Softprobe Testing
Record real traffic. Replay with automatic mocks. Compare without writing test cases.
Softprobe Testing is record-and-replay regression for Java services. Attach the Softprobe Java agent as a -javaagent, capture inbound API traffic and outbound dependency calls in the background, then replay recorded cases in a test environment while dependencies are mocked from stored data and results are compared automatically.
Three products on this site
| Product | You use it when… |
|---|---|
| Platform | You need Istio/Envoy mesh capture, SESSIFY session context, or the observability dashboard |
| Testing (this section) | You need Java record/replay, the JVM agent, policies, and replay semantics |
| CLI | You automate setup, replay, and diagnosis with the sp command |
Why record-and-replay
Traditional integration tests require maintaining environments, seed data, and hand-written cases. Softprobe Testing instead:
- No application code changes — bytecode instrumentation via
sp-agent.jar - High coverage from real traffic — production or staging requests become replay cases
- Isolated replay — databases, HTTP clients, Redis, RPC, caches, and more are mocked from recordings so you do not need live downstreams in the test environment
- Safe WRITE paths — recorded dependency behavior is replayed without dirtying shared databases during regression
- Lower noise — compare rules, time mocking, and ignore nodes handle timestamps, random IDs, and environment-specific fields
How the pieces fit together
| Component | Role |
|---|---|
| Your Java service | The application under test, started with -javaagent:…/sp-agent.jar |
| Softprobe Java agent | Records and replays at runtime; mocks dependencies during replay |
sp-boot backend (:8090) | Stores cases (MongoDB), serves policies, runs replay plans, computes diffs |
sp CLI (optional) | Registers apps, applies policies, starts replay, inspects failures — see CLI quickstart |
| Dashboard / workbench (optional) | Visual diff and trace review |
Record → replay → compare (short)
- Record — Agent captures entry traffic (e.g. HTTP
Servlet) and dependency calls (HttpClient,Database,Redis, …) while the app handles real requests. - Store — Backend persists each interaction; replay hot path uses Redis-backed mock cache.
- Replay — Schedule service sends recorded entry requests to your test instance (
targetEnvURL). The agent returns recorded dependency responses instead of calling real downstreams. - Compare — Engine diffs recorded vs replay traffic; policies define what to ignore or how strictly to match.
Details: How to record · How it works · Replay and diff
Platform agent ≠ Java agent
The Platform SP-Istio agent runs in Envoy sidecars and captures mesh HTTP traffic. Softprobe Testing uses the JVM agent attached with -javaagent. They solve different problems; both can feed the same backend for correlation in SaaS deployments.
Who should read this section
- Java developers adopting record/replay for the first time
- QA / release engineers running regression without full downstream stacks
- Platform engineers wiring
sp-bootand agent startup in K8s or VM images - Automation authors — start here for concepts, then CLI overview for
--jsoncontracts
Quick links
- Getting started — lifecycle and prerequisites
- How to record — phase 1: build the case corpus
- Java agent — attach, JVM flags, production safety
- Policies overview — YAML by lifecycle phase
- Replay and diff — phase 2: regression run
- Webhook and CI/CD — post-deploy replay and pipeline gates
- Supported frameworks
- End-to-end with
sp