Tips & FAQ

Answers to the questions people ask in their first weeks with QA-Board, the keyboard shortcuts worth learning, and a few tricks.

FAQ

Where do I start?

Follow Your first review: it walks through one commit of the demo projects, from the commit list to the pixel that changed. The overview explains the few words you need.

I can't find my commit

• Search for it: type a word of its message or the start of its hash in the search box of the commit list. It looks at all the commits, while the list only shows the last 3 days. See Find your commit.
• Only commits with results are listed. If your CI didn't run QA-Board on it yet, the commit doesn't exist for QA-Board.
• Check you're in the right project: in a monorepo, each sub-project is a separate project.

Was my commit better or worse?

Open the commit page: the Summary compares the median of each metric with the reference's, in green when it got better and in red when it got worse. Then the Metrics Diff shows each test's change. See Reading metrics.

What is my commit compared with?

By default, with the latest commit with results on the project's reference branch, when you opened the page. It shows in the second bar, the reference's. If it's not what you expected, change it as explained in choose another reference, and check the reference's batch and filter too.

Where do the two images differ?

In an image viewer, pick the difference mode (or press 4), or open the regions of interest menu to let QA-Board find where they differ most. See Find where images differ.

Why did my run fail?

Open the commit page's Logs view: a failed run's log opens on its last lines, where the error usually is. See Why did my run fail?.

What does an orange ≠ tag on a run mean?

Its reference run is not exactly the same test: the closest match used another configuration (Config), input (Input) or platform (Platform). Hover the tag to see how they differ. Make the reference's filter match the new one, or pick a reference batch with the same tests. See How runs are matched.

The page says "No results" or "Error"

• No results: the commit's CI batch has no finished runs. Check the CI pipeline, or pick another batch in the batch selector: the commit may only have tuning or local runs.
• An Error tag next to the commit: hover it. A 404 usually means a wrong commit hash, or runs saved in another project. A 500 is a server error: contact your QA-Board admins.

A run is stuck as pending

If it's really dead (e.g. killed by the cluster), use Mark as failed in the run's ☰ menu, then Redo it. See Redo, stop and clean up runs.

Did my batch start? Is the cluster busy?

Open Runs activity, from your account menu or the project's sidebar: what waits and runs now, what ended recently, and who loads the queues. See Runs activity.

I'm over my storage quota

Open Storage usage, from your account menu or the project's sidebar: your biggest batches, commits and folders, and how to delete their files. See Storage usage.

I can't see a project, or the buttons are grayed out

Sign in first: redoing runs, tuning and saving milestones need it. If you're signed in, you may need another role on the project: its Access tab says yours, and Request access asks its owners. See Project access.

How do I switch to the dark theme?

Click the theme button next to What's new, at the top of the sidebar: it goes from your system's theme to light, then dark. Or pick it in Settings → Preferences. Plots, editors and viewers follow the theme.

My local runs don't show up

Runs started from your workspace only appear in QA-Board with qa --share, see QA CLI tips. They show up in a batch named after you (you 🏠 label), with a warning that they may not match the committed code.

How do I compare with the last release?

On the commit page, open the Change menu of the reference's bar and pick the release's milestone. See Milestones.

How do I show a colleague what I see?

Click the link button in the commit's bar: in chats and documents the link reads like the page's tab, with the commit and the runs' status. It holds the commits, batches, filters, the view and how images are compared, but not the zoom. See Sharing.

Where are the files?

On a shared storage. Open a run's folder with the folder icon of its card, copy paths from the ☰ menus, or see Where is the data saved?.

Why does the "What's new" dialog show up again?

"Seen" release notes are remembered by your browser. A new browser, another computer or a private window doesn't know you've seen them. See What's new.

I'd like a new feature, or I found a bug

Tell your QA-Board admins, with the page's link. See Report a bug or ask for help.

Keyboard shortcuts

Press ? anywhere in the web app (or click the ? button in the sidebar) for a cheat sheet of the shortcuts, QA-Board's words and the filter syntax. The most useful shortcuts:

Key	Where	What it does
?	Everywhere	Open or close the cheat sheet.
Ctrl / ⌘ + K, or /	Everywhere	Search for a project, a branch, a commit, a batch or a page, and go there.
o	Commit page	Show or hide the view options.
1-4	Image and video viewers	Side by side, wipe, single image, difference.
t	Image, video and text viewers	Swap new and reference in place, to flip between them.
+ - 0	Image and video viewers	Zoom in, zoom out, fit.
f	Image and video viewers	Full screen.
Space, ← →	Videos	Play or pause, previous or next frame.
r, Shift + r	Commit page, with several references	Compare with the next or previous reference.
Ctrl / ⌘ + \	Everywhere	Collapse or expand the sidebar.
Esc	Dialogs, menus, What's new	Close.

Image viewers' keys work anywhere on the page: they go to the viewer under your mouse, else the one you used last, else the first one in view. Video viewers' keys go to the one you clicked, else the one under your mouse. Shortcuts are ignored while you type in a text box.

Every viewer and tool has more:

• Images: pixel values, blind tests, regions of interest... See the image viewer's shortcuts, or click the keyboard button of a viewer.
• Videos: speed, first and last frame, where the videos differ most... See the video viewer's shortcuts.
• The file browser: filter, go to a path, copy paths... See its shortcuts, or press ? in it.

Shortcuts of the other tools

Key	Where	What it does
Ctrl / Shift + click	Output Files, Artifacts & Configs	Select several files to diff.
Ctrl / ⌘ + F	Logs	Search the log. Enter and Shift + Enter go to the next or previous match, Esc clears the search.
Ctrl / ⌘ + S	Available Tests	Save the batches file.
↑ ↓ Enter	Batch selector, search suggestions	Pick an item without the mouse.
F2, Delete, Alt + ← →	A reference's tab, when it has the focus	Rename it, remove it, move it left or right.

Tricks worth knowing

• Tell your tabs apart: tabs are named after what they show, the names you gave the results, their milestone, the batch, else the commit and its branch, then the project (ISP v2 vs baseline · isp). While runs are pending, the title counts those done (12/40), then says how many failed (3✕), and the icon gets a dot: yellow while they run, red when some failed, green when they finished while you were in another tab. Background tabs keep up without downloading the results.
• Hover a run's name on its card, then click History, to see the history of that input.
• Hover almost anything: metric names show their description, values their exact number, ≠ tags explain reference mismatches, run names show metadata and paths to copy.
• Full screen: image viewers have a full screen button (or f) to compare images on the whole screen, and each card has one at its top right.
• Compare two batches of the same commit: in the commit bar's Change menu, Also show in the bottom bar, then pick another batch in the reference bar.
• Compare across projects: type another project in the Change project box of the same menu, e.g. to compare two sub-projects of a monorepo.
• Sort by a metric in the view options to see the worst regressions first.
• Filter with exclusions and patterns: -gradient, facade|foliage, denoise_strength:1.6, fail, status:success (only the runs that succeeded). See the filter syntax.
• Search the batch selector: type failed, running, local, tuning or a user name.
• Short hashes work everywhere you type a commit.
• Copy an image with the copy button of an image viewer, and paste it straight into a chat. See Copy and save.