wacat - Challenge Your Web App with Cat Chaos and AI-Powered Error Detection!

Imagine, you leave your computer for a while and go to pick up a cup of coffee. Meanwhile, your cat walks over your keyboard and causes some chaos.

wacat (walking cat) application

Navigates to the root URL of your web application
Visits every link in your application in a random order
Inputs random text into forms
Selects random values from dropdown menus, checkboxes, etc
Clicks every button in a random order

Additionally, wacat:

Detects error messages on web pages using AI
- This is an optional feature and requires an OpenAI API key
Detects HTTP errors (e.g., HTTP 500 errors) between the browser and server
Detects errors in the browser's console log
Detects user-defined error messages on web pages
- These error messages are specified in a parameter file
- Use this if AI is not enabled
Supports user-defined configurations for random form text inputs
Can read form inputs from external files (e.g., resources like Combined-Wordlists)
Can focus exclusively on testing links, which is useful for smoke testing your application
Supports some authentication scenarios
- Authentication configurations are provided in a JSON file
Allows configuration of pages that should not be visited
Supports a headless mode
Allows configuration of page download wait times and overall test timeout values
Supports running in CI pipelines

Technical details

wacat uses the Playwright tool internally. It is tested to work on Windows, Linux, and Mac.

Reporting bugs and requesting features

If you encounter a bug or need a specific feature, please create a new issue.

Current Version

The current version of wacat is 1.2.0. Please refer to the end of this page for the change history.

Warnings

Please ensure you only test your own web application or have explicit permission to test someone else’s application. Testing the vulnerabilities of an application without authorization could be illegal.

The application is designed to stay within the host you are testing. However, as this is a hobby project, unexpected behavior is possible. It's important to monitor wacat's actions and use Ctrl + C to stop the process if it navigates to an unintended page.

Additionally, if your application requires authentication and your wacat authentication configuration is incorrect or incompatible, it could lead to issues such as account lockouts. wacat could also potentially disrupt your application's database or other components. For these reasons, it is strongly recommended to use wacat only in a testing environment.

Installation

Install Node.js

Install Node.js from here. wacat has been tested and verified to work with Node.js version 20 on Linux, Mac, and Windows.

Clone wacat and install it

Clone the wacat repository, navigate to the wacat folder, and run the following command:

npm install && npx playwright install --with-deps && npm run build && npm install -g

Note: You may be prompted for your password when running the above command, as the Playwright tool is installed globally.

Optional: Add OpenAI API Key

If you want to use AI for error detection (see details below), add your OpenAI API key and model to a .env file:

OPENAI_API_KEY=<your key here>
OPENAI_API_MODEL=<your model here>

Important: Providing an OpenAI API key will result in charges from OpenAI for API usage. While wacat has been thoroughly tested, please be aware that programming errors could lead to a higher-than-expected number of calls to the OpenAI API.

You can also add the following optional environment variable to the .env file:

MAX_PAGE_CONTENT_CHARS=<your value here>

This value sets the maximum number of characters sent to the OpenAI API for error detection. The default is 3000 if not specified. See additional details below.

Updating wacat

To update wacat to the latest version, run:

git pull && npm install && npx playwright install --with-deps && npm run build && npm i -g

Running

Basic usage

Run the following command in the wacat folder:

wacat test <your url>

For example, the command:

wacat test https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/

tests a simple application at the URL https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/. The application includes the following pages:

First, the wacat application opens the Chromium browser and navigates to the root URL provided in the command:

The root page does not contain any input fields, dropdown menus, or similar elements. wacat simply collects links to the two subpages and visits them. On each subpage, wacat performs the following actions:

Presses the button
Fills the form fields, selects options from dropdown menus, etc.
Presses the button again

Here is the command for you to copy, paste, and run. You can follow the same process to run all other examples. Feel free to experiment with the provided test applications.

wacat test https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/

Testing in url: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/. Please wait...


