Quick test a URL

Got a live app and want to know if a flow actually works? A quick test is the fastest path to an answer: point Tripwire at a URL, describe a flow in plain English, and get back which flows are broken, why, and — if you've wired up your logs — the backend error behind it.

No suite file required.

The 60-second version

Drive a single URL through plain-English steps, with no suite to author. From the CLI:

cd backend
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-... python -m app.cli test-url \
  https://your-app.example.com/login \
  "Type your email and password; then click Sign in; then confirm you land on the dashboard"

Steps are split on newlines, ;, or the word then. Tripwire opens the URL in a real (headless) browser, lets Claude drive each step, and prints the final URL, the page text, and which step (if any) broke.

The same thing lives in your editor via the MCP server — just ask:

"Use tripwire_test on https://your-app.example.com/login to log in with me@example.com / hunter2 and confirm it lands on the dashboard."

…and in the dashboard, where you can paste a URL and generate a whole suite — see URL → test generation.

Create tests from your URL

Don't want to write any steps? Let Tripwire crawl the page and propose a suite:

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8400/api/v1/generate \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"url": "https://your-app.example.com", "save_as": "quick-test"}'

It opens the URL headless, reads the structure (links, forms, buttons), crawls a level or two of same-origin links, and asks Claude to draft a plain-English suite covering the key flows. The result is canonical Tripwire YAML, saved to your suite repo and ready to run. Review it, then run it like any other suite.

The money shot: find the bug AND the backend reason

A passing quick test is reassuring. A failing one is where Tripwire earns its keep. When a flow breaks and the failing request carries a trace_id, Tripwire correlates it to your server logs and Claude writes up the backend error, the suspected cause, and a suggested fix — then files it as a deduped ticket.

See it end-to-end against the bundled buggy app:

# Terminal 1 — a deliberately-buggy demo checkout
cd examples/sample-app && uvicorn app:app --port 8500

# Terminal 2 — drive it in plain English, root-cause the failure, file the ticket
backend/.venv/bin/python demo/break_demo_app.py

The demo uses the file log-backend (LOG_BACKEND=file, LOG_FILE_PATH=server.log) so a UI failure resolves to the exact backend line — a 500 with a GeoLookupError behind a silent currency bug. That's the difference between "a flow broke" and "here's the backend error, the cause, and the fix, filed for you." Every other E2E tool stops at "the UI broke"; Tripwire root-causes it to the backend line and files the fix.

What to do next

• It works → wire it into CI so it stays working, and your editor via MCP.
• It broke → connect your server logs and a tracker so the next failure files itself, root-caused.
• Make the flows real tests → Writing Tests.