Cypress: run only one test

Question

to run only one file

cypress run --spec path/to/file.spec.js

or using glob patterns:

cypress run --spec 'path/to/files/*.spec.js'

Note: you need to wrap your glob patterns in single quotes to avoid shell expansion!

to run only one test in a file

You can use a .only as described in the Cypress docs

it.only('only run this one', () => {
  // similarly use it.skip(...) to skip a test
})

it('not this one', () => {
})

Also, you can do the same with describe and context blocks

edit:

there's also a nice VSCode extension to make adding/removing .only's easier with keyboard shortcuts. It's called Test Utils (install with ext install chrisbreiding.test-utils). It works with js, coffee, and typescript:

There are multiple ways of achieving this.

1. You can add .onlyto it or describe see @bkucera answer
2. You can do it from the terminal as explained in the doc here

    npx cypress run --record --spec "cypress/integration/my-spec.js"
   
    npm run cypress -- --record --spec "cypress/integration/my-spec.js"
   

You can mute not needed test suites and particular cases by prepending x to testrunner methods call (describe, it, etc.)

So it would look like:

// this whole testsuite will be muted
xdescribe('Visit google', () => { 
  it('should visit google', () => { cy.visit('https://google.com/'); });
});

// this testsuite will run
describe('Visit youtube', () => {
  it('should visit youtube', () => { cy.visit('https://youtube.com/'); });

  // this testcase will be muted
  xit('is not necessary', () => { ... });
});

You can run the test like this.

cypress run --spec **/file.js

There is one way I have found to skip tests which I don't need to run (in the current test), and that is to use: this.skip();

it('test page', function () {
    // skip this test for now
    this.skip();
    cy.visit('http://example.com/')
    cy.contains('test page').click()
    cy.url()
        .should('include', '/test-page/')
})

1. it is important to use regular function as second argument of it, this will not be available in arrow function
2. Whole of the test will be skipped no matter where we write this.skip()