Running 1 test using 1 worker
[chromium] › test.spec.ts:41:1 › test an application
In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/
In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/working-page2
Push the button #1
Filling the #1 text input field a value: _k6AKNU3z"{=myqS.K
The label is 'Your Date of Birth Here', so generating an appropriate random content for the input field
Filling the #2 text input field a value: 16/09/2004
The #1 drop-down list. Selecting the option #2
Selecting the #1 checkbox
The #1 radio button group. Selecting the radio button #3
Filling the #1 email input field a value: [email protected]
Filling the #1 password input field a value: A#1!!a#!#AaA!A
Filling the #1 search input field a value: SZOmqATkrV
Filling the #1 url input field a value: https://nrebn.com
Push the button #1
In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/working-page
Push the button #1
Filling the #1 text input field a value: _k6AKNU3z"{=myqS.K
The label is 'Your Date of Birth Here', so generating an appropriate random content for the input field
Filling the #2 text input field a value: 16/09/2004
The #1 drop-down list. Selecting the option #2
Selecting the #1 checkbox
The #1 radio button group. Selecting the radio button #2
Filling the #1 email input field a value: [email protected]
Filling the #1 password input field a value: aa2B#1aA!##2A#!AaA
Filling the #1 search input field a value: lSjsBVOzkhCC
Filling the #1 url input field a value: https://vpo7ut.net
Push the button #1
  1 passed (24.3s)

Note: The default wait time for each page is 5000 milliseconds. To adjust this wait time, use the --wait flag (see details later).

Optional: Detect errors on the page with AI

Here is an example application that contains an error message, "An unexpected error occurred! Please try again after some time.", on one of its subpages:

If you provide an OpenAI API key (see above), wacat can use AI to detect error messages like this on the page.

For example, run the command:

wacat test https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-error-in-page.vercel.app/

The command output might look like this:

Testing in url: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-error-in-page.vercel.app/. Please wait...

 ›   Error: 
 ›   Error occurred: Command failed: ROOT_URL='https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-error-in-page.vercel.app/' npx playwright test --project=chromium --headed
 ›    + stderr:  + stdout: 
 ›   Running 1 test using 1 worker
     [chromium] › test.spec.ts:45:1 › test an application
 ›   In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-error-in-page.vercel.app/
     Check with the AI that the page doesn't contain errors.
     In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-error-in-page.vercel.app/working-page
     Check with the AI that the page doesn't contain errors.
     Push the button #1
     Check with the AI that the page doesn't contain errors.
     Filling the #1 text input field a value: AyXoEJ_Sd$(7+JqeROkD
     The #1 drop-down list. Selecting the option #2
     Push the button #1
     Check with the AI that the page doesn't contain errors.
     In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-error-in-page.vercel.app/error-text-in-page
     Check with the AI that the page doesn't contain errors.
       1) [chromium] › test.spec.ts:45:1 › test an application ──────────────────────────────────────────
 ›   
 ›       AssertionError: The AI detected that current page contains error, the page contents are: Test page An unexpected error occurred! Please try again after some time.
 ›
 ›         162 |                 console.log(errorMessage);
 ›         163 |             } else {
 ›       > 164 |                 fail(errorMessage);
 ›             |                 ^
 ›         165 |             }
 ›         166 |         }
 ›         167 |     }
 ›
 ›           at checkPageForErrors (/home/lenovo/projektit/wacat/e2e-tests/test.spec.ts:164:17)
 ›           at handlePage (/home/lenovo/projektit/wacat/e2e-tests/test.spec.ts:127:5)
 ›           at visitLinks (/home/lenovo/projektit/wacat/e2e-tests/test.spec.ts:507:13)
 ›           at handlePage (/home/lenovo/projektit/wacat/e2e-tests/test.spec.ts:137:5)
 ›           at /home/lenovo/projektit/wacat/e2e-tests/test.spec.ts:78:5
 ›
       1 failed
 ›       [chromium] › test.spec.ts:45:1 › test an application ───────────────────────────────────────────

When wacat uses AI, it logs the message:

Check with the AI that the page doesn't contain errors.

for every page.

If the AI detects an error, wacat logs a message like this (see the error message above):

The AI detected that current page contains error, the page contents are: Test page An unexpected error occurred! Please try again after some time.

To log AI errors without halting the test, use the --bypass-ai-errors flag. For example:

wacat test --bypass-ai-errors https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-error-in-page.vercel.app/

Handling OpenAI API rate limits

The OpenAI API has rate limits based on your organization's subscription. For example, if you see an error like this:

Error: 429 Rate limit reached for *** in organization 
 ›   ************ on requests per min (RPM): Limit 3, Used 3, 
 ›   Requested 1. Please try again in 20s.

use the --wait parameter (as explained below) to slow down wacat's requests. You may also need to adjust the test timeout using the --timeout parameter (as explained below).

