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Configuring Your TestCafe Tests

saucectl relies on a YAML specification file to determine exactly which tests to run and how to run them. To customize saucectl to run your TestCafe tests, simply modify the properties of the YAML file accordingly. This page defines each of the configuration properties specific to running TestCafe tests.

Setting an Alternative Configuration File

By default, saucectl looks for the config.yml file in the .sauce folder of your project root, but you can actually specify a different file, or if you are using multiple frameworks or need to configure different sets of tests to run separately, you may choose to have multiple configuration files that you can direct saucectl to reference as necessary.

Use the following configuration at runtime to direct saucectl to use any configuration file you choose:

saucectl run -c ./path/to/{config-file}.yml
YAML Required

While you can use multiple files of different names or locations to specify your configurations, each file must be a *.yml and follow the saucectl syntax. Our IDE Integrations (e.g., Visual Studio Code) can help you out by validating the YAML files and provide handy suggestions, so make sure to check them out!

Example Configuration

.sauce/config.yml
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Each of the properties supported for running TestCafe tests through saucectl is defined below.

apiVersion

| REQUIRED | STRING |

Identifies the version of the underlying configuration schema. At this time, v1alpha is the only supported value.

apiVersion: v1alpha

kind

| REQUIRED | STRING/ENUM |

Specifies which framework is associated with the automation tests configured in this specification.

kind: testcafe

showConsoleLog

| OPTIONAL | BOOLEAN |

Controls whether the contents of console.log are always shown in the local output of saucectl. By default (false), console.log is only shown for failed suites.

showConsoleLog: true

defaults

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

Specifies any default settings for the project.

defaults:
timeout: 15m

timeout

| OPTIONAL | DURATION |

Instructs how long (in ms, s, m, or h) saucectl should wait for each suite to complete. You can override this setting for individual suites using the timeout setting within the suites object. If not set, the default value is 0 (unlimited).

  timeout: 15m

sauce

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

The parent property containing all settings related to how tests are run and identified in the Sauce Labs platform.

sauce:
region: eu-central-1
metadata:
tags:
- e2e
- release team
- other tag
build: Release $CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA
concurrency: 10

region

| OPTIONAL | STRING/ENUM |

Specifies through which Sauce Labs data center tests will run. Valid values are: us-west-1 or eu-central-1.

note

If you do not specify a region in your config file, you must set it when running your command with the --region flag.

  region: eu-central-1

metadata

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

The set of properties that allows you to provide additional information about your project that helps you distinguish it in the various environments in which it is used and reviewed, and also helps you apply filters to easily isolate tests based on metrics that are meaningful to you, as shown in the following example:

metadata:
build: RC 10.4.a
tags:
- e2e
- release team
- beta
- featurex

concurrency

| OPTIONAL | INTEGER |

Sets the maximum number of suites to execute at the same time. If the test defines more suites than the max, excess suites are queued and run in order as each suite completes.

caution

For tests running on Sauce, set this value to equal or less than your Sauce concurrency allowance, as setting a higher value may result in jobs dropped by the server.

  concurrency: 5

Alternatively, you can override the file setting at runtime by setting the concurrency flag as an inline parameter of the saucectl run command:

saucectl run --ccy 5

retries

| OPTIONAL | INTEGER |

Sets the number of times to retry a failed suite. For more settings, you can refer to passThreshold.

  retries: 1

Alternatively, you can override the file setting at runtime by setting the retries flag as an inline parameter of the saucectl run command:

saucectl run --retries 1

tunnel

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

saucectl supports using Sauce Connect to establish a secure connection with Sauce Labs. To do so, launch a tunnel; then provide the name and owner (if applicable) in this property.

sauce:
tunnel:
name: your_tunnel_name
owner: tunnel_owner_username
caution

Only certain HTTP(S) ports are proxied by the tunnel.


name

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

Identifies an active Sauce Connect tunnel to use for secure connectivity to the Sauce Labs cloud.

note

This property replaces the former id property, which is deprecated.

sauce:
tunnel:
name: your_tunnel_name

owner

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

Identifies the Sauce Labs user who created the specified tunnel, which is required if the user running the tests did not create the tunnel.

note

This property replaces the former parent property, which is deprecated.

sauce:
tunnel:
name: your_tunnel_name
owner: tunnel_owner_username

visibility

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

Sets the visibility level of test results for suites run on Sauce Labs. If unspecified or empty, team visibility will be applied. Valid values are:

