WebDriver

WebDriver is a standardized interface to interact with web documents, primarily intended for automated testing. The recommended way to use it with Tauri is WebdriverIO and the @wdio/tauri-service, which works on Windows, Linux, and macOS. Maintained under the WebdriverIO project, it provides Tauri API access through browser.tauri.execute(), command (IPC) mocking, frontend and backend log capture, and multiremote.

By default the service runs an embedded WebDriver server inside your app, so no external driver is needed on any platform — and this is how macOS is supported. It can also drive the platform’s native WebDriver through tauri-driver on Windows and Linux, or CrabNebula’s cross-platform fork of tauri-driver on all platforms (a paid API key is required for macOS). Whichever route you choose, the service detects your application binary, and on the tauri-driver route it keeps the Edge WebDriver in sync on Windows for you.

The quickest way to scaffold a project is the WebdriverIO starter:

npm create wdio@latest ./

Pick Desktop Testing and choose Tauri at the framework prompt. A minimal configuration looks like this:

export const config: WebdriverIO.Config = {
  services: [
    [
      'tauri',
      {
        appBinaryPath: './src-tauri/target/release/my-tauri-app',
        driverProvider: 'embedded',
      },
    ],
  ],
};

Setting this up uses two small Tauri plugins, both optional depending on your requirements:

• tauri-plugin-wdio-webdriver runs the embedded WebDriver server. It’s required for the embedded provider (the default) — the service drives your app through it, with no external driver, and it’s how macOS is supported. You can skip it if you want to use the external or crabnebula provider instead.
• tauri-plugin-wdio enables backend access including: browser.tauri.execute(), command (IPC) mocking, and log capture.

See Plugin Setup for the full steps, and the CrabNebula setup guide if you use that provider.

For fast, renderer-only tests there is also a browser mode that runs your Tauri frontend in plain Chrome against a Vite dev server — no Tauri binary, driver, or plugin required. It intercepts invoke() calls so you can mock commands and assert on their arguments with the same WDIO API. See the browser mode guide.

WebdriverIO Tauri documentationFull setup, configuration, and API reference for @wdio/tauri-service

Example Applications

Complete, runnable examples that use the service live in the WebdriverIO desktop-mobile repository.

Continuous Integration (CI)

The WebDriver CI guide explains how to run these tests under GitHub Actions and the concepts behind it.

Continuous Integration (CI)

Driving tauri-driver directly

If you are not using Node.js, prefer Selenium, or are integrating WebDriver into a custom test harness, you can drive tauri-driver directly instead of using the service. Driven directly, only Windows and Linux are supported on desktop, as macOS has no WKWebView driver tool available (use the service’s embedded WebDriver server for macOS).

Manual WebDriver setupInstall and drive tauri-driver yourself (Windows and Linux only)