Deep vs Standard Modes

At a glance

	Standard default	Deep
Speed	Faster turnaround	Slower, more thorough
Your involvement	None. Fully autonomous from start to finish.	You answer interview questions and approve the plan, then it runs on its own
Parallelism	Start 10 sessions and walk away	Approve each plan, then leave them to finish
Best for	Well-defined flows, straightforward apps, fast iteration	Complex apps, first-time coverage, business-logic-heavy flows

Standard mode

Standard mode is faster and more direct. The agent goes straight to implementation without an extended planning phase.

Implementation → Review → Checksumify → Verify

Best for:

Well-defined test flows with clear steps
Straightforward applications
When you want faster turnaround
Iterating quickly on test coverage

Deep mode

Deep mode adds planning, knowledge-base analysis, and a more thorough review. The agent interviews you first, builds an understanding of your app, and then implements with that context.

Interview/Plan → Knowledge Base Update → Implementation → Review → Checksumify → Verify

Best for:

Complex applications with nuanced workflows
First-time test generation on a new app
Flows that need a deep understanding of business logic
When quality and coverage matter more than speed

Pipeline stages

Stage	Standard	Deep	What happens
Interview/Plan	—	✓	The agent asks questions about your app and writes a detailed plan. The session enters Waiting for Input, then Waiting for Approval.
Knowledge Base Update	—	✓	The agent builds an understanding of your app’s architecture and patterns
Implementation	✓	✓	The agent writes the test story and the Playwright code
Review	✓	✓	The agent reviews its own work for quality, correctness, and best practices
Checksumify	✓	✓	The agent validates the tests against the Checksum CLI
Verify	✓	✓	The agent runs the tests to confirm they pass

Healing uses a different Standard pipelineStandard healing runs Triage → Fix instead of the stages above. Deep healing uses the full Deep pipeline. See Auto-Healing.

All pipeline variants

Operation	Standard	Deep
Test generation	Fast generation, direct implementation	Thorough planning + generation
Test detection with source code	Quick code analysis	Deep code exploration with planning
Test detection without source code	Direct app exploration	Extended exploration with planning
Auto-healing	`Triage → Fix`: classify each failure as bug or test issue, then fix test-local issues	Root-cause analysis via the full Deep pipeline: plan the fixes, learn what changed in your app, then implement and verify

When to switch

Scenario	Recommended mode
Generating tests for a simple CRUD app	Standard
First-time setup on a complex SaaS platform	Deep
Healing a few broken selectors	Standard
Healing tests after a major app refactor	Deep
Quick detection of obvious user flows	Standard
Comprehensive coverage of a feature area	Deep

Choosing a mode

You choose Standard or Deep when you start a detection or generation session from the web app. Standard is the default. From your coding agent, pass deepMode: true to the MCP detect, generate, or heal tools; your agent then approves the plan with checksum_session_approve (see Deep mode and the approval loop). To use Deep mode for sessions started from other triggers, such as pull requests, the REST API, Slack, or automatic healing, talk to your Checksum team.

Agent Sessions

Interviews, approval gates, and statuses.

Generate Tests

Start a Standard or Deep generation.

Auto-Healing

Triage → Fix, or a Deep repair.

Start Here

Managing Your Project

Test Generation

Test Execution

Maintenance & Monitoring

Integrations

Security & Admin

Deep vs Standard Modes

At a glance

Standard mode

Deep mode

Pipeline stages

All pipeline variants

When to switch

Choosing a mode

Agent Sessions

Generate Tests

Auto-Healing

​At a glance

​Standard mode

​Deep mode

​Pipeline stages

​All pipeline variants

​When to switch

​Choosing a mode

​Related

Agent Sessions

Generate Tests

Auto-Healing

At a glance

Standard mode

Deep mode

Pipeline stages

All pipeline variants

When to switch

Choosing a mode

Related