  • public: Accessible to anyone.
  • public restricted: Share your job's results page and video, but keeps the logs only for you.
  • share: Only accessible to people with a valid link.
  • team: (Default) Only accessible to people under the same root account as you.
  • private: Only you (the owner) will be able to view assets and test results page.
sauce:
visibility: private

launchOrder

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

Specifies the execution order for your test suites. When set to fail rate, test suites with the highest failure rate will execute first. If unspecified, test suites will execute in the order in which they are written in the configuration file.

sauce:
launchOrder: fail rate

env

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

A property containing one or more environment variables that are global for all tests suites in this configuration. Values set in this global property will overwrite values set for the same environment variables set at the suite level.

  env:
hello: world
my_var: $MY_VAR # You can also pass through existing environment variables through parameter expansion
note

Environment variables set with the saucectl --env flag will overwrite those specified in the sauce config file.

The order of precedence is as follows: --env flag > root-level environment variables > suite-level environment variables.


rootDir

| REQUIRED | OBJECT |

The directory of files that need to be bundled and uploaded for the tests to run. Ignores what is specified in .sauceignore. See Tailoring Your Test File Bundle for more details. The following examples show the different relative options for setting this value.

  rootDir: "./" # Use the current directory
  rootDir: "packages/subpackage" # Some other package from within a monorepo
caution

Only the files contained within rootDir will be available during the tests. Any reference to a file that is not included in rootDir will make the tests fail.


npm

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

A parent property specifying the configuration details for any npm dependencies. Packages listed are installed in the environment prior to your tests executing.

npm:
registry: https://registry.npmjs.org
registries:
- url: https://registry.npmjs.org
packages:
lodash: "4.17.20"
"@babel/preset-typescript": "7.12"
"@testcafe/react": "^5.0.1"

registry

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

note

This setting is supported up to TestCafe 2.6.2. For newer versions, use registries.

Specifies the location of the npm registry source. If the registry source is a private address and you are running tests on Sauce Cloud, you can provide access to the registry source using Sauce Connect.

  registry: https://registry.npmjs.org

registries

| OPTIONAL | ARRAY |

Specifies the location of the npm registry, scope, and credentials. Only one scopeless registry is allowed. If the registry is inside a private network, you must establish a tunnel using Sauce Connect.

  registries:
- url: https://registry.npmjs.org
- url: https://private.registry.company.org
scope: "@company"
authToken: secretToken

url

Specifies the URL of the npm registry.

| REQUIRED | STRING |

    - url: https://registry.npmjs.org

scope

Specifies which scope is associated with this registry. See Associating a scope with a registry.

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

    - url: https://registry.npmjs.org
scope: "@company"

authToken

Specifies the authentication token to be used with this registry.

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

    - url: https://registry.npmjs.org
authToken: secretToken

packages

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

Specifies any npm packages that are required to run tests and should, therefore, be installed on the Sauce Labs VM. See Including Node Dependencies.

  packages:
lodash: "4.17.20"
"@babel/preset-typescript": "7.12"
"@testcafe/react": "^5.0.1"
caution

Do not use dependencies and packages at the same time.


dependencies

| OPTIONAL | ARRAY |

Specifies any npm packages that are required to run tests and should, therefore, be included in the bundle. Unlike packages, which installs dependencies on the VM, the dependencies specified here have to be already installed in the local node_modules folder. These dependencies, along with any related transitive dependencies, are then included in the bundle that is uploaded to Sauce Labs.

If you have already been including node_modules in your bundle, then this feature will help you speed up your tests by reducing the amount of files in the bundle. A smaller bundle will upload and extract faster, which speeds up the setup on the VM, facilitating a faster test feedback cycle.

Take note that the syntax is different from packages. It's a simple list of dependencies, without the need to specify the version.

npm:
dependencies:
- lodash

To use this feature, make sure that node_modules is not ignored via .sauceignore.

caution

This feature is highly experimental.

caution

Do not use dependencies and packages at the same time.


reporters

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

Configures additional reporting capabilities provided by saucectl.

reporters:
junit:
enabled: true
filename: saucectl-report.xml

junit

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

The JUnit reporter gathers JUnit reports from all jobs and combines them into a single report.

reporters:
junit:
enabled: true
filename: saucectl-report.xml

spotlight

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

The spotlight reporter highlights failed or otherwise interesting jobs. It may include an excerpt of failed tests or other information that may be useful for troubleshooting.

reporters:
spotlight:
enabled: true

json

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

The JSON reporter gathers test results from all jobs and combines them into a single report.

reporters:
json:
enabled: true
filename: saucectl-report.json
webhookURL: saucectl-report.json

enabled

| OPTIONAL | BOOLEAN |

Toggles the reporter on/off.

