Originally reported by AIthority.com. Publication date: March 25, 2020.
Overview
Katalon LLC announced a formal partnership and technical integration with CircleCI, connecting Katalon’s codeless test automation platform with CircleCI’s continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) infrastructure. The centerpiece of the partnership is the Katalon Orb, a partner-certified CircleCI Orb that simplifies how engineering and QA teams embed automated tests into their delivery pipelines.
What Each Platform Brings to the Table
Katalon is a cross-platform test automation tool designed for teams that have limited programming expertise. It supports testing across web applications, APIs, mobile apps, and desktop software, lowering the barrier to entry for comprehensive automated testing.
CircleCI is a widely adopted CI/CD platform that automates the build, test, and deployment stages of the software delivery lifecycle. Its Orbs ecosystem allows teams to package and share reusable pipeline configuration elements — including jobs, commands, and executors — across projects and organizations.
The Katalon Orb: What It Is and Why It Matters
CircleCI Orbs are, in CircleCI’s own words, “shareable packages of configuration elements, including jobs, commands, and executors.” The Katalon Orb is a partner-certified Orb that gives CircleCI users an officially supported, pre-built method of invoking Katalon test suites from within a CircleCI pipeline — without writing custom integration scripts from scratch.
Key benefits of the Katalon Orb include:
- Improved security: Using a certified Orb reduces the risk introduced by ad-hoc integration scripts and ensures the connection between the two platforms follows vetted configuration patterns.
- Reduced configuration overhead: Teams spend less time writing glue code to connect Katalon tests to their CircleCI workflows, freeing capacity for test design and coverage improvement.
- Greater reusability: Test artifacts, jobs, commands, and executors defined through the Orb can be reused across multiple pipelines and projects, promoting consistency at scale.
Strategic Context: Continuous Testing in CI/CD Pipelines
The partnership reflects a broader industry push toward continuous testing — the practice of running automated tests at every stage of the CI/CD pipeline rather than as a late-stage gate. Teams that adopt continuous testing catch defects earlier, reduce the cost of remediation, and ship with greater confidence.
“Continuous integration is at the heart of digital transformation. We believe this partnership will help our mutual end-users to move further than just automated testing: to empower continuous testing through intelligent automation, and build frictionless CI/CD pipelines that drive sustainable values for their organizations.”
— Dung Ngo, VP of Product, Katalon
Dung Ngo also highlighted the scalability angle: the Katalon Orb is positioned as a foundation for teams that need their test automation practice to grow alongside their CI/CD ecosystem, particularly as project complexity and team size increase.
Part of a Wider Partner Ecosystem
The CircleCI integration is one addition to Katalon’s broader Partner Program, through which the company is expanding native integrations with other DevOps tooling. The goal is to give teams a cohesive, low-friction automation layer that fits into the tools they already use, rather than requiring them to adopt a separate workflow.
Availability
The Katalon Orb is available for installation directly on the CircleCI platform through the CircleCI Orb Registry. Teams already using both Katalon and CircleCI can adopt the Orb without migrating to a new toolchain.
Takeaways for DevOps Teams
- If your team uses CircleCI and needs accessible test automation (especially with limited scripting resources), the Katalon Orb provides a certified, maintainable path to pipeline integration.
- The Orb model means you inherit security and configuration best practices maintained by both Katalon and CircleCI, rather than relying on a custom shell script.
- For teams scaling their QA practice, reusable Orb components can standardize how tests are invoked across many repositories and environments.