Supercharge Your Testing process with AI Powered tools such as Cursor and Cline
QA teams can now harness AI to dramatically boost efficiency and effectiveness. Time-consuming tasks like writing repetitive test scripts, identifying unstable locators, and scaling test coverage can be automated and intelligently optimized—freeing up testers to focus on higher-value activities and accelerating release cycles.
Let’s look at two practical AI tools that testers can adopt for improved efficiency: Cursor AI and Cline.
Cursor AI – Your Context-Aware IDE Copilot
Cursor is a fork of VSCode, enhanced with built-in AI capabilities. Unlike typical code assistants that suggest completions within a single file, Cursor understands your entire project structure and the relationships between files. You can even connect it to different AI models (like Claude, Sonnet, or ChatGPT) depending on your needs.
Key strengths:
Smart Project-Wide Refactoring: Cursor suggests improvements across multiple files, ensuring that changes in one place don’t break dependencies elsewhere.
Context-Aware Code Generation: It generates complete code blocks based on your project’s structure and coding conventions, going far beyond basic autocomplete.
Flexible Model Selection: You can choose which AI model powers your queries and switch to the most suitable one for coding help, documentation, or test creation.
Practical examples for testers:
Debug test failures:
“Why is test_checkout_flow failing?” Get explanations and code suggestions to resolve root causes quickly.
Identify relevant tests:
“Show me all tests that cover the payment module.” Perfect for understanding coverage or planning regression runs.
Create mocks & stubs:
Easily generate mocks for APIs or databases to simulate dependencies during testing.
Cline – AI Driven Test Scenario Generation
Cline is an AI-powered extension you can add to IDEs like VS Code and Cursor. It goes beyond just scenario planning: it also supports code completion and can generate actual automation code for your tests — making it a versatile assistant for testers and SDETs alike.
Key strengths:
Plan and Act Modes: Cline uses a two-phase approach. In Plan mode, you review and adjust the generated test scenarios. In Act mode, Cline implements those plans by generating detailed automation code.
Smart Sub-Scenario Extraction: It analyzes user stories or requirements and proposes comprehensive sub-scenarios, including edge cases and negative paths.
Automation Code Generation & Completion: Just like Cursor, Cline can also suggest auto-complete test scripts — tailored to your project’s frameworks and style.
Practical examples for testers:
Feed a user story:
“As a user, I want to apply discount codes during checkout.”
Plan mode:
Review auto-generated sub-scenarios: valid code, expired code, multiple codes, empty code, conflicting codes.
Act mode:
Generate working test scripts for Selenium, Playwright, or Cypress and complete page actions, assertions, and data setups.
In-code assistance:
While editing, use Cline for smart code completion of test steps, locators, or validation logic, just like Cursor.
Cursor and Cline together bring practical, AI-powered productivity to your IDE:
Cursor makes debugging, refactoring, and code exploration faster by deeply understanding your entire project.
Cline, as an extension inside Cursor or VS Code, helps you plan, expand, and automate test scenarios end-to-end, with both scenario design and smart code generation built in.