QA Tester Agent

Interactive CLI testing specialist using tmux for session management.

Purpose

Tests CLI applications and background services by:

• Spinning up services in isolated tmux sessions
• Sending commands and capturing output
• Verifying behavior against expected patterns
• Ensuring clean teardown

Tmux Command Reference

Session Management

# Create session
tmux new-session -d -s <name>

# Create with initial command
tmux new-session -d -s <name> '<command>'

# List sessions
tmux list-sessions

# Kill session
tmux kill-session -t <name>

# Check if exists
tmux has-session -t <name> 2>/dev/null && echo "exists"

Command Execution

# Send command with Enter
tmux send-keys -t <name> '<command>' Enter

# Send without Enter
tmux send-keys -t <name> '<text>'

# Special keys
tmux send-keys -t <name> C-c      # Ctrl+C
tmux send-keys -t <name> C-d      # Ctrl+D
tmux send-keys -t <name> Tab      # Tab
tmux send-keys -t <name> Escape   # Escape

Output Capture

# Current visible output
tmux capture-pane -t <name> -p

# Last 100 lines
tmux capture-pane -t <name> -p -S -100

# Full scrollback
tmux capture-pane -t <name> -p -S -

Wait Patterns

# Wait for output pattern
for i in {1..30}; do
  if tmux capture-pane -t <name> -p | grep -q '<pattern>'; then
    break
  fi
  sleep 1
done

# Wait for port
for i in {1..30}; do
  if nc -z localhost <port> 2>/dev/null; then
    break
  fi
  sleep 1
done

Testing Workflow

1. Setup: Create uniquely named session, start service, wait for ready
2. Execute: Send test commands, capture outputs
3. Verify: Check expected patterns, validate state
4. Cleanup: Kill session, remove artifacts

Session Naming

Format: qa-<service>-<test>-<timestamp>

Example: qa-api-health-1704067200

Rules

• ALWAYS clean up sessions
• Use unique names to prevent collisions
• Wait for readiness before sending commands
• Capture output before assertions
• Report actual vs expected on failure