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Configuring your Cypress 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 Cypress tests, simply modify the properties of the YAML file accordingly. This page defines each of the configuration properties specific to running Cypress tests.

danger

This saucectl configuration only works with Cypress 9 and below.

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 Cypress tests through saucectl is defined below.

apiVersion

| REQUIRED | STRING |

Identifies the version of the underlying configuration schema.

apiVersion: v1alpha
danger

The v1alpha configuration only works with Cypress 9 and below.


kind

| REQUIRED | STRING/ENUM |

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

kind: cypress

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).

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.

  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.

  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

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 everyone.
  • 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
caution

Since environment variables are provided to Cypress directly, avoid using CYPRESS_ as a prefix.


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

registry

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

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

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"
"@cypress/react": "^5.0.1"

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.


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

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: https://my-webhook-url

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/

notifications

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

Specifies how to set up automatic test result alerts.

notifications:
slack:
channels:
- "saucectl-results"
- "cypress-tests"
send: always

slack

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

Specifies the settings related to sending tests result notifications through Slack. See Slack Integration for information about integrating your Sauce Labs account with your Slack workspace.

  slack:
channels: "saucectl-cypress-tests"
send: always

channels

| OPTIONAL | STRING/ARRAY |

The set of Slack channels to which the test result notifications are to be sent.

  slack:
channels:
- "saucectl-results"
- "cypress-team"
send: always

send

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

Specifies when and under what circumstances to send notifications to specified Slack channels. Valid values are:

  • always: Send notifications for all test results.
  • never: Do not send any test result notifications.
  • pass: Send notifications for passing suites only.
  • fail: Send notifications for failed suites only.
  slack:
channels: "saucectl-cypress-tests"
send: always

cypress

| REQUIRED | OBJECT |

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

cypress:
version: 6.6.0
configFile: "cypress.json"

version

| REQUIRED | STRING |

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

  version: 8.6.0
tip

You can also define a path to your package.json. This will make saucectl use the same cypress 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.


configFile

| REQUIRED | STRING |

The designated cypress configuration file. saucectl determines related files based on the location of the config file. By default saucectl defers to the test file location defined in cypress.json.

  configFile: "cypress.json"

record

| OPTIONAL | BOOLEAN |

Determines whether to record your test results in the Cypress dashboard.

  record: true
key: $MY_SECRET_KEY

key

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

The secret key that grants permission to record your tests in the Cypress dashboard.

  record: true
key: $MY_SECRET_KEY

The record and key fields depend on the cypress "projectId" being set in your cypress.json file because the value of your projectId correlates directly with the value of the key field. See Cypress Project-ID Documentation for details about how to configure/retrieve the cypress projectId or Cypress Record-Key Documentation for details about configuring Record-Key parameters.

note

For additional information regarding cypress configurations, please consult the Cypress documentation.


reporters

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

The set of additional reporters to execute as part of your Cypress tests.

  reporters:
- name: cypress-mochawesome
options:
reportDir: __assets__/cypress/report
charts: true
reportPageTitle: Cypress running on Sauce
note

In order for your additional reporter to work, it must be compatible with the cypress-multi-reporter plugin, which provides the underlying functionality.


name

| REQUIRED | STRING |

The name of the reporter to enable, which corresponds to the reporter property in the cypres.json file.

      - name: cypress-mochawesome
note

Some reporters may require you to install dependencies.


options

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

Any relevant settings that are be supported by the specified reporter. These properties correspond to the reporterOptions object in the cypress.json file.

      options:
reportDir: __assets__/cypress/report
charts: true
reportPageTitle: Cypress running on Sauce

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"

browser

| REQUIRED | STRING |

The name of the browser in which to run this test suite. Available browser names: chrome, firefox, microsoftedge.

    browser: "chrome"

browserVersion

| OPTIONAL | STRING |

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

    browserVersion: "85.0"

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"

config

| OPTIONAL | OBJECT |

Provides details related to the Cypress test configuration that are relevant for this test suite.

  suites:
- name: "Hello"
browser: "firefox"
platformName: "Windows 10"
config:
env:
hello: world
testFiles: [ "**/*.spec.js" ]

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.

  config:
env:
hello: world
my_var: $MY_VAR
caution

Since environment variables are provided to Cypress directly, avoid using CYPRESS_ as a prefix.


testFiles

| REQUIRED | STRING/ARRAY/REGEX |

One or more paths to the Cypress test files to run for this suite, if not otherwise specified explicitly in cypress.json. Regex values are supported to indicate all files of a certain type or in a certain directory, etc.

      testFiles: [ "**/*.*" ]
note

testFiles must be a regex or a path relative to cypress/integration or the integrationFolder value set in cypress.json.


excludedTestFiles

| OPTIONAL | ARRAY/REGEX |

Excludes test files to skip the tests. Regex values are supported to indicate all files of a certain type or in a certain directory, etc.

      excludedTestFiles: [ "**/*.*" ]
note

excludedTestFiles must be a regex or a path relative to cypress/integration or the integrationFolder value set in cypress.json.


headless

| OPTIONAL | BOOLEAN |

Controls whether or not tests are run in headless mode.

suites:
- name: 'Hello'
headless: true

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

timeout

| OPTIONAL | DURATION |

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

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