For daily request limits, such as:

Error: 429 Rate limit reached for *** in organization 
 ›   ************ on requests per day (RPD): Limit 200, Used 
 ›   200, Requested 1. Please try again in 7m12s.

wait for the limit to reset, and then rerun wacat.

Managing OpenAI token usage

If your queries exceed the API's tokens-per-minute limit, you can use the MAX_PAGE_CONTENT_CHARS .env variable (see above) to control the number of characters wacat sends per page to the API for analysis.

The base prompt contains approximately 1600 characters. For example, if you set MAX_PAGE_CONTENT_CHARS to 400, the total prompt size will be around 2000 characters, or roughly 500 tokens (1 token is approximately 4 characters in English). The response will always consist of a single token, so primarily manage the prompt size.

For more details, refer to https://help.openai.com/en/articles/4936856-what-are-tokens-and-how-to-count-them.

Detect HTTP errors

wacat can detect HTTP errors occurring between the browser and the server. For example, in the application shown below, clicking the button triggers an HTTP 500 error:

You can test this scenario with the following command:

wacat test https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-http-500-error.vercel.app/

The command output might look like this:

Testing in url: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-http-500-error.vercel.app/. Please wait...

 ›   Error: 
 ›   Error occurred: Command failed: ROOT_URL='https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-http-500-error.vercel.app/' npx playwright test --project=chromium --headed
 ›    + stderr:  + stdout: 
 ›   Running 1 test using 1 worker
     [chromium] › test.spec.ts:40:1 › test an application
 ›   In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-http-500-error.vercel.app/
     In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-http-500-error.vercel.app/working-page
     Push the button #1
     Filling the #1 text input field a value: 4trK*edD
     The #1 drop-down list. Selecting the option #2
     Push the button #1
     In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-http-500-error.vercel.app/api-returns-http-500
     Push the button #1
     In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-http-500-error.vercel.app/api-returns-http-500: Request to https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-http-500-error.vercel.app/api/http-500 resulted
 ›    in status code 500
     In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-http-500-error.vercel.app/api-returns-http-500: Found an error message in the browser's console: Failed to load resource: the server responded 
 ›   with a status of 500 ()
     In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-http-500-error.vercel.app/api-returns-http-500: Found an error message in the browser's console: Error fetching data: Error: Network response was
 ›    not ok
 ›       at r (https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-http-500-error.vercel.app/_next/static/chunks/pages/api-returns-http-500-d6a108dd102494f7.js:1:1402)
 ›       at async n (https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-http-500-error.vercel.app/_next/static/chunks/pages/api-returns-http-500-d6a108dd102494f7.js:1:735)
       1) [chromium] › test.spec.ts:40:1 › test an application ──────────────────────────────────────────
 ›   
 ›       AssertionError: In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-http-500-error.vercel.app/api-returns-http-500: Request to 
 ›   https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-http-500-error.vercel.app/api/http-500 resulted in status code 500
 ›
 ›         51 |
 ›         52 |             if (!bypassHttpErrors) {
 ›       > 53 |                 fail(message);
 ›            |                 ^
 ›         54 |             }
 ›         55 |         }
 ›         56 |     });
 ›
 ›           at Page.<anonymous> (/home/lenovo/projektit/wacat/e2e-tests/test.spec.ts:53:17)
 ›
       1 failed
 ›       [chromium] › test.spec.ts:40:1 › test an application

In this example, wacat detects the HTTP 500 error, logs it with "1 failed," and stops execution. The specific error message is:

AssertionError: In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-http-500-error.vercel.app/api-returns-http-500: Request to 
 ›   https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-http-500-error.vercel.app/api/http-500 resulted in status code 500

Continuing execution despite HTTP errors

To prevent wacat from stopping execution on HTTP errors, use the --bypass-http-errors flag. For example:

wacat test --bypass-http-errors https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-http-500-error.vercel.app/

In this case, wacat logs the HTTP 500 error but continues the test execution without stopping.

Detect user-defined error strings (if AI is not enabled)

Here is an example application where one subpage contains the error text:

An unexpected error occurred! Please try again after some time.

In this example, we configure wacat to detect the error text "An unexpected error occurred! Please try again after some time." We also want wacat to detect the error text "abc". This configuration is added to a JSON file as follows:

{
    "errorTextsInPages": ["abc", "An unexpected error occurred! Please try again after some time."]
}

The run command to use this JSON configuration file (via the --conf flag) is as follows:

For Windows:

wacat test --conf example-files\configuration-error-texts.json https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-error-in-page.vercel.app

For Linux and Mac:

wacat test --conf example-files/configuration-error-texts.json https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-error-in-page.vercel.app

The command output is:

Testing in url: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-error-in-page.vercel.app. Please wait...

