How do I run a single test in cypress picking it by name?

When using Cypress for testing, you may sometimes want to create or debug a specific test case. Cypress offers several methods to run a single test case. Here are the specific methods:

Using the .only Method

You can mark a test case with .only so that Cypress runs only that specific test case. This works for both it and describe blocks.

For example, if you have multiple test cases:

javascript
describe('User Login Flow', () => {
  it('should correctly navigate to the login page', () => {
    // ...
  });

  it.only('should allow users to log in successfully', () => {
    // Only this test case will be run
  });

  it('should display an error message when users enter incorrect credentials', () => {
    // ...
  });
});

In the above example, only the test case marked with it.only ("should allow users to log in successfully") will be run.

Using Command-Line Flags

Another approach is to use the --spec command-line flag when running Cypress tests, which allows you to specify a particular test file to run.

sh
cypress run --spec "cypress/integration/login_spec.js"

However, if you want to run a specific test case within a file, Cypress does not currently support specifying a single test case directly via the command line. You need to combine .only with the --spec flag.

Important Notes

• When using .only, remember to remove it after testing is complete, as committing code with .only will cause tests in the CI environment to run incomplete due to ignoring other test cases.
• In Cypress's graphical interface, you can also click on the name of a single test case to run only that one.

Combining these methods allows you to focus more efficiently on a single test case during development or debugging.