Parallelism [scout-parallelism]

Scout supports parallel execution using Playwright workers. Parallel runs are usually faster, but they require good isolation and predictable setup.

::::::{note} Parallelism happens at the file level: Playwright runs test files in parallel workers. Tests in the same file still run in order. ::::::

How it works [scout-parallelism-how]

• All workers share the same Kibana + Elasticsearch deployment.
• Each worker gets an isolated Kibana space via the scoutSpace fixture (used with spaceTest).
• The space is cleaned up when the worker finishes.

When to use parallel vs sequential [scout-parallelism-differences]

• Parallel: UI suites that can share pre-ingested data and isolate state per space.
• Sequential: suites that require a “clean” cluster state or need global mutations that aren’t space-scoped.

Enable parallel UI suites [enable-parallel-tests]

:::::::::::{stepper}

::::::::::{step} Create a parallel config

Add a config that points at a parallel_tests/ directory and sets workers:

import { createPlaywrightConfig } from '@kbn/scout';

export default createPlaywrightConfig({
  testDir: './parallel_tests',
  workers: 2,
  runGlobalSetup: true,
});

::::::::::

::::::::::{step} Pre-ingest shared data (recommended)

Use a global setup hook to load shared data once before workers start.

::::::::::

::::::::::{step} Use spaceTest (creates one Space per worker) or test (all workers use the default Space)

Use spaceTest to access scoutSpace (Scout will use a dedicated Space for each single parallel worker) or simply use test (Scout will reuse the default space for all workers):

import { spaceTest, tags } from '@kbn/scout';

spaceTest.describe('My parallel suite', { tag: tags.deploymentAgnostic }, () => {
  spaceTest.beforeAll(async ({ scoutSpace }) => {
    // space-scoped setup (saved objects, ui settings, ...)
  });

  spaceTest('does something', async ({ pageObjects, browserAuth }) => {
    await browserAuth.loginAsViewer();
    // ...
  });
});

::::::::::

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API tests and parallelism [api-tests-and-parallelism]

API tests can run in parallel workers (set workers > 1 in your API Playwright config), but Scout does not provide Space-per-worker isolation for API tests. All parallel workers will reuse the same (default) Space.

If you run API tests in parallel, isolate state yourself:

• Use unique resource names per worker (for example include workerInfo.parallelIndex in index/role/object names)
• Avoid global mutations (cluster-wide settings, shared indices) unless the suite is fully isolated
• Clean up in afterAll / afterEach

Parallel best practices [scout-parallelism-best-practices]

• Load shared ES data once (global setup) and avoid mutating it in tests.
• Clean up space-scoped changes (saved objects / UI settings) in afterAll.
• If a suite can’t be isolated, keep it sequential.