watch
Re-run tests automatically when feature or step files change.
Description
watch monitors the feature directory, step files, environment.py,
behave.ini, and pyproject.toml. When a change is detected, it re-runs
the test suite with the same filters you provided.
Usage
Options
| Flag | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
[FEATURES]... |
PATH | features |
Feature paths to watch and run. |
--tags -t |
TEXT | None | Filter by tags. |
--debounce |
INTEGER | 500 |
Debounce time in milliseconds. Must be >= 0. |
--pattern |
TEXT | None | Glob pattern to filter watched files. |
--profile |
TEXT | None | Load a configuration profile from pyproject.toml. |
--retries |
INTEGER | None | Number of retries for failed scenarios. |
--parallel -n |
INTEGER | None | Number of parallel processes. |
--format |
TEXT | None | Output format. |
--ui |
BOOLEAN | False |
Use behave-trace UI mode when available. |
--debug |
BOOLEAN | False |
Enable debug tracing. |
--trace |
BOOLEAN | False |
Enable trace viewer. |
--priority-order |
BOOLEAN | False |
Run scenarios in priority order. |
--fail-fast |
BOOLEAN | False |
Stop on first failure with priority. |
--scenario-timeout |
INTEGER | None | Per-scenario timeout in seconds. |
Examples
# Watch the default features directory
behave-runner watch
# Watch a specific directory with tag filter
behave-runner watch --tags @smoke features/
# Watch only .feature files matching a pattern
behave-runner watch --pattern "*.feature"
# Watch with UI mode
behave-runner watch --ui
Dependencies
The base watch command is included with behave-runner.
Optional flags need the corresponding extras:
behave-runner[parallel]for--parallelbehave-runner[priority]for--priority-orderand--fail-fastbehave-runner[retry]for--retriesbehave-runner[trace]for--ui,--debug,--trace