> Meticulous records real user sessions from a web app and replays them against each commit to catch visual regressions.
>
> Full AI-readable docs index (project setup guide + every page as markdown): https://app.meticulous.ai/llms.txt

# Getting Started with Backend Testing

Meticulous records your interactions with your application on environments such as localhost as you develop it, and replays those
sessions on every pull request to surface any differences your change triggers.

If your app uses **server-side rendering (SSR)**, part of each user session happens on your backend: data is fetched on the server
before the page ever reaches the browser, so the frontend recorder alone never sees those requests. To test these apps, Meticulous
additionally records backend spans — the HTTP requests your server makes — and uses them to stub out server-side calls during
replay. This lets Meticulous accurately replay and diff server-rendered pages, catching regressions in your backend and SSR code
paths as well as your frontend.

To set up backend testing you need to:

1. [Install the frontend session recorder](/docs/additional-guides/recorder-script-backend-testing)
2. [Install the backend spans recorder](/docs/additional-guides/backend-recorder)
3. [Set up tests to run in CI](/docs/github-actions-v2)
4. [Verify the complete setup](/docs/onboarding-guide#3-verify-the-complete-setup)

For additional questions about how Meticulous works, check out the [FAQ and Troubleshooting](/docs/faq-and-troubleshooting) section.