Frontend Testing

Unlock reliable confidence fast: enable safe refactors by choosing the right test layer, making the app observable, and eliminating nondeterminism so failures are actionable.

Philosophy: Confidence Per Minute

Frontend tests fail for two reasons: the product is broken, or the test is lying. Your job is to maximize signal and minimize “test is lying”.

Before writing a test, ask:

• What user risk am I covering (money, progression, auth, data loss, “can’t start” crashes)?
• What’s the narrowest layer that catches this bug class (pure logic vs UI vs full browser)?
• What nondeterminism exists (time, RNG, async loading, network, animations, fonts, GPU)?
• What “ready” signal can I wait on besides setTimeout?
• What should a failure print/screenshot so it’s diagnosable in CI?

Core principles:

1. Test the contract, not the implementation: assert stable user-meaningful outcomes and public seams.
2. Prefer determinism over retries: make time/RNG/network controllable; remove flake at the source.
3. Observe like a debugger: console errors, network failures, screenshots, and state dumps on failure.
4. One critical flow first: a reliable smoke test beats 50 flaky tests.

Workflow Decision Tree

Pick the test type by the cheapest layer that provides the needed confidence:

• Unit tests (fastest): pure functions, reducers, validators, math, pathfinding, deterministic simulation steps.
• Component/integration tests (medium): UI behavior with mocked IO (React Testing Library / Vue Testing Library / Testing Library DOM).
• E2E tests (slowest, highest confidence): critical user flows across routing, storage, real bundling/runtime.
• Visual regression (specialized): layout/pixel regressions; for canvas/WebGL, only after locking determinism.
• A11y checks: great for DOM UIs; limited value for pure canvas unless you expose accessible DOM overlays.

Quick Start (Any Project)

1. Define 1 smoke flow: “page loads → user can start → one key action works”.
2. Choose runner:
   • Prefer Playwright for browser E2E + screenshots.
   • Prefer Testing Library for DOM component behavior.
   • Prefer unit tests for logic you can run without a browser.
3. Add a “ready” signal in the app (DOM marker, window flag, or game event) and wait on that.
4. Fail loudly: treat console errors and failed requests as test failures.
5. Stabilize: seed RNG, freeze time, fix viewport/DPR, disable animations, and remove network variability.

Playwright Patterns (Especially Useful For Games)

Use Playwright when you need “real browser” confidence:

• Drive input via mouse/keyboard/touch; treat the canvas like the user does.
• Add a test seam: expose a small, stable test API on window (read-only state + a few commands).
• Prefer waitForFunction-style readiness over sleep; gate on “scene ready” / “assets loaded” / “first frame rendered”.
• For screenshots: lock viewport, device scale factor, fonts, and animation timing.
• For 9-slice / canvas UI regressions: add a dedicated UI harness scene/page and assert via targeted screenshots (see references/phaser-canvas-testing.md).

If using the Playwright MCP tools (browser automation inside Codex), follow the same mindset:

• Use browser_console_messages and browser_network_requests to catch silent failures.
• Use browser_evaluate to assert window.__TEST__ state and to set up deterministic mode.
• Use browser_take_screenshot for visual assertions after determinism is enforced.

Reconnaissance-Then-Action (Borrowed From Real Debugging)

When a UI is dynamic, don’t guess selectors—recon first, then act:

Quick decision guide:

Task → Is it static HTML (no JS runtime needed)?
  ├─ Yes → read the HTML to find stable selectors/content, then automate
  └─ No  → treat as dynamic: run the app, wait for readiness, then inspect rendered state

1. Navigate and wait for readiness:
   • For many webapps: wait for a meaningful “loaded” element (preferred).
   • networkidle can help for SPAs, but avoid it if the app uses websockets/polling.
2. Capture evidence (what the user actually sees):
   • screenshot (full page for DOM; targeted for canvas)
   • console errors + failed requests
3. Discover selectors from the rendered state:
   • prefer role/text/label selectors over brittle CSS
4. Execute actions using discovered selectors and re-check state.

Common pitfall: ❌ Inspect/interact before the app is ready. ✅ Wait on an explicit ready signal (DOM marker or window.__TEST__.ready), not a sleep.

Server Lifecycle Helper (Playwright E2E)

When the dev server isn’t already running, use the bundled helper as a black box:

• Run python scripts/with_server.py --help first.
• Start one (or multiple) servers, wait for their ports, then run your test command.

Example:

python scripts/with_server.py --server "npm run dev" --port 5173 -- npm test

Flake Reduction Checklist

• Replace sleeps with explicit readiness conditions.
• Control time (Date.now, timers), RNG, and animation loops.
• Make network deterministic (mock, record/replay, or run against a seeded local backend).
• Eliminate “first-run” differences (asset caches, fonts) or warm them explicitly.
• Lock environment: viewport, DPR, locale/timezone, and rendering settings.

Anti-Patterns to Avoid

❌ Testing the wrong layer: E2E tests for pure logic. Better: unit tests for logic; reserve E2E for integration contracts.

❌ Testing implementation details: asserting DOM structure/classnames or internal engine objects. Better: assert user-meaningful outputs (text, navigation, score/HP changes) or a small stable test seam.

❌ Sleep-driven tests: wait 2s then click. Better: wait on explicit readiness (DOM marker, event, window flag).

❌ Uncontrolled randomness: RNG/time-based behaviors in assertions. Better: seed RNG, freeze time, and assert stable invariants.

❌ Pixel snapshots without determinism (especially canvas/WebGL). Better: add deterministic mode first; then screenshot selectively.

❌ Snapshot explosion: hundreds of snapshots that no one can interpret. Better: keep snapshots targeted (critical screens); prefer specific assertions for behavior.

❌ Retries as a strategy: “just bump retries in CI”. Better: fix readiness and determinism; use retries only as temporary guardrails.

Variation Guidance (Prevent One-Size-Fits-All)

Vary the approach based on:

• UI type: DOM app vs canvas/WebGL game vs hybrid.
• Risk: core revenue/progression flows get E2E first; edge UI polish gets component tests.
• CI constraints: headless-only, limited GPU, slow CPUs, no audio devices.
• Test seam availability: if you can add a stable window.__TEST__ API, assert state; if not, stick to black-box input/output.

Remember

You can make almost any frontend (including canvas/WebGL games) testable by adding a tiny, stable seam for readiness + state. This skill is meant to empower creative, high-signal testing rather than cargo-cult checklists. Aim for tests that are boring to maintain: deterministic, explicit about readiness, and rich in failure evidence. One reliable smoke test is the foundation; everything else compounds from there.

Bundled Resources

Read these only when needed:

• references/playwright-mcp-cheatsheet.md: patterns for using Playwright MCP tools for assertions, waiting, and diagnostics.
• references/phaser-canvas-testing.md: deterministic mode + hooks for Phaser/canvas/WebGL games.
• references/flake-reduction.md: deeper flake triage and stabilization tactics.

Use these scripts as black boxes (run --help first; don’t read source unless you must):

• scripts/with_server.py: start/wait/stop one or more dev servers around a test command.
• scripts/imgdiff.py: lightweight screenshot diff helper (requires pip install pillow).