manul-engine 0.0.8.6

Resilient neuro-symbolic browser automation framework powered by Playwright and local LLMs (Ollama)

😼 ManulEngine — The Mastermind

ManulEngine is a relentless hybrid (neuro-symbolic) framework for browser automation and E2E testing.

Forget brittle CSS/XPath locators that break on every UI update — write tests in plain English. Stop paying for expensive cloud APIs — leverage local micro-LLMs via Ollama, entirely on your machine.

Manul combines the blazing speed of Playwright, powerful JavaScript DOM heuristics, and the reasoning of local neural networks. It is fast, private, and highly resilient to UI changes.

The Manul goes hunting and never returns without its prey.

ManulEngine runs on a potato. No GPU. No cloud APIs. No $0.02 per click. Just Playwright, heuristics, and optional tiny local models.

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✨ Key Features

⚡ Heuristics-First Architecture

95% of the heavy lifting (element finding, assertions, DOM parsing) is handled by ultra-fast JavaScript and Python heuristics. The AI steps in only when genuine ambiguity arises.

When the LLM picker is used, Manul passes the heuristic score as a prior (hint) by default — the model can override the ranking only with a clear, disqualifying reason.

🛡️ Ironclad JS Fallbacks

Modern websites love to hide elements behind invisible overlays, custom dropdowns, and zero-pixel traps. Manul uses Playwright with force=True plus retries and self-healing; for Shadow DOM elements it falls back to direct JS helpers to keep execution moving.

🌑 Shadow DOM Awareness

The DOM snapshotter recursively inspects shadow roots and can interact with elements inside the shadow tree.

👻 Smart Anti-Phantom Guard & AI Rejection

Strict protection against LLM hallucinations. If the model is unsure, it returns {"id": null}; the engine treats that as a rejection and retries with self-healing.

🎛️ Adjustable AI Threshold

Control how aggressively Manul falls back to the local LLM via manul_engine_configuration.json (ai_threshold key) or the MANUL_AI_THRESHOLD environment variable. If not set, Manul auto-calculates it from the model size:

Model size	Auto threshold
< 1b	500
1b – 4b	750
5b – 9b	1000
10b – 19b	1500
20b+	2000

Set MANUL_AI_THRESHOLD=0 to disable the LLM entirely and run fully on deterministic heuristics.

🗂️ Persistent Controls Cache

Successful element resolutions are stored per-site and reused on subsequent runs — making repeated test flows dramatically faster.

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🎛️ Custom Controls — Escape Hatch for Complex UI

Some UI elements defeat general-purpose heuristics entirely: React virtual tables, canvas-based date-pickers, WebGL widgets, drag-to-sort lists. Custom Controls let you write plain English in the hunt file while an SDET handles the underlying Playwright logic in Python.

• For Manual QA / Testers: Keep writing plain English steps. If a step targets a Custom Control, the engine routes it to a Python handler automatically. The .hunt file stays readable and unchanged.
• For SDETs / Developers: Register a handler with a one-line decorator tied to a page name from pages.json. Use any Playwright API inside — no heuristics, no AI involvement.

# controls/booking.py
from manul_engine import custom_control

@custom_control(page="Checkout Page", target="React Datepicker")
async def handle_datepicker(page, action_type, value):
    await page.locator(".react-datepicker__input-container input").fill(value or "")

# tests/checkout.hunt  — no change needed for the QA author
2. Fill 'React Datepicker' with '2026-12-25'

The engine loads every .py file in controls/ at startup. No configuration required.

See it in action: controls/demo_custom.py is a fully-working reference handler for a React Datepicker (with month navigation). tests/demo_controls.hunt is the companion hunt file — run it as-is to see the routing in action.

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⚡ Lightning-Fast Preconditions with Python Hooks

Stop wasting hours on brittle UI-based preconditions. With [SETUP] and [TEARDOWN] hooks you can inject test data directly into your database or call an API in pure Python — keeping your .hunt files crystal clear and your test runs dramatically faster.

[SETUP]
CALL PYTHON db_helpers.seed_admin_user
[END SETUP]

1. NAVIGATE to https://myapp.com/login
2. Fill 'Email' field with '[e-mail]'
3. Fill 'Password' field with 'secret'
4. Click the 'Sign In' button
5. VERIFY that 'Dashboard' is present.

