Recently, I was looking for a way to run all my cypress tests in parallel in GitHub actions. All my tests were running sequentially and it was taking too long.
So, here is what I did to solve that problem.
🔠 Basics
By default, all jobs run in parallel in GitHub Actions unless you put the need
statement and make one job dependent on the other. But, if you need to run all tasks of a job in parallel then you need to use matrix
feature of GitHub action.
Matrix
allows you to run a set of variable values and each combination of those values will result in a different job or step that runs in parallel.
For example,
jobs:
build:
strategy:
matrix:
os: [ubuntu-latest, windows-latest, macOS-latest]
node-version: [10.x, 12.x, 14.x]
This would create 9 separate jobs, one for each combination of OS. More information in the Github Action Docs.
⚙️ Creating Parallel Jobs for Each Cypress Test
We need to create a matrix for each spec of Cypress tests so all tests run in parallel. Here, each spec represents all the tests contained in one file.
1️⃣ Create a JS File to Locate All Cypress Specs.
This file is later used in the .github/workflows
folder. I created this file inside the cypress/support
folder. But, you can choose to put this in the root or anywhere you like.
- file name:
locateCypressSpecsToRun.js
const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');
const getAllFiles = (dirPath, arrayOfFiles = []) => {
const files = fs.readdirSync(dirPath, { withFileTypes: true });
files.forEach((file) => {
if (file.isDirectory()) {
arrayOfFiles = getAllFiles(`${dirPath}/${file.name}`, arrayOfFiles);
} else {
arrayOfFiles.push(`${path.join(dirPath, '/', file.name)}`);
}
});
return arrayOfFiles;
};
const specs = getAllFiles('cypress/e2e');
process.stdout.write(`${JSON.stringify(specs)}\n`);
Pleaes note: You can't use
.ts
file extension here even if you are using typescript for your cypress because we need to run this file directly with node.
Inside the
getAllFiles()
I have putcypress/e2e
path where all my tests are located. Modify this as needed.If you run this file with the command
node locateCypressSpecsToRun.js
you should see,
//pretty version
specs = [
'cypress/e2e/test1.cy.ts',
'cypress/e2e/test2.cy.ts',
'cypress/e2e/test3.cy.ts',
'cypress/e2e/test4.cy.ts',
'cypress/e2e/test5.cy.ts',
];
2️⃣ Building the Matrix
After creating the strings of spec locations, it’s time to build a cypress matrix. The cypress matrix needs to be inside the job in yaml
file.
jobs:
build-cypress-matrix:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: checkout code
uses: actions/checkout@v3
- id: set-matrix
run: echo "specs=$(node cypress/support/locateCypressSpecsToRun.js)" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
outputs:
specs: ${{ steps.set-matrix.outputs.specs }}
-
Explaining:
run
andspecs
-
run: echo "specs=$(node cypress/support/locateCypressSpecsToRun.js)" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
:This line uses the run key to specify a shell command to run. In this case, the command is
echo
followed by a string that runs a Node.js script located incypress/support/locateCypressSpecsToRun.js
. The output of the script is captured by surrounding the command with$()
and stored in a shell variable called specs. The>>
operator appends the output of the command to a file called,$GITHUB_OUTPUT
which is a predefined environment variable in GitHub Actions that captures the output of a step.
You can read more about$GITHUB_OUTPUT
here. -
outputs
:specs: ${{ steps.set-matrix.outputs.specs }}
This line uses the outputs key to define an output for the step called set-matrix. The output is called specs, and its value is set to the value of the specs variable that was set in the run command using the
${{ steps.set-matrix.outputs.specs }}
syntax. This allows subsequent steps in the workflow to access the value of the specs variable.
To simplify, we are assigningspecs: specs
.
-
3️⃣ Make Matrix Required for Other Jobs.
Make sure build-cypress-matrix
job is completed before you run your tests. So, use Action’s needs
statement. For example, you can do something like this.
regression:
needs: [notify-slack-on-start, build-cypress-matrix]
# rest of the code ......
In this case, notify-slack-on-start
is also required to run the regression
job
4️⃣ Define Matrix
Inside the job you want to run in parallel, add your pre-built cypress test matrix. See the last specs:
line.
regression:
needs: [notify-slack-on-start, build-cypress-matrix]
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
strategy:
fail-fast: false
max-parallel: 64
matrix:
config:
[
{
type: 'desktop',
config: 'viewportWidth=1920,viewportHeight=1080',
},
]
browser: [chrome, firefox, edge, safari]
specs: ${{ fromJson(needs.build-cypress-matrix.outputs.specs) }}
-
In this case, I have three matrix defined.
