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Kerno
Turn vibe code into production-ready code
SubscriptionCodeIDEMonitoring101 impressions#726 of its week
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.
