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Manual Overview

Testspace extends automated test results with manual testing — for exploratory testing, checklists, and any verification a human still has to perform by hand. Manual tests are written as specs: Markdown files with test cases and steps, enhanced with the Liquid templating language for reusable, data-driven content. Specs run through the same sessions, results, and metrics pipeline as your automated tests.

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A Testspace project can be used for managing automated test results, executing manual tests, and conducting exploratory testing — all in the same space.

Two ways to author specs​

Every Testspace project is either Standalone or Connected, and that choice determines where specs live and how you edit them.

Standalone (recommended)Connected
Spec storageTestspace's databaseA Git repository (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket)
EditingIn-app editor, with a live PreviewEdited locally, committed, pushed
SetupCheck "Enable Manual Testing" on a spaceA .testspace.yml file in the repo

Standalone is the simpler starting point for most teams — write a spec, preview exactly what a tester will see, and run it, without touching a repository. Connected is for teams that want manual specs to live alongside the code under test, versioned and reviewed the same way as everything else in the repo — spec changes go through the same commit/PR workflow as code. Both are fully supported and share the same spec format, execution model, and results.

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Want to see this in action? Browse a live Standalone Manual Testing demo → — real specs with version history, includes, variables, and presentational tags, executed through actual Test Sessions.

See Creating & Editing Specs for how authoring works on each path, and Spaces for how each gets set up.

Anatomy of a spec​

A spec is Markdown, with an <H1> for the spec name and an <H2> for each test case:

---
testspace:
title: Turn off power
---

# {{ spec.title }}
This test verifies shutdown stages for each device.

## Idle case
- Confirm the device enters idle within 27 seconds

## Shutdown case
- Confirm the device powers off within 14 seconds

That {{ spec.title }} is Liquid — specs can use variables, loops, conditionals, and reusable includes, so one spec can cover a whole matrix of cases without repeating itself. See Writing a Spec for the full syntax.

Also included​