Getting Started

WARNING

This guide lists advanced APIs to run tests via a Node.js script. If you just want to run tests, you probably don't need this. It is primarily used by library authors.

You can import any method from the vitest/node entry-point.

startVitest

function startVitest(
  mode: VitestRunMode,
  cliFilters: string[] = [],
  options: CliOptions = {},
  viteOverrides?: ViteUserConfig,
  vitestOptions?: VitestOptions,
): Promise<Vitest>

You can start running Vitest tests using its Node API:

import { startVitest } from 'vitest/node'

const vitest = await startVitest('test')

await vitest.close()

startVitest function returns Vitest instance if tests can be started.

If watch mode is not enabled, Vitest will call close method automatically.

If watch mode is enabled and the terminal supports TTY, Vitest will register console shortcuts.

You can pass down a list of filters as a second argument. Vitest will run only tests that contain at least one of the passed-down strings in their file path.

Additionally, you can use the third argument to pass in CLI arguments, which will override any test config options. Alternatively, you can pass in the complete Vite config as the fourth argument, which will take precedence over any other user-defined options.

After running the tests, you can get the results from the state.getTestModules API:

import type { TestModule } from 'vitest/node'

const vitest = await startVitest('test')

console.log(vitest.state.getTestModules()) // [TestModule]

TIP

The "Running Tests" guide has a usage example.

createVitest

function createVitest(
  mode: VitestRunMode,
  options: UserConfig,
  viteOverrides: ViteUserConfig = {},
  vitestOptions: VitestOptions = {},
): Promise<Vitest>

You can create Vitest instance by using createVitest function. It returns the same Vitest instance as startVitest, but it doesn't start tests and doesn't validate installed packages.

import { createVitest } from 'vitest/node'

const vitest = await createVitest('test', {
  watch: false,
})

TIP

The "Running Tests" guide has a usage example.

resolveConfig

function resolveConfig(
  options: UserConfig = {},
  viteOverrides: ViteUserConfig = {},
): Promise<{
  vitestConfig: ResolvedConfig
  viteConfig: ResolvedViteConfig
}>

This method resolves the config with custom parameters. If no parameters are given, the root will be process.cwd().

import { resolveConfig } from 'vitest/node'

// vitestConfig only has resolved "test" properties
const { vitestConfig, viteConfig } = await resolveConfig({
  mode: 'custom',
  configFile: false,
  resolve: {
    conditions: ['custom']
  },
  test: {
    setupFiles: ['/my-setup-file.js'],
    pool: 'threads',
  },
})

INFO

Due to how Vite's createServer works, Vitest has to resolve the config during the plugin's configResolve hook. Therefore, this method is not actually used internally and is exposed exclusively as a public API.

If you pass down the config to the startVitest or createVitest APIs, Vitest will still resolve the config again.

WARNING

The resolveConfig doesn't resolve the workspace. To resolve workspace configs, Vitest needs an established Vite server.

Also note that viteConfig.test will not be fully resolved. If you need Vitest config, use vitestConfig instead.

parseCLI

function parseCLI(argv: string | string[], config: CliParseOptions = {}): {
  filter: string[]
  options: CliOptions
}

You can use this method to parse CLI arguments. It accepts a string (where arguments are split by a single space) or a strings array of CLI arguments in the same format that Vitest CLI uses. It returns a filter and options that you can later pass down to createVitest or startVitest methods.

import { parseCLI } from 'vitest/node'

const result = parseCLI('vitest ./files.ts --coverage --browser=chrome')

result.options
// {
//   coverage: { enabled: true },
//   browser: { name: 'chrome', enabled: true }
// }

result.filter
// ['./files.ts']