Venom

Visit Website

Introduction

Venom is a command-line tool from OVHcloud that creates, manages and runs integration tests. Test suites are YAML files made of test cases and steps, and each step uses an executor: http for API calls, exec for shell commands, and others for gRPC, SQL databases, Kafka, RabbitMQ, MQTT, SSH, SMTP and IMAP, Redis, web browsers and more.

The README explains the idea as handling integration tests ‘the same way you code your application’: test cases are managed as code and reviewed with the rest of the change. Outputs from one step can feed the next, variables come from environment variables or files, and assertions such as ShouldEqual or ShouldContainSubstring check results.

Venom can generate JUnit XML and other reports for CI, and user-defined executors let teams wrap repeated steps into reusable building blocks.

In the quality loop, Venom suits integration testing of services that talk to several systems: an HTTP call, then a database query, then a Kafka message check, all in one YAML file.

The source code is at ovh/venom on GitHub under the Apache-2.0 licence, with about 1,200 stars; the most recent commit was on 30 October 2026.

Features

1. YAML test suites: Readable test cases and steps.
2. Many executors: HTTP, gRPC, SQL, Kafka, RabbitMQ, MQTT, SSH, SMTP, IMAP, Redis, exec and web.
3. Step outputs: Chain results between steps.
4. Assertions: A rich set of Should... assertions.
5. User executors: Package repeated steps as custom executors.
6. Reports: JUnit XML and other formats for CI.

Pros

1. Multi-system tests: One tool for APIs, databases and queues.
2. Free to use: Open source under the Apache-2.0 licence, so the core tool costs nothing to use.
3. Actively maintained: The repository had commits as recent as 30 October 2026.

Cons

1. YAML limits: Complex logic is awkward in YAML.
2. Smaller community: About 1,200 GitHub stars.

Usage and Links (Example)

name: user api
testcases:
- name: get user
  steps:
  - type: http
    method: GET
    url: "{{.url}}/users/1"
    assertions:
    - result.statuscode ShouldEqual 200
    - result.bodyjson.id ShouldEqual 1

venom run tests/*.yml --var url=http://localhost:8080

Resources:

• Venom website

Pricing

Venom is free and open source under the Apache-2.0 licence.

Recommended for?

1. Teams testing services that touch APIs, databases and queues.
2. Not a fit for heavy programmatic test logic.

Conclusion

Venom is a practical, actively maintained integration-test runner for multi-system scenarios in YAML.

On CheckOps, Venom is filed under the Integration testing and API & contract testing stages. Related tools listed here include Hurl, Karate, Tavern, Zerocode, PactumJS and Citrus. Before choosing, compare them on licence, supported languages and platforms, hosting model, and how well each fits your existing CI pipeline. Facts on this page were checked against the official website, documentation and repository on 11 November 2026; statements the vendor makes about its own product are marked as vendor claims.