TL;DR: Yes. TaloTrace lets you write test cases by hand alongside the scenarios it builds automatically by exploring your app. Every one of them is a Scenario in the same Test Plan, so letting TaloTrace build most of your coverage doesn't stop you writing a specific test yourself.
Key Takeaways
Manual authoring stays available: you can write a Scenario by hand, or author one from a chat description, rather than only letting TaloTrace generate it by exploring your app.
Same Test Plan, mixed origins: hand-written and AI-built scenarios both live as Scenarios inside the same Test Plan.
AI-built scenarios come from goal-based exploration: TaloTrace explores the running app, plans journeys, and only marks one done once a machine-checkable predicate proves the outcome.
Manual scenarios run the same way: once written, a hand-authored scenario runs through TaloTrace's sight-based navigation, so it isn't tied to brittle element IDs either.
Every run gets the same evidence: a recording, the time window where a defect shows, and a severity rating that can follow your own triage guidance, regardless of who wrote the scenario.
Limits still apply: a hand-written scenario runs under the same declared boundaries and held-back destructive actions as an AI-built one, and the device matrix is plan-gated.
Can I Still Manually Write My Own Test Cases If an AI Tool Builds Most of My Tests?
Yes. TaloTrace is an AI-powered QA testing platform, and in TaloTrace a test case is a Scenario. A Scenario can be built by TaloTrace exploring your app toward a goal, or written by you. Scenarios can also be authored from a chat description. Every Scenario sits in a Test Plan, which is simply a folder of Scenarios, so letting TaloTrace build most of your tests doesn't close off writing a specific one by hand whenever you need it.
What Are QA Teams Really Asking When They Raise This?
A QA team evaluating an AI-first testing tool isn't really asking whether AI can write tests. The real question is whether adopting one means giving up the ability to pin down a specific case yourself, with the exact steps a bug report, an edge case or an internal requirement calls for.
That question is worth settling before switching, because deliberate test design is a discipline in its own right. ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119-4, the international standard on software test techniques, defines the test design techniques testers use when they design and implement tests. A tool that decides every test on its own is a harder sell than one where you can still write a scenario by hand for anything you need covered precisely.
How Does TaloTrace Build Test Scenarios Automatically?
TaloTrace builds scenarios by exploring your running app toward a goal. You point TaloTrace at the app and, optionally, describe the flow you care about most in plain language, such as 'complete a checkout.' TaloTrace explores the app, plans the user journeys worth testing, and drives each one to a verifiable outcome.
A journey only counts as done once a machine-checkable predicate proves the outcome. The predicate has to be false before the action and true after, so a screen that already shows 'Projects' can't falsely pass a 'create project' goal. Completed journeys are turned into replayable scenarios, with no test scripts for you to write.
Real actions: TaloTrace commits real actions, such as creating, saving or submitting, and reads the resulting screen to confirm what changed.
Held-back destructive actions: only destructive or irreversible actions, like deleting an account or making a payment, are held back.
Declared boundaries: you can declare boundaries TaloTrace stays inside, and a flow that would cross one is recorded as blocked rather than driven through.
For a closer look at goal-based building, see how an AI QA tool builds its own tests.
How Do You Write a Test Case by Hand in TaloTrace?
You write it directly as a Scenario, the same unit TaloTrace uses for the tests it builds itself. You decide the steps, so TaloTrace tests the path you specified rather than one it chose while exploring. Scenarios can also be authored from a chat description if you would rather describe the flow in plain language.
TaloTrace plans its testing using your own product knowledge: docs you paste in or import from Confluence or Linear, and saved test accounts covering multiple roles, such as admin versus regular user. Test accounts are saved once per project, so any scenario, including one you wrote by hand, can inherit the project's default test account, use a specific saved account, or run with no login at all.
How Do Hand-Written and AI-Generated Scenarios Run Once They Exist?
