optimclaw/tests/e2e/CLAUDE.md

IronClaw E2E Tests

Python/Playwright test suite that runs against a live ironclaw instance. Added in PR #553 ("Trajectory benchmarks and e2e trace test rig").

Setup

cd tests/e2e

# Create virtualenv (one-time)
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate   # or .venv\Scripts\activate on Windows

# Install dependencies
pip install -e .

# Install browser binaries (one-time)
playwright install chromium

Dependencies: pytest, pytest-asyncio, pytest-playwright, pytest-timeout, playwright, aiohttp, httpx. Optional: anthropic (vision extras). Requires Python >= 3.11.

Running Tests

# Activate venv first
source .venv/bin/activate

# Run all scenarios (conftest.py builds the binary and starts all servers automatically)
pytest scenarios/

# Run a specific scenario
pytest scenarios/test_chat.py
pytest scenarios/test_sse_reconnect.py

# Run with verbose output
pytest scenarios/ -v

# Run with a specific timeout (default is 120s per test, set in pyproject.toml)
pytest scenarios/ --timeout=60

# Run with a headed browser (useful for debugging)
HEADED=1 pytest scenarios/

Test Scenarios

File	What it tests
test_connection.py	Gateway reachability, tab navigation, auth rejection (no token shows auth screen)
test_chat.py	Send message via browser UI, verify streamed response from mock LLM; also tests empty-message suppression
test_html_injection.py	XSS vectors injected directly via page.evaluate("addMessage('assistant', ...)") are sanitized by renderMarkdown; user messages are shown as escaped plain text
test_skills.py	Skills tab UI visibility, ClawHub search (skipped if registry unreachable), install + remove lifecycle
test_sse_reconnect.py	SSE reconnects after programmatic eventSource.close() + connectSSE(); history is reloaded after reconnect
test_tool_approval.py	Approval card appears, buttons disable on approve/deny, parameters toggle; all triggered via page.evaluate("showApproval(...)") — no real tool call needed

helpers.py

Shared constants and utilities imported by every test file and conftest.py.

• SEL — dict of CSS/ID selectors for all DOM elements (chat input, message bubbles, approval card, tab buttons, skill search, etc.). Update this dict when frontend HTML changes; tests import selectors from here rather than hardcoding them.
• TABS — ordered list of tab names: ["chat", "memory", "jobs", "routines", "extensions", "skills"].
• AUTH_TOKEN — hardcoded to "e2e-test-token". Used by conftest.py when starting the server (GATEWAY_AUTH_TOKEN) and by the page fixture when navigating (/?token=e2e-test-token).
• wait_for_ready(url, timeout, interval) — polls a URL until HTTP 200 or timeout; used to wait for the gateway and mock LLM to become available.
• wait_for_port_line(process, pattern, timeout) — reads a subprocess's stdout line-by-line until a regex match; used to extract the dynamically assigned mock LLM port from MOCK_LLM_PORT=XXXX.

conftest.py and Fixtures

All fixtures are defined in tests/e2e/conftest.py. Running pytest scenarios/ from the tests/e2e/ directory picks up this conftest automatically (it is one level above scenarios/).

Session-scoped fixtures (run once per pytest invocation)

Fixture	What it does
ironclaw_binary	Checks target/debug/ironclaw; if absent, runs cargo build --no-default-features --features libsql (timeout 600s).
mock_llm_server	Starts mock_llm.py --port 0, reads the assigned port from stdout, waits for /v1/models to return 200. Yields the base URL.
ironclaw_server	Starts the ironclaw binary with a minimal env (see below), waits for /api/health (timeout 60s). Yields the base URL. On teardown sends SIGINT (not SIGTERM) so the tokio ctrl_c handler triggers a graceful shutdown and LLVM coverage data is flushed.
browser	Launches a single Chromium instance (headless by default; set HEADED=1 for headed). Shared across all tests.

Function-scoped fixtures

Fixture	What it does
page	Creates a fresh browser context (viewport 1280×720) and page per test, navigates to /?token=e2e-test-token, and waits for #auth-screen to become hidden before yielding. Closes the context after each test.

The function-scoped page fixture means each test gets a clean browser context (cookies, storage, etc.) but reuses the same ironclaw server and browser process. Tests that need the server URL directly (e.g., test_auth_rejection) accept ironclaw_server as an additional parameter.

