Scenarios - Cruel

What are Scenarios?

Scenarios are time-based chaos patterns that simulate real-world incidents and failure conditions. Unlike static chaos injection, scenarios run for a specific duration and can model complex failure modes like network partitions, data center failovers, and traffic spikes.

Basic Usage

Define and play scenarios:

import { cruel } from 'cruel'

// Wrap your functions
const fetchData = cruel(async () => { /* ... */ })

// Define a scenario
cruel.scenario('network-outage', {
  chaos: { fail: 1 },  // 100% failure rate
  duration: 5000        // Lasts 5 seconds
})

// Play the scenario
await cruel.play('network-outage')

// Scenario stops automatically after 5 seconds
// Or stop manually:
cruel.stop()

Scenario API

cruel.scenario()

Define a reusable scenario:

cruel.scenario(name: string, config: {
  chaos?: ChaosOptions,
  duration?: number  // In milliseconds
})

cruel.play()

Start a scenario:

await cruel.play('scenario-name')
// Returns after scenario duration completes

// Or without await for background execution
cruel.play('scenario-name')  // Runs in background

cruel.stop()

Manually stop the active scenario:

cruel.stop()  // Disables chaos and clears active scenario

cruel.activeScenario()

Check which scenario is running:

const active = cruel.activeScenario()
if (active) {
  console.log(`Currently running: ${active}`)
} else {
  console.log('No active scenario')
}

Built-in Scenarios

Cruel includes 12 pre-configured scenarios for common failure modes:

networkPartition

Complete network failure:

await cruel.play('networkPartition')
// { fail: 1, duration: 5000 }

100% failure rate - All requests fail
5 second duration
Use case: Test network split-brain scenarios

highLatency

Severe latency spike:

await cruel.play('highLatency')
// { delay: [2000, 5000], duration: 10000 }

2-5 second delays
10 second duration
Use case: Test timeout handling and user experience degradation

degraded

Partial service degradation:

await cruel.play('degraded')
// { fail: 0.1, delay: [500, 1500], duration: 30000 }

10% failure rate
500-1500ms latency
30 second duration
Use case: Test graceful degradation under load

outage

Major service outage:

await cruel.play('outage')
// { fail: 1, timeout: 0.5, duration: 60000 }

100% failures and 50% timeouts
60 second duration
Use case: Test disaster recovery procedures

recovery

Post-incident recovery phase:

await cruel.play('recovery')
// { fail: 0.3, delay: [100, 500], duration: 15000 }

30% failure rate
100-500ms latency
15 second duration
Use case: Test system behavior during recovery

blackFriday

High traffic with intermittent issues:

await cruel.play('blackFriday')
// { delay: [1000, 3000], fail: 0.15, jitter: 1000, duration: 60000 }

1-3 second base latency
15% failure rate
0-1 second jitter
60 second duration
Use case: Test black friday / traffic spike scenarios

mobileNetwork

Unstable mobile connectivity:

await cruel.play('mobileNetwork')
// { delay: [500, 2000], fail: 0.2, timeout: 0.1, duration: 30000 }

500-2000ms latency
20% failures, 10% timeouts
30 second duration
Use case: Test mobile app resilience

datacenterFailover

Data center switching:

await cruel.play('datacenterFailover')
// { fail: 0.5, delay: [200, 800], duration: 20000 }

50% failure rate
200-800ms latency
20 second duration
Use case: Test multi-region failover logic

ddosAttack

DDoS-like overload:

await cruel.play('ddosAttack')
// { timeout: 0.4, delay: [2000, 10000], duration: 30000 }

40% timeouts
2-10 second delays
30 second duration
Use case: Test rate limiting and backpressure

coldStart

Serverless cold start delays:

await cruel.play('coldStart')
// { delay: [3000, 8000], duration: 10000 }

3-8 second delays
10 second duration
Use case: Test serverless initialization latency

gcPause

Garbage collection pauses:

await cruel.play('gcPause')
// { delay: [100, 500], spike: [500, 2000], duration: 15000 }

100-500ms base delay
500-2000ms occasional spikes
15 second duration
Use case: Test impact of GC pauses

connectionPool

Connection pool exhaustion:

await cruel.play('connectionPool')
// { fail: 0.3, timeout: 0.2, duration: 20000 }

30% failures, 20% timeouts
20 second duration
Use case: Test connection pool management

Creating Custom Scenarios

Simple Scenario
Complex Scenario
Infinite Scenario

import { cruel } from 'cruel'

cruel.scenario('maintenance-window', {
  chaos: {
    fail: 0.5,
    delay: [1000, 2000]
  },
  duration: 30000  // 30 seconds
})

await cruel.play('maintenance-window')

import { cruel } from 'cruel'

cruel.scenario('multi-region-failure', {
  chaos: {
    fail: 0.7,           // 70% failures
    timeout: 0.2,        // 20% timeouts
    delay: [2000, 5000], // 2-5s latency
    jitter: 1000,        // Extra variance
    spike: [5000, 10000] // Occasional huge delays
  },
  duration: 120000  // 2 minutes
})

await cruel.play('multi-region-failure')

import { cruel } from 'cruel'

// Scenario without duration runs indefinitely
cruel.scenario('manual-chaos', {
  chaos: { fail: 0.2, delay: 500 }
  // No duration - must call cruel.stop() manually
})

cruel.play('manual-chaos')  // Don't await

// Do your testing...
await runTests()

