---
title: "Factory Droid QA and agent-qa: evaluate the testing workflow"
description: "Compare Factory's documented QA workflows with adding agent-qa for repository-based acceptance tests, using controlled fixtures and observable outcomes."
canonical_url: "https://vostride.com/agent-library/software-factory/factory-droid-qa-and-agent-qa.md"
md_url: "https://vostride.com/agent-library/software-factory/factory-droid-qa-and-agent-qa.md"
content_kind: "comparison"
topic: "software-factory"
---

# Factory Droid QA and agent-qa: evaluate the testing workflow

Factory documents user-facing QA during Missions and explains that an existing project needs a scriptable way to exercise the application and its dependencies. Its Droid Control documentation also describes a QA command and tools for interacting with applications. These are existing capabilities to account for when evaluating an additional test runtime. [Factory Missions](https://docs.factory.ai/missions/overview), [Droid Control](https://docs.factory.ai/software-factory/droid-control). Sources consulted September 6, 2026; verify current product behavior before implementation.

## Define the decision

Keep Factory's existing validation if it supplies the acceptance coverage and evidence your team needs. Evaluate adding agent-qa when your workflow calls for natural-language tests in the repository, a chosen QA runtime and recorded results that can be reused across coding sessions. This is an evaluation proposal, not a claim of exclusive capabilities or an executed product benchmark.

Specify the application journey, candidate revision, fixture state and expected failure before comparing. A successful generated feature is too broad a unit of comparison because different runs can implement or test different things.

## Run a controlled trial

Use a small subscription-entitlement change with a permitted and a denied actor, or another meaningful regression from the [library](/agent-library.md). Confirm that the application and required sandbox dependencies can be started reproducibly.

For the agent-qa path, follow the [agent quickstart](/docs/agent-qa/agent-quickstart.md) and [coding-agent workflow](/docs/agent-qa/guides/coding-agent-workflow.md) from the repository. Validate client permissions and runtime prerequisites in the actual Droid environment. This page does not supply a tested Factory integration or assume identical CLI capabilities across installations.

## Compare outcomes

Restore the same fixture before each run. Check whether the known defect is rejected for the expected reason, whether external side effects are verified, and whether another run can recover the same acceptance contract. Retain setup failures and human interventions alongside execution duration and model usage.

Decide from that evidence whether an additional runtime improves your process enough to justify its configuration and maintenance. Product names and feature lists cannot answer that for a particular application.

[Evaluation guide](/docs/agent-qa/guides/evaluating-agent-qa.md) · [Billing recipes](/agent-library/billing-subscriptions.md)