Commands
Catalog of every user-facing command shipped by fluttersdk_dusk. Forty-one commands, grouped by intent.
Every command is invoked as dart run fluttersdk_dusk (Flutter-free wrapper at bin/fluttersdk_dusk.dart), or via the consumer-side artisan dispatcher (./bin/fsa / dart run artisan ) once the project has run dusk:install. Commands are auto-discovered through DuskArtisanProvider; nothing wires by hand.
Need a quick reminder of what a command does without leaving the terminal? Run dart run artisan list for the full registry grouped by namespace, or dart run artisan help for the per-command flag surface. This page exists for the deeper view: the boot mode, the backing VM Service extension, and the grouping rationale.
Table of contents
- Snapshot and screenshot
- Gestures
- Inputs
- Navigation
- Find
- Diagnostics
- Install
- CDP
- Click variants
- Focus and blur
- Console and exceptions
- Observe
- Hot reload and snap
- Performance
How to read this page
Each group section ships a single table with four columns:
- Command is the canonical name you type after
dart run fluttersdk_dusk(or via the artisan dispatcher). - Description is the one-line summary returned by the command's
descriptiongetter; the same string surfaces indart run artisan list. - Boot Mode is the
CommandBootvalue the dispatcher reads before invokinghandle().nonemeans pure CLI: no VM Service connection.connectedmeans the command dials~/.artisan/state.jsonand fails fast if no app is running. - VM Extension is the
ext.dusk.*method the command calls over the VM Service.nonefor commands that operate purely on the consumer filesystem.
Deep-dive pages exist for the sixteen commands whose flag surface, return shape, or composition rules outgrow a single table row. The remaining twenty-five commands share this index page; reach for dart run artisan help for their full flag surface.
Snapshot and screenshot
The two foundational read commands. dusk:snap walks the Semantics tree and emits YAML with [ref=eN] tokens that every subsequent action command consumes. dusk:screenshot captures the rendered pixel buffer over Chrome DevTools Protocol (web) or RepaintBoundary.toImage (desktop, mobile).
| Command | Description | Boot Mode | VM Extension |
|---|---|---|---|
dusk:snap |
Capture Semantics tree YAML of the running Flutter app with [ref=eN] tokens. | connected | ext.dusk.snap |
dusk:screenshot |
Capture a screenshot of the running Flutter app to a file. | connected | ext.dusk.screenshot |
Gestures
Pointer-driven actions that synthesise touch, mouse, or pen events at a widget located by ref token. All four route through the actionability gate (enabled, zero-rect, off-viewport) before the event leaves the VM.
| Command | Description | Boot Mode | VM Extension |
|---|---|---|---|
dusk:tap |
Tap a widget by ref token (from prior dusk:snap). | connected | ext.dusk.tap |
dusk:hover |
Hover the pointer over a widget by ref token (from prior dusk:snap). | connected | ext.dusk.hover |
dusk:drag |
Drag from one widget to another using ref tokens from a prior dusk:snap. | connected | ext.dusk.drag |
dusk:scroll |
Scroll inside a scrollable widget by ref token from a prior dusk:snap. | connected | ext.dusk.scroll |
Inputs
Keyboard-shaped actions. dusk:type emits a character sequence; dusk:press_key synthesises a single hardware-key event; dusk:clear empties the focused text field; dusk:select_option drives DropdownButton / PopupMenuButton; dusk:set_checkbox drives Checkbox / Switch.
| Command | Description | Boot Mode | VM Extension |
|---|---|---|---|
dusk:type |
Type text into a focused widget by ref token. | connected | ext.dusk.type |
dusk:fill |
Focus, clear, type, and settle a text field by ref in one call (retries once on a stale handle). | connected | ext.dusk.fill |
dusk:press_key |
Synthesise a hardware-key event on the currently focused widget. | connected | ext.dusk.press_key |
dusk:clear |
Empty the text content of the focused widget by ref. | connected | ext.dusk.clear |
dusk:select_option |
Select an option in a DropdownButton or PopupMenuButton by ref token. | connected | ext.dusk.select_option |
dusk:set_checkbox |
Set the checked state of a Checkbox or Switch widget by ref. | connected | ext.dusk.set_checkbox |
dusk:wait |
Wait for a text, text-gone, or expression condition in the running app. | connected | ext.dusk.wait_for |
dusk:wait_for_network_idle |
Wait until the running app reports zero in-flight HTTP requests for a contiguous idleMs window. | connected | ext.dusk.wait_for_network_idle |
Navigation
Route-table manipulation against the active Navigator. dusk:modal dismisses any open modal, sheet, or dialog. dusk:close_app ends the session via SystemNavigator.pop().
