Bootstrap your TestCafe project with create-testcafe

The TestCafe Setup Wizard is similar to tools such as create-react-app or create-next-app. Use create-testcafe to initialize a new TestCafe project or add TestCafe tests to an existing Node.js project.

npx create-testcafe <project-path> [options]

• Basics
• Specify project location
• Add TestCafe tests to an existing project
• Create a project from scratch
• Options
• Alternative Launch Commands

Basics

If you use npm, execute the following command to launch create-testcafe:

npx create-testcafe

Read the alternative commands section for information on yarn, pnpm, and npm init workflows.

The create-testcafe tool allows you to perform the following actions with a single command:

1. Create a new folder for the TestCafe project (optional).
2. Create a new local installation of TestCafe and its dependencies.
3. Create and initialize a TestCafe configuration file.
4. Create a separate subfolder for tests.
5. Populate the test folder with test examples (optional).
6. Create a YAML file with a GitLab Actions workflow that runs TestCafe tests (optional).

Specify project location

The following command initializes a TestCafe project in the current working directory:

npx create-testcafe

To select an alternative project location, specify the path. If the folder does not exist, TestCafe creates it.

npx create-testcafe /folder/path/

Add TestCafe tests to an existing project

If you use the create-testcafe command to add TestCafe tests to an existing Node.js project, TestCafe displays an interactive wizard that allows you to specify project settings:

Run the following command to disable the interactive wizard:

npx create-testcafe -w false

Create a project from scratch

If you use the create-testcafe tool to create a new Node.js project, the tool generates a TestCafe project with default settings:

npx create-testcafe project-name

Add the -w flag to change project settings interactively:

npx create-testcafe -w

Alternatively, specify settings with command line options:

npx create-testcafe app --template typescript

Options

The create-testcafe tool accepts the following options:

--template

The template option determines the programming language for TestCafe tests.

• Select the javascript template if you want to use JavaScript.
• Select the typescript template if you want to use TypeScript.

Possible values: javascript, typesctipt

Default value: javascript unless the project directory includes a tsconfig.json file.

Example

npx create-testcafe --template typescript

--test-folder

The --test-folder option specifies the relative path to the test subfolder.

Possible values: all valid relative paths

Default value: tests

Example

npx create-testcafe --test-folder tests/functional

--include-sample-tests

If you enable the --include-sample-tests option, the create-testcafe tool adds sample tests to the project’s test folder.

Type: Boolean

Default value: true

Example

npx create-testcafe --include-sample-tests false

--github-actions-init

If you enable the --github-actions-init option, the create-testcafe tool adds a YAML file with a simple GitHub Actions workflow to the project folder.

Type: Boolean

Default value: true

Example

npx create-testcafe --github-actions-init false

Alternative Launch Commands

yarn

Execute the following command to launch create-testcafe:

yarn create testcafe

pnpm

Execute the following command to launch create-testcafe:

pnpm create testcafe

npm init

You can launch create-testcafe with npm init:

npm init testcafe@latest