Understanding Test Processes

A process in Certyn is a reusable test configuration. It defines which tests to run, how to run them, and when. Think of it as a named bundle — "smoke suite", "regression suite", "checkout flow" — that you can trigger manually, on a schedule, or from CI.

How Processes Work

Each process definition has:

• Name — what you call it ("Smoke Suite", "Nightly Regression")
• Test case tags — which test cases to include (e.g., smoke, regression, checkout)
• Configuration — scheduling, triggers, and execution settings
• History — every run is tracked with full results

When you execute a process, Certyn creates a process run — a single instance that contains one execution per test case. Each execution is handled by its own AI agent in an isolated browser.

Process Types

Smoke suite

Fast, critical-path testing. Covers the flows that absolutely must work: login, navigation, core features, checkout.

• Duration: 2-5 minutes
• When to run: Every PR, before every deploy
• Tag: smoke

Regression suite

Comprehensive coverage. Tests everything the smoke suite covers plus edge cases, secondary flows, and less common scenarios.

• Duration: 15-30 minutes
• When to run: Nightly, before major releases
• Tag: regression

Custom processes

Create processes for specific areas of your app:

• Checkout flow — tag: checkout
• Admin panel — tag: admin
• API integrations — tag: api

Group test cases by tags and create a process for each logical area.

Process Runs

A process run is one execution of a process. It contains:

• Run number — sequential identifier (e.g., RUN-42)
• Executions — one per test case, each with its own agent session
• Status — active (running), completed, or completed with failures
• Duration — from first execution start to last execution finish
• Summary — aggregated pass/fail/blocked counts

Run states

A process run is active while any execution is still running. It becomes completed when all executions finish. If any execution failed or was aborted, the run is marked as has failures.

Process Run (Smoke Suite, RUN-42)
├─ Execution 1: Login test         → Passed
├─ Execution 2: Navigation test    → Passed
├─ Execution 3: Checkout test      → Failed
├─ Execution 4: Search test        → Passed
└─ Result: Completed with failures (3/4 passed)

Scheduling

Processes can run on a schedule:

• Daily — run regression every night at 2 AM
• Hourly — run smoke tests every hour during business hours
• Custom cron — any schedule you need

Scheduled runs ensure continuous coverage without manual intervention.

Triggers

Beyond schedules, processes can be triggered by:

• CI/CD — GitHub Actions, CLI commands
• Webhooks — deploy events from your infrastructure
• Manual — click "Run" in the dashboard
• API — programmatic triggers from your tooling

Tips

• Start with two processes: one smoke suite (fast, every PR) and one regression suite (thorough, nightly)
• Tag test cases consistently — tags are how processes select which tests to run
• Review process run history to spot trends: increasing failure rates, growing duration, flaky tests
• Use the CLI (certyn run smoke) or GitHub Action for CI integration
• Keep smoke suites under 5 minutes — fast feedback is more valuable than comprehensive coverage at the PR stage