Reducing flaky tests

Most flakiness comes from timing, overlays, and brittle locators. These practices keep runs stable.

Wait for the app, don't guess

• Use explicit waits (Wait Until Element Is Visible) for dynamic or late-loading content rather than relying only on the default implicit wait (~10s).
• Gate actions with Verify steps so a step only runs once the app is in the expected state.
• Avoid long fixed sleeps — prefer explicit waits that finish as soon as the condition is met, keeping runs both stable and fast.

Locate reliably

• Clear overlays first — cookie banners, modals, sticky headers — to avoid "click intercepted by another element."
• Use robust locators and re-locate after re-renders to avoid stale-element failures.
• Avoid index- or position-based locators (e.g. "the 3rd row") when the order can change between runs — anchor on stable text or attributes instead.

Keep data fresh and ordered

• Keep test data unique and fresh with Random Variables to avoid collisions.
• Mind variable order — make sure a variable's source step runs before the step that references it.
• Don't depend on data left behind by a previous run — generate or set up what each run needs so testcases stay independent and repeatable.

Branch intentionally and design around fail-fast

• Use the conditional If action for flows that legitimately branch, rather than forcing one rigid path.
• Design around fail-fast — fix the first failing step; the remaining steps show NOT_EXECUTED, which is a consequence, not a separate problem.
• Use Report and Continue deliberately — switch to it only when later steps should still run despite a failure; otherwise keep fail-fast so problems surface early.

Stable environment & tooling

• Record against embeddable, stable environments — sites that block framing (X-Frame-Options/CSP) won't load in the recorder.
• Set up the recorder extension and its site permissions first — without them the extension captures nothing.
• Record, then refine — clean up the captured steps and replace brittle auto-generated locators with stable ones instead of shipping the raw recording.
• Keep Chrome and the Local Agent up to date for local web runs — a browser/driver version mismatch fails the session before any step.