Apps: Test Multiple Applications in One Test Project

Apps let you include more than one application in a single Test Project, for example a web frontend, an admin panel, and a backend API. Each application is represented by an App, and every Environment stores its own URL (or mobile build) for each App. This lets you test workflows that span multiple Apps in one Test Case, including multiple Web Apps and APIs, while reusing the same project credentials, variables, and connectors.

This article explains what an App is, how to add and configure Apps, how to point each App at the right URL per Environment, and how to reference a specific App from your Test Steps.

An App represents one distinct application inside your Test Project. Each App corresponds to one of the applications that make up your product under test, for example a customer-facing frontend, an admin panel, or a backend API.

A Test Project can contain multiple Apps. This is what makes cross-application testing possible: a single Test Case can change a setting in your admin App and then verify the result on your customer-facing App, without leaving the project.

One App in every project is the default App. It is created automatically when the project is created, so single-app projects keep working exactly as before. You only add more Apps when you need them.

Thunders supports four App types. You choose the type when you create the App.

Web App and API are available in every Test Project. Mobile App requires mobile testing to be enabled for your organization.

Open your Test Project and select Apps in the left navigation. The Apps view shows one card per App, plus a New app card to create another one. Each card shows the App name and a colored badge with its type (Web, API, Mobile app, or Desktop).

The header shows how many Active Apps the project has. You can sort newest or oldest, and toggle Show archived to include Apps you have archived.

You can create an App in two places:

To add an App from the Apps view, select the New app card, then complete the two steps.

App settings

Environments

You can leave a URL empty for now and fill it in later from the Environment editor.

Thunders runs desktop tests in a browser, not on your local machine. So a Desktop App is not tested as a standalone type: to test a desktop application, select Web App instead, stream or mirror your desktop application into a browser-based session, then use that session's URL when you set up the Web App.

An Environment (Development, Staging, Production…) holds its own URL for every App in the project. This is what lets you run the same Test Cases against different deployments without changing them.

Open Environments, select an Environment, and find the App URLs section. Each App in the project has its own labeled URL field, tagged with the App type. Enter the URL this App uses in that Environment. For example, your Storefront App might point to https://staging.example.com in Staging and https://example.com in Production.

Next to each App's URL field, Thunders shows a variable chip such as [APP_STOREFRONT_URL]. This is the token you use in your Test Steps to refer to that App's URL. Use the copy button to copy it.

The variable name is built automatically from the App name: the name is upper-cased, and any character that is not a letter, number, or underscore is replaced with an underscore. The result is wrapped as APP__URL.

Because the variable follows the App name, keep names simple and avoid two Apps whose names reduce to the same variable (for example My-App and My App both become MY_APP).

Mobile Apps do not use a URL. In the App URLs section, a Mobile App shows a Drag and drop or click to browse APK or IPA area instead. Upload the build for each Environment:

Once an App has a URL in the current Environment, you can point a Test Step at it using its URL variable. Type [ or / in the step editor to open the variable picker, or paste the variable copied from the Environment editor.

Example Test Steps for a project with a Storefront App and an Admin App:

At run time, Thunders replaces each [APP__URL] with that App's URL for the Environment you are running against.

Existing tests keep working. If your Test Cases already use the general Environment URL, they continue to run against the project's default App. You do not need to rewrite them.

Thunders AI understands your Apps. When you ask Thunders AI to write steps, it knows your project's Apps by name, so an instruction like "go to the Admin app and…" produces a step that targets the correct App.

Test Cases belong to the Test Project, not to a single App. When you run a test (or open the Recorder), the run settings include an App selector so you can choose which App the run targets; it defaults to your project's default App. For Mobile runs, Thunders resolves the Mobile App and its build for the selected Environment automatically.

Apps are especially useful when one Test Case needs to move across several applications, for example multiple Web Apps and an API. A typical flow:

Because all three Apps live in one project, they share the project's variables, credentials, connectors, and test assets.

Open the Apps view and select an App card to edit it.