Every session you hand to the mabl agent appears as a task on the Agents > Tasks page, whether it is creating a test in the cloud or on your machine, editing a test, or working through a planning conversation. This page describes what you see there and the notifications mabl can send about your sessions:
To start a session, see Agentic test authoring for web apps or Edit an existing test with the mabl agent.
The Tasks page
Sessions run in the background, so you can start more sessions or work on something else while the agent builds. Each task on the Agents > Tasks page shows a real-time status and a Latest activity column that describes what the agent is working on.
Tasks are organized into two sections:
- Active - tasks that are in progress or need your attention. Active tasks appear at the top of the page.
- Recently completed - tasks that have finished building or were stopped. Completed tasks appear below active tasks.
You can run up to 10 cloud authoring sessions at the same time. If you reach this limit, mabl prompts you to generate the test locally instead. Local sessions are limited only by what your machine can handle.
Task statuses
| Status | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Queued | The task is waiting in line for the agent to start working on it. | Nothing. The agent picks it up when a slot is free. |
| Building | The agent is actively building the test. | Nothing. Check Latest activity or the task details to follow along. |
| Review | The agent finished successfully and the generated test is ready. | Open the test and review the steps. |
| Needs input | The agent paused because it couldn't determine the next action. | Open the task details and answer the agent's question. The page updates as soon as the agent resumes or asks a follow-up. |
| Stopped | The task ended before finishing, either because a user stopped it or because it exceeded the 3-hour limit. | Start a new session if you still need the test. |
Task details
Click on a task to open its detail view. Task details include:
- The test name and a link to open the test
- An Agent actions section that tracks what the agent did during the session
- The current status and description, including the agent's question when the task needs input
- A timestamp for when the build started and ended
- A button to Revisit planning session to review your original conversation with the planning agent
You can also revisit planning sessions from the chat history sidebar on the test planning page: Build tests > Start chatting. This sidebar only contains your planning sessions, meaning you can't see chats from other workspace members, and they can't see yours.
RBAC permissions apply to viewing task details. For example, if a session used protected credentials that you don't have permissions for, you can't access that session's task details.
Agent activity
The Agent actions section reflects how the agent works. As it builds each step, the agent bundles steps together into step groups based on the test outline, and replays steps it has already created to verify they still work. If a step fails during replay, the agent undoes it and retries with a different approach, iterating multiple times if needed before moving on.
For each step, the agent follows a cycle:
- Plan - plans the next action based on the prompt and screenshots
- Act - visually locates and interacts with elements on the screen
- Reflect - reflects on what changed to determine whether the action succeeded
Notifications
mabl can tell you when a session is ready for review, needs your input, or failed, so you don't have to keep the Tasks page open. Desktop notifications cover your own sessions on your machine. Slack and Microsoft Teams notifications cover sessions for your team.
Desktop App notifications
The mabl Desktop App sends an operating system notification when one of your agent sessions needs input, finishes, or fails. Clicking the notification opens the session.
Notifications cover the agent sessions you start yourself, including cloud sessions, local generation in the Trainer, and replies in a planning session. Sessions started by teammates or through API keys don't trigger notifications.
Notifications are on by default. On macOS, the first notification arrives with a system prompt titled mabl Notifications. Select Options > Allow to keep receiving them.
The settings live in the mabl app menu bar under Edit > Preferences > Notifications.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Show desktop notifications for agent activity | Turns all agent notifications on or off | On |
| Agent needs my input | Notifies you when the agent pauses on a question | On |
| Agent finished and is ready for review | Notifies you when the agent completes its task | On |
| Agent failed | Notifies you when a session stops because of an error, and includes the error | On |
| Play a sound | Adds an audio cue to each notification | On |
| Only notify when mabl is in the background | Skips the notification while a mabl window is focused | On |
| Show a badge on the app icon for sessions waiting on my input | Puts a count on the mabl dock icon for every session paused on your answer. The badge clears as you respond. macOS only, and only after you've allowed notifications from mabl. | On |
If notifications never appear, check that mabl is allowed to send notifications in your operating system's notification settings.
Slack and Microsoft Teams
The mabl Slack integration and Microsoft Teams integration each have an Agent session notifications section with the same three outcomes: ready for review, needs input, and failed. Each message links to the session and names the person who started it.