Synthetic monitoring
- Follows the exact steps you recorded
- Passes when the selectors and assertions match
- Doesn't notice a button an agent can't read
- The right tool for uptime, speed and regressions
Compare · Synthetic monitoring
Scripts check your site works for people. Ghost Agents check it works for AI.
Synthetic monitoring tools, including our sister product Ghost Inspector, run scripted browser tests against your key pages and journeys, and alert you when one breaks. They follow the steps you recorded. An AI agent doesn't: it reads the page, decides what to click and gets stuck on things a script never notices, like a button with no name or a banner over the checkout.
At a glance
Ghost Agent Lab and synthetic monitoring, side by side
| Question | Ghost Agent Lab | Synthetic monitoring |
|---|---|---|
| Main job | Prove AI agents can finish your journeys | Prove your site and journeys work for people |
| Runs journeys on a schedule, with alerts | ✓ | ✓ |
| An AI agent decides what to do from a plain-English goal | ✓ | – |
| Catches what confuses agents, like unnamed buttons or covering pop-ups | ✓ | – |
| Pass rate across several runs, because agents vary | ✓ | – |
| Shows which AI agents visit and what they get back | ✓ | – |
| Uptime and page speed monitoring | – | ✓ |
| Exact, step-by-step scripted tests | – | ✓ |
The difference
Recorded steps versus a goal
Ghost Agent Lab
- Starts from a goal, like “buy a size 10 trail shoe under 50”
- Passes when an AI agent actually gets there
- Shows the agent's reasoning and where it got stuck
- Runs each check several times for a pass rate
Better together
Test for people and for agents
Keep scripted tests for the journeys people take: they're fast, exact and cheap. Add Ghost Agents for the same journeys done by AI. Ghost Inspector and Ghost Agent Lab come from the same team, and Ghost Inspector customers get 20% off. How to test journeys with AI agents.
FAQ
Questions
Why not just script the journey for agents too?
A script proves the steps work. It can't tell you whether an agent would find them: agents read labels and page text, so a missing button name or a pop-up can stop them on a page that passes every scripted test.
Are Ghost Agents safe on a live site?
Yes. They stop at the payment form, never enter card details and refuse buttons that place orders or delete accounts. What Ghost Agents will and won't do.
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See what your current tools miss
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