    enabled: true

webhookURL

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

Specifies the webhook URL. When saucectl test is finished, it'll send an HTTP POST with a JSON payload to the configured webhook URL.

    webhookURL: https://my-webhook-url

filename

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

Specifies the report filename. Defaults to "saucectl-report.json".

    filename: my-saucectl-report.json

artifacts

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

Specifies how to manage test artifacts, such as logs, videos, and screenshots.

artifacts:
cleanup: true
download:
when: always
match:
- junit.xml
directory: ./artifacts/

cleanup

| OPTIONAL | BOOLEAN |

When set to true, all contents of the specified download directory are cleared before any new artifacts from the current test are downloaded.

  cleanup: true

download

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

Specifies the settings related to downloading artifacts from tests run by saucectl.

  download:
when: always
match:
- junit.xml
directory: ./artifacts/

when

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

Specifies when and under what circumstances to download artifacts. Valid values are:

  • always: Always download artifacts.
  • never: Never download artifacts.
  • pass: Download artifacts for passing suites only.
  • fail: Download artifacts for failed suites only.
    when: always

match

| OPTIONAL | STRING/ARRAY |

Specifies which artifacts to download based on whether they match the name or file type pattern provided. Supports the wildcard character * (use quotes for best parsing results with wildcard).

  match:
- junit.xml
- "*.log"

directory

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

Specifies the path to the folder location in which to download artifacts. A separate subdirectory is generated in this location for each suite for which artifacts are downloaded. The name of the subdirectory will match the suite name. If a directory with the same name already exists, the new one will be suffixed by a serial number.

    directory: ./artifacts/

testcafe

| REQUIRED | OBJECT |

The parent property containing the details specific to the TestCafe project.

testcafe:
version: 3.0.1

version

| REQUIRED | STRING |

The version of TestCafe that is compatible with the tests defined in this file. See Supported Testing Platforms for the list of TestCafe versions supported by saucectl and their compatible test platforms.

  version: 3.0.1
tip

You can also define a path to your package.json. This will make saucectl use the same testcafe package version that's defined in your projects devDependencies or dependencies map.

The path to your package.json file will be relative to the rootDir of your configuration.


suites

| REQUIRED | OBJECT |

The set of properties providing details about the test suites to run. May contain multiple suite definitions. See the full example config for an illustration of multiple suite definitions.


name

| REQUIRED | STRING |

The name of the test suite, which will be reflected in the results and related artifacts.

  - name: "saucy test"

env

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

A property containing one or more environment variables that may be referenced in the tests for this suite. Expanded environment variables are supported. Values set here will be overwritten by values set in the global env property.

  env:
hello: world
my_var: $MY_VAR

browserName

| REQUIRED | STRING |

The name of the browser in which to run this test suite. Available browser names: chrome, firefox, microsoftedge(only for sauce mode) and safari(only for sauce mode on macOS or iOS simulators)

    browser: "firefox"

browserVersion

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

The version of the browser to use for this test suite.

    browserVersion: "85.0"

browserArgs

| OPTIONAL | ARRAY |

Pass flags to configure how TestCafe launches the selected browser. Review supported flags for Chrome/Chromium

    browserArgs: ["--no-sandbox", "--disable-features=site-per-process"]

headless

| OPTIONAL | BOOLEAN |

Determines whether to run the test suite in headless mode.

  headless: true

platformName

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

A specific operating system and version on which to run the specified browser and test suite. Defaults to a platform that is supported by saucectl for the chosen browser.

    platformName: "Windows 10"

screenResolution

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

Specifies a browser window screen resolution, which may be useful if you are attempting to simulate a browser on a particular device type. See Test Configurations for a list of available resolution values.

    screenResolution: "1920x1080"

shard

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

When sharding is configured, saucectl automatically splits the tests (e.g., by spec or concurrency) so that they can easily run in parallel. For sharding by concurrency, saucectl splits test files into several groups (the number of groups is determined by the concurrency setting). Each group will then run as an individual job.

