Skip the manual tap-through: agentic CI for Expo apps with TesterArmy

Description and use

Automated UI testing in Expo EAS with TesterArmy eliminates manual screen traversal, speeds PR merges, and provides video evidence.

Problem

Pull requests in Expo projects often wait days for manual UI testing, delaying merges and risking production bugs.

Outcome

Automated UI testing reduces PR merge wait time, eliminates manual tap-through, and provides video evidence of UI behavior.

Workflow

• 1. PR is opened or updated. 2. EAS workflow triggers: builds iOS simulator app and Android APK, or repacks if a matching build exists. 3. Built artifacts are uploaded to TesterArmy. 4. TesterArmy agent reads PR description and diff. 5. Agent determines which screens to tap. 6. Agent runs the taps on the simulator, records a video. 7. Agent posts a GitHub check and a PR comment with a table of planned steps and results. 8. Merge decision can be made with confidence from the automated test results.

Evidence

A pull request sits in the queue for two days. The diff is small, the description is clear, but nobody has five minutes to open the simulator and tap through the screen that changed.

Source

The TesterArmy agent reads the pull request description and diff on every PR, understands what changed, opens the app on a simulator, taps through it like a real user would, and leaves you a recording of what it did and what happened.

Source

The basic workflow triggers on push to main, on pull requests to main, and on workflow_dispatch. It builds the iOS Simulator app and Android APK, downloads each artifact with eas/download_build, uploads to TesterArmy, and runs your saved test group once per platform.

Source