Documentation

Observer Documentation

Welcome to the Observer documentation! Observer is a test observability system that collects and visualizes test execution events in real-time. Here you’ll find everything you need to get started with Observer and integrate it with your Playwright tests.

Getting Started

New to Observer? Start here:

• Getting Started Guide - Quick start guide to get Observer up and running
• Installation - Detailed installation instructions for Docker, Kubernetes, and local development
• Architecture - Understanding Observer’s distributed architecture
• Integrations - Connect Observer with Playwright and your CI/CD pipeline
• Playwright Reporter - Detailed guide for the Playwright reporter
• Demo - Try Observer with sample applications

Key Features

Observer provides comprehensive test observability for modern CI/CD pipelines:

• Real-Time Test Monitoring: Track test execution in real-time with WebSocket streaming
• Test Analytics: Analyze test performance, failure patterns, and execution trends
• Step-by-Step Tracking: Monitor individual test steps with timing and status information
• Attachment Management: Automatically handle screenshots, videos, and trace files
• Sharding Support: Aggregate results from parallel test execution
• Flexible Deployment: Choose between All-in-One mode for simplicity or Distributed mode for scalability

Architecture

Observer is built on a modern, event-driven architecture:

• Ingestion Service: gRPC endpoint for receiving test events
• NATS JetStream: Message broker for reliable event streaming
• Processor Service: Processes and persists events to MongoDB
• API Service: Provides REST/GraphQL API and WebSocket streaming
• Web UI: React-based dashboard for visualizing test runs

Quick Links

For Developers

• Playwright Reporter Configuration - Configure the reporter in your tests
• CI/CD Integration - Integrate with GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins

For DevOps

• Docker Deployment - Run Observer with Docker
• Kubernetes/Helm - Deploy Observer on Kubernetes
• Configuration - Configure Observer services

Repositories

• Observer: github.com/stanterprise/observer
• Playwright Reporter: github.com/stanterprise/stanterprise-playwright-reporter
• NPM Package: npmjs.com/package/@stanterprise/playwright-reporter

Support

Need help? Check out our Community page for support options.