Install Nexus Studio and run your first test

Seven steps take a new trial to a scheduled run. The sections after them give the details: download the installer, check it, activate this machine, run a test. The tests run on your machine; the one thing that leaves it is the license check.

Your first 30 minutes

From a new trial to a scheduled run, in the order the Studio expects. The first setup downloads the browsers, several hundred MB, so the time it takes depends on your connection.

Start the trial and install. Sign in to your account, accept the Terms and start the 30-day trial, with no card. Download the installer, check its SHA-256, run it and activate this machine with your license key. Then open or create a workspace folder and choose Install all in the Setup guide (details).
Record your first test (Nexus Recorder). In Patrol, open the Nexus Recorder tab, enter the URL to record and a name for the test, and choose Start recording. Click through your flow in the browser window that opens, then close the window or choose Stop & save. The Studio writes the test file into your workspace. The AI writer and the Test Adapter also create tests, if you prefer to describe one or bring in one you already have.
Rehearse in the sandbox (3 runs). When the recording is saved, choose Run in sandbox, headed. A sandbox run writes nothing to evidence or history, and each of the three rehearsals uses a different browser. Patrol's Waiting to leave the sandbox card counts them from 0/3 to 3/3, and the test then moves to Ready for their first real run. API tests have no sandbox: they run for real on the first press.
First real run. On the Run patrol tab, pick the test, leave sandbox unticked and choose Run patrol for real. A real run writes to evidence and history. Playwright tests run on Chromium, Firefox and WebKit, and Selenium tests on Chromium and Firefox.
Read the verdict. Patrol colors every test by its state in each browser, and the run strip over the editor says in words what each browser is doing. The state is one of 14 verdicts: SECURE passed on its own, FLAKY passed only on a retry, BREACHED is a real finding, and TIMEOUT never answered in time, which is not proof that it is broken.
Open the evidence. In the menu bar, choose View, then Evidence Locker. Each record opens on Report, Metadata, Telemetry and Raw Log. Mark a failure Real bug or False alarm, with a reason: the first verdict starts the chain of custody, and Verify names the first record that changed.
Schedule it (Watch or CI/CD). Watch, on the Run patrol tab, re-runs a selection on a timer, unattended: every 5 minutes to 24 hours, or once on a date. It needs the Studio's machine to be on, and alerts on Telegram or Slack, if you connect them, only when a state changes. For a pipeline, choose Run, then Environments & CI/CD: the screen writes the GitHub Actions or GitLab CI file (Run your tests from CI/CD). A machine that runs the engine in CI is an activated machine and counts toward your plan.

System requirements

On Windows 11 x64 with 16 GB of RAM, the installer is all this machine needs to run Playwright tests. Each row marked Optional is needed only by the feature it names, and the Studio's Setup screen checks it.

Component	Status	Details
Windows 11 x64	Required	Nexus Studio is a Windows desktop app. Each activated machine counts toward your plan: 1 on the trial, 1 on Individual, 3 on Team, 10 on Business (plans and machines).
Memory	Required	16 GB of RAM minimum. Windows, the Studio and the browsers share it. By the engine's own estimate, each browser needs about 0.5 GB of free memory, and 1 GB more stays free for Windows and the Studio: three browsers at once need about 2.5 GB free.
Disk space	Required	Measured: 207 MB for the Studio, the engine and its packages on the build of 2026-09-22, before Node.js was added to the installer; 1.2 GB for the Playwright 1.62.1 browsers (Chromium, Chromium headless shell, Firefox, WebKit and ffmpeg). Your workspaces and evidence come on top.
Internet	Required	For the license check: at activation, then every 24 hours. Without a check the Studio keeps working for 7 days, shows a notice for 4 more, then turns read-only until it reconnects (working offline). You also need an account with a trial or a plan; the 30-day trial needs no card.
Nexus Studio and the engine	Bundled	The desktop app and the engine that runs your suites, with the engine's packages.
Node.js 24 LTS	Bundled	The engine runs on the copy in the installer. You do not install Node.js.
Playwright 1.62.1	Bundled	The test runner.
Playwright browsers	Installed automatically	Chromium, Firefox and WebKit for Playwright 1.62.1 download once, before the first local run, so that run needs internet. After that the workspace runs offline, apart from the license check.
Python 3.10 or later	Optional: Python	For pytest suites, Selenium for Python, the Test Adapter on .py files and Recorder output in Python. The Setup screen checks the version and, with one click, installs pytest, pytest-playwright, selenium and playwright with pip, and the Python Playwright browsers.
Google Chrome	Optional: Selenium	Selenium 4.45.0 for JavaScript drives Chrome; Selenium Manager resolves the matching driver, and its first download needs internet. Firefox is an alternative, not yet verified live. Edge and WebKit are not supported for Selenium.
adb and scrcpy	Optional: Android	adb for real Android phones over USB; scrcpy is optional. The Setup screen installs both with winget. USB debugging must be on: Devices & Mobile has a guide for the first phone.
Docker Desktop	Optional: Docker runtime	With the WSL 2 backend and Compose v2, and a Docker VM with at least 4 GB of memory. The runner image is based on `mcr.microsoft.com/playwright:v1.62.1-noble` (Ubuntu 24.04).
OpenSSH Client	Optional: SSH runtime	The Windows optional feature, under Settings, System, Optional features.
A VPS	Optional: remote runtime	Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x86_64 with Docker Engine and Compose v2, reached with SSH key authentication. The engine runs your suites there in the same container image.

