Dolphin Desktop

Windows desktop test automation with lazy locators, auto-waiting, and pytest integration.

Dolphin Desktop helps Python tests launch, find, and interact with Windows desktop applications through Microsoft UI Automation, Win32 automation, image matching, and selected integrations such as Java Access Bridge and Office COM.

pip install dolphin-desktop

from dolphin_desktop import Desktop

desktop = Desktop(backend="uia")
app = desktop.launch("notepad.exe")
win = app.window(class_name="Notepad")

editor = win.get_by_role("Document")
editor.click()
editor.type_text("Hello, Dolphin!")

assert "Hello, Dolphin!" in editor.text()

app.kill()

What It Provides

• Lazy locators that resolve only when an action or query runs.
• Auto-waiting for element actions and assertions.
• A pytest plugin with desktop and launch fixtures.
• UIA and Win32 backends for Windows desktop applications.
• Image-based fallback selectors with the vision extra.
• Trace, screenshot, video, recorder, spy, and project scaffold commands.

Quickstart

pip install dolphin-desktop pytest
dolphin doctor
dolphin init my-tests --yes
cd my-tests
pytest tests/ -v

The default scaffold creates a Notepad test and a small Page Object under objects/.

Documentation

The documentation site is built with MkDocs from the docs/ directory:

uv run mkdocs serve

Key pages:

• docs/installation.md
• docs/quickstart.md
• docs/tutorials/first-test.md
• docs/reference/index.md
• docs/reference/cli.md

Development

See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup instructions.

Contact

Maintained by DolphinSoft Kamil Gluszek.

• Website: https://dolphinsoft.pl
• Email: kontakt@dolphinsoft.pl

License

Apache License 2.0