Getting Started

Requirements

• Linux (WebKitGTK) — macOS/Windows planned
• Tauri v2 (v1 not supported)
• Rust 1.94.0+ (edition 2024)

Installation

1. Add the plugin to your Tauri app

Add the plugin to src-tauri/Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
tauri-plugin-pilot = { git = "https://github.com/mpiton/tauri-pilot" }

2. Register the plugin

Register the plugin in src-tauri/src/main.rs. The plugin is gated to debug builds only — it has no effect in production releases:

src-tauri/src/main.rs

fn main() {
    let mut builder = tauri::Builder::default();

    #[cfg(debug_assertions)]
    {
        builder = builder.plugin(tauri_plugin_pilot::init());
    }

    builder.run(tauri::generate_context!()).expect("error running app");
}

3. Install the CLI

cargo install tauri-pilot-cli

Quick Start

# Check connection
tauri-pilot ping

# List open windows (multi-window apps)
tauri-pilot windows

# Inspect the UI
tauri-pilot snapshot -i          # interactive elements only
tauri-pilot snapshot -s "#sidebar"  # scoped to a CSS selector

# Target a specific window
tauri-pilot --window settings snapshot -i

# Interact
tauri-pilot click @e3
tauri-pilot fill @e2 "hello"
tauri-pilot press Enter

# Verify
tauri-pilot assert text @e1 "Expected text"
tauri-pilot assert visible @e3
tauri-pilot wait --selector ".success-message"

# Record and replay
tauri-pilot record start
tauri-pilot click @e3
tauri-pilot fill @e2 "test"
tauri-pilot record stop --output test.json
tauri-pilot replay test.json
tauri-pilot replay test.json --export sh    # generate shell script

Basic Usage Flow

tauri-pilot follows a ping → snapshot → interact → verify workflow (optionally wrapped in record for replay):

1. Ping — verify the plugin is running and the socket is reachable.
2. Snapshot — capture the current state of the UI. This assigns stable refs (@e1, @e2, …) to every element. Refs are reset on each snapshot, so always snapshot before interacting.
3. Interact — use refs to click, fill, press, or scroll elements.
4. Verify — use assert for one-step verification, wait for async state, or diff to see what changed.

Example snapshot output

$ tauri-pilot snapshot -i
- heading "PR Dashboard" [ref=e1]
- textbox "Search PRs" [ref=e2] value=""
- button "Refresh" [ref=e3]
- list "PR List" [ref=e4]
  - listitem "fix: resolve memory leak #142" [ref=e5]
  - listitem "feat: add workspace support #138" [ref=e6]
- button "Load More" [ref=e7]

After this snapshot, @e3 refers to the “Refresh” button. You can then run:

tauri-pilot click @e3

If the UI changes (navigation, re-render), take a new snapshot before using refs again.