[TEARDOWN]
CALL PYTHON db_helpers.clean_database
[END TEARDOWN]

Hooks run outside the browser: [SETUP] fires before the browser opens; [TEARDOWN] fires in a finally block — always — regardless of whether the test passed or failed. If setup fails, the mission is skipped and teardown is not called (there's nothing to clean up).

Block	When it runs	Abort behaviour
[SETUP]	Before the browser launches	Failure skips mission + teardown
[TEARDOWN]	After the mission (pass or fail)	Failure is logged, does not override mission result

The helper module is resolved relative to the .hunt file's directory first, then the CWD, then standard sys.path — no configuration needed.

🐍 Inline Python Calls

Need to fetch an OTP from the database mid-test? Or trigger a backend job before clicking "Refresh"? You can now call Python functions directly as standard numbered steps — right in the middle of your UI flow.

1. FILL 'Email' field with '[e-mail]'
2. CLICK the 'Send OTP' button
3. CALL PYTHON api_helpers.fetch_and_set_otp
4. Fill 'OTP' field with '{otp}'
5. CLICK the 'Login' button
6. VERIFY that 'Dashboard' is present.

The same module resolution rules apply as for [SETUP]/[TEARDOWN]: hunt file directory → CWD → sys.path. Functions must be synchronous. If the call fails, the mission stops immediately — just like any other failed step. No special syntax or block wrapping required.

Capturing return values with into {var}

Append into {var_name} (or to {var_name}) to bind the function’s return value directly into an in-mission variable:

2. CALL PYTHON api_helpers.fetch_otp into {dynamic_otp}
3. Fill 'Security Code' field with '{dynamic_otp}'

The raw return value is converted to a string (str(return_value)) and stored under the variable name. It is then available for {placeholder} substitution in every subsequent step, exactly like variables populated by EXTRACT or @var:.

💻 System Requirements

	Minimum	Recommended
CPU	any	modern laptop
RAM	4 GB	8 GB
GPU	none	none
Model	— (heuristics-only)	qwen2.5:0.5b

🛠️ Installation

pip install manul-engine
playwright install chromium

Optional: Local LLM (Ollama)

Ollama is only needed for AI element-picker fallback or free-text mission planning.

pip install ollama          # Python client library
ollama pull qwen2.5:0.5b   # download model (requires Ollama app: https://ollama.com)
ollama serve

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🚀 Quick Start

1. Create a hunt file

my_tests/smoke.hunt

@context: Demo smoke test
@blueprint: smoke

1. NAVIGATE to https://demoqa.com/text-box
2. Fill 'Full Name' field with 'Ghost Manul'
3. Click the 'Submit' button
4. VERIFY that 'Ghost Manul' is present.
5. DONE.

2. Run it

# Run a specific hunt file
manul my_tests/smoke.hunt

# Run all *.hunt files in a folder
manul my_tests/

# Run headless
manul my_tests/ --headless

# Choose a different browser
manul my_tests/ --browser firefox
manul my_tests/ --headless --browser webkit

# Run an inline one-liner
manul "1. NAVIGATE to https://example.com  2. Click the 'More' link  3. DONE."

# Run multiple hunt files in parallel (4 concurrent browsers)
manul my_tests/ --workers 4

# Run only files tagged 'smoke'
manul my_tests/ --tags smoke

# Run only files tagged 'smoke' OR 'critical'
manul my_tests/ --tags smoke,critical

# Interactive debug mode (terminal) — pause before every step, confirm in terminal
manul --debug my_tests/smoke.hunt

# VS Code: place red-dot gutter breakpoints in any .hunt file, then run the Debug profile
# in Test Explorer — ⏭ Next Step / ▶ Continue All / ■ Stop (Stop dismisses QuickPick cleanly)

# Smart Page Scanner — scan a URL and generate a draft hunt file
manul scan https://example.com                    # outputs to tests/draft.hunt (tests_home)
manul scan https://example.com tests/my.hunt      # explicit output file
manul scan https://example.com --headless         # headless scan

VS Code: The Step Builder sidebar includes a Live Page Scanner — paste a URL and click 🔍 Run Scan to invoke the scanner without opening a terminal. The generated draft.hunt opens automatically in the editor.

3. Python API

import asyncio
from manul_engine import ManulEngine

async def main():
    manul = ManulEngine(headless=True)
    await manul.run_mission("""
        1. NAVIGATE to https://demoqa.com/text-box
        2. Fill 'Full Name' field with 'Ghost Manul'
        3. Click the 'Submit' button
        4. VERIFY that 'Ghost Manul' is present.
        5. DONE.
    """)

asyncio.run(main())

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📜 Hunt File Format

Hunt files are plain-text test scenarios with a .hunt extension.

