Testing Ghost

Ghost has several test suites across the monorepo. Start with the suite closest to the behavior you changed, then run the broader checks before submitting your pull request.

Default Check

From the repository root, run:

bash

pnpm check

This is the default one-stop command for linting and testing. It runs pnpm lint followed by pnpm test across the monorepo.

pnpm check does not run the Playwright browser end-to-end suite or Ember Admin's test suite. Run those separately when your change affects those areas.

Choose a Test Suite

Put tests as close as possible to the code and behavior under test:

Unit tests cover a function, component, or package in isolation. Most workspaces use Vitest and expose a test or test:unit target.
Ghost Core integration tests cover interactions between server modules and live against a test database. They live in ghost/core/test/integration/.
Ghost Core server E2E tests exercise the server, frontend rendering, webhooks, and APIs against a running Ghost instance and test database. They live under ghost/core/test/e2e-*/. These are Vitest suites, not browser tests. See the Ghost Core E2E guide for the request agents, fixtures, mocks, and snapshot helpers.
App acceptance tests exercise an individual app through its UI. The framework and command vary by app, so use that workspace's test:acceptance target.
Browser E2E tests use Playwright to cover complete journeys across Ghost Admin and the public site. They live in e2e/. See Writing Browser E2E Tests for conventions and examples.
Ember Admin tests cover the legacy Ember application in apps/ember-admin/ and run through Ember Exam via Nx.

When a regression crosses several layers, prefer a focused test at the lowest layer that proves the fix. Add a broader acceptance or browser E2E test when the integration between layers is itself the behavior being protected.

For physical-device testing and URL configurations such as HTTPS, subdirectories, or a separate Admin origin, see Testing development URLs and devices.

Run Focused Tests

Nx can run a target for one workspace from the repository root:

bash

pnpm nx test <project-name>
pnpm nx test:unit <project-name>
pnpm nx test:acceptance <project-name>

Check the workspace's package.json or list its Nx targets when you are unsure which targets it provides:

bash

pnpm nx show project <project-name>

For Ghost Core, run its suites from ghost/core/:

bash

cd ghost/core

pnpm test:unit
pnpm test:integration
pnpm test:e2e
pnpm test:all

test:all runs Ghost Core's unit, integration, server E2E, and lint targets. To run one Ghost Core test file, use:

bash

pnpm test:single test/unit/path/to/test.test.js
pnpm test:single test/integration/path/to/test.test.js

Watch mode at the repository root covers unit tests across the workspace:

bash

pnpm test:watch

To watch a single database-backed Ghost Core file, point Vitest at the database configuration explicitly:

bash

cd ghost/core
pnpm exec vitest -c vitest.config.db.ts test/integration/path/to/test.test.js

Ghost Core's database-backed suites use SQLite by default locally. Tests for optional Redis and object-storage adapters skip when their services are not available; start the relevant development services when you need to exercise those adapters.

Run Browser E2E Tests

The browser suite needs its test infrastructure running. For the normal development flow, keep pnpm dev running in one terminal and run the suite from another:

bash

# Terminal 1, from the repository root
pnpm dev

# Terminal 2, from the repository root
pnpm test:e2e

Run a specific file or match a test title by passing Playwright arguments. For example, the first command runs the existing Admin sign-in test:

bash

pnpm test:e2e tests/admin/signin.test.ts
pnpm test:e2e --grep "publish a post"

Use pnpm test:e2e:debug for Ghost E2E debug logs. See the E2E workspace README for infrastructure modes, test isolation, fixtures, and debugging, and Writing Browser E2E Tests for test conventions, selectors, and Page Objects.

Run Ember Admin Tests

Always run Ember Admin tests through Nx so its dependency graph is built first:

bash

# From the repository root
pnpm nx run ghost-admin:test

For one file, pass the numeric parallel value required by the Ember Admin test script before the Ember Exam arguments:

bash

pnpm nx run ghost-admin:test -- 1 \
  --file-path=tests/acceptance/editor/publish-flow-test.js

Do not run ember test or ember exam directly from apps/ember-admin/. Doing so bypasses Nx's dependency builds and can leave required Admin and Koenig outputs missing.

Before Opening a Pull Request

Run pnpm check to ensure everything works. Also run the relevant browser E2E, app acceptance, or Ember Admin suite when your change affects those areas.

If a full suite is impractical locally, run the most relevant focused tests and state exactly what you ran in the pull request.