s	7/7 · $0 · 165s	refused to compile	1/7 · $0.02	7/7 · $0.23
Snipe-IT	7/7 · $0.04 · 298s	7/7 · $0 · 78s	5/5 + 2 report-only	1/7 · $0.02	7/7 · $0.25
Ghost	7/7 · $0.02 · 142s	7/7 · $0 · 46s	5/5 + 2 report-only	7/7 · $0.005	7/7 · $0.10

• sitelooper verified every objective in all 30 runs, with GPT-6 Luna writing the instructions and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash driving the browser. Every replay ran with zero model calls. Nine of the ten compiled specs pass; EspoCRM's refuses to compile rather than guess.
• agent-browser on the same model was clean on 3 of 11 runs. It failed outright on Odoo, EspoCRM and Snipe-IT, posted duplicate comments on three apps, and twice reported work as done that the app had not saved.
• On GPT-6.1 Sol, about 20× the per-token price, agent-browser was clean on 9 of 10. It still pays that price on every run, and on Grafana it again reported unsaved settings as verified.

Report-only objectives ask a run to state a value in its final report, which a compiled spec does not write.

• bench/RESULTS.md: the protocol, the models, costs, and what the benchmark does not show
• bench/MATRIX-2026-09.md: every run, with its run id, commit and results branch
• bench/SWEEPS.md: one row per sweep, with the cause of every miss

Quick start

You need Node 20+ and an OpenRouter API key for authoring. The compiled tests need only @playwright/test.

npm install -g sitelooper
npm install -D @playwright/test && npx playwright install chromium
export OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-...
sitelooper doctor        # shows the provider and models it will use, and why
sitelooper init          # writes sitelooper.config.json

Record one logical outcome per instruction. Use {{env:NAME}} for credentials, and declare values that should change between runs with var. Here, demo becomes a {{runid}} slot:

sitelooper --session ticket --learn open http://localhost:3000
sitelooper --session ticket var runid=demo
sitelooper --session ticket do "Sign in as {{env:TEST_USER}} using {{env:TEST_PASSWORD}} and verify the dashboard opens"
sitelooper --session ticket do "Create a ticket titled 'demo Test'; verify it appears and report its id"
sitelooper --session ticket assert "the ticket list shows 'demo Test' with status Open"
sitelooper --session ticket stop --save-flow ticket
sitelooper flow export ticket --out .sitelooper/procedures.json

Build the test and run it:

sitelooper build ticket --var runid=test-{n} --reset-cmd "npm run reset:e2e"
# or, if your Playwright fixtures already prepare fresh data:
# sitelooper build ticket --var runid=test-{n} --fixture-isolation
# with a reset command, build converges by default (2 rounds): it re-records the steps a refusal or
# a failing spec names (the model works those steps only). Tune or opt out:
# sitelooper build ticket --var runid=test-{n} --reset-cmd "npm run reset:e2e" --converge 3 [--rerecord-runs 2] [--json]
# sitelooper build ticket --var runid=test-{n} --reset-cmd "npm run reset:e2e" --no-converge
npx playwright test tests/sitelooper/ticket.spec.ts

ticket.flow.ts is generated: it holds the procedures, a typed input/output API, named steps and effect checks. ticket.spec.ts belongs to you. Add business assertions and fixtures there, and recompiling will never overwrite it.

Why an agent's own script doesn't rerun

Asking the agent to write a script from what it did fails for structural reasons:

• The run's values are baked in. The script quotes today's record id, so tomorrow it opens yesterday's record, or works the wrong one to completion and reports success.
• The selectors name positions, not things. tr:nth-of-type(3), generated class names, a textbox named after the current minute.
• The waits are gone. Each of the agent's observation turns was a pause the app needed.
• Nobody checks the effect. A click can "succeed" on the wrong element, and a save can be refused by a dialog the script never saw.

sitelooper treats the recording as evidence to compile, not text to replay:

• Locator chains, including role and name, label, test id and a structural path. Candidates are retired by measuring which ones resolve on each replay.
• Parameters, not literals. Typed values become slots, and declared values become {{runid}}. A value that one step read and a later step used is threaded between them live. An id the app minted is re-read on each run, and anything with no source is left for recovery instead of being guessed.
• Effect gates. A step that ran but did not produce its recorded effect stops the replay before the next step acts on the wrong state.
• A recovery ladder. Each step first replays with zero model calls. If that fails, a cheap model recovers it; if that is blocked, a stronger model tries; if that fails too, the run halts and reports per-step state.
• Nothing app-specific in the tool. App knowledge goes in an optional per-session briefing, so a fix for one app never becomes a hack for it.

