Artillery — Modern Load Testing for HTTP, WebSocket & More

What it is

Artillery is a Node.js load testing toolkit that uses YAML scenario files to define test configurations. It supports HTTP, WebSocket, gRPC, and browser-based testing via Playwright. Artillery handles both quick smoke tests from the command line and complex multi-step scenarios with variable injection, response capture, and conditional logic.

Artillery targets backend developers, QA engineers, and SRE teams who need to verify application performance under load. It scales from local single-machine tests to distributed runs on AWS Fargate for production-level load generation.

How it saves time or tokens

Artillery's YAML-based approach means you write test scenarios declaratively rather than programming test scripts. A few lines of YAML define ramp-up patterns, request sequences, and success criteria. The built-in reporting shows latency percentiles, error rates, and throughput. Distributed mode on AWS Fargate generates load from multiple regions without managing infrastructure.

How to use

1. Install Artillery: npm install -g artillery.
2. Run a quick smoke test: artillery quick --count 100 --num 5 https://api.example.com/health.
3. Create a YAML scenario file for complex test patterns and run with artillery run load.yml.

Example

# load.yml
config:
  target: 'https://api.example.com'
  phases:
    - duration: 60
      arrivalRate: 10
      name: 'Warm up'
    - duration: 120
      arrivalRate: 50
      name: 'Sustained load'
    - duration: 60
      arrivalRate: 100
      name: 'Peak load'

scenarios:
  - name: 'API workflow'
    flow:
      - get:
          url: '/api/items'
          expect:
            - statusCode: 200
      - post:
          url: '/api/items'
          json:
            name: 'test-item'
          capture:
            json: '$.id'
            as: 'itemId'
      - get:
          url: '/api/items/{{ itemId }}'

# Run the test
artillery run load.yml

# Quick smoke test
artillery quick --count 100 --num 5 https://api.example.com/health

Related on TokRepo

• Testing Tools — Testing frameworks and tools
• DevOps Tools — Infrastructure and performance tools

Common pitfalls

• Local machine network and CPU limits constrain load generation. For tests above a few hundred requests per second, use distributed mode on AWS Fargate.
• YAML scenario syntax is specific to Artillery. Do not confuse it with other load testing tools' configuration formats.
• Response time measurements include network latency from the load generator. When testing locally against a remote server, network conditions affect results.