 »   Error:
 »   Error occurred: Command failed: set ROOT_URL=https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-error-in-page.vercel.app && set CONFIGURATION_FILE_PATH=example-files\configuration-error-texts.json && npx playwright test --project=chromium
 »   --headed
 »    + stderr:  + stdout:
 »   Running 1 test using 1 worker
     [chromium] › test.spec.ts:45:1 › test an application
 »   In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-error-in-page.vercel.app/
     Check that the page doesn't contain the abc text
     Check that the page doesn't contain the An unexpected error occurred! Please try again after some time. text
     In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-error-in-page.vercel.app/error-text-in-page
     Check that the page doesn't contain the abc text
     Check that the page doesn't contain the An unexpected error occurred! Please try again after some time. text
       1) [chromium] › test.spec.ts:45:1 › test an application ──────────────────────────────────────────
 »
 »       Error: expect(received).not.toContain(expected) // indexOf
 »
 »       Expected substring: not "An unexpected error occurred! Please try again after some time."
 »       Received string:        "Test page An unexpected error occurred! Please try again after some time."
 »
 »         177 |     for (const errorText of configuration.errorTextsInPages) {
 »         178 |         console.log(`Check that the page doesn't contain the ${errorText} text`);
 »       > 179 |         expect(content).not.toContain(errorText);
 »             |                             ^
 »         180 |     }
 »         181 | }
 »         182 |
 »
 »           at checkPageForErrors (C:\repot\wacat\e2e-tests\test.spec.ts:179:29)
 »           at handlePage (C:\repot\wacat\e2e-tests\test.spec.ts:127:5)
 »           at visitLinks (C:\repot\wacat\e2e-tests\test.spec.ts:507:13)
 »           at handlePage (C:\repot\wacat\e2e-tests\test.spec.ts:137:5)
 »           at C:\repot\wacat\e2e-tests\test.spec.ts:78:5
 »
       1 failed
 »       [chromium] › test.spec.ts:45:1 › test an application ───────────────────────────────────────────

In this scenario, wacat detects the error text "An unexpected error occurred! Please try again after some time." on one subpage. It reports the error with the message "1 failed" and halts execution.

Detect errors in the browser's console

Here is an example application that logs an error in the browser's console:

When the following command is run:

wacat test https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-error-in-browser-console.vercel.app

the execution stops when an error is detected in the browser's console:

Testing in url: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-error-in-browser-console.vercel.app. Please wait...

 ›   Error: 
 ›   Error occurred: Command failed: ROOT_URL='https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-error-in-browser-console.vercel.app' WAIT=2000 npx playwright test --project=chromium --headed
 ›    + stderr:  + stdout: 
 ›   Running 1 test using 1 worker
     [chromium] › test.spec.ts:40:1 › test an application
 ›   In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-error-in-browser-console.vercel.app/
     In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-error-in-browser-console.vercel.app/working-page
     Push the button #1
     Filling the #1 text input field a value: q52<<r`k`bZzP<Jua#53RAn)cKg0&K14
     The #1 drop-down list. Selecting the option #2
     Push the button #1
     In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-error-in-browser-console.vercel.app/error-in-browser-console: Found an error message in the browser's console: Hello! Something wrong!
       1) [chromium] › test.spec.ts:40:1 › test an application ──────────────────────────────────────────
 ›   
 ›       AssertionError: In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-error-in-browser-console.vercel.app/error-in-browser-console: Found an error message in the browser's console: Hello! 
 ›   Something wrong!
 ›
 ›         62 |
 ›         63 |             if (!bypassBrowserConsoleErrors && !bypassHttpErrors) {
 ›       > 64 |                 fail(message);
 ›            |                 ^
 ›         65 |             }
 ›         66 |         }
 ›         67 |     });
 ›
 ›           at Page.<anonymous> (/home/lenovo/projektit/wacat/e2e-tests/test.spec.ts:64:17)
 ›
       1 failed
 ›       [chromium] › test.spec.ts:40:1 › test an application

In this example, wacat logs the message:

Found an error message in the browser's console: Hello! Something wrong!

and stops execution.

