Ward

See the full documentation and feature set here.

A modern Python test framework designed to help you find and fix flaws faster.

Features

Descriptive test names: describe what your tests do using strings, not function names.

@test("1 + 2 gives 3")
def _():
    expect(1 + 2).equals(3)

Modular test dependencies: manage test setup/teardown code using fixtures that rely on Python's import system, not name matching.

@fixture
def user():
    return User(name="darren")
    
@test("the user is called darren")
def _(u=user):
    expect(u.name).equals("darren")

Fast, minimal overhead: roughly half the test run overhead of pytest.

Powerful test selection: limit your test run not only by matching test names/descriptions, but also on the code contained in the body of the test.

ward --search "Database.get_all_users"

Parameterised testing: write a test once, and call it multiple times with different inputs

@test("truncate('{text}', num_chars={num_chars}) returns '{expected}'")
def _(
    text=s,
    num_chars=each(20, 11, 10, 5),
    expected=each(s, s, "hello w...", "he..."),
):
    result = truncate(text, num_chars)
    expect(result).equals(expected)

Expect API: A simple but powerful assertion API inspired by Jest.

Cross platform: Tested on Mac OS, Linux, and Windows.

Zero config: Sensible defaults mean running ward with no arguments is enough to get started.

Colourful, human readable output: quickly pinpoint and fix issues with detailed output for failing tests.

This project is currently in beta.

Planned features:

• Smart test execution order designed to surface failures faster (using various heuristics)
• Multi-process mode to improve performance
• Highly configurable output modes
• Code coverage with --coverage flag
• Handling flaky tests with test-specific retries, timeouts
• Plugin system

Let me know if you'd like to help out with any of these features!

Getting Started

Take a look at the "Getting Started" tutorial.

How to Contribute

Contributions are very welcome and encouraged!

See the contributing guide for information on how you can take part in the development of Ward.

Contributors ✨

Thanks goes to these wonderful people (emoji key):

Darren Burns 💻 📖 🤔 👀 🐛 💡

khusrokarim 🤔 💻 🐛

Alec Jordan 💻

Jason C. McDonald 💻

This project follows the all-contributors specification. Contributions of any kind welcome!