Automate legacy systems that were never built with an API.
Most browser automation assumes a cooperative DOM — stable ids, a selector you can write once. A lot of the software worth automating (old frame-based ERPs, 2004-era county portals, canvas maps, bolted-on PDF viewers) has none of that, so QA Reef's operator reads the screen like a person and drives the mouse to match.
Look, decide, act — no DOM required.
Reads the screen
Tiled OCR (Apple Vision, or a vision-model adapter) turns a screenshot into words with pixel positions — not a DOM query.
Drives like a person
The mouse moves on a curved, jittered path and clicks — not a synthetic DOM event on a handle that may not correspond to anything visible.
Evidence per step
Every action logs a screenshot, the OCR'd text, and the exact model that decided the click (decided_by) — auditable after the fact.
Three real shapes of "no API" system
A county records portal
Government portals often run on decades-old software (Laserfiche, EnerGov, Accela, Tyler) with no API and inconsistent markup. QA Reef's operator reads the form, fills it, reads results by OCR, and clicks through — the same steps a person takes.
An old ERP with frames
Frame-based enterprise systems still run that way internally — a selector recorded against one frame's DOM breaks when IT changes the frameset. Reading the screen sidesteps that: the operator only needs to know what a control looks like, not which frame it's in.
A PDF-viewer document fetch
An in-browser PDF viewer (plugin, canvas renderer, unreachable <iframe>) often has no selector for "next page" or "download" — just a toolbar rendered as pixels QA Reef reads and clicks like anything else.
What we won't do
- No CAPTCHA solving, ever — it stops and records what it saw.
- Respect terms of service and robots rules — QA Reef is for systems you're authorized to operate.
- Record-and-stop on walls — an auth screen or permission gate reports UNMEASURED with evidence, not a guess.
Background on the UNMEASURED verdict: why a QA verdict needs a third state.
Questions about automating legacy systems
What counts as a "legacy system" here?
Any browser app with no usable API and no stable DOM — frame-based ERPs, Laserfiche/EnerGov/Accela/Tyler-style county portals, canvas maps, embedded PDF viewers, or JS-shell apps selectors can't reach.
How is this different from traditional RPA?
Traditional RPA relies on UI element trees or fixed pixel coordinates, which break when a layout shifts. QA Reef's operator reads the screen with OCR each time it acts, locating controls by current visible text and position.
Will QA Reef solve CAPTCHAs to get in?
No, never — it records what it saw and stops at any CAPTCHA or access wall.
Does QA Reef respect robots.txt and terms of service?
It records-and-stops at walls rather than pushing through, but respecting a target's terms and robots rules is the operator's responsibility, same as any browser-automation tool.
Read the technique in detail
OCR words to coordinates, curved mouse paths, evidence per step — how we scripted a real, decades-old portal.
Read: Making an API out of a 2004 web portal →