Node + Express

A full-stack example with a TypeScript Express server, API tests, UI tests, shared setup via includes, and multi-port testing.

Source: examples/node-express/

Config

[provider]
base_url = "http://localhost:3111"
extra_system_prompt = "This is an Express.js TypeScript app. Use a browser for UI tests. Use curl or fetch for API tests."
agent_args = [
    "--dangerously-skip-permissions",
    "--no-session-persistence",
    "--model", "haiku",
    "--effort", "medium",
]

[commands.install]
kind = "short_lived"
cmd = "pnpm install"

[commands.server]
kind = "long_lived"
cmd = "npx tsx src/server.ts"
readiness_url = "http://localhost:3111/health"

Key features:

Short-lived command installs dependencies before tests
Long-lived command starts the server and waits for /health to respond

Shared setup

name = "Shared setup verification"

[[steps]]
instruction = "Make a GET request to /health and verify the response contains {\"status\": \"ok\"}. This confirms the server is running."

The _ prefix means this file is not discovered on its own — it’s only executed when included by other tests.

API tests

name = "Express API tests"

[[steps]]
include_path = "_setup.test.toml"

[[steps]]
instruction = "Make a GET request to /api/todos and verify it returns a JSON array with 3 todos."

[[steps]]
instruction = "Make a POST request to /api/todos with JSON body {\"title\": \"Test todo\"} and verify it returns a 201 status."

[[steps]]
instruction = "Make a GET request to /api/todos again and verify there are now 4 todos."

[[steps]]
instruction = "Make a POST request to /api/todos with an empty JSON body {} and verify it returns a 400 status."

[[steps]]
instruction = "Make a GET request to http://localhost:3112/stats and verify it returns JSON with todo_count and uptime fields."

Note the last step tests a different port (3112) — the admin API.

UI tests

name = "Express UI tests"

[[steps]]
include_path = "_setup.test.toml"

[[steps]]
instruction = "Open / in the browser. Verify the page title is 'Todo App' and the heading 'Todo List' is visible."

[[steps]]
instruction = "Verify the page displays the initial 3 todos in a list."

[[steps]]
instruction = "Type 'New browser todo' into the input field and click the Add button. Verify the new todo appears in the list."

Run it

cd examples/node-express
bugatti test              # discovers and runs both api.test.toml and ui.test.toml
bugatti test api.test.toml  # run just the API tests

Key takeaways

Shared setup with _setup.test.toml avoids repeating the health check
include_path pulls shared steps into multiple test files
Tests can hit multiple ports — just use absolute URLs in the instruction
The base_url config makes relative URLs in steps resolve to http://localhost:3111