showcase: witness - evidence-first QA with real desktop browsers

[texasich]

Witness — an open-source QA tool that drives real Chrome through test flows, records video evidence, and reports pass/fail.

Built in response to your tweet asking for an "OpenDevin for autonomous QA."

How it works

pip install git+https://github.com/texasich/witness.git
witness init
witness test witness.yaml

Test spec (TodoMVC — 8/8 passed)

name: "TodoMVC QA"
target: https://todomvc.com/examples/react/dist/
browser: chrome
steps:
  - action: type
    target: "New Todo Input"
    value: "Buy groceries"
  - action: press_key
    key: enter
  - assert:
      text_contains: "Buy groceries"
  - action: click
    target: "checkbox near Buy groceries"
  - assert:
      text_contains: "0 items left!"

Key differences

• Real Chrome — your actual browser, not headless proxy
• Background execution — no focus steal
• Natural language targeting — "checkbox near Buy groceries" instead of CSS
• Video evidence — automatic on every run
• Cross-platform — Windows, macOS, Linux via cua-driver

Witness + Executor

Witness could use Executor as its tool backend for API/GraphQL/MCP calls during test flows.

Status

• Working end-to-end (MIT license)
• Repo: https://github.com/texasich/witness

Would love your feedback — happy to jump on a call.

[greptile-apps]

Greptile Summary

This PR adds a single showcase/witness/README.md that documents Witness, an external open-source QA tool, and describes how it could integrate with Executor as its tool backend.

• The file is purely documentation: no code, tests, or configuration changes are included.
• One em-dash appears in the opening paragraph, violating the project-wide ban in AGENTS.md.
• The "API + UI E2E" YAML example uses an executor_call action that is not yet implemented in Witness; the PR description frames this as aspirational but the README does not make that boundary clear.

Confidence Score: 4/5

Safe to merge after fixing the em-dash and clarifying the executor_call example.

The change is documentation-only with no runtime impact. The two issues are a style rule violation (em-dash) and a YAML example that could mislead readers into thinking executor integration already works when it does not.

showcase/witness/README.md needs the em-dash corrected and the executor_call YAML example annotated or moved to a planned section.

Important Files Changed

Filename	Overview
showcase/witness/README.md	New showcase README for the external Witness QA tool; contains one em-dash violating the project style rule and a YAML example that presents an unimplemented executor_call action as if it were working.

Flowchart

%%{init: {'theme': 'neutral'}}%%
flowchart TD
    A[witness.yaml spec] --> B[witness CLI]
    B --> C[cua-driver]
    C --> D[Real Chrome browser]
    B --> E[Video recording: recording.mp4]
    B --> F[Per-step screenshots]
    B --> G[UIA tree snapshots]
    B --> H[results.json pass/fail]
    B -.->|planned| I[Executor tool backend]
    I -.-> J[OpenAPI / GraphQL / MCP tools]

Loading

%%{init: {'theme': 'base', 'themeVariables': {"darkMode": true, "background": "#0d1117", "primaryColor": "#21262d", "primaryTextColor": "#e6edf3", "primaryBorderColor": "#8b949e", "lineColor": "#8b949e", "textColor": "#e6edf3", "edgeLabelBackground": "#161b22", "actorBkg": "#21262d", "actorBorder": "#8b949e", "actorTextColor": "#e6edf3", "actorLineColor": "#8b949e", "signalColor": "#8b949e", "signalTextColor": "#e6edf3", "noteBkgColor": "#373320", "noteBorderColor": "#d4a72c", "noteTextColor": "#f0e6c0", "labelBoxBkgColor": "#21262d", "labelBoxBorderColor": "#8b949e", "labelTextColor": "#e6edf3", "loopTextColor": "#e6edf3", "activationBkgColor": "#30363d", "activationBorderColor": "#8b949e"}}}%%
flowchart TD
    A[witness.yaml spec] --> B[witness CLI]
    B --> C[cua-driver]
    C --> D[Real Chrome browser]
    B --> E[Video recording: recording.mp4]
    B --> F[Per-step screenshots]
    B --> G[UIA tree snapshots]
    B --> H[results.json pass/fail]
    B -.->|planned| I[Executor tool backend]
    I -.-> J[OpenAPI / GraphQL / MCP tools]

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_{Reviews (1): Last reviewed commit: "showcase: add witness — evidence-first Q..." | Re-trigger Greptile}

[greptile-apps]

The em-dash (—) on this line violates the project's style rule in AGENTS.md, which bans em-dashes everywhere: prose, docs, code comments, and PRs. Use a comma or restructure the sentence instead.

Suggested change

	[Witness](https://github.com/texasich/witness) is an evidence-first QA tool that drives real desktop browsers (via [cua-driver](https://github.com/trycua/cua)) through test flows, records video evidence, and reports pass/fail — all from a simple YAML spec.
	[Witness](https://github.com/texasich/witness) is an evidence-first QA tool that drives real desktop browsers (via [cua-driver](https://github.com/trycua/cua)) through test flows, records video evidence, and reports pass/fail, all from a simple YAML spec.

Context Used: AGENTS.md (source)

Note: If this suggestion doesn't match your team's coding style, reply to this and let me know. I'll remember it for next time!

[greptile-apps]

executor_call presented as an implemented action

The YAML block shows action: executor_call as a working step, but the PR description describes this integration as aspirational ("Witness could use Executor as its tool backend"). A reader may try this spec and get a runtime error when the action is unrecognised. The Status section at the bottom lists no ✅ for Executor integration, which is easy to miss. Consider adding a note like # planned above the executor_call step, or moving it under a separate "Planned integrations" heading, so the capability boundary is unambiguous.