Once a scenario exists, where it came from stops mattering. TaloTrace navigates by looking at the screen rather than relying on brittle element IDs, so a hand-written scenario keeps working when the UI changes, the same as one TaloTrace built itself. Its interaction range covers taps, typing, scrolling, swiping, long-press, double-tap, drag and pinch.
Every scenario, hand-written or not, runs on the same set-up:
Three virtual planes: a browser, an Android emulator or an Apple iOS Simulator, all cloud-hosted and chosen automatically from the app's platform, so there's no hardware to provision.
Device matrix: you can run the same scenarios across several device configurations in parallel in one submission. The matrix is plan-gated: the free trial runs the default profile for its platform, and paid tiers unlock alternate profiles.
Independent lanes: each device runs on its own lane, so one slow scenario doesn't hold up the others.
Two ways to start a run: on demand from the app or the API, or on a recurring daily or weekly schedule. A scheduled run always tests the latest finalised build rather than a pinned one.
What Makes TaloTrace Different for Teams Who Want Manual Control?
TaloTrace separates finding a bug from reporting it. Every finding, whether it came from a scenario TaloTrace built or one you wrote by hand, is independently verified before it reaches you, so nothing you see is the raw, unchecked output of the step that produced it.
Every run's findings also start hidden. They become visible only when a reviewer approves them, or when a project is explicitly configured to auto-approve, and low-confidence findings can never be released in bulk by a run-level approval. You can read more on why QA test results stay hidden until someone approves them. The same review layer applies to a hand-written scenario as to an AI-built one, so writing your own test case doesn't mean stepping outside the verification step.
Where Does Manual Authoring Hit Its Limits?
Writing a scenario by hand doesn't loosen the guardrails around it. Three limits apply to every scenario, whoever wrote it:
Same guardrails: TaloTrace stays inside the boundaries you've declared, and destructive actions such as deleting an account or making a payment are held back. See how to keep automated tests away from real payments and live records.
Email and password sign-in: test accounts sign in with an email and password today, with free-text instructions layered on for anything extra, such as a one-time code. There's no password-less or SSO-only way to add a test account.
Plan-gated device matrix: if your plan doesn't include the device matrix, a hand-written scenario runs on the default profile for its platform, the same as any other.
How Do You Get Started?
Most tiers are published and buyable directly on the pricing page, with custom terms available at enterprise scale. If you want to see a hand-written scenario sit next to one TaloTrace built in the same Test Plan, try it on your own app.
Beta is open now. Apply for early access.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I lose the ability to write my own test cases if TaloTrace builds most of my tests automatically?
No. You can write a Scenario by hand or author one from a chat description, alongside the ones TaloTrace builds by exploring your app, and all of them live as ordinary Scenarios inside the same Test Plan.
Can hand-written and AI-generated scenarios sit in the same Test Plan?
Yes. A Test Plan is a folder of Scenarios, so a manually written test case and one TaloTrace built by exploring your app can sit side by side in it.
Does a manually written scenario run differently from an AI-generated one?
No. Every scenario runs through TaloTrace's sight-based navigation, which looks at the screen rather than relying on brittle element IDs, so a hand-written scenario keeps working as the UI changes too.
How do I write a test case by hand in TaloTrace?
You author it directly as a Scenario, the same unit TaloTrace uses for the tests it builds itself. You can also describe a flow in a chat and let TaloTrace turn that description into a scenario instead of exploring for it.
Why would I want to manually write a test case instead of letting TaloTrace build it?
Some flows call for the exact steps you have in mind, not the journey TaloTrace would choose while exploring. Writing it directly means TaloTrace tests the steps you specified, not ones it chose.
Does manual authoring get the same evidence and severity as AI-generated scenarios?
Yes. Every run produces findings backed by a recording and the time window where a defect shows, with severity on a five-level scale from Critical (P0) to Trivial (P4). Ratings can follow your own triage guidance, whether the scenario was hand-written or built automatically.
