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TestingWalker baselines and diffs

Walker baselines and diffs

Baselines and diffs compare two autonomous walks for the same application. They help separate new, persistent, and resolved findings and show where the recorded UI state changed.

A baseline is a comparison reference, not a certification. Pin it only after reviewing its target, authentication state, limits, findings, and coverage.

  1. Run and review a known-good walk.
  2. Pin it with set_walk_baseline.
  3. Deploy a change and run a new walk with comparable configuration.
  4. Call diff_walks with the two walk IDs.
  5. Inspect the recursive report and every blocker/major finding.
  6. Run saved scenarios for flows where deterministic coverage matters.
set_walk_baseline( walk_id="<reviewed-walk>", app_name="my-app", notes="Reviewed staging reference for revision <sha>" ) diff_walks( base_walk_id="<reviewed-walk>", new_walk_id="<candidate-walk>" )

Identity and comparison limits

States are content-addressed from route and DOM signatures. Findings are joined with normalized deduplication keys. That makes stable comparisons possible, but dynamic content can still make one logical screen look new, and normalization can occasionally merge or split findings unexpectedly.

For a defensible comparison, keep these inputs aligned:

  • application and environment;
  • authenticated account and role;
  • seed URL and allowed origins;
  • walker mode, state/depth/action limits, and fuzz profile; and
  • feature flags and test data.

If those inputs differ, document the difference instead of treating counts as a release-quality regression signal.

Available tools

ToolPurpose
set_walk_baselinePin one reviewed walk per owner/app key
get_walk_baseline / list_walk_baselinesInspect current references
clear_walk_baselineRemove a pin without deleting the walk
diff_walksCompare states and findings across two owned walks
walk_recursive_reportRender the recorded state tree with change annotations
walk_findings_to_ticketsProduce tracker payloads for selected findings
run_all_app_scenariosQueue the saved scenarios for an app

Ticket export returns JSON payloads for Linear, Jira, or GitHub. It does not post them. Review titles, evidence links, severity, sensitive content, project, and assignee before sending anything to an external tracker.

Release interpretation

A useful candidate signal is:

  • no new blocker or major finding in comparable coverage;
  • the targeted finding appears resolved;
  • important saved scenarios pass in the intended environment; and
  • someone reviews any removed states or reduced coverage.

Do not call a release green solely because findings_new is zero. A failed login, early timeout, smaller frontier, or unavailable tester can also produce fewer findings.