Cress

Cress is a .NET 10 / C# latest end-to-end testing platform for Windows, with a Blazor-first Studio experience, an optional desktop companion for anchored in-app recording overlays, Node-based automation components, and an Aspire AppHost for centralized orchestration and monitoring.

Guides and examples

See docs/README.md and the published DocFX site at https://jerrettdavis.github.io/Cress/ for:

• step-by-step web app automation walkthroughs
• step-by-step desktop app automation walkthroughs
• Studio screenshots and user guides
• getting-started, user, developer, and API guides
• integration guidance for bringing Cress into your systems
• design guidance for making your apps easier to automate with Cress

Requirements

• .NET SDK 10.0.107 or later in the .NET 10 feature band
• Node.js 22.x
• Windows for desktop/Flawright execution

Restore and build

dotnet tool restore
npm ci
dotnet restore Cress.sln
dotnet build Cress.sln --configuration Release --no-restore

Fastest first run

If you want the quickest proof that Cress can run a real flow, pack the CLI as a local dotnet tool and run the built-in HTTP sample:

dotnet pack src\Cress.Cli\Cress.Cli.csproj --configuration Release --output artifacts\packages
dotnet tool install --tool-path .\.tools\cress --add-source artifacts\packages Cress.Cli
Set-Location specs\httpbin-smoke
..\..\.tools\cress\cress validate
..\..\.tools\cress\cress run flows\httpbin\get-smoke.flow.yaml --report html,json,junit

For the reusable CI path, see the GitHub Actions guide in docs\developer-guide\github-actions-integration.md.

Run with Aspire orchestration

Start the centralized AppHost to launch the web app, wire in service defaults, and coordinate local monitoring:

dotnet run --project src\Cress.AppHost\Cress.AppHost.csproj --configuration Release --launch-profile http

The AppHost orchestrates:

• Cress.Studio.Web as an Aspire project resource

The optional desktop companion runs separately when you want titlebar-adjacent recording overlays and multi-app desktop monitoring:

dotnet run --project src\Cress.Companion.Windows\Cress.Companion.Windows.csproj --configuration Release

To build the Windows release assets for the companion locally, use:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts\Publish-CompanionInstaller.ps1 -Version 0.1.0-local

That produces:

• a self-contained Windows x64 portable zip in artifacts\packages\
• a Windows MSI installer in installer\Cress.Companion.Installer\bin\Release\

Installable Studio distributions

The Studio now ships as a single Windows bundle that supports both launch styles:

• wrapped desktop shell through Cress.Studio.Windows.exe
• browser-hosted shell through the same local bundle with --browser

Build the Studio release assets locally with:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts\Publish-StudioInstaller.ps1 -Version 0.1.0-local

That produces:

• artifacts\packages\Cress.Studio-win-x64-<version>.zip with both desktop and browser launchers
• installer\Cress.Studio.Installer\bin\Release\Cress.Studio.Setup-<version>.msi
• artifacts\packages\Cress.Studio.Tool.<version>.nupkg for the Windows cress-studio dotnet tool

The MSI installs Start Menu entries for Cress Studio and Cress Studio (Browser). The portable zip includes matching .cmd launchers beside the bundled executables.

For the Studio dotnet tool path:

dotnet tool install --tool-path .\.tools\studio --prerelease --add-source artifacts\packages Cress.Studio.Tool
.\.tools\studio\cress-studio --browser

The AppHost browser launch opens the Aspire dashboard first. Open the studio-web resource endpoint to see the Studio shell itself. When you run Cress.Studio.Web directly, / stays on the landing and onboarding view, while /workspace jumps straight to workspace setup.

Validation

# Full local .NET test suite, including desktop and end-to-end coverage on Windows
dotnet test Cress.sln --configuration Release --no-build

# Aspire AppHost composition, integration, and end-to-end coverage
dotnet test tests\Cress.AppHost.Tests\Cress.AppHost.Tests.csproj --configuration Release

# Node test suite
node --test node/tests/*.test.mjs

# Browser E2E suite with failure screenshots, traces, and videos
npm run test:e2e

# Browser E2E docs refresh that also rewrites docs\images\studio screenshots
npm run test:e2e:docs

# DocFX site build
dotnet tool run docfx docs\docfx.json --output artifacts\docs-site

# Living docs preview
dotnet run --project src\Cress.Cli\Cress.Cli.csproj --configuration Release -- doc generate specs\httpbin-smoke --output artifacts\docs\httpbin-smoke.html --template executive

CI/CD

GitHub Actions now validates the repo with:

Workflow	Purpose
ci.yml	Windows build, CI-safe .NET coverage run, Node tests, coverage publishing, and Aspire AppHost smoke validation
codeql.yml	Static analysis for C# and JavaScript
conventional-commits.yml	Enforces Conventional Commit pull request titles plus commit headlines on pull requests and direct pushes to main
dependency-review.yml	Pull request dependency risk review
docs.yml	DocFX site build, preview artifact publishing, and GitHub Pages deployment
release.yml	Builds the CLI package plus the companion and Studio portable zip/MSI/tool assets, publishes preview releases/packages from main, and cuts tagged/manual GitHub releases

The CI workflows publish:

• TRX test results
• full Cobertura + HTML coverage artifacts
• a filtered core-coverage artifact and 90% line-coverage gate for the cross-platform engine/export/import surface
• Codecov uploads for both the full report and the gated core report
• AppHost startup logs
• desktop companion portable zip and MSI preview artifacts
• Studio portable zip, MSI installer, and cress-studio tool preview artifacts
• DocFX site preview artifacts
• a sticky PR summary with both the full report and the gated core report

release.yml now has two publishing lanes:

• pushes to main create a prerelease preview for that commit and push the generated NuGet packages to GitHub Packages
• version tags (and manual dispatch with an explicit version) create the corresponding GitHub Release with the packaged CLI, companion, and Studio assets

For repository protection, mark PR title and PR commits from conventional-commits.yml as required status checks on main. The same workflow also validates direct pushes to main with the Push commits check.

Desktop-display automation remains covered by the local Windows suite, but the hosted GitHub runner uses the CI-safe subset because Flawright and full Studio E2E can be disrupted by the shared desktop session model on windows-latest.

Sample spec project

specs\httpbin-smoke is the CI-friendly sample project used for documentation and end-to-end validation of the CLI, parser, and HTTP driver stack. See specs\httpbin-smoke\README.md for the project layout and flow details.