Configuration and environment variables

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This document describes the cypress.config.ts file used in the cypress-boilerplate, which defines the settings and behavior for running Cypress tests.

General configuration

  • watchForFileChanges: disables watching for file changes.
  • screenshotOnRunFailure: takes a screenshot when a test fails.
  • trashAssetsBeforeRuns: deletes screenshots and videos from previous runs.
  • chromeWebSecurity: disables web security, to allow cross-origin iframe testing.
  • video: disables video recording.
  • downloadsFolder: cypress/data/downloads.
  • fixturesFolder: cypress/fixtures.
  • screenshotsFolder: cypress/data/screenshots.
  • videosFolder: cypress/data/videos.
  • supportFolder: cypress/support.
  • experimentalModifyObstructiveThirdPartyCode: enables modification of third-party code that would otherwise obstruct testing.
  • experimentalMemoryManagement: enables experimental memory management.
  • pageLoadTimeout: 60000 ms.
  • viewportWidth: 1280.
  • viewportHeight: 800.

Reporter configuration

  • reporter: uses cypress-mochawesome-reporter.
  • reporterOptions:
    • charts: true.
    • reportTitle: mochawesome-report.
    • embeddedScreenshots: true.
    • inlineAssets: true.
    • saveAllAttempts: false.
    • reportDir: cypress/data/reports.
    • showSkipped: true.

For more information, see HTML reporter.

End-to-end testing configuration

  • supportFile: cypress/support/e2e.ts.
  • setupNodeEvents: registers the cypress-mochawesome-reporter plugin, registers the isFileExists task used to detect whether a spec ships its own fixture files, loads the environment variables, and resolves the store context.

Environment setup

The boilerplate supports the following environments: ci, local, testing, staging, and production. The default environment is local, and you can override it from the command line:

npx cypress open --env environment=staging

If you pass a name that is not in that list, Cypress fails at startup with an explicit error rather than falling back to a default.

Each environment has its own file in .envs/, named .envs/.env.[environment]. Create the file only for the environments you actually run against. The boilerplate ships .envs/.env.local and .envs/.env.ci; the ci environment is the one the pipeline uses:

npx cypress run --env environment=ci --headless --browser chrome

Loading environment variables

Cypress builds its environment in three steps, in this order:

  1. The global .env file: optional, in the project root. Loaded first, so it takes precedence over the environment-specific file. Use it for values that must not be committed.
  2. The environment-specific file: .envs/.env.[environment], if it exists. A variable is only applied if it was not already set in step 1.
  3. The store context: resolved from the shop, and applied last.

Variables from the global .env file always override variables from the environment-specific file. The store context overrides both—see the next section.

Variables you configure

These live in .envs/.env.[environment]:

Variable Purpose
STOREFRONT_URL Yves base URL
BACK_OFFICE_URL Back Office base URL
MP_URL Merchant Portal base URL
GLUE_URL Storefront API base URL; also used as baseUrl
GLUE_BACKEND_URL Backend API base URL; required for fixtures and the store context
DOCKER_CLI_URL CLI container endpoint, used when running inside docker/sdk
PROJECT_LOCATION Relative path from the Cypress working directory to the repository root, used by CLI-executing commands such as OMS transitions
DEFAULT_PASSWORD Password assigned to customers and users created as fixtures

Projects can add their own variables here. Any value referenced from a fixture file as `` must exist in the environment, or the spec fails with an explicit error.

Variables resolved from the shop

Do not configure these

Before any spec runs, cypress.config.ts calls the DynamicFixtures API—POST [GLUE_BACKEND_URL]/dynamic-fixtures with the getAllowedStore helper—and derives the store context from the shop itself. These values are applied after the environment files are loaded and overwrite any entry of the same name, so setting them in .envs/ has no effect.

Variable Derived from
STORE_NAME store.name
LOCALE_NAME store.default_locale_iso_code, for example, en_US
LOCALE_PREFIX Language part of the locale, lowercased, for example, en
CURRENCY_CODE store.default_currency_iso_code
COUNTRY_ISO2 store.countries[0]

Because these follow the shop, changing the project’s store set requires no edits to the test suite. If the shop has no store, or GLUE_BACKEND_URL is unreachable, Cypress fails at startup with an explicit message instead of running against the wrong data.

Base URL configuration

baseUrl is set to the value of the GLUE_URL environment variable. Set this variable if you are testing APIs.

Retries configuration

  • runMode: 2 retry attempts, used for cypress run.
  • openMode: 0 retry attempts, used for cypress open.

Environment variables configuration

  • DEFAULT_ENVIRONMENT: local.