1Overview
RoboClaw's TC Generation mode is a focused workflow that turns one user story into a fully structured test suite. You bring the intent; RoboClaw produces:
- Functional tests — positive flows, boundary inputs, negative cases, UI validations
- Regression tests — broader coverage including cross-feature dependencies
- Smoke tests — minimal happy-path subset for build-verification
Every generated test case includes a clear title, prerequisites, numbered steps, expected results, priority, and tag classification.
RoboClaw: Load Generation Rules) plus any imported Figma context.
2Open TC Gen Mode
- Open the RoboClaw sidebar (🤖 icon in the Activity Bar).
- In the Workflow Mode selector at the top, click TC Gen.
- The sidebar swaps to the TC Generation panel — three import sources at the top, three generation buttons at the bottom.
RoboClaw: Configure Session if needed.
3Import a User Story
Pick the source that matches your team:
- Click TC Gen: Import User Story from ADO in the sidebar.
- Enter the work-item ID (e.g.
26068695). - RoboClaw fetches title, description, acceptance criteria, attachments, and parent epic.
RoboClaw: TC Gen: Import User Story from ADO.
- Click TC Gen: Import User Story from Jira.
- Enter the issue key (e.g.
PROJ-1284). - RoboClaw reads summary, description, acceptance criteria, and any attached docs.
## Story, ## Acceptance Criteria, ## Out of scope. Anything inside ## headings is consumed verbatim.
## Story
As a supervisor, I want to publish a shift
so that operators see today's plan.
## Acceptance Criteria
1. Draft button visible on Shift Planner
2. Publish disables when shift is empty
3. Confirmation toast after publishRoboClaw: TC Gen: Clear Imported Data.
4Add Figma Context (optional)
If your user story has a Figma design, attaching it produces vastly richer test cases — RoboClaw reads frame names, layer hierarchy, and component states.
Via API
- Run TC Gen: Import Figma Design via API.
- Paste the Figma file URL and your Personal Access Token (stored in SecretStorage).
- Pick which frames to include.
Via Upload
- Export Figma frames as PNG or SVG from the Figma desktop app.
- Run TC Gen: Upload Figma Exports and select the files.
5Generate Test Cases
With imports done, you have three generation buttons:
| Mode | What it produces | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Functional | Positive flows + boundary + negative + UI validations | New feature; first sprint of testing |
| Regression | Cross-feature dependencies + impacted-area coverage | Feature touches existing modules; before release |
| Smoke | Minimal happy-path subset (5–10 cases) | Build verification; CI/CD pre-merge gate |
Run a generation
- Click TC Gen: Generate Functional Test Cases (or Regression / Smoke).
- RoboClaw shows a progress notification while Claude analyses the story.
- Output opens as a new editor tab — a structured Markdown table with all generated cases.
Example output
### TC-01 · Publish a draft shift (Happy path)
Priority: P1 Type: Functional Tags: @smoke @publish
Pre-requisites:
- Logged in as Supervisor
- One draft shift exists for today
Steps:
1. Navigate to Shift Planner
2. Tap the draft shift card
3. Tap "Publish"
Expected:
- Toast "Shift published successfully" appears within 2s
- Card status changes from Draft to Published
- Operators see the shift on their dashboard within 5s6Review & Edit
Generated cases land as a structured document. Treat it as a draft:
- Edit inline — every case is plain Markdown.
- Delete unwanted cases (RoboClaw will not regenerate them on deploy).
- Adjust priority by changing the
Priority:line. - Re-tag for grouping in your tracker.
7Rules Engine (Do's & Don'ts)
Project-specific quirks should be encoded as rules — RoboClaw auto-attaches them to every TC generation.
Open the Rules Modal
Example rules
## DO
- Always include a "Logout" teardown step for authenticated flows
- Use PFNA sector in test data unless story specifies otherwise
- Tag negative cases with @negative
## DON'T
- Generate cases that require admin-only screens (out of scope)
- Use real PII even in examples — use ${MASKED} tokensRules persist in .vscode/robogent-rules.md and are committed with your project.
8Deploy to ADO / Jira
Once you're happy with the generated cases, push them back to your tracker:
- Run TC Gen: Deploy Test Cases to ADO.
- Pick the parent Test Plan and Test Suite.
- RoboClaw creates one Test Case work item per row, populated with steps, expected results, priority, and tags.
- You'll get a clickable URL list in the output channel.
- Run TC Gen: Deploy Test Cases to Jira.
- Pick the parent epic / story.
- RoboClaw creates one issue per test case, typed as
Test(or a custom type if configured).
TF401320 rule errors),
configure them in roboclaw.ado.extraFields — they'll be set on every new test case.
9CSV Path — No PM Tool Required
If your team doesn't use ADO or Jira, you can still drive automation generation from CSV:
- Run TC Gen: Import Functional TC (.CSV).
- RoboClaw expects columns
TC_ID, Title, Pre-requisites, Steps, Expected, Priority, Tags. - The imported CSV is treated identically to ADO/Jira test cases — capture, locator, and script-generation all work on it.
Conversely, you can export generated cases as CSV from the generation output tab — useful for spreadsheet review with stakeholders.
10Tips & Patterns
Iterate in small batches
Don't generate 200 cases at once. Generate 10–20, review, codify learnings in rules, then generate the next batch. Quality compounds.
Smoke first, Functional second, Regression last
Smoke proves RoboClaw understood the story. Functional proves it covers the obvious. Regression proves it knows the system.
Re-use across PM systems
Generate against an ADO story, deploy to Jira (or vice versa) using Export Session Config to switch contexts mid-flow.
Pipe TC Gen output straight into capture
After deploying, switch to Live App mode and import the new test cases via Import ADO Test Case. You're now ready to capture screens and generate Robot scripts.