Download the installer

Open Download and choose Download for Windows. The page shows the version, the release date, the size and the SHA-256. The same installer is under Downloads in your account.
No license yet? Sign in to your account, with your email or with Google, and on Overview accept the Terms and start the 30-day trial. The 30 days do not start until you activate the Studio.

Check the download

The SHA-256 on the Download page is the fingerprint of the installer we published. Compare it with the file you downloaded before you run it. In PowerShell, from the folder that holds the file:

(Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256 ".\<installer file name>").Hash -eq "<SHA-256 from the Download page>"

True means the file is the one we published; capitals do not matter. False means it is not: delete it, download it again, and do not run it.

Windows SmartScreen may stop a new installer with “Windows protected your PC”. Go past it only when the check says True: choose More info, then Run anyway.

Activate this machine

Run the installer, then open Nexus Studio.
Copy your license key. Your account shows it once: right after you start the trial, or when you choose Get license key under License & machines on a paid plan. We keep only a hash of it, so if you lose it, regenerate it.
Until it is activated, the Studio opens on its License screen. Paste the key into the license key field and choose Activate. The key starts with nxs_live_ and is 61 characters long; spaces and line breaks picked up while copying are ignored.
The status reads Active. On a trial, the 30 days start now.

The key is sent once, to activate this machine, and the Studio does not keep it. From then on the Studio confirms its license on its own. The same screen shows, under What leaves this machine, the exact request the next check sends (what it contains).

If activation is refused, the message says why: the key is not valid, every machine of the plan is in use, this machine already had a trial, the license is not paid up or the license server cannot be reached.

Open a workspace and run Setup

This part happens on your machine, and we never see it: not the test, not the result.

Open a folder. Your tests and evidence live in one workspace folder. Choose New folder and Create here, or Open existing for a folder that already is a workspace.
Setup. The workspace installs its packages and browsers once, with npm install and playwright install. In the Setup guide, Install all runs what is still missing, one step after another, and Continue unlocks when every required row is ready. That needs the network; afterwards the workspace works offline, apart from the license check. adb is needed only for real Android phones.
Then the test itself. Create it, rehearse it, run it for real and read the verdict: steps 2 to 6 of Your first 30 minutes.

The Studio tour shows every screen.

Updates

Updates are manual and never silent.

When a newer version is published, the Studio shows a line under its menu bar: Nexus Studio and the version, is available, with Update now and Later. The notice arrives signed, with the license check; the Studio shows nothing for an update it cannot verify.
Nothing downloads until you choose Update now. The Studio then downloads the installer and checks its SHA-256 against the signed notice.
When the check passes, the Studio opens the installer for you to run; installing closes the Studio and installs the new version. When it fails, nothing opens, and the line says why and offers Try again.

Where to run it

The Studio runs on your own Windows 11 PC, and nothing else is required.

Your own PC. Install the Studio, open a workspace and run. Scheduled runs happen only while the PC is awake.
A mini PC, optional. A dedicated Windows 11 machine that stays on, for nightly regressions and scheduled runs without tying up a workstation. Watch keeps its schedule, and the evidence stays on its disk.
A runtime per workspace. Each workspace picks where the engine runs its suites, on the Studio's Docker screen: this machine; Docker on this machine, in the runner container on the same disk; or a VPS over SSH, running the same container image. Two applications under test in two workspaces can use two different runtimes. None of the three is required, and switching is one setting. The Studio itself always stays on Windows.
A VPS runs Ubuntu 24.04 LTS with Docker Engine and Compose v2, reached with SSH key authentication. The evidence stays there until you pull it. It checks its own license and counts as a machine of your plan: see plans and machines.
Real Android phones plug into the Studio's own machine over USB, with USB debugging on; Devices & Mobile has a guide for the first one. Phone runs, Selenium and Python suites and infrastructure chaos always run on the Studio's own machine.

Watch, the scheduler, runs only on the Studio's own machine, with the workspace runtime set to Local. To schedule runs on a VPS, use your CI: Run your tests from CI/CD.

Own your infrastructure helps you choose between these setups, and compares machines of your own with a cloud QA platform and a rented server: where the evidence lives, who can reach it and what it costs.