-
browser
: All the browsers I want test - One for
config
: the size of the browser -
finally
specs
:-
fromJson
: This function converts a JSON string to an object, read more about this github action function here. It is used to convert the output from thebuild-cypress-matrix
job into an object. -
needs
: This function is used to indicate that the current job depends on the output from another job. In this case, it is used to indicate that the regression job needs the output from thebuild-cypress-matrix
job.
So,
${{fromJson(needs.build-cypress-matrix.outputs.specs).specs}}
is first getting the output of thebuild-cypress-matrix
job usingneeds
. ThefromJson
function then converts this output from a JSON string to an object, which has a property calledspecs
that contains the list of Cypress spec files to run. Finally, thespecs
property is extracted from the object and used as the value for thespecs
field in thematrix
strategy for theregression
job. -
-
5️⃣ Use The Matrix
Finally, use the spec matrix just like you would for browsers or operating systems.
- name: My Awesome Cypress Tests
uses: cypress-io/github-action@v5
with:
browser: ${{ matrix.browser }}
config: ${{ matrix.config.config }}
spec: ${{ matrix.specs }}
💡Example
This is what a complete workflow could look like.
# sample document.
name: Testing Parallel Runs
on:
workflow_dispatch:
env:
SLACK_WEBHOOK: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL_CYPRESS }}
SLACK_ICON: https://github.githubassets.com/images/modules/site/features/actions-icon-actions.svg
SLACK_CHANNEL: cypress-notifications
jobs:
notify-slack-on-start:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: rtCamp/action-slack-notify@v2.0.2
name: notify slack on run start
env:
SLACK_TITLE: My Awesome Cypress Tests
SLACK_COLOR: good
SLACK_MESSAGE: 'Automation has started :white_check_mark:'
build-cypress-matrix:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: checkout code
uses: actions/checkout@v3
- id: set-matrix
run: echo "specs=$(node cypress/support/locateCypressSpecsToRun.js)" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
outputs:
specs: ${{ steps.set-matrix.outputs.specs }}
regression:
needs: [notify-slack-on-start, build-cypress-matrix]
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
strategy:
fail-fast: false
max-parallel: 64
matrix:
config:
[
{
type: 'desktop',
config: 'viewportWidth=1920,viewportHeight=1080',
},
]
browser: [chrome]
specs: ${{ fromJson(needs.build-cypress-matrix.outputs.specs) }}
env:
NPM_TOKEN: ${{secrets.NPM_TOKEN}}
CYPRESS_PASSWORD: ${{secrets.CYPRESS_PASSWORD}}
CYPRESS_configFile: prod
# add other env as necessary
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v3
- name: copy npmtoken to npmrc
run: cp .npmtoken .npmrc
# this step is only necessary if you are using private npm packages and need to provide .npmrc to github runner.
- name: My Awesome Cypress Tests
uses: cypress-io/github-action@v5
with:
browser: ${{ matrix.browser }}
config: ${{ matrix.config.config }}
spec: ${{ matrix.specs }}
- name: Generate report
if: failure()
uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
with:
name: Failed on ${{matrix.browser}}-${{matrix.config.type}}
path: |
cypress/report/*
cypress/screenshots/*
cypress/videos/*
- uses: rtCamp/action-slack-notify@v2.0.2
name: notify slack on failure
if: failure()
env:
SLACK_TITLE: Test(s) failed while running on ${{matrix.config.type}}
SLACK_COLOR: danger
SLACK_MESSAGE: ':failed: :computer-rage: Automation Failure on Prod! <${{ github.server_url }}/${{ github.repository }}/actions/runs/${{ github.run_id }}>'
notify-slack-on-completion:
needs: regression
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: rtCamp/action-slack-notify@v2.0.2
name: notify slack on run completion
env:
SLACK_TITLE: My Awesome Cypress Tests
SLACK_COLOR: good
SLACK_MESSAGE: ':pass: :white_check_mark: Automation Successful on Prod! <${{ github.server_url }}/${{ github.repository }}/actions/runs/${{ github.run_id }}>'
🏆 Conclusion
Finally, I want to share that this pattern can be used for any framework like Puppeteer, Jest, and others. The main benefit of this approach is that you don't have to pay for parallel running ability if it is behind the paywall. Also, it helps reduce the time you need to wait for all the jobs to complete.
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