Bypassing browser console error checks

If you want wacat to bypass this check and continue execution despite browser console errors, use the --bypass-browser-console-errors flag. For example:

wacat test --bypass-browser-console-errors https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-error-in-browser-console.vercel.app

In this case, wacat logs the error message but does not stop execution, continuing the test instead.

Configure random form inputs

By default, wacat generates random form inputs with lengths ranging between 1 and 60 characters, using a default character set. You can customize these settings as follows:

Use the flag --random-input-texts-min-length to set the minimum length of the random input
Use the flag --random-input-texts-max-length to set the maximum length of the random input
Use the flag --random-input-texts-charset to specify the character set for the random input

Here is an example command and its output:

wacat test --random-input-texts-min-length 1 --random-input-texts-max-length 3 --random-input-texts-charset ®©¥¬¿ https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/

Testing in url: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/. Please wait...


Running 1 test using 1 worker
[chromium] › test.spec.ts:41:1 › test an application
In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/
In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/working-page
Push the button #1
Filling the #1 text input field a value: ®
Filling the #2 text input field a value: ®
Filling the #3 text input field a value: ®
Filling the #4 text input field a value: ®
Filling the #5 text input field a value: ®
Filling the #6 text input field a value: ®
The #1 drop-down list. Selecting the option #2
Selecting the #1 checkbox
The #1 radio button group. Selecting the radio button #3
Push the button #1
In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/working-page2
Push the button #1
Filling the #1 text input field a value: ®
Filling the #2 text input field a value: ®
Filling the #3 text input field a value: ®
Filling the #4 text input field a value: ®
Filling the #5 text input field a value: ®
Filling the #6 text input field a value: ®
The #1 drop-down list. Selecting the option #2
Selecting the #1 checkbox
The #1 radio button group. Selecting the radio button #2
Push the button #1
  1 passed (54.0s)

In this example, wacat generates random strings using the character set ®©¥¬¿. The generated strings have lengths between 1 and 3 characters.

Read input field texts from a file

It is also possible to configure wacat to read input field texts from a file. For example, consider the file example-files/input-texts.txt with the following contents:

xaxa
ybyb

wacat uses each line from the file as input for the fields in the target application, unless an error occurs or the page changes.

The command to run this with a local file on Windows is:

wacat test --input-texts example-files\input-texts.txt https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/

On Linux and Mac, the command is:

wacat test --input-texts example-files/input-texts.txt https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/

To use a remote file, the command is:

wacat test --input-texts https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mikesmallhelp/wacat/main/example-files/input-texts.txt https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/

All these commands produce the following output:

Testing in url: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/. Please wait...

Running 1 test using 1 worker
[chromium] › test.spec.ts:41:1 › test an application
In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/
In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/working-page
Push the button #1
Filling the #1 text input field a value: xaxa
Filling the #2 text input field a value: xaxa
Filling the #3 text input field a value: xaxa
Filling the #4 text input field a value: xaxa
Filling the #5 text input field a value: xaxa
Filling the #6 text input field a value: xaxa
The #1 drop-down list. Selecting the option #2
Selecting the #1 checkbox
The #1 radio button group. Selecting the radio button #3
Push the button #1
Filling the #1 text input field a value: ybyb
Filling the #2 text input field a value: ybyb
Filling the #3 text input field a value: ybyb
Filling the #4 text input field a value: ybyb
Filling the #5 text input field a value: ybyb
Filling the #6 text input field a value: ybyb
The #1 drop-down list. Selecting the option #2
Selecting the #1 checkbox
The #1 radio button group. Selecting the radio button #1
Push the button #1
In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/working-page2
Push the button #1
Filling the #1 text input field a value: xaxa
Filling the #2 text input field a value: xaxa
Filling the #3 text input field a value: xaxa
Filling the #4 text input field a value: xaxa
Filling the #5 text input field a value: xaxa
Filling the #6 text input field a value: xaxa
The #1 drop-down list. Selecting the option #2
Selecting the #1 checkbox
The #1 radio button group. Selecting the radio button #1
Push the button #1
Filling the #1 text input field a value: ybyb
Filling the #2 text input field a value: ybyb
Filling the #3 text input field a value: ybyb
Filling the #4 text input field a value: ybyb
Filling the #5 text input field a value: ybyb
Filling the #6 text input field a value: ybyb
The #1 drop-down list. Selecting the option #2
Selecting the #1 checkbox
The #1 radio button group. Selecting the radio button #3
Push the button #1
  1 passed (1.1m)

As shown in the output, the values from the file input-texts.txt (xaxa and ybyb) are used as inputs.