Selectable values: spec to shard by spec file, concurrency to shard by concurrency. Remove this field or leave it empty "" for no sharding.

tip

To split tests in the most efficient way possible, use:

  • spec when the number of specs is less than the configured concurrency.
  • concurrency when the number of specs is larger than the configured concurrency.
suites:
- name: "I am sharded"
shard: spec
danger

When shard is enabled and filter is in effect, all specs that don't have any test matching the conditions will be failing.


src

| REQUIRED | OBJECT |

The explicit name, file glob, or location of the test files to be included in this suite.

  src:
- "tests/test_file1.test.js"
- "tests/integrations"
- "*/*.test.js"

excludedTestFiles

| OPTIONAL | ARRAY/REGEX |

Excludes test files to skip the tests. Files are matched by shell pattern, such as the explicit name, file glob, or location of the test files.

      excludedTestFiles: [ "*/*.test.js" ]

filter

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

Specify a set of criteria to limit which tests in the src directory to execute for the suite.

suites:
- name: Example Suite
filter:
test: browser-should-display-time
testGrep: browser.*
fixture: browswer-expectations
fixtureGrep: browser.*
testMeta:
region: us-west-1
fixtureMeta:
env: staging

test

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

Runs a test with the specified name.

filter:
test: browser-should-display-time

testGrep

| OPTIONAL | STRING/REGEX |

Runs tests whose names match the specified grep pattern.

filter:
testGrep: should-.*

fixture

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

Runs a test with the specified fixture name.

filter:
fixture: browswer-expectations

fixtureGrep

| OPTIONAL | STRING/REGEX |

Runs any tests included in fixtures whose names match the specified grep patterns.

filter:
fixtureGrep: browser-.*

testMeta

| OPTIONAL | KEY-VALUE |

Runs any tests whose metadata matches the specified key-value pairs. Accepts one or more key-value definitions. If multiple pairs are specified, matching tests must contain all of the specified metadata values.

filter:
testMeta:
region: us-west-1

fixtureMeta

| OPTIONAL | KEY-VALUE |

Runs any tests included in fixtures whose metadata matches the specified key-value pairs. Accepts one or more key-value definitions. If multiple pairs are specified, matching fixtures must contain all of the specified metadata values.

filter:
fixtureMeta:
env: staging

simulators

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

The property containing details about on which simulators the tests in this suite will run. This property can include multiple device definitions.

  simulators:
- name: iPhone 12 Simulator
platformName: iOS
platformVersions:
- "14.3"

screenshots

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

A parent property containing the details about whether and how to handle screenshots for this test suite. See Testcafe Documentation.

  screenshots:
takeOnFails: true
fullPage: true

disableScreenshots

| OPTIONAL | BOOLEAN |

Prevents TestCafe from taking screenshots. See TestCafe definition.

  disableScreenshots: true

speed

| OPTIONAL | FLOAT64 |

Allows you to alter the test execution speed for the test suite. Tests are run at the maximum speed by default, but you can slow the test down by setting a value between 1 (the fastest) and 0.01 (the slowest).

  speed: 0.1

tsConfigPath

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

This field has been deprecated as of TestCafe v1.10.0. See TestCafe Documentation. Please refer to compilerOptions.

The absolute or relative path to the TypeScript configuration file. Relative paths are resolved against the current directory (the directory from which you run TestCafe).

  tsConfigPath: /path/to/file

compilerOptions

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

Specifies test compilation settings. The current version of TestCafe can only configure the TypeScript compiler. See TestCafe Documentation.

  compilerOptions:
typescript:
configPath: /path/to/tsconfig.json
customCompilerModulePath: ../typescript@4
options:
showConfig: true

typescript

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

Specifies the TypeScript options.

    typescript:
configPath: /path/to/tsconfig.json
customCompilerModulePath: ../typescript@4
options:
showConfig: true

configPath

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

The absolute or relative path to the TypeScript configuration file. Relative paths are resolved against the current directory (the directory from which you run TestCafe).

    configPath: /path/to/tsconfig.json
note

We recommend that you avoid the use of special characters when naming your config file. It may prevent TestCafe tests from launching.


customCompilerModulePath

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

TestCafe ships with a typescript@3 compiler. This field is for compiling your tests with a different compiler.

    customCompilerModulePath: ../typescript@4
note

We recommend that you avoid the use of special characters when naming your config file. It may prevent TestCafe tests from launching.


options

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

Specifies the compiler options. See TypeScript documentation.

    options:
showConfig: true

clientScripts

| OPTIONAL | STRING/ARRAY |

A list of one or more filepath values for scripts to inject into all pages visited during the test. See TestCafe definition.

  clientScripts: ["/path/to/file1", "/path/to/file2"]

skipJsErrors

| OPTIONAL | BOOLEAN |

Determines whether to ignore JavaScript errors on a webpage. See TestCafe definition.

  skipJsErrors: true

quarantineMode

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

Determines whether to enable quarantine mode for tests that fail. See TestCafe definition.

