Live Test

Live Test lets you prove Rover on a live site before you install the production snippet. The website hosts preview creation, while the open-source Rover repo exposes the client-side preview tools you can inspect and extend.

Three ways to try Rover

Hosted website playground

Start from Rover Live Test. Sign in, stay on the Hosted Preview tab, and Rover creates a temporary preview for you. Hosted Preview runs on the signed-in tester's credits, auto-runs the exact Live Test prompt inside the hosted page, and still gives you Helper, Console, Bookmarklet, and full-screen hosted-shell options below it.

Use Workspace config from Live Test

Start in Workspace, copy the test config JSON, then open Live Test to generate the exact Helper, Console, or Bookmarklet artifact.

Open-source Preview Helper

Use the public extension to inject Rover from the reusable wildcard config or exact site-scoped config. The “Open target with helper” button in Live Test hands off config automatically — no manual paste needed. The extension remembers your config for future sessions.

SDK preview helpers

Generate a console snippet, bookmarklet, or script-tag snippet directly from Rover config in your own tooling.

Path matrix

Path	Needs config?	Persistence	Best use
Hosted Preview	No. Rover creates temporary preview state for you.	Rover-managed preview session owned by the signed-in tester.	Fast demos, auto-run proof, and mobile fallback.
Preview Helper	Yes. Workspace config or hosted handoff.	Re-injects after navigation.	Best live desktop path.
Console	Yes. Generated snippet.	Current page only.	DevTools and debugging.
Bookmarklet	Yes. Generated bookmarklet.	Current page only.	Drag-and-click demos.
Workspace config	Yes. `siteId` + `publicKey` from Workspace.	Persistent site config.	Source of truth for Helper / Console / Bookmarklet and production install.

Two config sources

Workspace production config: persistent siteId, publicKey, optional siteKeyId, domains, and domain scope.

Hosted preview handoff config: temporary preview identifiers and runtime tokens created by the hosted preview backend under the signed-in tester's account.

Hosted viewer heartbeat: the dedicated hosted viewer extends hosted-browser TTL explicitly while you are watching it. Generic preview refreshes do not.

Shared browser capacity: Hosted Preview uses the same browser pool as normal automation on that worker. If the only browser is busy, Live Test waits instead of creating a second browser.

Billing owner: Hosted Preview consumes the signed-in tester's credits. It does not inherit billing from a Workspace-installed site key on the target website.

Get config from Workspace

To use Rover outside the hosted preview flow, open Workspace, create or rotate a site key, then copy the test config JSON from the Try Rover on Other Sites card. For testing any domain, use the reusable wildcard config (auto-created when signed in on Live Test) rather than site-scoped config. The underlying values are:

siteId
publicKey (pk_site_*)
optional siteKeyId
allowedDomains and domainScopeMode

Then either paste that JSON into Try on Other Sites, or use the same values directly in the SDK or Preview Helper. See Workspace docs and Try on Other Sites for the full flow.

Preview tokens vs site keys

Hosted preview tokens are short-lived demo credentials tied to the signed-in tester's temporary preview session. Workspace site keys are persistent production install credentials. Do not treat preview tokens as production keys.

Preview flow: temporary token, exact-host demo scope, signed-in tester billing, and the exact Live Test prompt auto-runs inside Rover's hosted page.

Production flow: Workspace-managed site config, persistent public key, generated install snippet.

Troubleshooting

`This API key is missing capability: roverEmbed`: go back to Workspace, create or rotate an embed-enabled site key, then copy the fresh test config JSON again.

Hosted Preview says you do not have credits: Hosted Preview runs on the signed-in tester's credits. Sign in first, then add credits or upgrade before creating or continuing the temporary demo.

`Open hosted shell` does nothing: Hosted Preview should show Rover's hosted browser inline and also open Rover's dedicated hosted viewer route in a new tab. If it still fails, recreate the temporary demo and try again.

Hosted Preview keeps polling and the viewer stays blank: Rover should provision the hosted browser first and only mount the viewer after that browser session is ready. If you only see repeated VNC session polling, recreate the temporary demo after the latest backend and website deploy.

Hosted Preview is taking a while to start: Hosted Preview shares the same browser pool as normal automation on that worker. If the browser is busy, Live Test waits until it is released.

Hosted browser says it needs a restart: Rover intentionally fails closed when the hosted browser owner dies or loses its lease. Recreate the temporary demo instead of waiting for the old browser to recover.

`React has blocked a javascript: URL`: delete any old Rover bookmarklet and recreate it from the current Live Test page. The bookmarklet must be dragged from the Rover drag control, not clicked on the Rover page.

Console or Bookmarklet worked only once: those methods are current-page only. A full reload drops the injected JavaScript.

Preview Helper says host is outside allowedDomains with wildcard config: update your Preview Helper extension to the latest version. Older versions don't recognize the * wildcard pattern.

Live inject still fails on a site: some sites block injection with strict CSP rules. Use the Preview Helper or Hosted Preview fallback.

Direct hosted preview API

If you want to call the hosted preview service directly instead of using only the website UI, start with Instant Preview API docs. That page covers the signed-in auth model, curl examples, the response contract, and the OpenAPI spec.

Create route: signed-in Firebase bearer auth via POST /v2/rover/previews.

Follow-on routes: preview token in query/body or bearer auth for get/events/input/cancel/share/bootstrap.

Source of truth: OpenAPI spec in rtrvr-cloud-backend.

Open-source links

Rover GitHub repo for the public runtime, helper app, and SDK.

Instant Preview API docs for curl examples, auth rules, route behavior, and field reference.

Preview Helper app for the extension source and usage guide.

SDK preview helpers for console snippet, bookmarklet, script-tag, and launch attach APIs.

Try on Other Sites for the Workspace-first live-inject walkthrough.

Instant Preview architecture for the split between OSS clients and the hosted preview control plane.

OpenAPI spec for the machine-readable hosted preview contract.