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Kerno is the AI Backend Runtime QA Engineer. It runs locally on your machine, inside your coding agent's loop, so every change your agent makes is tested while it works. Kerno connects through MCP to Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and any MCP-compatible agent, and tests against your running app with its real database, queues and services.
Kerno maps your critical user flows and entry points, implements and runs tests for them, and verifies each outcome by reading it back from your system. Your agent gets the results in the same session and fixes what Kerno finds before a pull request is opened. In CI, Kerno replays your committed tests on every pull request.
Supported languages include TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Java, Kotlin, Scala, Go, Ruby, PHP, C#, Rust and Swift.
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Kerno runs automated backend tests against your live stack to catch runtime, security, and integration bugs before code ships.
- for
- Backend engineers and AI coding agents who need runtime validation.
- pricing
- freemium · free trial
Key features
- Live stack validation — Runs tests against your running app and its dependencies to detect regressions in real time.
- Functional API workflow checks — Executes end-to-end scenarios covering API behavior and edge cases.
- Contract & schema validation — Ensures responses match expected contracts and schema definitions.
- Authorization & authentication testing — Detects broken access controls and privilege escalation issues.
- Security OWASP Top 10 checks — Automates detection of common security vulnerabilities in your backend.
- Self-healing test suite — Retires stale scenarios and creates new ones as the codebase evolves.
- CI integration — Integrates with CI pipelines to run validations on every pull request.
- Team analytics — Provides dashboards for test results, blast-radius, and impact across engineers.
Use cases
- Validate API changes against live databases and message queues before merging.
- Detect authorization bugs that only appear under real user traffic.
- Automatically generate regression tests for new endpoints after a deployment.
- Run security checks for OWASP Top 10 issues on every code change.
- Provide AI coding agents with runtime feedback to improve generated code.
Kerno pricing
- Community$0/month30 test runs per month · 1 repository · 1 user · Custom context and rules
- Pro$50/dev per monthUnlimited test runs · Unlimited repositories · Unlimited users · Team and codebase analytics
Kerno vs alternatives
.png?width=64) Kerno |  Datadog |  Cline |  Tabnine |  Grafana | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Live backend QA for AI-generated code | App performance monitoring | IDE-based AI coding assistance | AI code completion | Uptime and incident tracking |
| Pricing | Freemium | Subscription | Free | Subscription | Subscription |
| DevHunt upvotes | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Launched | Jan 2026 | — | — | — | — |
- Kerno vs Datadog: Datadog focuses on monitoring and observability, not automated backend test generation.
- Kerno vs Cline: Cline is an open-source autonomous coding agent for IDEs, not a runtime QA platform.
- Kerno vs Tabnine: Tabnine provides AI code completions, whereas Kerno validates code at runtime.
- Kerno vs Grafana: Better Stack offers uptime and incident monitoring, not automated backend test validation.
Kerno FAQ
What's included in the free plan?+
30 test runs per month, one repository, one user and unlimited KIT graph, with no credit card required.
What counts as a test run?+
Each scenario execution against your app counts as one test run, including creation, update, or replay of a baseline.
Can I switch plans or cancel anytime?+
Yes, you can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel at any time without long-term contracts.
Is there a trial before paying?+
The free Community plan is fully functional, letting you try Kerno without a credit card before upgrading.
What’s the difference between Pro and Enterprise?+
Pro adds unlimited runs, repos, users, analytics and CI integration; Enterprise adds SSO/SAML, self-hosting, audit logs and dedicated support.
Summarized by DevHunt from kerno.io · Oct 8, 2026. Details may change; check the official site.
