Unified Test Runner (run-e2e.sh)

::: tip Overlay Documentation This page covers writing tests within rhdh-plugin-export-overlays. For using @red-hat-developer-hub/e2e-test-utils in external projects, see the Guide. :::

The run-e2e.sh script orchestrates E2E test execution across multiple workspaces. It handles workspace discovery, dependency installation, Playwright configuration generation, and parallel test execution.

Usage

# Run all workspace tests
./run-e2e.sh

# List discovered projects (dry run)
./run-e2e.sh --list

# Run specific workspaces
./run-e2e.sh -w tech-radar
./run-e2e.sh -w backstage -w quickstart

# Control parallelism
./run-e2e.sh --workers=4

# Run specific project
./run-e2e.sh --project=acr

# Filter tests by name
./run-e2e.sh --grep="Quick"

# Combine flags
./run-e2e.sh -w backstage --workers=2

# List projects in a workspace
./run-e2e.sh -w backstage --list

# Use a local build of e2e-test-utils
E2E_TEST_UTILS_PATH=/path/to/rhdh-e2e-test-utils ./run-e2e.sh -w tech-radar

# Pin a specific npm version of e2e-test-utils
E2E_TEST_UTILS_VERSION=1.1.30 ./run-e2e.sh -w tech-radar

Workspace Selection

Use the -w or --workspace flag to filter which workspaces to test. Without this flag, all workspaces with E2E tests are included.

A workspace is discovered when it has a workspaces/<name>/e2e-tests/ directory containing both package.json and playwright.config.ts.

# Single workspace
./run-e2e.sh -w tech-radar

# Multiple workspaces
./run-e2e.sh -w tech-radar -w keycloak -w github-actions

Environment Variables

RHDH Deployment

Variable	Description	Default
`RHDH_VERSION`	RHDH version to deploy (e.g., `1.10`, `next`)	`1.10`
`INSTALLATION_METHOD`	Deployment method: `helm` or `operator`	`helm`
`SKIP_KEYCLOAK_DEPLOYMENT`	Set `true` to skip Keycloak deployment	-
`CATALOG_INDEX_IMAGE`	Override the default catalog index image baked into the RHDH chart	-

Test Framework

Variable	Description	Default
`CI`	Enables CI mode (forbidOnly, namespace teardown)	`true`
`PLAYWRIGHT_VERSION`	Pin `@playwright/test` version	`1.59.1`
`E2E_TEST_UTILS_PATH`	Absolute path to a local `e2e-test-utils` build (for testing unpublished changes)	-
`E2E_TEST_UTILS_VERSION`	Pin `@red-hat-developer-hub/e2e-test-utils` npm version	`latest` (nightly), empty otherwise

Plugin Resolution

Variable	Description	Default
`E2E_NIGHTLY_MODE`	When `true`, uses released OCI images from metadata; defaults `E2E_TEST_UTILS_VERSION` to `latest`	`false`
`GIT_PR_NUMBER`	PR number for OCI URL generation (uses PR-built images)	-
`JOB_NAME`	CI job name; if contains `periodic-`, disables metadata injection. Also used to auto-derive skip tags.	-

Skip Tags

When JOB_NAME is set (by OpenShift CI), the script auto-derives a Playwright tag and injects --grep-invert to exclude tests tagged with it. This lets test authors skip specific tests in specific CI jobs using standard Playwright tags.

How It Works

The job suffix is extracted from JOB_NAME by stripping everything up to and including -e2e-. A negative lookahead (?!-) is appended so each tag matches exactly — @skip-ocp-helm won't accidentally filter @skip-ocp-helm-nightly:

JOB_NAME (suffix shown)	`--grep-invert` pattern
`...-e2e-ocp-helm`	`@skip-ocp-helm(?!-)`
`...-e2e-ocp-helm-nightly`	`@skip-ocp-helm-nightly(?!-)`
`...-e2e-ocp-operator`	`@skip-ocp-operator(?!-)`
`...-e2e-ocp-operator-nightly`	`@skip-ocp-operator-nightly(?!-)`

If JOB_NAME doesn't contain -e2e-, no tag is derived and no filtering is applied.

