Skip to main content
Running your Patrol tests automatically in CI/CD pipelines is essential for maintaining code quality and catching regressions early. Patrol is designed to work seamlessly with popular CI/CD platforms.

​
Why run tests in CI?

Automated testing in CI provides several benefits:
  • Early bug detection - Catch issues before they reach production
  • Consistent test environment - Run tests in the same environment every time
  • Fast feedback - Get test results within minutes of pushing code
  • Confidence in deployments - Deploy knowing your tests pass

​
CI/CD approaches

There are two main approaches to running mobile UI tests in CI:

Device Labs

Upload app binaries to cloud-based testing services

Traditional CI

Run tests directly on CI runners with emulators/simulators

​
Device labs

Device labs provide access to real devices and emulators in the cloud. You upload your app and test APKs/IPAs, select devices, and the service runs tests and reports results. Advantages:
  • Easy to set up and use
  • Access to real devices
  • Stable and maintained infrastructure
  • Video recordings and detailed reports
Popular device labs:

​
Traditional CI

With traditional CI, you have full control over the testing environment. You script everything: installing SDKs, creating virtual devices, running tests, and collecting results. Advantages:
  • Complete flexibility
  • No file upload/download overhead
  • Direct access to test artifacts
  • Can test complex scenarios (e.g., camera manipulation)
Considerations:
  • Requires more setup and maintenance
  • Emulator stability can be challenging
  • Longer execution times on some platforms

​
Platform-specific guides

Choose your CI/CD platform to get started:

GitHub Actions

Run Patrol tests with GitHub Actions

GitLab CI

Integrate Patrol with GitLab pipelines

Bitrise

Configure Patrol for Bitrise workflows

​
Basic workflow

Regardless of your CI platform, the basic workflow is:
1

Install dependencies

Set up Flutter, Java (for Android), and Patrol CLI
2

Build test artifacts

Use patrol build to create test APKs or IPAs
3

Run tests

Execute tests on emulators, simulators, or device labs
4

Collect results

Upload test reports, videos, and logs as artifacts

​
Performance tips

Use device labs like Firebase Test Lab or emulator.wtf for faster, more reliable test execution compared to running emulators directly on CI runners.

​
Caching

Cache these directories to speed up your builds:
  • Flutter SDK (~/.flutter)
  • Pub cache (~/.pub-cache)
  • Gradle dependencies (~/.gradle)
  • CocoaPods (ios/Pods)

​
Parallel execution

Run tests in parallel across different:
  • Device models
  • OS versions
  • Test suites (using tags)

​
Test selection with tags

Patrol supports tag-based test filtering, which is perfect for CI: 
patrolTest(
  'login flow',
  tags: ['android', 'smoke'],
  ($) async {
    // Test code
  },
);
Then in CI: 
# Run only Android smoke tests
patrol test --tags='android && smoke'

# Run all tests except slow ones
patrol test --exclude-tags='slow'

​
Common challenges

​
Android emulator stability

Running Android emulators directly on standard CI runners (especially GitHub Actions) can be slow and unstable. Consider using device labs or self-hosted runners with nested virtualization support.

​
iOS simulator limitations

iOS simulators are faster than Android emulators but have limitations:
  • No easy way to simulate network conditions
  • Cannot test certain hardware features
  • Behavior may differ from real devices

​
Build times

First builds in CI can be slow. Use these strategies:
  • Cache dependencies aggressively
  • Use flutter precache to download platform artifacts
  • Run flutter build --config-only to generate build files without building

​
Next steps

GitHub Actions

Complete GitHub Actions setup guide

Firebase Test Lab

Learn about device lab testing

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get started for freeTalk to us