August 25, 2025 | Ben Ho | Engineering
The Anvil Test Group is a partnership focused on quality. Join this collaborative initiative to ensure the quality and stability of our components by testing new features and bug fixes in real-world scenarios.
The Anvil Test Group is a collaborative initiative designed to ensure the quality and stability of our components. By partnering with developers like you, we test new features and bug fixes in real-world scenarios. This approach helps us gain critical insights into how Anvil2 interacts within complex environments, catching issues early and ultimately building a more reliable platform for everyone.
The Challenge: Testing in a Vacuum
Before the Anvil Test Group, our feedback loops were often isolated. We relied heavily on internal QA, but even the most rigorous testing in a controlled environment can’t fully replicate the complexities of real-world projects, whether it’s a modern micro-frontend or a legacy monolith.
This meant that critical bugs were sometimes discovered late in the development cycle, after a release. Without your perspective, we lacked crucial context on how our components behaved in your specific products, making it difficult to reproduce and fix issues quickly.
The Anvil Test Group was created to solve this problem by bridging the gap between our team and the developers who use our components every day.
How We Solve It
The Anvil Test Group solves these challenges by building a bridge between our core team and the developers who use our components every day. This partnership provides a direct and invaluable feedback loop, ensuring that:
- Bugs are caught early. By testing features in your actual projects, we find issues in complex, real-world environments before a public release.
- Fixes are faster. Your targeted, actionable feedback—including clear reproduction steps from your product—gives the Anvil team the context needed to quickly pinpoint and resolve issues.
In short, your participation directly helps us catch issues sooner, build more robust features, and create a more reliable platform for everyone.
What to Expect as a Tester
As a tester, you will be a key part of our two-week release cadence. Your primary responsibilities include:
- Testing New Features and Bug Fixes: We focus on two primary testing flows. In Release Candidate (RC) Testing, you’ll perform a final check on versions of Anvil2 before a public release. For Feature Testing, you’ll provide iterative feedback on brand-new features as they’re being developed.
- Providing Actionable Feedback: The bedrock of this group’s success is effective bug reporting. We need to know exactly how to reproduce an issue. Your reports should include clear descriptions and step-by-step reproduction instructions.
- Offering General Observations: In addition to bug reports, we welcome suggestions for enhancements and general observations on any component or feature listed in the relevant test request.
For detailed information on the process, be sure to read our guideline for testers.
The Impact of Your Work
Your feedback is crucial for validating that changes work as intended and don’t introduce regressions. By providing targeted, practical feedback, you’re working directly with the Anvil team to catch issues sooner and create a more reliable platform for everyone. The Anvil team is committed to evaluating all reported bugs within three business days.
If you’re ready to make a direct impact on the quality of our UI components, please reach out in the #ask-designsystem channel. Last modified on January 23, 2026