Tagging Tests

Add Playwright tags to test.describe or individual test calls:

// Skip only in ocp-helm-nightly job
test.describe("My Plugin", { tag: "@skip-ocp-helm-nightly" }, () => { ... });

// Skip only in ocp-helm PR check job (won't affect nightly)
test("expensive test", { tag: "@skip-ocp-helm" }, async () => { ... });

// Multiple tags — skip in both helm and operator nightly
test.describe("Suite", {
  tag: ["@skip-ocp-helm-nightly", "@skip-ocp-operator-nightly"],
}, () => { ... });

From a Workspace Directory

Skip tags work the same way when running tests from a workspace — pass --grep-invert manually:

cd workspaces/tech-radar/e2e-tests
yarn test -- --grep-invert "@skip-ocp-helm"

::: info Precedence The auto-derived --grep-invert is prepended to the Playwright arguments. If you also pass --grep-invert on the command line, Playwright uses the last value (last wins), so your manual flag takes precedence. :::

How It Works

The script performs these steps in order:

1. Validate Prerequisites

Checks for node, yarn, jq, and verifies cluster login (oc whoami). Cluster login is skipped for --list mode.

2. Discover Workspaces

Scans workspaces/*/e2e-tests/ for directories containing both package.json and playwright.config.ts. Applies -w filter if provided.

3. Generate Root `package.json`

Creates a root package.json with:

Yarn workspaces pointing to selected workspaces/*/e2e-tests directories
Resolutions to pin @playwright/test and optionally @red-hat-developer-hub/e2e-test-utils

{
  "workspaces": ["workspaces/tech-radar/e2e-tests", "workspaces/keycloak/e2e-tests"],
  "resolutions": {
    "@playwright/test": "1.59.1",
    "@red-hat-developer-hub/e2e-test-utils": "1.1.30"
  }
}

4. Install Dependencies

Cleans all node_modules and yarn.lock to ensure fresh resolution, then runs yarn install.

5. Generate Root `playwright.config.ts`

Extracts projects: [...] blocks from each workspace's playwright.config.ts using sed text processing. Injects testDir into each project pointing to the workspace's tests/ directory.

::: info Why sed Instead of Import? Importing workspace configs would execute their top-level code (e.g., dotenv.config(), process.env mutations), which can pollute the environment for other workspaces. Text extraction avoids this. :::

The generated config imports baseConfig from the test utils package, which provides reporters, timeouts, video/screenshot/trace settings, and global setup.

6. Run Tests

Runs npx playwright test with any additional arguments passed through. All arguments not recognized as -w/--workspace are forwarded directly to Playwright.

7. Display Summary

Parses playwright-report/results.json and displays:

Duration, passed/failed/flaky/skipped counts
Overall status (PASSED/FAILED)
Report file location

Version Pinning

There are two ways to control which version of @red-hat-developer-hub/e2e-test-utils is used:

Local Build (Development)

Use E2E_TEST_UTILS_PATH to point to a local checkout. The script builds it before installing:

E2E_TEST_UTILS_PATH=/home/user/rhdh-e2e-test-utils ./run-e2e.sh -w tech-radar

Specific npm Version

Use E2E_TEST_UTILS_VERSION to pin a published version:

E2E_TEST_UTILS_VERSION=1.1.30 ./run-e2e.sh -w tech-radar

::: info Nightly Default When E2E_NIGHTLY_MODE=true, E2E_TEST_UTILS_VERSION defaults to latest to pick up the most recent published version. This ensures nightly runs always use the latest test utilities. :::

Priority

E2E_TEST_UTILS_PATH takes precedence over E2E_TEST_UTILS_VERSION. If neither is set, the version declared in each workspace's package.json is used (after resolution).

List Mode

Use --list to preview discovered test projects without running them:

./run-e2e.sh --list
./run-e2e.sh -w backstage --list

This generates a lightweight config that skips globalSetup and teardown reporters, so no cluster connection is needed.

Playwright Arguments

All arguments not recognized as -w/--workspace are forwarded directly to Playwright:

# Control workers
./run-e2e.sh --workers=1

# Run specific project
./run-e2e.sh --project=tech-radar

# Filter by test name
./run-e2e.sh --grep="catalog"

# Combine multiple flags
./run-e2e.sh -w backstage --workers=2 --retries=1 --project=backstage-kubernetes

Generated Files

The script generates these temporary files in the repository root:

File	Purpose
`package.json`	Root workspace config with resolutions
`.yarnrc.yml`	Yarn node-modules linker config
`playwright.config.ts`	Combined Playwright config with all workspace projects
`playwright.list.config.ts`	Lightweight config for `--list` mode (when used)

These files are generated fresh on each run.