  quarantineMode:
attemptLimit: 5
successThreshold: 3

attemptLimit

| OPTIONAL | INTEGER |

The maximum number of test execution attempts. See TestCafe definition.

  quarantineMode:
attemptLimit: 5

successThreshold

| OPTIONAL | INTEGER |

The number of successful attempts necessary to confirm a test’s success. See TestCafe definition.

  quarantineMode:
successThreshold: 3

skipUncaughtErrors

| OPTIONAL | BOOLEAN |

Determines whether to ignores uncaught errors and unhandled promise rejections in test code. See TestCafe definition.

  skipUncaughtErrors: true

selectorTimeout

| OPTIONAL | INTEGER |

Specifies the time (in milliseconds) within which selectors may attempt to return a node. See TestCafe definition.

  selectorTimeout: 1000

assertionTimeout

| OPTIONAL | INTEGER |

Specifies the time (in milliseconds) TestCafe may attempt to successfully execute an assertion if a selector property or a client function was passed as an actual value. See TestCafe definition.

  assertionTimeout: 1000

pageLoadTimeout

| OPTIONAL | INTEGER |

Specifies the time (in milliseconds) passed after the DOMContentLoaded event, within which TestCafe waits for the window.load event to fire. See TestCafe definition.

  pageLoadTimeout: 1000

ajaxRequestTimeout

| OPTIONAL | INTEGER |

Specifies wait time (in milliseconds) for fetch/XHR requests. If TestCafe receives no response within the specified period, it throws an error. See TestCafe definition.

  ajaxRequestTimeout: 40000

pageRequestTimeout

| OPTIONAL | INTEGER |

Specifies time (in milliseconds) to wait for HTML pages. If TestCafe does not receive a page within the specified period, it throws an error. See TestCafe definition.

  pageRequestTimeout: 8000

browserInitTimeout

| OPTIONAL | INTEGER |

Time (in milliseconds) for browsers to connect to TestCafe and report that they are ready to test. If one or more browsers fail to connect within the specified period, TestCafe throws an error. See TestCafe definition.

  browserInitTimeout: 180000

testExecutionTimeout

| OPTIONAL | INTEGER |

Maximum test execution time (in milliseconds). When the total execution time of a test exceeds this value, TestCafe terminates the test. This behavior occurs even if the browser is responsive. See TestCafe definition.

  testExecutionTimeout: 180000

runExecutionTimeout

| OPTIONAL | INTEGER |

Maximum test run execution time (in milliseconds). When the total execution time of a run exceeds this value, TestCafe terminates the test run. This behavior occurs even if one of the tests or hooks is active. See TestCafe definition.

  runExecutionTimeout: 180000

stopOnFirstFail

| OPTIONAL | BOOLEAN |

Determines whether to stop a test run if a test fails. See TestCafe definition.

  stopOnFirstFail: true

disablePageCaching

| OPTIONAL | BOOLEAN |

Determines whether to prevent the browser from caching page content. See TestCafe definition.

  disablePageCaching: true

timeout

| OPTIONAL | DURATION |

Instructs how long saucectl should wait for the suite to complete, overriding the default project timeout setting of 30 minutes.

When the suite reaches the timeout limit, its status is set to '?' in the CLI. This does not reflect the actual status of the job in the Sauce Labs web UI or API.

note

Setting 0 reverts to the value set in defaults.

  timeout: 15m

preExec

| OPTIONAL | STRING/ARRAY |

Specifies which commands needs to be executed before the tests are actually started. The commands are executed from the root directory of your project.

note

There is a 300-second limit for all preExec commands to complete.

  preExec:
- node ./scripts/pre-execution-script.js

timeZone

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

Allows you to set a custom time zone for your test based on a city name. Most major cities are supported.

  timeZone: New_York

passThreshold

| OPTIONAL | INTEGER |

Specifies the minimum number of successful attempts for a suite to be considered as passed. It should be used along with retries.

note

For example, setting retries to 3 and passThreshold to 2. The max attempt would be 4 times. If the test passed twice, it'd stop and be marked as passed. Otherwise, it'd be marked as failed.

sauce:
retries: 3
suite:
- name: My Saucy Test
passThreshold: 2

smartRetry

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

Specifies the retry strategy to apply for that suite. Requires retries to be >= 1.

sauce:
retries: 3
suite:
- name: My Saucy Test
smartRetry:
failedOnly: true

failedOnly

| OPTIONAL | BOOLEAN |

When set to true, only the tests that failed during the previous attempt are retried.

suite:
- name: My Saucy Test
smartRetry:
failedOnly: true