"role" selector

[neiker]

Hi everyone!

One improvement that could make Maestro even more powerful would be supporting selectors by semantic role (e.g., role=button).

- tapOn: 
    role: button
    text: Sign in

In modern testing libraries (like React Testing Library), querying by role is the preferred way to find elements because it aligns with how users (and assistive tools) actually interact with the UI. Roles are part of the accessibility tree, meaning a “role”-based selector targets elements that are visible, actionable, and meaningful to all users.

Why this matters for Maestro:

• Closer to real user behavior: Tests would better reflect how users navigate the app (eg you can tell someone "Tap the button that says Sign in").
• Improves accessibility alignment: Encourages teams to use proper accessibility roles and labels, indirectly improving app accessibility.
• Bridges the gap with web and cross-platform testing tools: Most modern testing frameworks prioritize getByRole() for realism and maintainability. Maestro could offer the same for mobile.

In short, a role selector would make tests more semantic, more resilient, and more inclusive, helping Maestro’s philosophy of writing tests that behave like real users.

[Fishbowler]

Maestro and React Testing Library are miles apart in terms of approach. React Testing Library is far lower level. Maestro is arms-length e2e testing.

I think you can do what you're after via a CSS selector though.

- tapOn:
    css: '[role="button"]'
    text: Sign In

[neiker]

Is that a new selector? I don't see it on the docs and Maestro Studio is telling me Property css is not allowed.yaml-schema: tapOn(513)

[Fishbowler]

It's relatively new. Someone pointed out the missing docs to me earlier this week.

Clearly there's a schema problem in Studio too - that's entirely on the presentation later of the desktop app, driven by a schema. Hit the run button and the css attribute should work.