Beta testing

This guide covers how to join the Conversation Simulator beta, where to report problems, and what makes a great bug report.

How to join

The beta runs on the main branch. There is no separate opt-in — if you can build from source or install a pre-release build, you are a beta tester.

git clone https://github.com/outrightmental/ConversationSimulator
cd ConversationSimulator
./scripts/setup.sh
./scripts/dev.sh

Steam early access releases are tagged beta/* in the repository.

Where to report

One-click reporting (recommended)

The fastest way to file a useful report:

Open the app and go to Support (sidebar or menu).
Click Report a problem.
Review the list of files that will be included — nothing is written yet.
Optionally check Include last session metadata to add turn count and scenario ID (no transcript content, ever).
Click Create bundle — the ZIP is saved locally and your crash-bundles folder opens so you can verify its contents.
Click Open GitHub issue → — a pre-filled issue form opens in your browser.
Attach the ZIP from step 5, fill in what happened, and submit.

The whole flow takes under a minute and gives the team everything needed to reproduce most bugs.

Manual reporting

If the app will not start or the Support screen is unreachable, open a Beta feedback / bug report issue manually. Include:

App version (shown in the title bar or versions.json in a crash bundle)
OS and architecture (e.g. “macOS 14.6 Apple Silicon”)
A clear description of what happened and what you expected
Steps to reproduce

Privacy

Conversation Simulator is local-first. The diagnostics bundle the one-click flow creates contains:

File	Contents
`versions.json`	App version, Python version, OS platform string
`system.txt`	OS name, release, CPU architecture
`config.json`	App settings; home-directory paths replaced with `~`
`preflight.json`	Runtime, STT, and TTS health snapshot (no user data)
`recent_errors.txt`	Last log lines at WARNING level or above
`session_metadata.json`	(opt-in only) Scenario ID, session state, turn count, timestamps
`crash-bundle.zip`	(if one exists) Most recent crash bundle — already redacted
`README.txt`	Privacy notice

What is never included:

Conversation transcripts or NPC responses
Player input or audio recordings
LLM prompts or model outputs
Real filesystem paths (the username portion is replaced with ~)

The bundle is written locally and never transmitted automatically. You review it before attaching it to an issue.

What makes a great report

A report that gets fixed quickly includes:

A single, reproducible behaviour — one bug per issue.
Exact steps — numbered list, starting from app launch.
Expected vs actual outcome — what should have happened, what did happen.
A diagnostics bundle — created with Support → Report a problem; it captures versions and error logs so you don’t have to paste them manually.
No transcript content — describe scenario-specific bugs in general terms; the team can reproduce them with any pack.

Example of a good report

What happened: After ending a conversation, the debrief screen loads but the score card never appears — it spins indefinitely.

Expected: Score and strengths should appear within 5 seconds.

Steps:

Launch app

Select “Job Interview Basics” → “The Executive Gauntlet”

Complete 4 turns and press “End conversation”

Debrief screen: spinner visible, score section never populates

Environment: App 0.9.0-beta.3, macOS 14.6 Apple Silicon, Qwen3 8B Q4_K_M

Bundle attached: crash-bundles/beta-report-20260710T141500Z.zip

Scope of the beta

During the beta we are particularly interested in feedback on:

Local model compatibility — does your model load and produce sensible responses?
Voice / STT / TTS — transcription accuracy, TTS naturalness, VAD sensitivity.
Scenario packs — logic errors, inconsistent NPC state, missing events.
Performance — startup time, latency, memory use on lower-end hardware.
Installation — setup script failures, missing dependencies.

Feature requests are welcome but lower priority until core stability is established. Use the feature proposal template for those.