You can test using different input text files, such as those available at https://github.com/0xspade/Combined-Wordlists?tab=readme-ov-file.

Important

When using a large input text file, set an appropriately high value for the --timeout parameter to ensure smooth execution. wacat has been successfully tested with a file containing 5000 lines against a simple test application.

Test links only

To test only the links in an application, use the --only-links flag. With this option, wacat loads the pages and detects errors but does not fill input fields or interact with other elements.

Here is an example command and its output:

wacat test --only-links https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/

Testing in url: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/. Please wait...


Running 1 test using 1 worker
[chromium] › test.spec.ts:40:1 › test an application
In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/
In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/working-page
In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/working-page2
  1 passed (14.7s)

Perform authentication

Here is an example of an application with simple authentication:

wacat can perform authentication for this application using the following JSON configuration file:


{
    "authentication": {
        "usernameLabel": "Username",
        "usernameValue": "Mike",
        "passwordLabel": "Password",
        "passwordValue": "Smallhelp",
        "loginButtonLabel": "Login"
    }
}

In this JSON file:

The application has a label "Username," which is assigned to the "usernameLabel" attribute.
The value for the username, "Mike," is assigned to the "usernameValue" attribute.
Similarly, the label "Password" is assigned to "passwordLabel," and the value "Smallhelp" to "passwordValue."
The login button is labeled "Login," and its label is assigned to the "loginButtonLabel" attribute.

Example run commands

For Windows

wacat test --conf example-files\configuration-authentication.json https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-simple-authentication.vercel.app/

For Linux and Mac:

wacat test --conf example-files/configuration-authentication.json https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-simple-authentication.vercel.app/

Command output

Testing in url: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-simple-authentication.vercel.app/. Please wait...


Running 1 test using 1 worker
[chromium] › test.spec.ts:40:1 › test an application
Filled the username and the password. Pushed the authentication button
In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-simple-authentication.vercel.app/
In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-simple-authentication.vercel.app/working-page2
Push the button #1
Filling the #1 text input field a value: =_e6PF[J{u98&QI`DP
The #1 drop-down list. Selecting the option #2
Push the button #1
In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-simple-authentication.vercel.app/working-page
Push the button #1
Filling the #1 text input field a value: =_e6PF[J{u98&QI`DP
The #1 drop-down list. Selecting the option #2
Push the button #1
  1 passed (24.7s)

Authentication Confirmation

In the output, the line:

Filled the username and the password. Pushed the authentication button

indicates that wacat successfully completed the authentication process.

Perform more complicated authentication

Here is an example of an application with a more complex authentication process:

wacat can perform authentication for this application using the following JSON configuration file:


{
    "authentication": {
        "beforeAuthenticationLinkTexts": [
            "Please go to an application",
            "Please login"
        ],
        "usernameLabel": "Username",
        "usernameValue": "Mike",
        "usernameButtonLabel": "Next",
        "passwordLabel": "Password",
        "passwordValue": "Smallhelp",
        "loginButtonLabel": "Login"
    }
}

Explanation of the JSON

This JSON file is more complex than the one in the previous example:

The "beforeAuthenticationLinkTexts" attribute lists link texts ("Please go to an application" and "Please login") found on the pages preceding the authentication page.
The page where the username is entered contains a button labeled "Next," which is assigned to the "usernameButtonLabel" attribute in the JSON.

Example Run Commands

For Windows

wacat test --conf example-files\configuration-complicated-authentication.json https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-more-complicated-authentication.vercel.app/

For Linux and Mac

wacat test --conf example-files/configuration-complicated-authentication.json https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-more-complicated-authentication.vercel.app/

Command output

Testing in url: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-more-complicated-authentication.vercel.app/. Please wait...


Running 1 test using 1 worker
[chromium] › test.spec.ts:40:1 › test an application
Filled the username and the password. Pushed the authentication button
In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-more-complicated-authentication.vercel.app/
In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-more-complicated-authentication.vercel.app/working-page
Push the button #1
Filling the #1 text input field a value: Agc-QmUBS,Z]zx,~q*:ZNX*?L
The #1 drop-down list. Selecting the option #2
Push the button #1
In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-more-complicated-authentication.vercel.app/working-page2
Push the button #1
Filling the #1 text input field a value: Agc-QmUBS,Z]zx,~q*:ZNX*?L
The #1 drop-down list. Selecting the option #2
Push the button #1
In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-more-complicated-authentication.vercel.app/logout
  1 passed (28.7s)

Configure pages to exclude from visits

wacat is designed to remain within the host you are testing. Additionally, you can configure specific page URLs that should not be visited during the test.

