Introduction

Are you looking for a way to interact with an application or system? Is it a website or a web service? Do you need to collect data to perform actions on these systems or access backend systems like REST APIs, databases, or other services? Are you tired of repetitive, routine tasks?

Meet Anteater, the solution designed to simplify automation, streamline workflows, and eliminate tedious manual tasks, so you can focus on what truly matters.

Anteater is an interactive command runner that uses recipe XML files to describe tasks and workflows. It acts as an External Accessor, a tool that serves as your interface (or “head”) for performing actions on testable or controllable applications or systems. Unlike tools tightly integrated into your system, Anteater operates independently, much like Postman, SoapUI, or Grafana. However, Anteater stands out for being more adaptable, standalone, and user-friendly.

Why Choose Anteater?

  • No SaaS or Registration: No need to sign up or rely on cloud services. Anteater is a small Java application that runs locally on your machine.
  • Privacy and Independence: Anteater ensures your data stays private, running securely without any external oversight.
  • Flexibility: Create your own scripts and recipes to automate tasks, test workflows, and interact with systems.
  • Ease of Use: Anteater’s intuitive interface and XML-based recipes make it simple yet powerful, adaptable to your specific needs.

Anteater is perfect for anyone looking for control, adaptability, and freedom in their automation and testing workflows.

What Makes Anteater Unique?

  1. Interactive and Collaborative:
    Anteater’s interactive interface makes automation accessible to everyone, including non-developers. While developers typically write the recipes in a simple XML format, these scripts are easy enough for anyone to modify or use. Anteater allows teams to collaborate effectively, bridging the gap between technical and non-technical users.

  2. Customizable Commands:
    Anteater recipes are designed to call functional commands that interact with your system. If the default commands don’t meet your needs, developers can extend Anteater by adding custom commands. These commands are often already used internally for system testing but are now exposed for broader use through Anteater.

  3. Dynamic Task Runner:
    Unlike static scripts or unit tests, Anteater provides a dynamic, interactive task execution experience. It remembers repetitive inputs through its “Take It Easy” mode, saving time and reducing manual effort.

How Anteater Compares to Other Tools

Developer Scripts:

Developer scripts are static and lack interactivity. They are pre-written and executed without adapting to user input or saving preferences, making them less user-friendly for non-developers. Anteater, however, offers an interactive interface where inputs and preferences are remembered, making workflows more efficient and accessible.

Unit Tests:

Unit tests validate fixed logic in code and are primarily used by developers to ensure correctness during development. They are not designed for interactivity or user-driven execution. Anteater complements unit tests by providing an interactive task runner for broader workflows, offering flexibility and usability for integration testing and system interaction.

Postman, XMLSpy, SoapUI:

While tools like Postman, XMLSpy, and SoapUI are excellent for API and web service testing, they are highly developer-focused. Anteater, in contrast, provides a business-friendly interface that allows non-technical users to input data and view results without needing technical expertise. Developers and testers can still use Anteater for advanced workflows, but its simplicity makes it accessible to a broader audience.

Key Benefits of Anteater

  • Interactive Task Runner: Anteater adapts to user inputs, remembers preferences, and provides a user-friendly experience that static scripts and unit tests cannot match.
  • Accessible to All: With its XML-based recipes, Anteater is simple enough for non-technical users while remaining powerful and extensible for developers.
  • Flexibility and Extensibility: Anteater supports both pre-built commands and custom plugins, making it adaptable to any system or workflow.
  • Bridging the Gap: Anteater connects technical tools and business needs, offering a seamless experience for developers, testers, and end users.

Why Use Anteater?

Anteater is not just another task runner—it’s a tool that transforms how you interact with systems and workflows. By combining the flexibility of developer scripts, the interactivity of a user-friendly interface, and the simplicity of a business-focused tool, Anteater empowers developers, testers, and business users alike. It’s the perfect solution for automating tasks, managing complex systems, and bridging the gap between technical and non-technical workflows.

For more information about Anteater use cases, visit the What is Scaffing? page to explore how Anteater can simplify and enhance your workflows.

Modules

Name Description
Command-Line Interface The Anteater Command-Line Interface (CLI) runs Anteater recipes from the terminal. It is designed for automation and headless environments (CI/CD, containers, remote hosts) and can also be used interactively to choose a configuration and recipe at runtime. It supports both non-interactive execution (run a recipe by name for scripting/CI) and interactive mode (pick configuration and recipe), and it uses the same recipe execution engine that is leveraged by the Anteater Maven Plugin.
Desktop Application Anteater Desktop is a graphical user interface (GUI) for running Anteater and developing recipes interactively. It provides the core workflow available from the CLI and adds desktop-focused tools for editing, running, and troubleshooting. Key capabilities include running recipes from a desktop GUI, editing recipes with an integrated editor, and viewing logs to troubleshoot runs.
Web Interface Anteater Web provides a lightweight, browser-based control panel for running and monitoring Anteater remotely. It is designed for operational use—running recipes, reviewing logs, and checking execution status—and intentionally excludes desktop-only capabilities such as the recipe editor and debugging tools. It supports running recipes and tasks from a browser, viewing task-level and application-level logs, rendering dynamic views from templates, and overriding UI templates/static assets from the working directory for customization.
Maven Plugin The Anteater Maven Plugin integrates Anteater into Maven builds with two primary goals: ae:run to launch the Anteater desktop application (GUI) and ae:do to execute one or more Anteater recipes from the command line (CLI). It is intended for both interactive development and headless automation, providing configuration and dependency-based extension via additional Anteater plugins, and can be invoked from within a project or directly via plugin coordinates.
Anteater Plugins Anteater Plugins provide an extensibility model for adding custom processors and integrations to the Anteater runtime. Plugins are separate Java projects that contribute processors (typically extending BaseProcessor) and can depend on Anteater CLI or Desktop depending on usage. This module documents the plugin architecture, lists available community plugins (AI, Web, SQL JDBC, Python, JMS, AWS, Oracle Commerce), and explains common consumption approaches such as deploying an assembled JAR into the plugins directory or adding a published plugin as a Maven dependency.