Minion: AI Game Testing on Your Own PC or Android Phone

Minion is nunu.ai's self-hosted runner: a desktop app that lets nunu.ai's AI game-testing agents run your tests on your own Windows PC or Android phone, instead of only on our cloud devices.

Run our agents on your own device (Windows PC or phone)? Now you can!

Up until now, every nunu.ai test run happened on our side, on a fresh Windows cloud machines for PC, and our fleet of real Android and iOS phones for mobile. That all still works exactly as before. Minion adds one more place to run (an important one). You can now run it on your gaming rig, your test bench, or the phone on your desk.

You write the test the same way in nexus, nunu.ai's testing platform, pick your machine, and watch the agent play. When it finds a bug, it flags it in nexus, just like any other run.

TLDR;

• What is Minion? A self-hosted runner for nunu.ai's AI game-testing agents.
• What can it run on? Windows PCs, and Android phones connected by USB to a Windows or Mac computer.
• What can't it run on? Games running on a Mac itself, and iPhones or other iOS devices.
• What do you need? The Minion app, plus an API key from nexus or a browser sign-in. Email team@nunu.ai to enable it for your organization.
• Where do they run? Either on your own device or nunu.ai's cloud devices (per the usual).

Why test games on your own device instead of the cloud?

nunu.ai's cloud machines and phones start fresh (they reset) for each run, which is what's needed most of the time. Some testing needs the opposite, though. Here's when your own device has the advantage.

Accounts, payments and network.

• Payment Testing: Test in-app purchase flows with your own Google account and payment details, without the security headaches of putting them on a shared device.
• Play Store and Accounts: Set the device up by hand just once, with the apps and logins you need.
• VPNs and Network Rules: Need a VPN or a restricted network? You control it. Cloud devices can't run a VPN.

Game build stays on your devices.

• Your Environment: The game runs on your machine, so the build never has to be sent to us.
• Test Live: No need to get approval for a build, or go through the whole upload process.
• Faster Development: Point the agent at a game started straight from the Unity editor. This means no production build, no packaging and no upload.

Hardware nunu.ai doesn't have.

• GPU Type: Games that need a consumer GPU, or that don't run on virtual machines at all.
• Uncommon Android Phones: An unusual model your players use that isn't in our device fleet.
• Company Testing Machines: Machines that have to be that exact machine, because of your corporate network or how they're set up.

Your device means your rules.

• A Backup: In the rare case our cloud has an outage, your own devices keep testing.

You choose where each test runs in its deployment configuration, so you can mix both, for example, nunu.ai's cloud for everyday runs, your own devices when they're needed. Tags let you target groups of your own machines, such as every PC in your office with the game or app installed.

Is Minion just computer use?

Yes and no. Minion uses computer-use and phone-use controls to drive your device (key presses, clicks, taps and swipes), but the bug-catching engineering of the nunu.ai agent is the layer that matters.

Every Minion run uses nunu.ai's testing harness. The agent follows your test steps, explains its reasoning as it plays, and flags any bug it finds with the evidence attached. nunu.ai's agents also learn from your reviews. Mark a report as a real bug or as expected behavior, and the agent will link matching issues on later runs. That layer is the difference between an agent that can use your computer and one that can test your game on it, and it gives you far more control over your tests.

How to set up Minion.

For now, Minion isn't switched on by default. Email team@nunu.ai and we'll enable it for your organization. To connect it, you need an API key from nexus, or you can simply sign in through your browser when Minion asks.

Set up Minion on a Windows PC.

• Install Minion on the PC you want to test on.
• Open it, click Start, choose your organization or project in the browser, and authorize.
• In your deployment configuration in nexus, open Desktop under Where to run and select Local Windows Computer (Minion).

Set up Minion with an Android phone.

• Install Minion on a host computer.
• On the phone, turn on developer options and USB debugging, plug it into the host with a USB cable, and allow debugging when the phone asks.
• In Minion's settings, set platform to Android, click Start and authorize.
• In your deployment configuration in nexus, open Mobile under Where to run and select Local Android.

Run your first test.

Write what the agent should test the way you'd brief a human tester, like "Finish the tutorial. Reach the flag." in the film. Start the run and watch it live in nexus while the game plays on your machine and the agent explains what it's doing. If it finds a bug, it flags it with the evidence attached for your team to review.

The Minion setup guide has the full steps, settings and tags, plus unattended deployment for rolling it out across many machines.

Try Minion

Got a gaming rig under your desk or a phone in your drawer? Put nunu.ai's agents to work on it. Email team@nunu.ai to get Minion enabled, then follow the setup guide.