For example, consider the following output from a previous test:

In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-more-complicated-authentication.vercel.app/logout

If you want to prevent wacat from visiting the logout page, you can use the "notVisitLinkUrls" attribute in the JSON configuration. This attribute lists the URLs that wacat should avoid.

Here is an example JSON configuration:

{
    "authentication": {
        "beforeAuthenticationLinkTexts": [
            "Please go to an application",
            "Please login"
        ],
        "usernameLabel": "Username",
        "usernameValue": "Mike",
        "usernameButtonLabel": "Next",
        "passwordLabel": "Password",
        "passwordValue": "Smallhelp",
        "loginButtonLabel": "Login"
    },
    "notVisitLinkUrls": [
        "https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-more-complicated-authentication.vercel.app/logout"
    ]
}

Example Run Commands

For Windows:

wacat test --conf example-files/configuration-complicated-authentication-with-not-visit-link-urls-remote.json https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-more-complicated-authentication.vercel.app/

For Linux and Mac:

wacat test --conf example-files/configuration-complicated-authentication-with-not-visit-link-urls-remote.json https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-more-complicated-authentication.vercel.app/

Command Output

Testing in url: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-more-complicated-authentication.vercel.app/. Please wait...


Running 1 test using 1 worker
[chromium] › test.spec.ts:40:1 › test an application
Filled the username and the password. Pushed the authentication button
In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-more-complicated-authentication.vercel.app/
In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-more-complicated-authentication.vercel.app/working-page2
Push the button #1
Filling the #1 text input field a value: R?nSk,UP(UBO*t'm1^a^7HIv
The #1 drop-down list. Selecting the option #2
Push the button #1
In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-more-complicated-authentication.vercel.app/working-page
Push the button #1
Filling the #1 text input field a value: R?nSk,UP(UBO*t'm1^a^7HIv
The #1 drop-down list. Selecting the option #2
Push the button #1
  1 passed (23.2s)

Confirmation

In the output, you can see that the following line is no longer present:

In the page: https://mikesmallhelp-test-application-more-complicated-authentication.vercel.app/logout

This confirms that wacat successfully excluded the specified page from the test.

Run in headless mode

To run wacat in headless mode (without displaying the browser), use the --headless flag.

An example command is:

wacat test --headless https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/

Run in a CI pipeline

wacat can be integrated into a CI pipeline using the --headless flag. For an example configuration, see https://github.com/mikesmallhelp/mikesmallhelp-test-passing-run/blob/main/.github/workflows/testing.yaml.

Configure wait time

By default, wacat waits 5000 milliseconds for each page to download. You can configure the wait time in milliseconds using the --wait flag.

Here is an example command with a 2000-millisecond wait time:

wacat test --wait 2000 https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/

Note: wacat uses the Playwright tool internally. While Playwright tests can typically wait for specific text on a page, wacat does not know what text to wait for, so it relies on a configurable wait time instead.

Configure total test timeout

By default, the total timeout for the test command is 120 seconds. You can configure the timeout in seconds using the --timeout flag. The minimum timeout value is 1 second.

Here is an example command with a 50-second timeout:

wacat test --timeout 50 https://mikesmallhelp-test-application.vercel.app/

Note: Playwright internally uses milliseconds for timeouts. If the timeout occurs in this example, the output will resemble:

Test timeout of 50000ms exceeded.