Path Resolution

Running tests from the repo root changes the working directory relative to each workspace. The package handles this transparently:

WorkspacePaths resolves all config file paths (app-config, secrets, dynamic-plugins, metadata) from Playwright's test.info().project.testDir — an absolute path — instead of process.cwd(). This works correctly regardless of where the process was launched.
Worker fixture sets process.chdir() to the workspace's e2e-tests/ directory when the test worker starts, so relative paths in shell scripts and fs calls also resolve correctly.

No changes to test code are needed. The same spec files work both with yarn test from the workspace and ./run-e2e.sh from the repo root. See Path Resolution for details.

Design Decisions

Why Single Root Playwright (Not Per-Workspace Parallel)

Two strategies were evaluated for running all workspace tests in CI:

	Single root Playwright	Per-workspace shell parallel
Parallelism	Worker-level — Playwright auto-balances across all projects	Workspace-level — a large workspace bottlenecks while small ones sit idle
Keycloak	`globalSetup` runs once, no races	Multiple processes deploy simultaneously, causing races
Reporting	Single report with traces/screenshots/videos	Blob merge step needed, adds a failure point
Dependency validation	Yarn resolutions validates upgrades across all workspaces in one run	No way to test a dependency upgrade across all workspaces at once
CLI	Standard Playwright flags work (`--project`, `--grep`, `--shard`)	Flags must be forwarded per-process

The single root approach requires WorkspacePaths to resolve config paths correctly, but this change is backward-compatible and benefits all execution modes.

Why Yarn Workspaces Is Required

Playwright errors out if @playwright/test is loaded from more than one file path in a process. With separate node_modules per workspace, each workspace resolves the package from a different path. Yarn workspaces hoists all dependencies to a single root node_modules, ensuring one copy. This is the primary reason yarn workspaces is used — not just for convenience.

::: info No Impact on Existing Workflows Nothing is committed to the repo. package.json, playwright.config.ts, and .yarnrc.yml are generated at runtime. Workspace yarn.lock files are bypassed (fresh resolution at root), which is fine for nightly — PR checks still use --immutable per workspace. Fresh resolution in nightly actually catches dependency regressions early. :::

Running Tests Locally - Individual workspace testing
CI/CD Pipeline - How run-e2e.sh is used in OpenShift CI
Environment Variables - All supported variables
Package.json Scripts - Workspace-level test scripts

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Unified Test Runner (run-e2e.sh)

Usage

Workspace Selection

Environment Variables

RHDH Deployment

Test Framework

Plugin Resolution

Skip Tags

How It Works

Tagging Tests

From a Workspace Directory

How It Works

1. Validate Prerequisites

2. Discover Workspaces

3. Generate Root `package.json`

4. Install Dependencies

5. Generate Root `playwright.config.ts`

6. Run Tests

7. Display Summary

Version Pinning

Local Build (Development)

Specific npm Version

Priority

List Mode

Playwright Arguments

Generated Files

Path Resolution

Design Decisions

Why Single Root Playwright (Not Per-Workspace Parallel)

Why Yarn Workspaces Is Required

Related Pages

FilesExpand file tree

run-e2e.md

Latest commit

History

run-e2e.md

File metadata and controls

Unified Test Runner (run-e2e.sh)

Usage

Workspace Selection

Environment Variables

RHDH Deployment

Test Framework

Plugin Resolution

Skip Tags

How It Works

Tagging Tests

From a Workspace Directory

How It Works

1. Validate Prerequisites

2. Discover Workspaces

3. Generate Root package.json

4. Install Dependencies

5. Generate Root playwright.config.ts

6. Run Tests

7. Display Summary

Version Pinning

Local Build (Development)

Specific npm Version

Priority

List Mode

Playwright Arguments

Generated Files

Path Resolution

Design Decisions

Why Single Root Playwright (Not Per-Workspace Parallel)

Why Yarn Workspaces Is Required

Related Pages

3. Generate Root `package.json`

5. Generate Root `playwright.config.ts`