Method
Automated exploratory testing with AI agents
Exploratory testing finds the bugs nobody wrote a test for, and it has always needed a person with time. AI agents can now do a first pass on every build. Here is how, and what a human tester still does better.
Can exploratory testing be automated?
Partly. AI agents can explore a web app with a goal but no script, the way a tester would, and report what broke, what was slow and where they got lost. Mimiq gives each agent a different user to play, which spreads the exploration. A skilled human tester still finds deeper and stranger bugs; agents make a first pass cheap enough to run on every build.
Why exploratory testing gets skipped
It is the most valuable testing most teams never do. Scripted tests repeat known paths; exploratory testing asks "what happens if someone does this instead?" It takes hours of a person who knows how to break things, so it happens before big launches, if at all, and never on the small change that broke onboarding on a Tuesday.
- A goal, not a script: agents choose their own path.
- Different users take different paths: a phone user, a skimmer, someone who types things oddly.
- Every step recorded with a screenshot and the agent's words.
- The browser's own error and network records on each step.
- Cheap enough for every preview deploy.
How it works
- 01
Give it a link and a task
Paste a public address, such as a preview deployment or staging, and say in plain words what a user would try, like "Sign up and start using it". No test scripts and no selectors.
- 02
Pick how many agents
1, 3, 5, 10 or 20 agents, 5 by default. Each acts as a different one of your users and gets its own real browser for up to 40 steps. About 5 minutes for up to 3 agents, about 5 to 15 minutes for 5, and about 15 to 30 minutes for 20. Agents take turns on shared browsers, so it can take longer when other runs are going, and you can close the tab and come back.
- 03
Read what they hit
The report shows what broke, what the browser caught on your site (JavaScript errors, requests that failed or answered 4xx or 5xx, and requests slower than 3 seconds), where each agent got stuck or gave up and why in its own words, with the step and a screenshot, and the problems ranked by how many agents hit them, each with a suggested fix.
- 04
Fix it and run the same agents again
Rerun on the fixed build and see whether the problem is gone for everyone who hit it. Or let your coding agent do the loop through the MCP server, or let the GitHub Action do it on every preview deploy.
What a good exploratory pass covers
Paths nobody planned: going back mid-signup, opening a link in a new tab, skipping the optional step, typing a website without "https". Edge input: long names, odd formats, an email that is valid but unusual. And the moments where the app gives no feedback, so a user cannot tell whether anything happened.
Agents cover the first and third well, because they behave like different users and say when nothing seemed to happen. Deliberately hostile input, security probing and deep domain logic still belong to a human tester.
Charters for agents
Exploratory testers work from a charter: a mission and an area. The task you give Mimiq is the charter: "Create an account and invite a teammate", "Find the cheapest plan and get to checkout", "Change your billing email". Write it the way you would brief a tester, and say where to stop if the flow ends in a real payment.
Limits
Agents are simulated users. They find problems fast and on every build; they do not forecast how many real people will convert, they are not a deterministic regression suite, and they do not install native mobile apps.
Questions
Is this the same as a crawler?
No. A crawler visits pages. An agent pursues a goal, fills in forms, reacts to what the page says, and gives up when a real person would.
How do I make agents explore more widely?
Run more of them and describe a broader audience. Different users take different paths, which is how the exploration spreads.
Can it test a flow behind a sign-in?
With paid credits, agents can sign in with a test account you give them and open protected previews (a Vercel bypass secret or a site password). The secrets are filled in only in the browser and deleted when the run ends. Test accounts and protected previews come with paid credits: the $9 Starter or a plan from $19 a month.
Keep reading
Let the agents find what breaks first.
Your first test is free: sign in with Google and it starts right away. Last checked 2026-10-22.