Testing

The project uses Jest for unit tests, Supertest for HTTP end-to-end tests, and Testcontainers support for isolated PostgreSQL workflows.

Unit tests

Run the serial unit suite:

pnpm test

The explicit alias is:

pnpm test:unit

Watch mode and coverage:

pnpm test:watch
pnpm test:cov

Tests matching *.e2e-spec.ts are excluded from the default unit configuration.

End-to-end tests

E2E tests use their own Jest configuration:

pnpm test:e2e

They exercise the NestJS application, HTTP contracts, authentication, authorization, persistence, and OpenAPI behavior.

Use a disposable database. The test data source prefers .env.test:

NODE_ENV=test
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:postgres@127.0.0.1:5432/nestjs_test
DATABASE_SSL=false
LOG_LEVEL=error

Never point E2E tests at development, staging, or production data. Ensure the database name, port, username, and password match the test PostgreSQL instance.

Apply migrations before running tests against a manually managed database:

NODE_ENV=test pnpm migration:run
pnpm test:e2e

Static checks

pnpm lint
pnpm typecheck
pnpm format:check

Automatic fixes modify files:

pnpm lint:fix
pnpm format

Always inspect the resulting diff.

Production build

pnpm build

The Nest CLI builds the api application with webpack. A successful type check does not replace a production build, and a successful build does not replace tests.

CI workflow

GitHub Actions runs on pull requests and pushes to main. The verification job:

1. Starts PostgreSQL 17.
2. Installs the lockfile dependencies with Node.js 24 and pnpm.
3. Checks formatting.
4. Runs ESLint.
5. Runs TypeScript checks.
6. Applies test migrations.
7. Runs coverage tests.
8. Runs E2E tests.
9. Builds the API.
10. Audits production dependencies at high severity.

The workflow cancels older runs for the same branch or pull request.

Before opening a change

Run:

pnpm format:check
pnpm lint
pnpm typecheck
pnpm test
pnpm test:e2e
pnpm build

Also verify:

• New schema behavior has a reviewed migration.
• Trust-boundary validation is represented in DTOs.
• New endpoints include OpenAPI metadata and expected error responses.
• Authentication and permission requirements are covered by E2E tests.
• Logs and errors do not expose secrets, raw tokens, or passwords.

See Database and Migrations for safe test database handling.