Check an app on localhost

Tada can check a feature running on your own computer, before it is deployed anywhere, and before the app is connected to Tada. Your coding agent points verify_feature at localhost, and Tada reaches it through a temporary tunnel. Nothing about the check happens on your machine except that tunnel.

Overview

When the first goto in a test points at your machine, the Tada client:

1. Opens a tunnel from Tada’s runner to that address.
2. Rewrites each goto that points at your machine to use the tunnel.
3. Submits the check, and waits for the verdict.
4. Closes the tunnel when the check ends. The answer says it was closed.

localhost, 127.0.0.1, ::1, 0.0.0.0 and any *.localhost host count as your machine. Other hosts in the same test are left alone.

Before you start

• Set up verify_feature. See Check what your coding agent builds.
• Start your app, on the port the test names.

The tunnel helper downloads itself the first time you need it. There is nothing else to install.

Keep the app running

The check happens on Tada’s machines, and they reach your app through the tunnel. Your app has to stay running, and your computer awake, until the check finishes. A laptop that goes to sleep serves nothing.

If Tada cannot reach your app, the tool says so before anything starts:

Tada could not reach http://localhost:3000 from its runner: ...
Is the app running? Tada opens a temporary tunnel to it for the length of the check.

Only through your agent

A localhost app can be checked only through the Tada client on that computer, usually called by your coding agent. Check now, schedules and deploys check addresses Tada can reach on the internet. A check made this way is not filed under a feature until the app is connected through GitHub.