Test Observability
Test baseline
Also known as: baseline run, reference run
A test baseline is a stored reference point — a previous run, a branch, or a recorded set of expected results — that a new run is compared against, turning an absolute result into a delta.
Most useful testing questions are comparative rather than absolute. A p95 latency of 190ms means little; 190ms against last week’s 135ms is a regression. A failing test means little; a test that passed on the target branch and fails on yours is a specific, actionable signal.
Baselines appear across testing under different names: a target-branch comparison in a merge request, a starred run in a load-testing tool, a stored screenshot in visual testing, a golden dataset in an eval suite. All of them are the same move — fixing a reference so a result can be read as a change.
- Turns an absolute result into a delta, which is usually the useful form.
- Requires storing runs; a single execution has nothing to compare against.
- Same idea appears as target-branch diffs, starred runs, screenshots and golden datasets.
Related terms
Sources
See it in your own test results
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Last reviewed September 9, 2026