Headers (optional)

@context: Strategic context passed to the LLM planner
@blueprint: short-tag
@tags: smoke, auth, regression

@tags: declares a comma-separated list of arbitrary tag names. Use manul --tags smoke tests/ to run only files whose @tags: header contains at least one matching tag. Untagged files are excluded when --tags is active.

Comments

Lines starting with # are ignored.

System Keywords

Keyword	Description
NAVIGATE to [URL]	Load a URL and wait for DOM settlement
WAIT [seconds]	Hard sleep
PRESS ENTER	Press Enter on the currently focused element (submit forms after filling a field)
SCROLL DOWN	Scroll the main page down one viewport
EXTRACT [target] into {var}	Extract text into a memory variable
VERIFY that [target] is present	Assert text/element is visible
VERIFY that [target] is NOT present	Assert absence
VERIFY that [target] is DISABLED	Assert element state
VERIFY that [target] is checked	Assert checkbox state
SCAN PAGE	Scan the current page for interactive elements and print a draft .hunt to the console
SCAN PAGE into {filename}	Same, and also write the draft to {filename} (default: tests_home/draft.hunt)
DONE.	End the mission

Python Hooks & Inline Python Calls

Optional [SETUP]/[TEARDOWN] blocks (placed at the top/bottom of the file) and inline CALL PYTHON steps (used anywhere in the numbered sequence) all share the same execution model.

[SETUP]
# Lines starting with # are ignored.
CALL PYTHON <module_path>.<function_name>
[END SETUP]

1. NAVIGATE to https://myapp.com
2. CALL PYTHON api_helpers.fetch_otp into {dynamic_otp}
3. Fill 'Security Code' with '{dynamic_otp}'
4. VERIFY that 'Dashboard' is present.

[TEARDOWN]
CALL PYTHON <module_path>.<function_name>
[END TEARDOWN]

Rules:

• Functions must be synchronous (async functions are explicitly rejected).
• A single [SETUP]/[TEARDOWN] block may contain multiple CALL PYTHON lines; they run sequentially — first failure stops the block.
• An inline CALL PYTHON step that fails stops the mission immediately, just like any other failed step.
• Append into {var_name} (or to {var_name}) to a CALL PYTHON step to bind the function’s return value into a variable: CALL PYTHON api.fetch_otp into {otp}. The value is converted to a string and available for {placeholder} substitution in all subsequent steps.
• The module is searched in: hunt file directory → CWD → sys.path. No import configuration needed.

Interaction Steps

# Clicking
Click the 'Login' button
DOUBLE CLICK the 'Image'

# Typing
Fill 'Email' field with '[e-mail]'
Type 'hello' into the 'Search' field

# Dropdowns
Select 'Option A' from the 'Language' dropdown

# Checkboxes / Radios
Check the checkbox for 'Terms'
Uncheck the checkbox for 'Newsletter'
Click the radio button for 'Male'

# Hover & Drag
HOVER over the 'Menu'
Drag the element "Item" and drop it into "Box"

# Optional steps (non-blocking)
Click 'Close Ad' if exists

Variables

EXTRACT the price of 'Laptop' into {price}
VERIFY that '{price}' is present.

Variable Declaration

Declare static test data at the top of the file using @var:. These values are pre-populated into the runtime memory before any step runs and can be interpolated anywhere a variable placeholder {name} is accepted.

@var: {email}    = [e-mail]
@var: {password} = secret123

1. NAVIGATE to https://myapp.com/login
2. Fill 'Email' with '{email}'
3. Fill 'Password' with '{password}'
4. Click the 'Login' button

The surrounding {} braces in the declaration are optional — @var: email = ... and @var: {email} = ... are equivalent. Values are stripped of leading/trailing whitespace. Declared variables behave exactly like variables populated by EXTRACT and can be used interchangeably with them in downstream steps.

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🤖 Generate Hunt Files with AI Prompts

The prompts/ directory contains ready-to-use LLM prompt templates that let you generate complete .hunt test files automatically — no manual step writing needed.

