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AI-assisted testing for Windows apps

The winapp ui commands and winui-ui-testing skill let your AI agent inspect, interact with, and validate your app's UI automatically — describing what it sees in natural language so you can iterate without writing test harness code first.

UI inspection commands

The winui-ui-testing skill is included in the winui@awesome-copilot plugin. If you installed the plugin during setup, no additional install is required.

Command What it does
winapp ui inspect Dumps the accessibility tree of the running app
winapp ui screenshot Captures a screenshot of the app window
winapp ui click <selector> Clicks a button or selects an item
winapp ui invoke <selector> Invokes the default action on a control
winapp ui search <text> Searches the element tree by name or AutomationId
winapp ui set-value <selector> <value> Sets the value of a TextBox or ComboBox

Ask your agent to test the app

  1. Run the app: 
    dotnet run
  2. Ask your agent a natural-language question, such as:

    "Look at the running app and tell me if the Save button is reachable when the form is empty."

  3. The agent uses winapp ui inspect and winapp ui screenshot to examine the app and respond.

This workflow lets you catch issues — missing keyboard focus, disabled controls, layout problems — before writing a single line of test code.

Write automated tests

Once you've explored the app interactively, ask your agent to generate formal tests. Use this starter prompt:

Write an xUnit UI test for my WinUI 3 app that:
1. Launches the app with dotnet run
2. Verifies the main window title is "My App"
3. Clicks the button with AutomationId "SaveButton"
4. Verifies a success message appears
Use the winapp ui commands for element interaction.

The generated tests use winapp ui commands as the interaction layer, so they run without a separate UI automation framework.

Set AutomationIds in your XAML

For winapp ui click to target elements reliably, set AutomationProperties.AutomationId in your XAML:

<Button AutomationProperties.AutomationId="SaveButton"
        Content="Save" />
<TextBox AutomationProperties.AutomationId="TitleInput" />

Ask your agent: "Add AutomationId attributes to all interactive controls in this XAML."

Run tests in CI

You can run winapp ui commands in a GitHub Actions workflow. The tests require a graphical session; use a Windows runner with runs-on: windows-latest.

name: UI tests
on: [push, pull_request]
jobs:
  ui-test:
    runs-on: windows-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Setup .NET
        uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v4
        with:
          dotnet-version: '9.0.x'
      - name: Install winapp CLI
        run: winget install --id Microsoft.WinAppCLI --silent --accept-package-agreements --accept-source-agreements --disable-interactivity
      - name: Build
        run: dotnet build
      - name: Run UI tests
        run: dotnet test --filter Category=UITest

Note

The winapp ui commands interact with the live accessibility tree of a running process. Tests must launch the app as part of the test setup (or in a TestInitialize step) and close it in teardown.

Check accessibility automatically

The winapp ui inspect command outputs the full accessibility tree — element names, types, states, and AutomationIds. Ask your agent to review it for accessibility gaps:

Run "winapp ui inspect" on the running app and identify any issues:
- Controls without accessible names
- Missing keyboard focus order
- Buttons or links that aren't reachable by Tab
Report findings as a prioritized list, most critical first.

This prompt works well as a first-pass accessibility review before running a formal audit tool. For a complete accessibility checklist, see Accessibility overview for Windows apps.

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