Using it in a project

Readiness means running the emitted code

build <flow-or-bundle> compiles the flow and runs the readiness gate. check <name.flow.ts> --ready runs the same gate on an existing artifact. Plain compile works offline, and plain check runs the spec once.

build also converges by default when a reset command is available (--reset-cmd or resetCommand in the project config): it runs the compiled spec once and, if the compile is refused, the spec fails, or it passes only through a blocking locator fallback (below), re-records the step it names (2 rounds; --converge N sets the count), then runs the readiness gate on the spec that passed. Without a reset command it cannot check against a clean app, so it compiles and runs readiness exactly as before and prints one line (and, with --json, a convergence: { skipped: true, why } field) saying convergence was skipped. Re-recording calls the model: with no API key configured, build compiles and checks once and stops with status unavailable if a re-record is needed. --no-converge restores compile plus readiness only.

Convergence also redoes work the recording did that the flow left out. An instruction that changed the app but did not report success is not a flow step (omitted in the flow file, an omitted-work warning at compile); when nothing later in the flow entered its values again, build puts the instruction back as a step where it was recorded (04b-… after 04-…, so no existing step id moves), re-records it with the model, and drops the omission once the step is pinned. Without convergence build stops before readiness and says which instruction is missing: a spec that passes without that work does not show the task was done. Plain compile still only warns.

The gate requires three clean executions with retries disabled. Each run starts from state prepared by the reset command or by declared fixtures, and it uses at least two distinct datasets ({n} becomes 1, 2, 3). No step may be skipped or unresolved, and no locator fallback may decide what a run acts on or uses: a fallback on an action, or on a read whose value a later step or assertion uses, blocks. A fallback on a read that only feeds the final report is listed under warnings in the evidence and does not block. Convergence applies the same rule, so a spec it calls converged is not refused by readiness for the same fallback. The gate uses your Playwright config and project (--config, --project). Evidence goes to <name>.readiness.json, or to --report <file.json>. Three clean runs are an execution gate, not a statistical guarantee against flakiness.

--negative-spec <file> adds an authored fault-injection test that must fail its outcome assertion, and it reports failureDetection: verified. See project fixtures and negative checks.

Assertions: conditions that must hold on every run

do records what the agent did. assert records something you want to be true, and it makes that check impossible to skip. It takes a sentence and never acts on the page:

sitelooper --session ticket assert "the order total is 370.00"
sitelooper --session ticket assert "no error banner is showing"

The sentence is checked against the page now. Exit 0 means it held, 1 means it did not, and 2 means the check could not run. In a --learn session a passing assert is also recorded as its own step of the saved flow. A model finds the element once, at record time. After that the step replays and compiles with no model.

An assert can record seven conditions: an element is visible, an element is hidden, its text equals a value, its text contains a value, a count of matching elements, a form field's value, and the page url contains a value.

The expected value must be written in the sentence. It can be a literal, the value of a declared var, or a value an earlier step reported. A value the agent only read off the page does not count: "the total is correct" would turn into "the total equals whatever it shows", and the page would agree with itself on every run. If the sentence states no value to compare with, the assert fails and says so.

A recorded assert is strict. If it does not hold, or its element cannot be found, there is no recovery ladder, no model call and no re-pin, and nothing may skip it as already done:

• In sitelooper run the step's status is assert-failed and the flow halts.
• In the compiled spec the test fails with assertion failed: <your sentence> — <detail>, or assertion could not be checked: <your sentence> — <detail> when no recorded locator found the element.

assert is for conditions a sentence can state. For anything else, such as a computed comparison or a check against the app's own API, write an expect call in your .spec.ts. That file is yours, and recompiling never overwrites it. See choosing between the two.

Project configuration

sitelooper init creates sitelooper.config.json. The nearest ancestor config supplies defaults, and CLI flags override them. Never put credentials in this file.