// Stop when done
cruel.stop()

Scenario Chains

Sequence scenarios to simulate complex incidents:

import { cruel } from 'cruel'

// Simulate incident lifecycle
async function simulateIncident() {
  console.log('Incident start: Network partition')
  await cruel.play('networkPartition')  // 5s total outage
  
  console.log('Partial recovery: Degraded service')
  await cruel.play('degraded')  // 30s degraded
  
  console.log('Recovering: Stabilizing')
  await cruel.play('recovery')  // 15s recovery
  
  console.log('Incident resolved')
}

await simulateIncident()

Using Scenarios in Tests

import { describe, it, expect, beforeEach, afterEach } from 'vitest'
import { cruel } from 'cruel'
import { fetchUserData } from './api'

describe('Resilience Tests', () => {
  beforeEach(() => {
    // Wrap functions before each test
    cruel(fetchUserData)
  })
  
  afterEach(() => {
    cruel.stop()
    cruel.reset()
  })
  
  it('handles network partition', async () => {
    await cruel.play('networkPartition')
    
    // Should use cached data during partition
    const result = await myApp.getUserData()
    expect(result).toBeTruthy()
    expect(result.source).toBe('cache')
  })
  
  it('recovers from degraded service', async () => {
    await cruel.play('degraded')
    
    // Should complete despite 10% failures
    const results = await Promise.allSettled(
      Array(100).fill(0).map(() => fetchUserData())
    )
    
    const successful = results.filter(r => r.status === 'fulfilled')
    expect(successful.length).toBeGreaterThan(80)
  })
})

Scenario Monitoring

Track scenario impact:

import { cruel } from 'cruel'

cruel.scenario('test-chaos', {
  chaos: { fail: 0.2, delay: [500, 1500] },
  duration: 30000
})

const before = cruel.stats()

await cruel.play('test-chaos')

const after = cruel.stats()

console.log('Scenario Impact:')
console.log(`Total calls: ${after.calls - before.calls}`)
console.log(`Failures: ${after.failures - before.failures}`)
console.log(`Avg latency: ${after.avg}ms`)
console.log(`p95 latency: ${after.p95}ms`)

Background Scenarios

Run scenarios without blocking:

import { cruel } from 'cruel'

// Start scenario in background (no await)
cruel.play('degraded')

// Continue with other operations
await runTests()
await collectMetrics()

// Scenario runs in parallel for 30 seconds
// Then stops automatically

Dynamic Scenarios

Create scenarios programmatically:

import { cruel } from 'cruel'

function createLoadScenario(load: 'low' | 'medium' | 'high') {
  const configs = {
    low: { fail: 0.05, delay: [100, 300] },
    medium: { fail: 0.15, delay: [300, 1000] },
    high: { fail: 0.3, delay: [1000, 3000] }
  }
  
  cruel.scenario(`load-${load}`, {
    chaos: configs[load],
    duration: 60000
  })
}

createLoadScenario('low')
createLoadScenario('medium')
createLoadScenario('high')

await cruel.play('load-high')

Best Practices

Test incrementally: Start with mild scenarios and progress to severe ones.

Document results: Record which scenarios your system can handle and which cause failures.

Automate: Run scenarios in CI/CD to catch resilience regressions.

Duration matters: Longer scenarios reveal issues that short bursts might miss.

Scenario Comparison

Scenario	Failure %	Timeout %	Max Delay	Duration	Severity
degraded	10%	0%	1.5s	30s	Low
mobileNetwork	20%	10%	2s	30s	Medium
datacenterFailover	50%	0%	0.8s	20s	Medium
ddosAttack	0%	40%	10s	30s	High
outage	100%	50%	-	60s	Critical
networkPartition	100%	0%	-	5s	Critical

Next Steps

Chaos Injection

Learn about the underlying chaos mechanics

Presets

Use pre-configured chaos profiles

Statistics

Track chaos impact with detailed metrics

Testing Guide

Integrate scenarios into your test suite

Documentation Index

​What are Scenarios?

​Basic Usage

​Scenario API

​cruel.scenario()

​cruel.play()

​cruel.stop()

​cruel.activeScenario()

​Built-in Scenarios

​networkPartition

​highLatency

​degraded

​outage

​recovery

​blackFriday

​mobileNetwork

​datacenterFailover

​ddosAttack

​coldStart

​gcPause

​connectionPool

​Creating Custom Scenarios

​Scenario Chains

​Using Scenarios in Tests

​Scenario Monitoring

​Background Scenarios

​Dynamic Scenarios

​Best Practices

​Scenario Comparison

​Next Steps

Chaos Injection

Presets

Statistics

Testing Guide

What are Scenarios?

Basic Usage

Scenario API

cruel.scenario()

cruel.play()

cruel.stop()

cruel.activeScenario()

Built-in Scenarios

networkPartition

highLatency

degraded

outage

recovery

blackFriday

mobileNetwork

datacenterFailover

ddosAttack

coldStart

gcPause

connectionPool

Creating Custom Scenarios

Scenario Chains

Using Scenarios in Tests

Scenario Monitoring

Background Scenarios

Dynamic Scenarios

Best Practices

Scenario Comparison

Next Steps