Self healing in Low Code Automation

Self healing automatically detects and fixes broken test steps via AI caused by changes in your app’s UI, so your tests keep running smoothly without manual intervention.

BrowserStack self-heal uses AI to identify when a test step fails due to a missing or changed element. Instead of stopping the test, it intelligently searches for the best match and updates the step, allowing your test to continue. This feature helps your tests recover automatically when element locators change or don’t work well. It improves reliability, reduces test flakiness, and makes your test suite more stable.

What is BrowserStack self-heal?

The following video explains how BrowserStack’s self-heal feature works:

How Self-Healing works in Low Code Automation?

Self-healing in Low Code Automation ensures your tests stay reliable even when the application UI changes. It works in two stages:

Rule-based selection algorithm

During recording, Low Code Automation captures key attributes of each element. At runtime, our algorithm uses these attributes in a defined priority order to reliably identify the element. This approach is designed to handle a wide range of element types and attribute variations.

AI-based self-healing

If the rule-based method fails to locate the element (for example, due to UI changes), AI self-healing automatically takes over. It analyzes the current page context and identifies the most closest element for the match. The step is then executed with this match, and you’ll also see the reasoning behind the healing to maintain transparency.

Self-heal advantages

• Stable tests, fewer failures: In Low Code Automation, self-heal works in the background to keep your tests stable. Once you enable AI features, LCA automatically adjusts to small changes in your application, like a button label changing or a field shifting. This means fewer test failures and more reliable results without extra effort from your side.
• Hands-free adaptability: Unlike traditional automation where scripts need constant fixing, LCA generates and maintains everything for you. With self-heal, tests adapt to UI changes intelligently, so you don’t have to worry about editing or updating steps whenever your app evolves.
• Saves time and effort: Self-heal reduces the need to re-record or rebuild tests when your application changes. This keeps your workflows running smoothly, helping you focus on business logic rather than test maintenance.

Self-heal limitations

• Slight performance impact: Since LCA adds extra checks to make your tests more resilient, execution might take a bit longer. However, the impact is minor compared to the benefit of reducing failures.
• Not all errors are recoverable: Self-heal cannot fix deeper issues like browser setup failures, connectivity issues, or application crashes. These are beyond test healing and require manual attention.
• May hide real problems: Sometimes, self-heal might adjust a step and let the test pass even though there’s an underlying issue in your app. Always review test execution results and the healing thoughts with logs to make sure the application itself is working as expected.