{
  "targetUrl": "http://localhost:3000",
  "vars": { "runid": "test-{n}" },
  "requiredVars": ["runid"],
  "resetCommand": "npm run reset:e2e",
  "playwright": { "config": "playwright.config.ts", "project": "chromium" },
  "verificationRuns": 3,
  "outputDir": "tests/sitelooper",
  "snapshotFile": ".sitelooper/procedures.json"
}

targetUrl may be relative to Playwright's baseURL. fixtureIsolation: true replaces the reset command. flow export bundles a flow with its pinned procedures so that another machine can compile it. Commit the bundle, the config and the generated files.

One-time codes

Put a test account's TOTP seed (base32, or the whole otpauth:// URI) in an environment variable and write {{totp:NAME}} where the code goes. The code is generated when it is typed. Recordings and compiled specs keep only the marker, never the seed or a code.

export TEST_TOTP=JBSWY3DPEHPK3PXP   # a test user's seed, never a real person's
sitelooper --session ticket do "Enter the authentication code {{totp:TEST_TOTP}} and verify the dashboard opens"

Repair once, review, apply

sitelooper repair tests/sitelooper/ticket.flow.ts --propose ticket-repair.json \
  --var runid=repair-{n} --reset-cmd "npm run reset:e2e"
sitelooper repair apply ticket-repair.json

A proposal does a live triage run and convergence runs, and then checks a staged candidate under plain Playwright next to your original spec. Review it before you apply it. apply writes exactly the source that was checked, and it refuses if anything has changed since then. Your .spec.ts is never rewritten. When a diagnostic points at a bad recording, run rerecord <flow> <step> to re-record just that step in isolation.

Override flags are kept separate: --allow-demoted accepts a diagnosed demoted procedure, and --overwrite-spec replaces the user scaffold.

Calling from another agent

--json returns versioned results (schemaVersion, stage, outcome, nextActions as argument arrays). --report <file.json> writes the same document to a fixed path. Progress goes to stderr. For multiline instructions, use do --instruction-file <file> or do --stdin.

do returns {report: {status, summary, details?, evidence?}, turns, usage, model}. On a turn or time cap it also returns actions, the tool calls that ran, so a caller can check state before resuming. Snapshots, retries and tool chatter stay inside the daemon.

Exit codes: 0 success, 1 agent/recording failure, 2 invalid input, 3 replay convergence failure, 4 compiled-spec/readiness failure.

Claude Code plugin

The sitelooper plugin teaches Claude to write browser tests, repair them and drive the browser with this CLI. It has three skills (write-browser-test, fix-browser-test, sitelooper) and no hooks or servers:

/plugin marketplace add restspace/sitelooper
/plugin install sitelooper@sitelooper

The skills are in plugin/skills/, and they also ship in the npm package. To use them without the plugin, copy each folder to ~/.claude/skills/. See plugin/README.md for what the plugin runs and sends.

MCP server

sitelooper mcp is a stdio MCP server. It gives an MCP client tools to open a page, run do and assert, build and check a flow, and repair or re-record a step. It runs the CLI underneath, so sessions are shared with your terminal. Set your model key (for example OPENROUTER_API_KEY) in your own environment. Prefer inheriting it or a prompted input to writing it into a JSON file.

Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport stdio sitelooper -- npx -y [email protected] mcp

Add --scope project to share it through .mcp.json, or --scope user for all projects. The key is inherited from the shell that starts Claude Code. On native Windows, use -- cmd /c npx -y [email protected] mcp.

Cursor (.cursor/mcp.json, or ~/.cursor/mcp.json for all projects), Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json) and Windsurf (mcp_config.json) use the same shape:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sitelooper": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "[email protected]", "mcp"],
      "env": { "OPENROUTER_API_KEY": "${env:OPENROUTER_API_KEY}" }
    }
  }
}

${env:NAME} reads the variable from your environment in Cursor and Windsurf. In Claude Desktop, leave env out and set the key as a user environment variable before you start the app.

