Built-in Actions and When to Use Them

Action is a sealed interface in org.paramixel.api.action with 13 permitted subtypes. Each action is an immutable, reusable definition. The runner and scheduler own all traversal, execution, status transitions, and listener callbacks.

public sealed interface Action
        permits Assert, Conditional, Delay, Instance, Isolated, Parallel, Repeat, Scope, Sequential, Static, Step, Timeout, Until {

    String displayName();
}

Built-in actions

• Step wraps a ContextConsumer for user logic.
• Sequential runs children one after another in dependent or independent mode, optionally shuffled. In dependent mode (the default), a FAILED or SKIPPED child short-circuits the sequence (remaining children are skipped); an ABORTED child does not short-circuit, so siblings still run and the sequence aggregates to ABORTED. In independent mode, all children run regardless of outcome. See Exception Reference for how each outcome exception affects siblings.
• Parallel runs children concurrently with configurable parallelism, optionally shuffled.
• Scope provides before-body-after execution with lifecycle guarantee; the after action always runs.
• Static provides before-body-after without a fixture instance. (Deprecated since 6.2 — use Scope instead.)
• Instance creates a fixture instance, runs the body, and destroys it.
• Assert evaluates a boolean condition against an expected value. Passes when the actual value equals the expected value; fails with FailException otherwise. Created via static factories, not a builder: assertTrue(name, actual), assertFalse(name, actual), assertThat(name, expected, actual), assertThat(name, expected, () -> compute(), "message").
• Delay pauses execution for a fixed or random duration. Created via static factories: delay(name, millis) or delay(name, Duration).
• Isolated executes its body under a named re-entrant lock. Same-named nodes serialize. Nested same-name nodes are re-entrant.
• Repeat executes a child action a configurable number of times.
• Timeout executes a child action with a wall-clock deadline.
• Conditional evaluates a runtime predicate and gates body execution. When the predicate is false, the node reports PASSED and the body subtree is skipped. Because the node passes, it does not disrupt dependent siblings in Sequential.
• Until executes a child action repeatedly until a Predicate<Context> returns true, the body action passes, or maxIterations is exhausted. Individual iteration failures continue the loop. When until() is configured, only ABORTED or predicate satisfaction stops early; exhaustion reports FAILED. When until() is absent, the loop stops when the body passes and reports PASSED.

Choosing an action

Need	Use
Run one piece of user code	Step
Check a boolean condition	Assert
Run children in order	Sequential
Run independent branches concurrently	Parallel
Attach setup and teardown to a subtree	Scope (was Static — deprecated since 6.2)
Create and use a fixture instance	Instance
Serialize access to a shared resource	Isolated
Retry or repeat a child	Repeat or Until
Bound a child by elapsed time	Timeout
Gate a subtree based on runtime state	Conditional

Composition example

import org.paramixel.api.action.Action;
import static org.paramixel.api.action.Scope.scope;
import static org.paramixel.api.action.Sequential.sequential;
import static org.paramixel.api.action.Step.step;

Action test = scope("browser test")
        .before(step("start browser", ctx -> startBrowser()))
        .body(sequential("scenario")
                .child(step("open page", ctx -> openPage()))
                .child(step("verify", ctx -> verifyPage()))
                .build())
        .after(step("stop browser", ctx -> stopBrowser()))
        .build();

browser test
├── before: start browser
├── body: scenario
│   ├── open page
│   └── verify
└── after: stop browser

Use Scope when setup and teardown belong to a specific action tree. Use @Paramixel.BeforeAll and @Paramixel.AfterAll only for runner-wide lifecycle around all discovered factory actions.

Use the corresponding Builder nested class for each action type. See Builder for details.

For a more concise syntax, see the Named Builders reference.