Groma Help

Groma is a precision-guided manual test runner. One person records a flow by walking through an app; anyone with the extension replays it. A flow is a short list of checkpoints — the things worth judging — each led up to by guidance spotlights that light the path and advance on their own as you go. Groma never decides pass or fail — you are the arbiter of every checkpoint. Results roll up into a standalone HTML report.

Recording a flow

Open the app you want to test in a normal tab.
Click the Groma toolbar button and choose Record a flow (or right-click the page and pick Record with Groma).
Groma opens a recorder tab with the app inside a device frame. Click through the flow as a tester would — each interaction is captured as a guidance spotlight.
At each point worth judging, add a checkpoint and give it an Instruction (what the tester should do) and an Expected result (what they verify). The captured clicks before it become that checkpoint's spotlights — so testers get a few clear goals to judge, not a click-by-click script.
Pick the device frame (phone, tablet, laptop, desktop) that the flow should be tested on — runs replay on the device the spec was recorded with.

Sharing specs

When you finish recording, Groma exports a Test-Specs document — a standalone HTML file (print it to PDF if you prefer) listing every spec from the session. Each spec's title is a run link; the document also carries edit links for reopening specs in the recorder later. The spec itself is compressed into the link — there is no server and nothing to host.

Everyone who runs a spec needs the Groma extension installed. A recipient who doesn't have it sees an Install Groma prompt at the top of the Test-Specs document — once installed, they click a spec title to start; the spec travels inside the link, so nothing is lost.

Running a spec

Open the Test-Specs document you were sent and click a spec's title.
Groma opens a runner tab: the app loads inside the recorded device frame, blurred and locked behind a start gate so nothing is clicked early. Log in if the app needs it, then press Ready — start the test.
Spotlights lead you toward each checkpoint, advancing on their own as you perform each one. Turn hints off to free-form your way to the goal instead.
At each checkpoint the panel shows its instruction and expectation. Judge the result and mark Pass or Fail — optionally with a note. Groma never auto-passes or auto-fails a checkpoint; the spotlights only guide, they never render a verdict.

To run every spec in a document in sequence, use the document's Run all button — each run hands off to the next when you finish it.

Reports

When a run ends, Save Report downloads a standalone HTML report: per-step verdicts and notes, step screenshots, and a video of the flow, all captured locally and embedded in the file. Share it like any other file — it needs no server and no extension to view.

How Groma frames apps

Groma runs the app inside an iframe on its runner page so it can draw the device bezel and spotlight around it. Many real apps resist being framed, so — after a one-time acknowledgement the first time you use it — Groma applies targeted bypasses inside the runner tab only:

Strips anti-framing response headers (X-Frame-Options, CSP frame-ancestors) for the framed site in that tab.
Prevents the site's own scripts from breaking out of the frame.
Relaxes the framed site's cookies (SameSite=None) in that tab so logging in works inside the frame.
Disables the framed site's service worker in that tab so its request cache can't break login.

Your normal browsing is unaffected. Only use Groma on apps you're authorized to test — see the Terms & Conditions.

Framed mode vs. a real tab

Groma always tries the device frame first, because it draws the bezel and spotlight around the app. Some apps (Gmail and WhatsApp Web, for example) don't cooperate with any iframe — they either refuse to load or break themselves out of the frame. Groma handles this automatically: it detects the problem and reopens the flow in a real tab, where the app runs as a normal top-level page and Groma floats a draggable step panel over it. Everything else — spotlight, verdicts, report — works the same.

If a flow suddenly reopens in a real browser tab (you may see the app flash briefly as it happens), that's Groma making this switch for you because the app broke out of the frame. Nothing is lost — your recording or run continues in the new tab.

You can also choose the mode yourself. While recording, the panel has an Undock to a real tab control next to Pause. When you're in a real tab and the app does support framing, a Return to the frame control appears so you can switch back; for apps that can't be framed it stays hidden.

Troubleshooting

Clicking a run link does nothing

The Groma extension isn't installed (or is disabled) in that browser. Install it, then click the link again.

Login inside the frame doesn't stick

Some sign-in flows depend on cookies the frame bypasses can't fully relax — check that your browser isn't blocking third-party cookies for the site, or fall back to Open in a real tab.

The frame shows an error instead of the app

The site refuses framing even with its headers stripped. Use Open in a real tab from the error banner.

Groma won't start on this page

Groma can't act on browser-internal pages (chrome://, extension pages, about:). Open a normal web page first.

Questions?

Contact selahsolution@gmail.com. See also the Terms & Conditions and the Privacy Policy.