Prerequisites
Before generating your first test, make sure you have the items below ready. Which ones you need depends on the interface you're using.
Required for All Interfaces
Roost Token
A Roost token (also called a license token) authenticates your account with the RoostGPT service.
- Cloud users: Get your token from app.roost.ai → My Profile
- Self-hosted users: Your token is provided by the Roost team during onboarding
- Free trial: Sign up at app.roost.ai/tryRoostAI using your organization email
AI Provider API Key
RoostGPT calls an external AI model to generate tests. You need credentials for at least one provider:
| Provider | What you need |
|---|---|
| OpenAI | API key from platform.openai.com |
| Azure OpenAI | API key, endpoint URL, and deployment name |
| Anthropic Claude | API key from console.anthropic.com |
| Google Gemini | API key from Google AI Studio |
| AWS Bedrock | AWS credentials with AmazonBedrockLimitedAccess policy attached |
See AI Provider Configuration for provider-specific setup instructions.
Required for Git-Based Test Output
If you want RoostGPT to push tests and open a Pull Request (rather than writing files locally), you also need:
Git Personal Access Token
| Platform | Minimum scopes |
|---|---|
| GitHub | repo (full) |
| GitLab | api, read_repository, write_repository |
| Bitbucket | Repositories: Read + Write, Pull Requests: Write |
| Azure DevOps | Code (Read & Write), Pull Request Contribute |
See Git Platform Configuration for token creation steps per platform.
Per-Interface Requirements
Web UI
- A modern browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari)
- Network access to your RoostGPT domain (
https://app.roost.aior your self-hosted URL) - Your Roost token and AI provider credentials (entered in Settings after sign-in)
CLI
- Linux, macOS, or Windows machine
- Internet access to download the binary and reach Docker Hub (for Docker mode)
- Docker Engine — only if using
--dockerflag for isolated test execution
VS Code Extension
- VS Code installed (RoostGPT Plugin)
- All language runtime dependencies your code needs to run (e.g. JDK for Java, Python interpreter for Python) — RoostGPT runs generated tests locally to improve them
For Specific Test Types
| Test Type | Additional Requirement |
|---|---|
| Functional Tests | Jira account with API token, or Azure DevOps PAT with Work Items (Read) scope |
| API Tests | A Swagger/OpenAPI spec file (JSON or YAML) or Postman collection |
| Integration Tests | An API spec file plus a Gherkin .feature file as the test template |
| UI Tests | Target application URL(s), and/or test descriptions in plain text, Word, PDF, Excel, or Gherkin format. A vision-capable AI provider (OpenAI, Gemini, or Azure OpenAI) is required. See UI Test Generator. |
Quick Checklist
Before starting the Quickstart, confirm you have:
- Roost token
- AI provider API key
- Git token (if pushing tests to a repo)
- VS Code installed (IDE path only)
- Docker Engine running (CLI Docker mode only)