From frustration to Skynet: building a lightweight UI automation helper

UI testing is powerful.

But it’s also… heavy.

Frameworks, setup, configs, pipelines — all necessary, but sometimes overwhelming when all you want is something simple:

“Is this working right now?”

That’s exactly the situation I kept finding myself in.

While working on different projects, debugging UI issues, or doing quick validations, I realized something:

I didn’t always need a full automation framework.

Sometimes I just needed a fast, lightweight way to:
- interact with the UI 
- validate elements 
- check behavior 
- and move on 

No setup. No dependencies. No overhead.

So I built something for myself.

A small browser helper.

Something that runs directly in the browser.

Something that feels almost… instant.

That’s how Skynet was born.

Skynet is a lightweight browser automation helper that allows you to:

- Run UI tests directly from the browser console or a bookmarklet  
- Validate text, values, and UI state  
- Check tables and form behavior  
- Generate visual reports with pass/fail results  
- Export results (JSON / CSV)  
- Record actions and generate test scripts  
- Capture screenshots on failures  

All of this…

It’s not meant to replace tools like Cypress or Playwright.

It’s built for something different:

I recently presented Skynet live for the first time, and seeing people use it in real-time was incredibly rewarding.

What started as a personal tool turned into something others might actually find useful.
And yes, the name Skynet is inspired by the Terminator movies

If you’re curious, you can check it out here: GitHub page
I’d love to hear your thoughts, feedback, or ideas on where this could go next.

Petros Plakogiannis