| Command | Description | Boot Mode | VM Extension |
|---|---|---|---|
dusk:navigate |
Navigate the running app to a named route via the active Navigator. | connected | ext.dusk.navigate |
dusk:navigate_back |
Pop the topmost route off the active Navigator (mirrors browser back). | connected | ext.dusk.navigate_back |
dusk:get_routes |
Print the mounted Router's location (uri), the top page name and a title hint as JSON. |
connected | ext.dusk.get_routes |
dusk:modal |
Dismiss all open modals, bottom sheets, and dialogs in the running app. | connected | ext.dusk.dismiss_modals |
dusk:reset_overlays |
Reset to a clean screen: dismiss modals + Escape + Cancel-tap fallback (idempotent). | connected | ext.dusk.reset_overlays |
dusk:close_app |
Gracefully close the running app via SystemNavigator.pop(). | connected | ext.dusk.close_app |
Find
The Playwright Locator surface: mint a re-resolvable q handle backed by text, semanticsLabel, or key predicates. Every action call against a q handle re-walks the live tree, so the handle survives intermediate rebuilds.
| Command | Description | Boot Mode | VM Extension |
|---|---|---|---|
dusk:find |
Mint a re-resolvable q-handle by text / semanticsLabel / key (Playwright Locator pattern). | connected | ext.dusk.find |
Diagnostics
Pure-CLI checks that verify the consumer wiring and the running session health. Neither command dials the VM Service.
| Command | Description | Boot Mode | VM Extension |
|---|---|---|---|
dusk:doctor |
Verify dusk plugin runtime + consumer wiring health | none | none |
Install
The one-shot bootstrap. Injects three lines into the consumer's lib/main.dart and is otherwise idempotent. No bin/artisan.dart scaffold; fluttersdk_dusk ships its own Flutter-free CLI entry point.
| Command | Description | Boot Mode | VM Extension |
|---|---|---|---|
dusk:install |
Wire DuskPlugin.install() into lib/main.dart AND chain artisan install + plugin:install so ./bin/fsa surfaces all 41 dusk:* commands (idempotent on re-run; Phase 2 chain is best-effort). | none | none |
CDP
Chrome DevTools Protocol commands that manipulate the browser viewport directly. Web target only; desktop and mobile no-op gracefully.
| Command | Description | Boot Mode | VM Extension |
|---|---|---|---|
dusk:device |
Emulate a device profile (viewport + DPR + touch + user agent) via Chrome DevTools Protocol. The emulation lasts only as long as the command's CDP session, which closes on exit; only the window size stays. | none | none (CDP direct) |
dusk:resize |
Resize the running Flutter web app viewport via Chrome DevTools Protocol. Chrome drops the override when the command exits; --hold keeps it until Ctrl-C or Chrome exits. |
none | none (CDP direct) |
Click variants
Pointer gestures that go beyond the primary tap. All four route through the actionability gate.
| Command | Description | Boot Mode | VM Extension |
|---|---|---|---|
dusk:dblclick |
Fire a double-click at the widget identified by a snapshot ref. | connected | ext.dusk.tap |
dusk:triple_click |
Fire three primary clicks (~100ms apart) at the widget identified by --ref. | connected | ext.dusk.tap |
dusk:right_click |
Fire a right (secondary mouse button) click at the widget identified by --ref. | connected | ext.dusk.tap |
Focus and blur
Keyboard-focus shaping. dusk:focus requests focus on a ref; dusk:blur releases the currently focused widget.
| Command | Description | Boot Mode | VM Extension |
|---|---|---|---|
dusk:focus |
Request keyboard focus on the widget identified by --ref. | connected | ext.dusk.focus |
dusk:blur |
Remove keyboard focus from the currently-focused widget. | connected | ext.dusk.blur |
Console and exceptions
Diagnostics readers backed by dusk's own in-package capture plus an optional telescope augmentation.
dusk:console reads from dusk's in-package debugPrint ring buffer (populated by installLogCapture(),
wired by DuskPlugin.install()). This buffer captures every call that routes through the debugPrint global
callback (debugPrint(...), print(...), and any Flutter framework path that calls debugPrint). It does NOT
capture direct dart:developer log() calls that bypass debugPrint; those require fluttersdk_telescope's
LogWatcher. When telescope is wired the two sources are merged and deduped; telescope also adds package:logging
(Logger.root.onRecord) and any other watcher it ships.
dusk:exceptions is similar: dusk's own FlutterError.onError capture (non-fatal errors including overflow)
is always present; telescope augments when wired.
