Interaction with techelson is currently file-based. There are two kinds of files techelson works with. Contract files are just plain michelson smart contract files, and testcase files are files containing a Michelson instruction, usually a sequence of instructions { <instructions> }.

Omitting options, running techelson looks like (the -- separator is optional):

$ techelson \
    --contract <contract_1> .. --contract <contract_n> \
    -- <testcase_1> ... <testcase_m>

Techelson will then run the testcases in sequence. All testcases will have access to all the contracts provided with --contract. For more information about command-line refer to the Usage section.

This section builds on the small example from the Michelson section, and a slightly more involved example later on, to introduce techelson's workflow and its extended instruction set.

• First Steps shows how to run a simple testcase with no contract.

  Introduces PRINT_STACK and STEP.

• Creating and Calling Contracts discusses the contract environment and contract creation and transfers.

  Introduces APPLY_OPERATIONS.

• Live Contract Inspection deals with recovering the balance and the storage of live (deployed) contracts.

  Introduces GET_BALANCE and GET_STORAGE.

• Anonymous Contracts details how to create anonymous contracts.

• Transfers introduces the creation of transfers to a contract.

• Testing for Failures shows how to test that an operation fails and how. This section is the first to use the slightly more complex example admins.tz, and it's liquidity version admins.liq.

  Introduces MUST_FAIL.

• Usurpation of Identity illustrates how to have your testcases pretend they are a specific contract/account, and to create operations in their name.

  Introduces SET_SOURCE.