Skip to main content

2026/07/22 - Edit existing tests with the mabl agent

Molly Exten
  • Updated

Until now, the mabl agent could build brand-new tests in the cloud, but editing an existing test meant opening the mabl Trainer. Now the mabl agent can edit tests in the cloud too. Describe the change you want in plain language, and the agent opens the test, applies your edits, runs it to confirm it still passes, and reworks anything that fails before saving.

Because it runs in the background like cloud test creation, you can hand off an edit and keep working, or kick off several edits in parallel instead of stepping through each one in the Trainer. Common jobs it handles well:

  • Targeted changes — add an assertion, update a selector, insert or reorder steps, or adjust test data without re-recording.
  • Fixing a stale test — when a run fails because the app changed, ask the agent to bring the test back in line with the new behavior.

Where you can start an edit

You can launch an editing session from wherever you already work:

  • Test details page — open the edit menu and choose Edit with mabl: "Describe your changes in plain language. mabl will make updates for you."
  • Failed run summary — when runtime recovery detects that a failing test needs updating, an Improve test button appears in the run's results summary. It hands the agent the failure details and pre-fills a prompt so you can turn a failure straight into a fix.
  • The mabl agent chat — the same planning experience you use to build a test now lets you edit one, so you can go from describing a test to refining it in one place.
  • mabl MCP — use the mabl_authoring_edit tool from any MCP client (Claude, Cursor, VS Code) to edit a test by ID, or mabl_authoring_merge to reconcile one branch into another.
  • mabl CLI — run mabl agent authoring initiate with a test_id in --test-information to edit an existing test from your terminal or coding agent.
Editing a test with the mabl agent

Keep agent edits on a branch

By default, edits made by the mabl agent are saved to a branch instead of your default branch, so you can review the changes before merging them in. Workspace owners control this from Agents > Settings, under Agent behavior, with the Require agent edits on branches setting. Leave it on to require review of every agent edit, or turn it off to let the agent save directly to the default branch.

Learn more