The AI-Powered Digital Twin for Frontend Quality
Where quality becomes a conversation, not a gate
StageFlow transforms software quality from a reactive afterthought into a proactive, collaborative process embedded directly into your development workflow. We create a Digital Twin of your frontend on every commitโa high-fidelity, queryable, time-traveling model of your application's quality.
Code-level impactโDOM diffs, broken ARIA attributes, CSS changes causing visual shifts. Real-time feedback as you type.
New dependencies, CSP violations, insecure formsโa security audit on every commit with zero configuration.
Bundle size increases, LCP regressions, Core Web Vitals drift. Performance budgets that actually work.
Visual timelines showing component evolution, reports linking technical changes to business outcomes.
This realism means every issue StageFlow finds is something a real user would encounter.
StageFlow's architecture is built on modern, cloud-native principles designed for security, scalability, and extensibility. Each component is designed for independent scaling and failure isolation.
Component | Technology | Rationale |
---|---|---|
Orchestrator | Go + NATS JetStream | High performance, excellent concurrency, strong networking |
Pipeline Stages | Python & Node.js | Polyglot approach using best ecosystem for each task |
Message Bus | NATS JetStream | Lightweight, high-performance, durable event streaming |
Object Storage | MinIO / S3 | S3 API provides perfect local/cloud development symmetry |
Browser Automation | Playwright | Modern, reliable web automation for high-fidelity scanning |
Accessibility Engine | axe-core | De-facto industry-leading accessibility rule engine |
Events are the single source of truth in StageFlow. Every state change is captured as an immutable event, enabling perfect audit trails, replay capabilities, and temporal querying.
Each event carries comprehensive context and lineage information:
From code commit to quality report - the complete journey through StageFlow's event-driven pipeline with proper error handling, retry logic, and artifact management.
Our first vertical slice focuses on accessibility scanning with real browsers, production-grade servers, and visual evidence generation. This establishes the pattern for all future quality pipelines.
Tests run in actual Chromium instances over HTTP/HTTPS, ensuring production-parity results that match real user experiences.
Screenshots with highlighted violations provide immediate visual feedback, making issues instantly understandable to developers.
Industry-standard axe-core rules with severity classification, remediation guidance, and compliance reporting.
File watchers enable real-time feedback during development, catching issues before they reach CI/CD pipelines.
AI agents with vision, text understanding, and interaction capabilities will simulate real user journeys, automatically discovering UX issues and generating comprehensive test suites.
AI can see layout issues, broken designs, and visual regressions that traditional tools miss entirely.
Understands user intent, content quality, and can identify confusing UX patterns through text analysis.
Performs complex user workflows: multi-step forms, shopping carts, authentication flows.
Learns from successful and failed test runs to improve detection accuracy over time.
StageFlow treats all user inputs as potentially malicious, implementing multiple layers of security controls to ensure safe execution of untrusted code.
Pre-execution scanning for known malicious patterns, suspicious file types, and potential security risks.
Each job runs in completely isolated containers with no access to host system or other jobs.
Controlled outbound access with allowlist of required services. No inter-job communication possible.
Real-time detection of anomalous behavior with automatic incident response and containment.
StageFlow transforms quality from a reactive chore into a proactive, rewarding process that enhances creativity rather than hindering it.
This tight feedback loop eliminates context switching and makes quality assurance a satisfying part of the creative process.
StageFlow brings quality insights directly into your development environment:
Inline errors and warnings appear as you type, with detailed explanations and fix suggestions.
See exactly where accessibility issues occur with highlighted elements and screenshots.
Track quality trends over time with commit-by-commit improvement metrics.
Intelligent code suggestions that understand both technical requirements and user experience.
StageFlow's development follows a carefully planned progression from core infrastructure to advanced AI capabilities.
Phase | Status | Key Deliverables | Business Value |
---|---|---|---|
Phase 0: Foundation | Completed | Event-driven architecture, security model, unzip stage | Scalable, secure foundation for all future features |
Phase 1: Walking Skeleton | In Progress | End-to-end accessibility pipeline, HTML reports | Immediate value with accessibility compliance |
Phase 2: Developer Co-Pilot | Planned | CLI, file watchers, IDE integration, auto-fixes | 10x faster developer feedback loops |
Phase 3: Team Platform | Planned | Cloud dashboards, team collaboration, integrations | Organization-wide quality visibility |
Phase 4: Quality Engine | Planned | Performance, security, visual, SEO pipelines | Comprehensive quality coverage |
Phase 5: AI Revolution | Research | AI testing agents, auto E2E generation | Autonomous quality assurance |
We're currently completing the "Walking Skeleton" - a complete end-to-end accessibility pipeline that proves the architecture and delivers immediate value. Key remaining work: