E2E tests

End-to-end tests for the Writer desktop app, driven via WebdriverIO and the Choochmeque/tauri-webdriver plugin (the only viable WebDriver path for Tauri v2 on macOS as of April 2026 — official tauri-driver does not support macOS, see tauri-apps/tauri#7068).

This setup is experimental. The plugin is early-stage; expect rough edges.

One-time setup

Install the WebDriver intermediary CLI globally:

cargo install tauri-webdriver --locked

Install JS deps from the repo root:

vp install

Running

From apps/desktop/e2e/:

pnpm run test:e2e

This builds the app with --features e2e (which embeds the WebDriver server) and then runs the smoke spec. The first build is slow; incremental rebuilds are fast.

The e2e build uses an isolated bundle identifier (com.writer-computer.e2e) so it does NOT collide with tauri-plugin-single-instance from a Writer dev or release instance running in another worktree. You can leave your normal Writer running.

What gets tested

specs/smoke.spec.js contains two specs:

1. mounts the React app — waits for the React top-level wrapper (<div class="animate-fade-in">, present in both the welcome and editor branches) to mount. Validates that the WKWebView loads and React renders.

2. creates a file and writes hello world via the Tauri IPC bridge — creates a fresh temp directory on the host, then drives the real Rust IPC commands (create_file, write_file) from inside the WKWebView via window.__TAURI_INTERNALS__.invoke, and asserts the bytes hit disk. Validates JS → IPC bridge → Rust command handler → filesystem end-to-end. The temp dir is removed on teardown so no host state leaks between runs.

The point is infrastructure validation, not feature coverage. Both specs are independent of any restored workspace because the e2e build uses an isolated bundle identifier (see below).

How it works

1. pnpm run build:app produces Writer.app with the e2e Cargo feature, which includes tauri-plugin-webdriver (an embedded HTTP WebDriver server).
2. wdio.conf.js (onPrepare) spawns the tauri-webdriver intermediary CLI on port 4444.
3. WebdriverIO connects to 4444; the intermediary launches Writer.app and proxies WebDriver commands to the embedded server.
4. The spec runs; afterwards onComplete kills the intermediary and the app quits.

Build flavors

• vp run desktop#dev and vp build are unchanged — no WebDriver server.
• The e2e build invokes cargo tauri build --features e2e --bundles app --config '{"identifier":"com.writer-computer.e2e","bundle":{"createUpdaterArtifacts":false}}'. The overrides:
  • --bundles app skips DMG creation.
  • createUpdaterArtifacts: false skips updater artifact signing (which would otherwise demand TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY).
  • identifier: "com.writer-computer.e2e" gives the e2e build its own tauri-plugin-single-instance namespace and its own app data dir (~/Library/Application Support/com.writer-computer.e2e/). Without this, a Writer dev/release instance running in another worktree would intercept the launch and the WebDriver plugin would never start.
• Never enable --features e2e for releases shipped to users — it opens an HTTP server on localhost:4445.

Troubleshooting

• ENOENT: tauri-webdriver — run cargo install tauri-webdriver --locked.
• Port 4444/4445 in use — a previous run did not clean up. pkill -f tauri-webdriver and retry.
• App binary not found — run pnpm run build:app first (or use pnpm run test:e2e which chains them).
• Test hangs at waitForDisplayed — the WKWebView likely did not load. Sanity-check that vp run desktop#dev still launches the app normally.