VS Code (.vscode/mcp.json) uses servers and can prompt for the key without storing it:

{
  "inputs": [
    { "type": "promptString", "id": "sl-key", "description": "Model API key", "password": true }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "sitelooper": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "[email protected]", "mcp"],
      "env": { "OPENROUTER_API_KEY": "${input:sl-key}" }
    }
  }
}

Tools: open, do, assert, set_var, peek, screenshot, save_flow, list_flows, build_start, check, repair_propose, repair_apply, rerecord, job_status, sessions, stop, doctor. Builds and other long runs return a job_id to poll with job_status. See docs/mcp.md for inputs, safety rules and troubleshooting.

Reference

Providers

The LLM layer is an OpenAI-compatible adapter with presets.

Preset	Base URL	Default model	Escalation model	Key env var
openrouter (default)	https://openrouter.ai/api/v1	deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash (DeepSeek backend)	z-ai/glm-5.3	OPENROUTER_API_KEY
zhipu	https://api.z.ai/api/paas/v4	glm-5.2	—	GLM_API_KEY / ZHIPU_API_KEY
novita	https://api.novita.ai/openai	deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash	zai-org/glm-5.3	NOVITA_API_KEY
openai	https://api.openai.com/v1	gpt-5-mini	—	OPENAI_API_KEY
anthropic	https://api.anthropic.com (native Messages API)	claude-sonnet-5	—	ANTHROPIC_API_KEY

Every field resolves in the order flag > env > config file > preset: --provider, --model, --base-url, --fallback-model; SITELOOPER_PROVIDER, SITELOOPER_MODEL, SITELOOPER_FALLBACK_MODEL, SITELOOPER_BASE_URL, SITELOOPER_API_KEY; and sitelooper config set <key> <value>, which writes ~/.sitelooper/config.json. Prefer env for the key.

• No provider named. A Z.ai key keeps zhipu. Otherwise OPENROUTER_API_KEY selects openrouter, a generic SITELOOPER_API_KEY goes to zhipu, and with no key at all the default is openrouter. sitelooper doctor prints the choice and the reason.
• Routing pin. With its default model, the openrouter preset sends {"provider":{"only":["DeepSeek"]}}, which is the backend the benchmark prices assume. SITELOOPER_EXTRA_BODY replaces it, and '{}' turns it off. SITELOOPER_FALLBACK_EXTRA_BODY sets the same for the escalation model.
• Escalation. An instruction reported blocked is retried once on the escalation model, in the same browser, which is told to re-check state before it repeats anything. A verified failure is not retried. --no-escalate turns this off.

Configuration

Env / flag	Default
SITELOOPER_CHANNEL	chrome → msedge → bundled	browser channel
SITELOOPER_EXECUTABLE	—	explicit browser binary
SITELOOPER_HEADED=1, --headed	headless	visible window (first call of a session)
SITELOOPER_HOME	~/.sitelooper	sessions, skills, flows, config
SITELOOPER_SKILLS=1, --learn	off	learning mode; SITELOOPER_SKILLS_DIR relocates the store
SITELOOPER_FLOWS_DIR	~/.sitelooper/flows	flow files
SITELOOPER_RECORD=1, --record	off	webm per tab; paths printed by stop
SITELOOPER_SCRIPT=1, --script	off	record every action as a raw Playwright step (exploratory)
--max-turns	30	agent turn cap per instruction
--timeout	300	wall-clock seconds per instruction
--turn-timeout	90	seconds for one LLM call before it is aborted and nudged

Run sitelooper --help for the full command reference.

What it will not do

• Canvas-rendered content has no DOM to read or verify. The agent reports blocked.
• Anti-bot evasion, CAPTCHA solving and crawling are out of scope. sitelooper is for apps you operate or are authorised to test.
• Vision. The agent is text-only and reads the accessibility tree and the DOM.
• Guessing credentials. A missing or rejected credential is reported as blocked immediately, never retried.

Development

npm run build                         # tsc -> dist/
npm test                              # unit tests
BP_BROWSER_TESTS=1 npx vitest run     # + browser-backed replay tests (needs Chrome/Edge)

test/rebuild.test.ts recompiles real published recordings and pins what they compile to. It runs the built engine, so build before you test. The benchmark procedure and targets are under bench/.

sitelooper was previously published on npm as sleep-walker. Env-var prefixes and home directories from its earlier names still work as aliases; the old command names do not.