packages/twenty-docs/developers/extend/apps/operations/testing.mdx
The SDK provides programmatic APIs that let you build, deploy, install, and uninstall your app from test code. Combined with Vitest and the typed API clients, you can write integration tests that verify your app works end-to-end against a real Twenty server.
You can install and use any npm package in your app. Both logic functions and front components are bundled with esbuild, which inlines all dependencies into the output — no node_modules are needed at runtime.
yarn add axios
Then import it in your code:
import { defineLogicFunction } from 'twenty-sdk/define';
import axios from 'axios';
const handler = async (): Promise<any> => {
const { data } = await axios.get('https://api.example.com/data');
return { data };
};
export default defineLogicFunction({
universalIdentifier: '...',
name: 'fetch-data',
description: 'Fetches data from an external API',
timeoutSeconds: 10,
handler,
});
The same works for front components:
import { defineFrontComponent } from 'twenty-sdk/define';
import { format } from 'date-fns';
const DateWidget = () => {
return <p>Today is {format(new Date(), 'MMMM do, yyyy')}</p>;
};
export default defineFrontComponent({
universalIdentifier: '...',
name: 'date-widget',
component: DateWidget,
});
The build step uses esbuild to produce a single self-contained file per logic function and per front component. All imported packages are inlined into the bundle.
Logic functions run in a Node.js environment. Node built-in modules (fs, path, crypto, http, etc.) are available and do not need to be installed.
Front components run in a Web Worker. Node built-in modules are not available — only browser APIs and npm packages that work in a browser environment.
Both environments have twenty-client-sdk/core and twenty-client-sdk/metadata available as pre-provided modules — these are not bundled but resolved at runtime by the server.
The scaffolded app already includes Vitest. If you set it up manually, install the dependencies:
yarn add -D vitest vite-tsconfig-paths
Create a vitest.config.ts at the root of your app:
import tsconfigPaths from 'vite-tsconfig-paths';
import { defineConfig } from 'vitest/config';
export default defineConfig({
plugins: [
tsconfigPaths({
projects: ['tsconfig.spec.json'],
ignoreConfigErrors: true,
}),
],
test: {
testTimeout: 120_000,
hookTimeout: 120_000,
include: ['src/**/*.integration-test.ts'],
setupFiles: ['src/__tests__/setup-test.ts'],
env: {
TWENTY_API_URL: 'http://localhost:2020',
TWENTY_API_KEY: 'your-api-key',
},
},
});
Create a setup file that verifies the server is reachable before tests run:
import * as fs from 'fs';
import * as os from 'os';
import * as path from 'path';
import { beforeAll } from 'vitest';
const TWENTY_API_URL = process.env.TWENTY_API_URL ?? 'http://localhost:2020';
const TEST_CONFIG_DIR = path.join(os.tmpdir(), '.twenty-sdk-test');
beforeAll(async () => {
// Verify the server is running
const response = await fetch(`${TWENTY_API_URL}/healthz`);
if (!response.ok) {
throw new Error(
`Twenty server is not reachable at ${TWENTY_API_URL}. ` +
'Start the server before running integration tests.',
);
}
// Write a temporary config for the SDK
fs.mkdirSync(TEST_CONFIG_DIR, { recursive: true });
fs.writeFileSync(
path.join(TEST_CONFIG_DIR, 'config.json'),
JSON.stringify({
remotes: {
local: {
apiUrl: process.env.TWENTY_API_URL,
apiKey: process.env.TWENTY_API_KEY,
},
},
defaultRemote: 'local',
}, null, 2),
);
});
The twenty-sdk/cli subpath exports functions you can call directly from test code:
| Function | Description |
|---|---|
appBuild | Build the app and optionally pack a tarball |
appDeploy | Upload a tarball to the server |
appInstall | Install the app on the active workspace |
appUninstall | Uninstall the app from the active workspace |
Each function returns a result object with success: boolean and either data or error.
Here is a full example that builds, deploys, and installs the app, then verifies it appears in the workspace:
import { APPLICATION_UNIVERSAL_IDENTIFIER } from 'src/application-config';
import { appBuild, appDeploy, appInstall, appUninstall } from 'twenty-sdk/cli';
import { MetadataApiClient } from 'twenty-client-sdk/metadata';
import { afterAll, beforeAll, describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
const APP_PATH = process.cwd();
describe('App installation', () => {
beforeAll(async () => {
const buildResult = await appBuild({
appPath: APP_PATH,
tarball: true,
onProgress: (message: string) => console.log(`[build] ${message}`),
});
if (!buildResult.success) {
throw new Error(`Build failed: ${buildResult.error?.message}`);
}
const deployResult = await appDeploy({
tarballPath: buildResult.data.tarballPath!,
onProgress: (message: string) => console.log(`[deploy] ${message}`),
});
if (!deployResult.success) {
throw new Error(`Deploy failed: ${deployResult.error?.message}`);
}
const installResult = await appInstall({ appPath: APP_PATH });
if (!installResult.success) {
throw new Error(`Install failed: ${installResult.error?.message}`);
}
});
afterAll(async () => {
await appUninstall({ appPath: APP_PATH });
});
it('should find the installed app in the workspace', async () => {
const metadataClient = new MetadataApiClient();
const result = await metadataClient.query({
findManyApplications: {
id: true,
name: true,
universalIdentifier: true,
},
});
const installedApp = result.findManyApplications.find(
(app: { universalIdentifier: string }) =>
app.universalIdentifier === APPLICATION_UNIVERSAL_IDENTIFIER,
);
expect(installedApp).toBeDefined();
});
});
Make sure your local Twenty server is running, then:
yarn test
Or in watch mode during development:
yarn test:watch
You can also run type checking on your app without running tests:
yarn twenty typecheck
This runs tsc --noEmit and reports any type errors.
The scaffolder generates a ready-to-use GitHub Actions workflow at .github/workflows/ci.yml. It runs your integration tests automatically on every push to main and on pull requests.
The workflow:
twentyhq/twenty/.github/actions/spawn-twenty-docker-image actionyarn install --immutableyarn test with TWENTY_API_URL and TWENTY_API_KEY injected from the action outputsname: CI
on:
push:
branches:
- main
pull_request: {}
env:
TWENTY_VERSION: latest
jobs:
test:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Spawn Twenty instance
id: twenty
uses: twentyhq/twenty/.github/actions/spawn-twenty-docker-image@main
with:
twenty-version: ${{ env.TWENTY_VERSION }}
github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
- name: Enable Corepack
run: corepack enable
- name: Setup Node.js
uses: actions/setup-node@v4
with:
node-version-file: '.nvmrc'
cache: 'yarn'
- name: Install dependencies
run: yarn install --immutable
- name: Run integration tests
run: yarn test
env:
TWENTY_API_URL: ${{ steps.twenty.outputs.server-url }}
TWENTY_API_KEY: ${{ steps.twenty.outputs.access-token }}
You don't need to configure any secrets — the spawn-twenty-docker-image action starts an ephemeral Twenty server directly in the runner and outputs the connection details. The GITHUB_TOKEN secret is provided automatically by GitHub.
To pin a specific Twenty version instead of latest, change the TWENTY_VERSION environment variable at the top of the workflow.