The --since= flag on dusk:exceptions (and the matching since param on dusk_exceptions MCP)
lets agents compute true before/after deltas: record the time before an action, then call
dusk:exceptions --since= afterwards to see only exceptions raised by that action.
| Command | Description | Boot Mode | VM Extension |
|---|---|---|---|
dusk:console |
Read recent log entries (in-package debugPrint capture; augmented by telescope when wired). | connected | ext.dusk.console |
dusk:exceptions [--limit= |
Read recent exception entries (in-package FlutterError capture + telescope when wired). Optionally filter to entries strictly after --since. |
connected | ext.dusk.exceptions |
Observe
The Stagehand observe-once-act-many surface. Returns a structured candidate list of every interactive widget on screen; the agent decides which refs to act on. No server-side LLM.
| Command | Description | Boot Mode | VM Extension |
|---|---|---|---|
dusk:observe |
Return a structured candidate list of every interactive widget on screen (Stagehand observe-once-act-many; no server-side LLM). | connected | ext.dusk.observe |
Hot reload and snap
The single-round-trip composite that hot-reloads the running app and then captures snapshot, screenshot, and recent exceptions in one shot. Dispatched via the artisan: substrate routing prefix to avoid a same-isolate deadlock.
| Command | Description | Boot Mode | VM Extension |
|---|---|---|---|
dusk:hot_reload_and_snap |
Hot reload the running app, then capture snapshot + screenshot + recent exceptions in a single round-trip. | connected | artisan:reload + ext.dusk.snap |
Performance
One measurement session and its drill-down. dusk:perf_begin opens it (--mode=attribution profiles builds, --mode=timing touches no flag), you drive one interaction, dusk:perf_end closes it with a bounded report of ranked insights, and dusk:perf_insight returns the rows behind one of them. dusk:perf_run repeats a scenario from a clean start and writes the medians to a file, dusk:perf_compare judges one such file against another, and dusk:perf_trace writes a session's timeline for Perfetto. dusk:perf_campaign runs a whole campaign of scenarios, each from a cold start.
| Command | Description | Boot Mode | VM Extension |
|---|---|---|---|
dusk:perf_begin |
Open a performance measurement session: zero the frame, wind and magic counters and, in attribution mode, switch on build profiling. | connected | ext.dusk.perf_begin |
dusk:perf_end |
Close the performance measurement session and report frames, ranked blocks, counters and insights. | connected | ext.dusk.perf_end |
dusk:perf_insight |
Drill into one insight of the last perf_end report: title, summary, the rows behind it, estimated savings and the next step. | connected | ext.dusk.perf_insight |
dusk:perf_run |
Run a perf scenario N times from a clean start and write medians, spread, insights and every repeat to |
connected | ext.dusk.perf_begin + perf_end (+ semantics_hold) |
dusk:perf_compare |
Compare two dusk:perf_run files on counts per painted frame (and timing-mode ms) and print a verdict table. | none | none |
dusk:perf_trace |
Write the last closed perf session as a Chrome Trace JSON file (ui.perfetto.dev, chrome://tracing) and print its path. | connected | ext.dusk.perf_trace |
dusk:perf_campaign |
Run every scenario of a perf campaign on one platform, each from a cold start (hooks, Android preparation, after_start, dusk:perf_run, retries), and summarise which passed. | none | none (starts the app through artisan) |
Boot mode and deep-dives
Six of forty-one commands run with CommandBoot.none (dusk:install, dusk:doctor, dusk:perf_compare, dusk:perf_campaign, dusk:device, dusk:resize; the last two dial Chrome DevTools Protocol directly rather than the VM Service). Every other command is CommandBoot.connected: it dials the VM Service URI in ~/.artisan/state.json and fails fast when the running app cannot be reached.
Sixteen commands earn their own pages: dusk:install, dusk:snap, dusk:tap, dusk:fill, dusk:reset_overlays, dusk:screenshot, dusk:find, dusk:doctor, dusk:observe, dusk:perf_begin, dusk:perf_end, dusk:perf_insight, dusk:perf_run, dusk:perf_compare, dusk:perf_trace, dusk:perf_campaign. Slug rule: the URL replaces the : separator with -. The remaining twenty-five commands share this index page; reach for dart run artisan help for their full flag surface.