Before you start to run tests, you need to build the project first:
pnpm build
We recommend running the tests in a specific directory pattern.
For example, running one test in the production test suite:
Running tests in the test/e2e/app-dir/app
test suite in production mode (next build
and next start
):
pnpm test-start test/e2e/app-dir/app/
Running tests in the test/e2e/app-dir/app
test suite in development mode (next dev
):
pnpm test-dev test/e2e/app-dir/app/
When the test runs, it will open the browser in the background by default, you won't see the browser window.
When you want to debug a particular test you can replace
pnpm test-start
with pnpm testonly-start
to see the browser window open.
pnpm testonly-start test/e2e/app-dir/app/
End-to-end (e2e) tests are run in complete isolation from the repository.
When you run an test/e2e
, test/production
, or test/development
tests,
a local version of Next.js will be created inside your system's temp folder (e.g. /tmp),
which is then linked to an isolated version of the application.
A server is started on a random port, against which the tests will run.
After all tests have finished, the server is destroyed and all remaining files are deleted from the temp folder.
All of this logic is handled by nextTestSetup
automatically.
You can set up a new test using pnpm new-test
which will start from a template related to the test type.
- e2e: Runs against
next dev
,next start
, and deployed to Vercel. - development: Runs against
next dev
. - production: Runs against
next start
. - integration: Historical location of tests. Runs misc checks and modes. Ideally, we don't add new test suites here anymore as these tests are not isolated from the monorepo.
- unit: Very fast tests that should run without a browser or run
next
and should be testing a specific utility.
For the e2e, development, and production tests the nextTestSetup
utility should be used.
An example is available here.
This creates an isolated Next.js installation
to ensure nothing in the monorepo is relied on accidentally causing incorrect tests.
pnpm new-test
automatically uses nextTestSetup
All new test suites should be written in TypeScript either .ts
(or .tsx
for unit tests).
This will help ensure we catch smaller issues in tests that could cause flaky or incorrect tests.
If a test suite already exists that relates closely to the item being tested (e.g., hash navigation relates to existing navigation test suites), the new checks can be added to the existing test suite.
- When checking for a condition that might take time,
ensure it is waited for either using the browser
waitForElement
or using thecheck
util innext-test-utils
. - When applying a fix, ensure the test fails without the fix. This makes sure the test will properly catch regressions.
Some test-specific environment variables can be used to help debug isolated tests better,
these can be leveraged by prefixing the pnpm test
command.
- When investigating failures in isolated tests you can use
NEXT_TEST_SKIP_CLEANUP=1
to prevent deleting the temp folder created for the test, then you can runpnpm next
while inside the temp folder to debug the fully set-up test project. - You can also use
NEXT_SKIP_ISOLATE=1
if the test doesn't need to be installed to debug, and it will run inside the Next.js repo instead of the temp directory, this can also reduce test times locally but is not compatible with all tests. - The
NEXT_TEST_MODE
env variable allows toggling specific test modes for thee2e
folder, it can be used when not usingpnpm test-dev
orpnpm test-start
directly. Valid test modes can be seen here: https://github.com/vercel/next.js/blob/aa664868c102ddc5adc618415162d124503ad12e/test/lib/e2e-utils.ts#L46 - You can use
NEXT_TEST_PREFER_OFFLINE=1
while testing to configure the package manager to include the--prefer-offline
argument during test setup. This is helpful when running tests in internet-restricted environments such as planes or public Wi-Fi.
When tests are run in CI and a test failure occurs,
we attempt to capture traces of the playwright run to make debugging the failure easier.
A test-trace artifact should be uploaded after the workflow completes which can be downloaded, unzipped,
and then inspected with pnpm playwright show-trace ./path/to/trace
Add NEXT_TEST_TRACE=1
to enable test profiling. It's useful for improving our testing infrastructure.
Using Replay.io you can record and time-travel debug the browser.
- Clear all local replays using
pnpm replay rm-all
- Run the test locally using the
RECORD_REPLAY=1
environment variables. (e.g.RECORD_REPLAY=1 pnpm test-dev test/e2e/app-dir/app/index.test.ts
) - Upload all the replays to your workspace using your API key:
RECORD_REPLAY_API_KEY=addkeyhere pnpm replay upload-all
- Check the uploaded replays in your workspace, while uploading it provides the URLs.
To run the test suite using Turbopack, you can use the TURBOPACK=1
environment variable:
TURBOPACK=1 pnpm test-dev test/e2e/app-dir/app/