Creating Tests with AI

Instead of performing every action yourself, you can describe a test in plain English and let AI carry it out, or ask AI to take over for a tricky part while you're recording.

AI helps you build tests in two places:

Describe with AI on the Home page — write a plan, AI performs the whole journey from scratch.
Ask AI inside an open recording — type one instruction at a time while you record.

Both open a real browser session in the TestOwl Desktop App, add their actions as ordinary, editable test steps, and still end with you reviewing and saving — AI never saves a test on its own.

Before you begin

Make sure you have:

A project where you're an Editor, Admin, or Owner.
The TestOwl Desktop App installed and open — see The Desktop App. As with recording, the Sample Demo Project and the web-only version of TestOwl can't start an AI session.
Some AI credits left for the project, unless you're using Claude — see AI Credits and Usage Limits.

Describe with AI (Home page)

Open your project's Home page and switch the mode from Record to Describe with AI.

Field	What it does
Test plan	Describe what to test, step by step — for example "Log in as demo@acme.io with password Demo1234, add the first product to the cart, open the cart and check that it shows 1 item." Up to 4,000 characters.
Run with	Who carries out the plan: TestOwl AI (uses your project's AI credits) or Claude (your own connected Claude Code / Claude Desktop, at no credit cost). Only shown once Claude is connected — see Connect Claude.
Protocol and URL	The page the AI starts on, same as a normal recording.

Click Create (or press Ctrl/⌘ + Enter in the plan field). The Desktop App opens a browser, and the AI performs your plan step by step inside the recorder — you can watch it work, just like a live recording.

If Claude isn't ready

If you pick Claude but Claude Code isn't installed or signed in yet, TestOwl tells you so next to the Create button, with a link to Settings → Connect Claude to fix it.

Ask AI (inside a recording)

While a recording is open, use the Ask AI box docked above the step list instead of performing an action by hand:

1
Type an instruction, such as "Log in as a@b.co and open Orders".
2
If Claude is connected, pick who carries it out — TestOwl AI or Claude — from the dropdown next to the box.
3
Click Ask.

The AI performs the instruction on the live page, shows what it's doing line by line, and adds each action as a normal step in your recording — editable afterwards like anything else. Click Stop at any point to interrupt it.

When it finishes, the panel shows how it went:

Outcome	Meaning
Done	The instruction was carried out.
Which one?	More than one element matched — the AI lists the candidates it considered.
Not found	It couldn't find what the instruction described on the page.
Can't do that	The instruction isn't something the AI can perform.
Failed	It tried and hit an error partway through.
Stopped	You clicked Stop.
Stopped — too many steps	It hit the safety limit on how many actions one instruction can take.

Reviewing and saving

Once the AI finishes — whether from a full plan or a single instruction — the steps it added sit in your recording exactly like steps you performed yourself. Review, edit, reorder, or delete them, then Save as a Test Case or Flow the same way as a manual recording. See Recording a Test for the review-and-save flow.

What it costs

One Describe with AI plan uses one unit from your project's Describe with AI allowance, for the whole session.
Each Ask AI instruction — on Home or inside the recorder — uses one unit from the Ask AI allowance, regardless of how many actions it performs.
Using Claude instead of TestOwl AI doesn't touch either allowance.

See AI Credits and Usage Limits for your plan's exact allowances and what happens when they run out.

Next steps