Autonomous application testing · MIT

Describe the behavior. Argus watches, acts, and proves it.

Argus tests desktop apps, web UIs and command-line tools the way a person would, using multimodal models. It looks at the screen, decides what to do, acts, and checks the result. No brittle selectors. No script for every click.

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Latest release →Windows · macOS · LinuxOllama, Anthropic, OpenAI, Azure, Gemini, LiteLLM

Look closer

01 — The loop

Observe. Decide. Act. Verify.

The model sees the screen and the accessibility tree, then proposes one action. Argus normalizes it and checks capability, policy and process identity before anything reaches the platform. The model proposes. Argus decides what's allowed.

  1. Observescreenshot · accessibility tree · vision auto-detected
  2. Decidepropose {"action":"type"} → schema ✓ capability ✓ policy ✓
  3. ActWindows local mode: semantic UI Automation, no host-wide input
  4. Verifystructured assertions run deterministically. The model gets no vote

        

      

    

  


  
  

    

      

        
02 — Execution environments

        

          A hundred eyes
          on your app.
          None on your desktop.
        

        
Adapters decide how Argus interacts with a target. Execution environments decide where it's allowed to. Invasive, destructive or production tests run inside a disposable Capsule VM, so the experiment never shares your interactive host.

        

          

            
            
            
          

          

            
Capsule
Recommended for production

            

            
    
            
    
          
    
        
    
      
    
    
    
  
    

  
  
    
    
    
      
    
        
    03 — Adapters
    
        
    
          One test style.
          Three ways in.
        
    
        
    Tests are YAML files in .argus/. Plain-English steps go to the model; assert blocks run deterministically. Pure-assertion tests cost zero model tokens.
    
        
    
          
    
            
            
            
          
    
          
    
            
    .argus/notepad.test.yaml
    
            
    
          
    
          
    
          
    
          
    exit 0 all pass · 1 failure · 2 error/crash
    
        
    
      
    
    
    
  
    

  
  
    
    
    
      
    
        
    04 — Free roam
    
        
    
          Let it wander.
          It writes down
          what breaks.
        
    
        
    Give Argus a target and a time budget. It explores without a script, catches crashes and error dialogs, records findings with severity, and leaves a report plus regression-test stubs. Cross-session memory means each session starts where the last one stopped.
    
        
    $ argus roam "notepad.exe" --minutes 10
$ argus roam "http://localhost:3000" --adapter browser
$ argus roam "./my-cli.sh" --adapter cli
    
        
    
          
    Roaming notepad.exe54 states · 0 findings
    
          
      
          
      → .argus/roam/<stamp>/report.md + regression-*.test.yaml
      
        
      
        
      For invasive roaming, a Capsule is the recommended boundary. Roam findings don't yet trigger Failure Capsule retention; that applies to scripted argus run failures.
      
      
      
    
      
  
      

  
  
      
    
      
      
      
        
      05 — ATES evidence
      
        
      
          Every action
          leaves a trail.
          Reports only repeat it.
        
      
        
      ATES, the Argus Test Evidence Specification, is the canonical evidence authority: durable ordered events, durable action dispatch, privacy controls, protected artifacts, transactional finalization, manifests and verification. Reports are derived from evidence, never the source of truth.
      
        
      
          
      Evidence trailillustrative
      
          
        
        
        
        
        
          
        Failure Capsules
        Keep disk and config evidence from a failed scripted run, without persisting live credentials.
        
          
        Explicit transfer
        Stage inputs and collect outputs through declared, bounded, hashed transfers. No shared folders.
        
          
        Plain integrity
        Hashes detect corruption. Tamper-evidence needs a trusted binding: a signature, external digest or immutable store.
        
        
        
      
        
    
        
  
        

  
  
        
    
        
      
        
        
        06 — Fleet & platform status
        
        
        
          One boundary.
          Many machines.
        
        
        
        Argus Fleet extends the same Capsule boundary across physical machines, without a second Capsule abstraction. Control Center → Node Agent → ExecutionEnvironment → Capsule → Adapter, with canonical ATES flowing back. What's shipped and what's next, stated plainly:
        
        
        
          
        Implemented
        ATES v0.1
        Ordered evidence, durable dispatch, privacy controls, protected artifacts, finalization, manifests, traceability, approvals and audit.
        Read ATES →
        
          
        Implemented
        Fleet execution plane
        Node identity and enrollment, authenticated heartbeats, placement and fencing, remote Capsule execution, ATES transport.
        Read Fleet →
        
          
        Next layer
        Fleet operations + Observer
        Scheduler and queues, matrix execution, timelines and indexes, and a strictly read-only Observer. Not shipped yet.
        Roadmap →
        
          
        Automated
        Cross-platform releases
        CI builds Windows x64/ARM64, macOS universal2 and Linux x86_64/ARM64 packages with checksums and provenance.
        Latest release →
        
        
        
      
        
    
        
  
        

  
  
        
    
        
      
        
        
        07 — Install
        
        
        
          Desktop app or
          Python package.
        
        
        
        Every release builds native packages from the same tagged source, with SHA-256 checksums and GitHub build-provenance attestations. The package route needs Python 3.10+; install Ollama for local models.
        
        
        
      
        
      
        
        
        
          
          
          
          
        
        
        
      
        
    
        
  
        

  
  
        
    
        
      
        
        
        Named for Argus Panoptes, the watchman with a hundred eyes
        
        
        
          Give your app
          a hundred eyes.
        
        
        
        Use Argus locally for fast development, isolate invasive work in Capsules, and spread Capsule execution across machines with Fleet, while ATES keeps the evidence trail canonical.
        
        
        
        Move your cursor. They're watching.