Improve Cypress Testing Time: Automated Chrome DevTools Opening

📌 Description

Discover how to enhance your Cypress automation workflow by enabling Chrome DevTools by default. Learn about common inefficiencies in test writing, how this setup mitigates them, key considerations, and additional features you can add to optimise your Cypress test automation.

🏁 Introduction

Even though Cypress is a powerful automated testing tool, developers often face inefficiencies that slow down the debugging and development process. One common pain point is manually opening Chrome DevTools every time a test runs. What if DevTools opened automatically whenever a test started?

In this blog, we’ll explore how to configure Cypress to auto-open Chrome DevTools, how it enhances productivity, what to watch out for, and additional features that can further improve your Cypress test automation workflow.

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⚠️ Common Inefficiencies When Writing Cypress Tests

Now that we’ve identified the problem, let’s discuss the typical inefficiencies encountered while writing Cypress tests:

• ⏳ Time-consuming debugging — Manually opening DevTools and reproducing a failing test repeatedly can be frustrating.
• 🔎 Missing console logs & network requests — Developers often forget to check network activity or console errors until issues arise.
• ❌ Poor error analysis — DevTools are essential for troubleshooting JavaScript errors and API responses, but they are often overlooked.
• 🔄 Frequent browser relaunches — Restarting the browser multiple times to view different logs prolongs the debugging cycle unnecessarily.

⚡ Benefits of Auto-Opening DevTools for More Productivity

By enabling DevTools automatically, you can:

• 🚀 Eliminate context switching — No need to manually open DevTools for debugging.
• 🖥️ Live debugging — View console errors, network requests, and logs while tests run.
• ⏩ Faster debugging — Quickly detect failed assertions, UI changes, and API response errors.
• 📊 Immediate insights — Access test artifacts (cookies, local storage, console logs, etc.) instantly.

🔧 How to Auto-Open DevTools in Cypress

To enable auto-opening DevTools in Cypress, modify your cypress.config.ts file as follows:

import { defineConfig } from "cypress";

export default defineConfig({
  e2e: {
    setupNodeEvents(on, config) {
      on("before:browser:launch", (browser, launchOptions) => {
        if (browser.name === "chrome") {
          launchOptions.args.push("--auto-open-devtools-for-tabs");
          return launchOptions;
        }
      });
    },
  },
});

This ensures that Chrome DevTools automatically opens every time you run your tests.

🔍 Things to Consider While Using This Configuration

While this setting is useful, keep the following in mind:

• 🖥️ Chrome only — Other browsers (Firefox, Edge, etc.) do not support this flag.
• 🐌 Potential performance impact — Tests might run slightly slower with DevTools open.
• 🤖 Limited CI/CD usage — Best used locally; consider disabling it in CI/CD to conserve resources.
• 📝 Console log clutter — Large test suites may generate excessive logs, making it harder to filter relevant ones.

🛠️ More Cypress Config Features for Enhanced Performance

📽️ Enable Video Recording

export default defineConfig({
  e2e: {
    video: true, // Record test execution videos
  },
});

✅ Helps analyze failed tests post-execution.

📸 Take Screenshots on Test Failures

export default defineConfig({
  e2e: {
    screenshotOnRunFailure: true, // Capture screenshots of failed tests
  },
});

✅ Provides visual proof of failures, making debugging easier.

⏳ Set Default Command Timeout

export default defineConfig({
  e2e: {
    defaultCommandTimeout: 10000, // Increase timeout to 10s for better stability
  },
});

✅ Helps prevent flaky tests by allowing elements more time to load.

🏃‍♂️ Run Tests in Headless Mode for CI

export default defineConfig({
  e2e: {
    browser: "chrome",
    headless: true, // Run tests in headless mode
  },
});

✅ Speeds up test execution in CI/CD pipelines.

🎯 Conclusion

Efficiency is key in Cypress test automation. Enabling Chrome DevTools to open automatically saves manual steps, speeds up debugging, and provides better insights into test runs. However, it’s essential to use this configuration wisely based on your test context.

By combining it with other configurations like video recording, screenshots on failure, increased timeouts, and headless execution, you can significantly optimize your Cypress test automation workflow. 🚀

Have any tips for optimizing Cypress? Share in the comments! Happy testing! 🎯