Prompt file	When to use
prompts/html_to_hunt.md	Paste a page's HTML source → get complete hunt steps
prompts/description_to_hunt.md	Describe a page or flow in plain text → get hunt steps

Quick example — GitHub Copilot Chat

1. Open Copilot Chat (Ctrl+Alt+I).
2. Click the paperclip icon → attach prompts/html_to_hunt.md.
3. Paste your HTML in the chat and press Enter.
4. Save the response as tests/<name>.hunt and run manul tests/<name>.hunt.

See prompts/README.md for usage with ChatGPT, Claude, OpenAI/Anthropic API, and local Ollama.

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⚙️ Configuration

Create manul_engine_configuration.json in your project root — all settings are optional:

{
  "model": "qwen2.5:0.5b",
  "headless": false,
  "browser": "chromium",
  "browser_args": [],
  "timeout": 5000,
  "nav_timeout": 30000,
  "ai_always": false,
  "ai_policy": "prior",
  "ai_threshold": null,
  "controls_cache_enabled": true,
  "controls_cache_dir": "cache",
  "semantic_cache_enabled": true,
  "log_name_maxlen": 0,
  "log_thought_maxlen": 0,
  "workers": 1,
  "tests_home": "tests",
  "auto_annotate": false
}

Set "model": null (or omit it) to disable AI entirely and run in heuristics-only mode.

Environment variables (MANUL_*) always override JSON values — useful for CI/CD:

export MANUL_HEADLESS=true
export MANUL_AI_THRESHOLD=0
export MANUL_MODEL=qwen2.5:0.5b
export MANUL_BROWSER=firefox
export MANUL_BROWSER_ARGS="--disable-gpu,--lang=uk"

Key	Default	Description
model	null	Ollama model name. null = heuristics-only (no AI)
headless	false	Hide browser window
browser	"chromium"	Browser engine: chromium, firefox, or webkit
browser_args	[]	Extra launch flags for the browser (array of strings)
ai_threshold	auto	Score threshold before LLM fallback. null = auto by model size
ai_always	false	Always use LLM picker, bypass heuristic short-circuits
ai_policy	"prior"	"prior" (LLM may override score) or "strict" (enforce max-score)
controls_cache_enabled	true	Persistent per-site controls cache (file-based, survives between runs)
controls_cache_dir	"cache"	Cache directory (relative to CWD or absolute)
semantic_cache_enabled	true	In-session semantic cache; remembers resolved elements within a single run (+200,000 score boost)
timeout	5000	Default action timeout (ms)
nav_timeout	30000	Navigation timeout (ms)
log_name_maxlen	0	Truncate element names in logs (0 = no limit)
log_thought_maxlen	0	Truncate LLM thoughts in logs (0 = no limit)
workers	1	Number of hunt files to run concurrently (each gets its own browser)
tests_home	"tests"	Default directory for new hunt files and SCAN PAGE / manul scan output
auto_annotate	false	Automatically insert # 📍 Auto-Nav: comments in hunt files whenever the browser URL changes (not only on NAVIGATE steps). Page names are resolved from pages.json; unmapped URLs fall back to the full URL

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📋 Available Commands

Category	Command Syntax
Navigation	NAVIGATE to [URL]
Input	Fill [Field] with [Text], Type [Text] into [Field]
Click	Click [Element], DOUBLE CLICK [Element]
Selection	Select [Option] from [Dropdown], Check [Checkbox], Uncheck [Checkbox]
Mouse Action	HOVER over [Element], Drag [Element] and drop it into [Target]
Data Extraction	EXTRACT [Target] into {variable_name}
Verification	VERIFY that [Text] is present/absent, VERIFY that [Element] is checked/disabled
Page Scanner	SCAN PAGE, SCAN PAGE into {filename}
Debug	DEBUG / PAUSE — pause execution at that step (use with --debug or VS Code gutter breakpoints)
Flow Control	WAIT [seconds], PRESS ENTER, SCROLL DOWN
Finish	DONE.

Append if exists or optional to any step (outside quoted text) to make it non-blocking, e.g. Click 'Close Ad' if exists

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🐾 Battle-Tested

ManulEngine is verified against 1296+ synthetic DOM tests covering:

• Shadow DOM, invisible overlays, zero-pixel honeypots
• Custom dropdowns, drag-and-drop, hover menus
• Legacy HTML (tables, fieldsets, unlabelled inputs)
• AI rejection & self-healing loops
• Persistent controls cache hit/miss cycles

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Version: 0.0.8.6 · Status: Hunting...