Help Command

To view all available flags, run the following command:

wacat test --help

Test any web application, for example: wacat test http://localhost:3000

USAGE
  $ wacat test URL [--bypass-browser-console-errors] [--bypass-http-errors] [--conf <value>] [--debug] [--headless] [--ignore-ai-in-] [--input-texts <value>] [--only-links]
    [--random-input-texts-charset <value>] [--random-input-texts-max-length <value>] [--random-input-texts-min-length <value>] [--timeout <value>] [--wait <value>]

ARGUMENTS
  URL  Application url to test, for example: http://localhost:3000

FLAGS
  --bypass-browser-console-errors          Bypass the browser console's error messages
  --bypass-http-errors                     Bypass the HTTP errors
  --conf=<value>                           Path to the configuration file
  --debug                                  Enable debug mode
  --headless                               Headless mode
  --ignore-ai-in-test                      In the automatic tests ignore OpenAI API key
  --input-texts=<value>                    Path to the input texts file
  --only-links                             Test only links
  --random-input-texts-charset=<value>     Random input texts character set
  --random-input-texts-max-length=<value>  Random input texts max length
  --random-input-texts-min-length=<value>  Random input texts min length
  --timeout=<value>                        A whole test run timeout in seconds
  --wait=<value>                           A wait in milliseconds to wait a page load

DESCRIPTION
  Test any web application, for example: wacat test http://localhost:3000

EXAMPLES
  $ wacat test http://localhost:3000

Note: The URL can be placed before or after the flags.

Developing wacat

Technology Stack

The technology stack for wacat is straightforward:

TypeScript
Bash Scripts
oclif - The Open CLI Framework
Playwright
Next.js - Used for test applications

Development Instructions

For Linux and Mac:

Make your changes, then run:

npm run test && npm run build && npm install -g && ./run-tests.sh

The run-tests.sh script runs all test cases to verify that wacat works correctly. Alternatively, push your changes to the repository and let GitHub Actions execute the tests.

For Windows:

Make your changes, then run:

npm run test && npm run build && npm install -g

There is currently no automated test script like run-tests.sh for Windows. Instead, run:

run-manual-tests.bat

Review the output to ensure everything is working correctly.

Contributions

Contributions are warmly welcomed! Check the issues page for tasks. If you encounter a bug or need a specific feature, please create a new issue.

Guidelines for Contributions:

If adding a new feature, ensure a test case is included. Check the run-tests.sh file for integration test examples. Consider adding unit tests to improve code reliability.

Change History

1.2.0 (November 3, 2024)

Added optional AI support

1.1.0 (April 16, 2024)

Derives input type from the label and generates appropriate random content

1.0.0 (March 23, 2024)

Added Windows support
Support for common HTML input types like radio, email, etc.
Introduced additional flags, such as --random-input-texts-charset
Bug fixes
GitHub Actions tests for Mac

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 230 Commits
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
.vscode		.vscode
bin		bin
doc		doc
e2e-tests		e2e-tests
example-files		example-files
src		src
test-app/test-app		test-app/test-app
unit-tests		unit-tests
utils		utils
.eslintignore		.eslintignore
.eslintrc.json		.eslintrc.json
.gitignore		.gitignore
.mocharc.json		.mocharc.json
.prettierrc.json		.prettierrc.json
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
CONTRIBUTORS.md		CONTRIBUTORS.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
package.json		package.json
playwright.config.ts		playwright.config.ts
run-manual-tests.bat		run-manual-tests.bat
run-tests.sh		run-tests.sh
tsconfig.json		tsconfig.json

License

mikesmallhelp/wacat

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Latest commit

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wacat - Challenge Your Web App with Cat Chaos and AI-Powered Error Detection!

Technical details

Reporting bugs and requesting features

Current Version

Warnings

Installation

Install Node.js

Clone wacat and install it

Optional: Add OpenAI API Key

Updating wacat

Running

Basic usage

Optional: Detect errors on the page with AI

Handling OpenAI API rate limits

Managing OpenAI token usage

Detect HTTP errors

Continuing execution despite HTTP errors

Detect user-defined error strings (if AI is not enabled)

For Windows:

For Linux and Mac:

Detect errors in the browser's console

Bypassing browser console error checks

Configure random form inputs

Read input field texts from a file

Important

Test links only

Perform authentication

Example run commands

For Windows

For Linux and Mac:

Command output

Authentication Confirmation

Perform more complicated authentication

Explanation of the JSON

Example Run Commands

For Windows

For Linux and Mac

Command output

Configure pages to exclude from visits

Example Run Commands

For Windows:

For Linux and Mac:

Command Output

Confirmation

Run in headless mode

Run in a CI pipeline

Configure wait time

Configure total test timeout

Help Command

Developing wacat

Technology Stack

Development Instructions

For Linux and Mac:

For Windows:

Contributions

Guidelines for Contributions:

Change History

1.2.0 (November 3, 2024)

1.1.0 (April 16, 2024)

1.0.0 (March 23, 2024)

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