Environment passed to ironclaw in tests

The ironclaw_server fixture injects a minimal, deterministic environment:

GATEWAY_ENABLED=true, GATEWAY_HOST=127.0.0.1, GATEWAY_PORT=<dynamic>
GATEWAY_AUTH_TOKEN=e2e-test-token, GATEWAY_USER_ID=e2e-tester
CLI_ENABLED=false
LLM_BACKEND=openai_compatible, LLM_BASE_URL=<mock_llm_url>, LLM_MODEL=mock-model
DATABASE_BACKEND=libsql, LIBSQL_PATH=<tmpdir>/e2e.db
SANDBOX_ENABLED=false, ROUTINES_ENABLED=false, HEARTBEAT_ENABLED=false
EMBEDDING_ENABLED=false, SKILLS_ENABLED=true
ONBOARD_COMPLETED=true   # prevents setup wizard

The binary is also started with --no-onboard. Coverage env vars (CARGO_LLVM_COV*, LLVM_*, CARGO_ENCODED_RUSTFLAGS, CARGO_INCREMENTAL) are forwarded from the outer environment when present.

Mock LLM (mock_llm.py)

An aiohttp-based OpenAI-compatible server used by tests that need deterministic LLM responses without hitting a real provider.

# Start manually (port auto-selected, printed as MOCK_LLM_PORT=XXXX)
python mock_llm.py --port 0

It serves POST /v1/chat/completions (streaming + non-streaming) and GET /v1/models. Responses are pattern-matched from CANNED_RESPONSES against the last user message. Unmatched messages return "I understand your request.". The model name reported is always "mock-model".

To add a new canned response:

# In mock_llm.py
CANNED_RESPONSES = [
    (re.compile(r"your pattern", re.IGNORECASE), "Your response"),
    ...
]

Configuration

conftest.py handles all server startup automatically — you do not need to start ironclaw manually before running pytest. The conftest builds the binary (libsql feature), starts the mock LLM, and starts ironclaw with a fresh temp database on every pytest invocation.

If you need to test against a manually started ironclaw, you can skip conftest by running pytest with --co (collect-only) to understand what would run, or by calling the httpx/REST helpers directly without the page fixture.

Writing New Scenarios

1. Create scenarios/test_my_feature.py.
2. All async functions are automatically recognized as tests — asyncio_mode = "auto" is set globally in pyproject.toml. Do not add @pytest.mark.asyncio; it is redundant and raises a warning.
3. Use the page fixture for browser tests (function-scoped, fresh context each test). Use ironclaw_server directly for pure HTTP tests.
4. Import selectors from helpers.SEL and helpers.AUTH_TOKEN — do not hardcode selectors or tokens inline.
5. Use httpx.AsyncClient for REST calls; aiohttp for SSE streaming.
6. Keep new fixtures session-scoped where possible; server startup is expensive. Function-scoped fixtures (like page) are fine for browser state that must be clean per test.

import httpx
from helpers import AUTH_TOKEN

async def test_my_endpoint(ironclaw_server):
    headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {AUTH_TOKEN}"}
    async with httpx.AsyncClient() as client:
        r = await client.get(f"{ironclaw_server}/api/health", headers=headers)
        assert r.status_code == 200

For browser tests:

from helpers import SEL

async def test_my_ui_feature(page):
    # page is already navigated and authenticated
    chat_input = page.locator(SEL["chat_input"])
    await chat_input.wait_for(state="visible", timeout=5000)
    # ... interact with the page ...

Gotchas

• asyncio_default_fixture_loop_scope = "session" — all async fixtures share one event loop. Do not use asyncio.run() inside fixtures; use await directly.
• The page fixture navigates with /?token=e2e-test-token and waits for #auth-screen to be hidden. Tests receive a page that is already past the auth screen and has SSE connected.
• test_skills.py makes real network calls to ClawHub. Tests skip (not fail) if the registry is unreachable via pytest.skip().
• test_html_injection.py and test_tool_approval.py inject state via page.evaluate(...). They test the browser-side rendering pipeline and do not depend on the LLM or backend tool execution.
• Browser is Chromium only. conftest.py uses p.chromium.launch(); there is no Firefox or WebKit variant.
• Default timeout is 120 seconds (pyproject.toml). Individual wait_for calls inside tests use shorter timeouts (5–20s) for faster failure messages.
• The libsql database is a temp directory created fresh per pytest invocation; tests do not share state across runs.

CI Integration

E2E tests run in CI with cargo-llvm-cov for coverage collection. The CI workflow (fix(ci): persist all cargo-llvm-cov env vars for E2E coverage — PR #559) sets LLVM_PROFILE_FILE and related vars before spawning the ironclaw binary so coverage from E2E runs is captured.