AI steps

AI steps is a way to author a browser test by describing the journey in plain sentences. A real browser follows your sentences while you watch, MaxoPerf turns each one into ordinary browser steps, and from then on the test runs those steps exactly like a test you built by hand. The AI is used when you compile, never when the test runs.

Write your steps

On Tests → New test, choose the Browser test card and press AI steps. On an existing browser test, open Configuration and use the AI steps / Visual steps switch above the steps. A new browser test opens in AI steps, and a test you wrote with AI steps reopens in AI steps. A test built with the Scriptless builder (the card’s other button) or filled in from the Recorder opens in Visual steps; the switch is always one click away.

Write one step per line. Numbers are optional, and a line that starts with # names a transaction for the lines after it:

1: Go to https://shop.example.com
2: Search for "running shoes"
3: Click the second product
# Checkout
4: Add it to the cart
5: Open the cart and check the total

As you type, suggestions from your own earlier steps appear. Press Tab or Enter to take the highlighted one, or Escape to dismiss the list. Your history is private to you and you can delete entries from the list.

On the New test page the button reads Save & compile. It creates the test, opens its Configuration tab with your lines restored, and starts compiling. The first line has to name the page your journey starts on. Any wording works (“open shop.example.com” is fine); with a full https:// address MaxoPerf needs no extra AI call, otherwise it asks the AI once about that first line.

Choose where the browser runs

The switch above the Compile button picks the browser:

Cloud opens a private Chrome for you in the cloud. You see its live video next to your steps. The browser starts warming as soon as you begin typing, and the live panel shows the video only. Press Enlarge for the whole session: the video on the left and the Steps, Network and Console of that browser on the right, updating live while you compile. The browser goes to sleep after 5 minutes without a compile; the panel says so and the next thing you type wakes it again (or press Wake browser). Cloud cannot reach localhost or an intranet.
Your Chrome opens a tab in your own Chrome through the MaxoPerf Recorder extension, version 1.2.0 or newer. Use it for pages behind your login, a VPN, localhost or an intranet address. If the extension is missing, too old, or connected to a different MaxoPerf console, the panel says so and keeps Compile disabled.

Compile

Press Compile to compile every line, or go line by line (see below). Each line shows its status while it runs, and the result is one of:

Native step: a plain step MaxoPerf could build without looking at the page, such as going to an address.
Resolved by AI (shown with a sparkle): the AI looked at the live page and chose the element for you.
Failed: the line could not be done. The lines after it read Not reached.
Skipped: you asked for the line to be left out.

Compiling uses the page in front of it, so the first lines have to work before the later ones can. Open a line to see the steps it became.

Compile line by line

Every line has a play button at its right edge:

Compile (the play button) compiles that line in the live browser. The lines before it are not run again while the browser is still where they left it; only if it lost its place are they replayed.
Compile up to here (in the small menu next to the play button) runs every line up to this one again from scratch, so each earlier line is re-resolved instead of replayed.
The header Compile (compile all) still compiles every line.

Each line shows its steps as soon as that line finishes, before the rest are done.

A per-line or up-to-here compile saves a draft, not a new live version. The panel says “Draft: compiled up to line N. Not live yet.” A draft overwrites your own previous draft, so repeated tries do not pile up versions, and the test keeps running its previous active steps. When every line is compiled you can press Make live to put the draft live without another compile; otherwise press Compile all to compile and verify the whole journey. Drafts are labelled Draft in Versions.

Compiling the line you just compiled again cannot rewind the page, so it replays the lines before it; only compiling the next line is replay-free.

Per-line Compile, Compile up to here and Auto compile need the cloud browser. In Your Chrome they are disabled, because replaying earlier lines in your own tab can repeat real actions (an order, an email). Compile for the whole journey still works there.

Auto compile

Turn on Auto compile above the lines to compile the last line you changed 1.5 seconds after you stop typing. It is off by default and remembered per person. It uses the same AI allowance as a normal compile, never runs while another compile is running, and does not retry the same failing text until you change it. Each auto compile is a draft like any per-line compile.

Assertions

Add Assert page contains from the visual builder (Assertions) or ask for it in a line, for example “check the page says Order confirmed”. It checks the text of the page:

Match: Contains (plain text) or Regular expression.
Ignore case: match upper and lower case alike.
Page must NOT contain it: the step fails when the text is on the page.
The text can be up to 500 characters. Runs of spaces and line breaks count as one space.

At compile time the check looks at the top page of the browser; during a run it looks at the page (or frame) the test is on, and waits up to about 5 seconds for the text to appear before it fails. Your Chrome needs a MaxoPerf Recorder extension that supports this check; an older one fails the line with an “Update the extension” message instead of passing it.

Fix what went wrong

Open a line and use the controls under it:

Guide it: add a short hint such as “the second product”. The line is recompiled with the hint and the hint stays on the line. Guidance you use is added to your suggestions.
Is it one of these?: for a line that failed or was resolved by AI, up to three candidate elements are offered. Choosing one pins it and recompiles just that line.
Pick in my tab (Your Chrome only): click the right element in the tab MaxoPerf opened and it is pinned for that line.
Edit: change the steps of the line by hand in the same form the visual builder uses. The edit is kept when you compile again.
Skip and Unskip: leave a line out or put it back.
Recompile: run just this line again.
Recompile from text: forget guidance, pins and edits for the line and compile it from its sentence alone.

Guiding or picking on a line you edited by hand replaces your edit. The line tells you (“Your manual edit was replaced by the AI’s new result”) and offers Undo, which brings back the version you had. A full Compile keeps your hand edits.

Versions

Every compile and every fix is saved as a new version, and none is ever changed afterwards. Open Versions to see them.

When every line is a native step, resolved by AI or skipped, and the compile covered the whole journey (Compile in the header, a hint, a pick or a recompile of a line), the new version becomes the test’s steps right away. You see “Rolled out vN” with an Undo that restores the previous version.
A version with a failed line is saved but never becomes the test’s steps. Fix or skip the line first.
Activate an older version to roll back to it. Visual steps always show the active version. Activate and Delete wait while a compile is running.
If Activate or Roll back fails, the reason (and a support reference when there is one) appears in that version’s row.
Each version row counts its lines, for example “2 native · 1 resolved by AI”.
If you have typed lines you have not saved, Activate asks first, because activating replaces them.
Compare a version with the one before it. The comparison opens in the version’s row, and Close comparison puts you back on its button. Delete versions you no longer need (never the active one).

Steps that came from AI show their sentence and a sparkle in the Visual steps view, with an edited tag if you changed them by hand.

Secrets

Refer to a secret by its name, for example “type the DEMO_PASSWORD secret into the password field”. The secret’s value is never sent to the AI. In Cloud mode the value is used only inside the cloud browser. In Your Chrome mode the value is released once to your extension for that step, and every release is recorded in the secret’s audit log as revealed_to_extension.

Runs

A run of a test that has AI step versions shows Steps vN in its header, so you can tell which version it executed. Tests without versions show nothing.

Permissions and usage

AI steps act with your permissions: you can compile only on tests you can edit, and viewers can read the steps and versions. Each compile and each fix uses AI tokens from the same allowance as the Loadrigo assistant and Describe with AI. When the allowance runs out, the page says so and links to your plan; the visual builder keeps working. If AI is not available in your environment, AI steps shows that and stays out of the way.

Describe with AI: fill the HTTP builder, load profile, criteria and schedules from a sentence.
Browser tests: scripts, the visual builder, and what a browser run captures.
Secrets: create and rotate the secrets your steps refer to.