Adding Cypress to a Create React App app

cypress-cra.md

Here is how to add Cypress E2E tests to a Create React App bootstrapped application. Assumes the *nix command line, you may need to adapt this for a Windows command line (or use WSL or Git Bash).

1. Install Cypress and the Testing Library utilities for it (to match the helpers CRA installs):

   $ npm i {,@testing-library/}cypress

   i is short for install, and the braces {} are expanded by brace expansion to cypress @testing-library/cypress.

   CRA seems to install everything as a production dependency, but you can add --save-dev if you like.

2. Open the Cypress UI to bootstrap the test setup:

   $ npx cypress open --e2e

   NPX will use the executable in the node_modules/.bin/ directory, so you can use it for things you don't want to add to the package file.

3. Delete the example files:

   $ rm -rf ./cypress/fixtures/example.json

4. Set a base URL in the cypress.config.js per the best practices (I've also disabled automatic video recording):

   const { defineConfig } = require("cypress");
   
   module.exports = defineConfig({
     e2e: {
       baseUrl: "http://localhost:3000",
       setupNodeEvents(on, config) {
         // implement node event listeners here
       },
     },
     video: false,
   });

5. Set up the Testing Library utilities by adding the following to ./cypress/support/commands.js:

   import "@testing-library/cypress/add-commands";

6. Make sure you exclude any videos and screenshots recorded by Cypress from your commits by adding the following to .gitignore:

   # Cypress
   cypress/screenshots/
   cypress/videos/

7. Add a script that runs the E2E tests into the package file:

   "scripts": 
     "e2e": "cypress run",
     "start": "react-scripts start",
     "build": "react-scripts build",
     "test": "react-scripts test",
     "eject": "react-scripts eject"
   },

8. Create a new test file e.g. ./cypress/e2e/home.cy.js with the following:

   it("should load the page", () => {
     cy.visit("/");
     cy.findAllByText(/learn react/i).should("have.length", 1);
   });

   This is the same as the default src/App.test.js, but running via Cypress rather than Jest.

9. Start the app in one terminal (npm start) then run the tests in another (npm run e2e). It should pass!

10. Install the ESLint plugin with npm install eslint-plugin-cypress then add the following to the eslintConfig object in package.json:

      "overrides": [
        { 
          "extends": [
            "plugin:cypress/recommended"
          ],
          "files": [
            "cypress/**/*.js"
          ]
        }
      ]

    This is optional, but will ensure the linting passes (by adding the Cypress globals) and give some useful hints on good test practices.

new-cra-app.sh

#!/bin/bash

set -euo pipefail

if [[ $# -ne 1 ]]; then
  echo 'Usage: new-cra-app.sh <app-name>'
  exit 1
fi

echo 'Creating default React app'
npx create-react-app@latest "$1"

cd "$1"

echo 'Installing Cypress dependencies'
npm install \
  cypress \
  eslint-plugin-cypress \
  @testing-library/cypress

echo 'Opening Cypress, please exit the UI once it has loaded'
npx cypress open --e2e

echo 'Removing preinstalled examples'
rm -rf \
  cypress/fixtures/example.json

echo 'Updating Cypress configuration'
cat <<-EOF > cypress.config.js
	const { defineConfig } = require("cypress");
	
	module.exports = defineConfig({
	  e2e: {
	    baseUrl: "http://localhost:3000",
	    setupNodeEvents(on, config) {
	      // implement node event listeners here
	    },
	  },
	  video: false,
	});
EOF
echo "\nimport '@testing-library/cypress/add-commands';" >> cypress/support/commands.js

echo 'Creating basic E2E test'
mkdir cypress/e2e/
cat <<-EOF > cypress/e2e/home.cy.js
	it("should load the page", () => {
	  cy.visit("/");
	  cy.findAllByText(/learn react/i).should("have.length", 1);
	});
EOF

echo 'Ignoring Cypress test assets'
cat <<-EOF >> .gitignore
	
	# cypress
	cypress/screenshots/
	cypress/videos/
EOF

echo 'Setting NPM package configuration'
npm set-script e2e 'cypress run'
npm set-script lint 'eslint cypress/ src/'
cat package.json \
  | jq '.eslintConfig.overrides = [{"extends": ["plugin:cypress/recommended"], "files": ["cypress/**/*.js"]}]' \
  | tee package.json

echo 'Committing changes'
git add .
git commit -m 'Set up Cypress testing'

"videos": false in the cypress.json file should be "video": false (singular)

Thanks @jeroen-van-dijk
It was right in the script but not the description 🙄 - fixed now.

@textbook I have followed all the steps above but I could not get my e2e tests running for my react app.
When I run npm run e2e there is no output, the terminal just does not execute anything.
When I run npx cypress open --e2e the launch pad if opened but it does not load anything!
See attached screens for reference.
Thanks!

@joseph-luketelo I couldn't recreate the issue - I just ran the new-cra-app.sh script and (apart from a slight issue with adding Cypress Testing Library, which I've just fixed) everything worked as expected. I'm using macOS not Linux, maybe it's a platform-related problem. There could also be a problem with Cypress itself, see https://docs.cypress.io/guides/references/troubleshooting#Clear-Cypress-cache.