Footprint sends AI coding agents to set up a developer product on their own, records every step they take, and shows in plain English where they got stuck, why, and what the company could fix.
Normal instruction
The script could not log in to a real database because it used a made-up key.
Told “I don’t have an account”
Read a row back from a real Neon database.
Tested in the October 2026 benchmark
Coding agents now choose and set up the tools developers use. When one gets stuck, it quietly gives up or reaches for something else, and the company never finds out. Footprint shows every step it took, where it stopped, and what to change.
The October 2026 benchmark: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and GLM 5.3 Flash, 4 to 8 runs per product. Small samples, so read them as clear signs, not statistics. Open the benchmark
Pick a product. AI agents try to set it up the way a developer’s coding assistant would: on their own, without signing up. Footprint records every step and explains it in plain English.
One of the 11 we tested, or your own, with a small real task and what counts as success.
Agent 1Normal instruction
Half are also told “I don’t have an account”. Every search, page, install and error becomes a step on a trail.
A plain-English story, a replay, and the exact page to change, with the quote or error that proves it.
0 of 2found the free database with the normal instruction, and 2 of 2 when told “I don’t have an account”
“You can obtain a connection string for your database by clicking the Connect button in the Console nav.”https://neon.com/docs/serverless/serverless-driver
The no-account option is in Neon’s llms.txt, not on the setup page agents read.
See what happened with Neon2 of 4found the free database with the normal instruction, with no hint at all
“Run npx create-db@latest. It creates a temporary Prisma Postgres database without an account and prints a connection string plus a claim URL.”https://www.prisma.io/docs/postgres.md
The no-account command is on Prisma’s main docs pages.
See what happened with Prisma PostgresOne task per category, two agents, with and without “I don’t have an account”. Every number is counted by code from the test results.
Open the full benchmarkWhen agents choose your product for a developer, your setup docs are the whole sales pitch. Footprint shows you what they read and where they gave up.
Every search, page and error, in order, for agents told and not told that they have no account.
The exact page to change, with the quote or error that proves it. Problems with our test computer are never blamed on your product.
Today a test runs on demand. Next: automatic re-runs whenever your docs change, so you see the effect of every edit.
Tell us the product and what an agent should try to do. You’ll get:
Footprint is built by Niranjan, a third-year engineering student in India, working solo with coding agents. Every replay and story on this site comes from a real test run; the method page explains how they are made and checked.