Parallel UI Tests (spaceTest + scoutSpace)

Use this when working under .../test/scout*/ui/parallel_tests/ or a parallel.playwright.config.ts.

Key rules

• Parallelism is file-level. Tests within one file still run sequentially.
• Use spaceTest (not test) so you can access scoutSpace.
• Tags are required: every spaceTest.describe(...) must include { tag: ... }.
• Each worker gets a dedicated Kibana space; the fixture creates and deletes it automatically.
• Pre-ingest shared Elasticsearch data before workers start (global setup hook). Avoid ingesting or cleaning shared indices inside individual parallel tests.

Minimal config + layout

• ui/parallel.playwright.config.ts: testDir: './parallel_tests', workers: 2..3, optional runGlobalSetup: true.
• ui/parallel_tests/global.setup.ts: define globalSetupHook(...) (runs once total).
• ui/parallel_tests/global.teardown.ts (optional): define globalTeardownHook(...) to reset cluster/Kibana state once after the suite. Picked up automatically when runGlobalSetup: true; no extra config flag.

Minimal pattern

import { spaceTest, tags } from '@kbn/scout'; // or the module's Scout package
import { expect } from '@kbn/scout/ui'; // or '@kbn/scout-oblt/ui', etc.

spaceTest.describe('my feature', { tag: tags.deploymentAgnostic }, () => {
  spaceTest.beforeAll(async ({ scoutSpace }) => {
    // Worker-scoped setup in the isolated space.
    await scoutSpace.savedObjects.cleanStandardList();
  });

  spaceTest.afterAll(async ({ scoutSpace }) => {
    await scoutSpace.savedObjects.cleanStandardList();
  });

  spaceTest('does something', async ({ browserAuth, pageObjects, page }) => {
    await browserAuth.loginAsViewer();
    await pageObjects.somePage.goto();
    await expect(page.testSubj.locator('someElement')).toBeVisible();
  });
});

Global setup hook gotchas

• Global setup runs once total (executed by the first worker); other workers wait for it to finish.
• Only worker-scoped fixtures are available (for example esArchiver, apiServices, kbnClient, esClient, log).
• No page, browserAuth, or pageObjects in global.setup.ts.

Global teardown hook (optional)

Use globalTeardownHook in parallel_tests/global.teardown.ts to reset Kibana/cluster state once after all workers finish — runs even if tests failed. Same fixture surface as setup, except esArchiver is intentionally not exposed.

import { globalTeardownHook } from '@kbn/scout'; // or '@kbn/scout-oblt' / '@kbn/scout-security'

globalTeardownHook('Reset shared Kibana state', async ({ esClient, kbnClient, apiServices, log }) => {
  log.info('[teardown] resetting shared state');

  // Drop hand-indexed data ingested by global.setup.ts that affects other Scout configs
  // sharing this cluster (Scout's esArchiver intentionally has no unload — see cautions)
  await esClient.indices.delete({ index: 'apm-8.0.0-*', ignore_unavailable: true });
  await esClient.indices.deleteDataStream({ name: 'logs-my_dataset-*' }).catch(() => {});

  // Revert any uiSettings / advanced settings the suite set globally
  await kbnClient.uiSettings.unset('discover:searchOnPageLoad');
  await kbnClient.uiSettings.updateGlobal({ hideAnnouncements: false });

  // Revert feature-flag overrides flipped via apiServices.core.settings(...)
  await apiServices.core.settings({ 'feature_flags.overrides': { 'discover.isEsqlDefault': 'false' } });

  // Saved-object cleanup the suite created cluster-wide (per-space cleanup belongs in afterAll)
  await kbnClient.savedObjects.cleanStandardList();
});

Cautions:

• No esArchiver on the teardown surface — by design. Scout's esArchiver fixture only ever exposed loadIfNeeded; archive-driven unloading was never supported because it's slow and adds nothing — leftover indexes in the cluster don't break tests when setup uses idempotent loadIfNeeded. For state that does need resetting, use esClient.indices.delete / deleteDataStream / deleteByQuery directly.
• Don't reload data here — teardown is for resetting state, not for setting up new data. If you need fresh data on every run, do it in globalSetupHook (which is idempotent via esArchiver.loadIfNeeded).
• Per-test/per-suite cleanup still belongs in afterEach/afterAll — the global teardown is for state shared across the whole suite (or leaked into the cluster from setup) that other configs running in the same Kibana/ES would otherwise inherit.
• Available fixtures: log, config, kbnUrl, esClient, kbnClient, apiServices (plus the same lazy samlAuth/isSnapshotBuild from coreWorkerFixtures). No page/browserAuth/pageObjects and no esArchiver.
• Optional, opt-in by file presence: just add parallel_tests/global.teardown.ts calling globalTeardownHook(...). No new config flag — runGlobalSetup: true is enough.