End-2-End Testing is 10 Times Easyier with AI and Stagehand

Description

This video shows how a developer uses Stagehand (from Browserbase) to write resilient end-to-end tests that survive UI churn by driving the browser with natural language. He spins up an isolated test stack—standalone Convex backend, Vite frontend, Playwright via Stagehand—and runs tests with Vitest and Bun. The walkthrough covers splitting unit vs e2e with Vitest projects, seeding data, extracting structured results with Zod, and running autonomous “agent” flows (e.g., voting) that discover the path like a real user. He also demonstrates test-mode auth using Convex Auth, GitHub Actions CI with recorded videos, and cost/latency trade-offs between LLMs. Ideal for web engineers shipping full-stack apps who want maintainable e2e tests without brittle selectors. Timestamps [00:00:00] Why classic E2E tests are brittle [00:01:31] Meet Stagehand: natural-language browser control [00:02:04] What’s covered: setup, real project, tips, costs, future work [00:03:00] Demo app tour: community Christmas lights site [00:04:53] Split unit vs E2E with Vitest projects [00:06:10] Stagehand + Playwright overview [00:07:57] Isolated test env: standalone Convex + Vite + Stagehand (setupE2E) [00:10:50] Public user flow: ticket purchase path smoke test [00:12:54] Running via Vitest UI, logs, and Playwright recordings [00:14:07] Entries page test: seeding + Zod-based extraction [00:16:01] Stagehand APIs: act, extract, observe, agent [00:16:22] Agent demo: autonomous voting flow [00:18:57] Reliability, UX insights from agent behavior [00:21:12] Model choices and cost considerations [00:22:41] Test-mode authentication with Convex Auth [00:24:41] CI setup on GitHub Actions with artifacts [00:26:10] Future work and call for feedback [00:27:35] Closing advice: make manual tests repeatable Resources + Source for the lights project at this specific version: https://github.com/mikecann/port-geo-christmas-lights-cruise/tree/the-video-release + Typeroute libary: https://type-route.zilch.dev/ Hashtags #stagehand #playwright #convex #vitest #bun #typescript #vite #e2e #testing #browserautomation #zod #typeroute #githubactions #fullstack #webdev