Quick Start

For most projects, getting started with Wallaby is as simple as installing the Wallaby extension for your editor and starting Wallaby. Wallaby will automatically detect your project configuration and start running your tests.

If your project does not already have a test runner, you will need to set one up before you can use Wallaby. Wallaby works with most popular test runners, including Jest, Vitest, Mocha, Jasmine, and others. For many testing frameworks and environments Wallaby requires no configuration at all.

If you are looking to set up a new test runner, your best experience with Wallaby will be if you are using Jest >= v24, Angular CLI >= v8.2, Vitest, node:test , Vue CLI >= v4, Create-React-App >= v3, or NX Workspaces >= v8.

Before you start

Before you start using Wallaby, we recommend first double-checking that your tests are working outside of Wallaby.

Starting with Automatic Configuration

Automatic configuration is available for projects that are using Jest >= v24, Angular CLI >= v8.2, Vitest, node:test , Vue CLI >= v4, Create-React-App >= v3, and NX Workspaces >= v8.

This means that Wallaby will automatically detect your project configuration and start running your tests without you needing to do anything at all.

Note

The content of this page is adjusted based on your editor of choice. Your editor selection can be changed using the dropdown in the top right corner of the page.

VS Code

To start Wallaby in VS Code you may run Select Configuration command and then select Automatic Configuration <project directory> option once. After that you may keep using Wallaby Start command as usual and it will start Wallaby with automatic configuration.

JetBrains IDEs

To start Wallaby in JetBrains IDEs, you may edit (or create a new) wallaby.js Run Configuration by selecting Edit configurations from the drop-down menu in the top right-hand corner of the navigation bar, or from the Run menu. In the run configuration editor set Configuration Type filed value to Automatic.

Visual Studio

To start Wallaby in Visual Studio, you may use the Start Wallaby.js (Automatic Configuration) context menu item for your project folder in the Solution Explorer. After the first start, the selected project will be remembered for your solution and Wallaby can be started with Tools->Start Wallaby.js (Alt-W, 1).

Sublime Text

To start Wallaby in Sublime Text you may use the Select for Wallaby.js Automatic Configuration context menu item for your project folder in the project’s file tree. After that you may keep using Wallaby Start command as usual and it will start Wallaby with automatic configuration.

Standalone Mode

To start Wallaby for your project, run:

npx wallaby

You can read how to override automatic configuration defaults in the Configuration section of our docs.

Starting with a Configuration File

For projects that are not supported by Wallaby’s automatic configuration, you will need to create a configuration file.

Your configuration file must be placed to your project root folder (recommended name is wallaby.js or wallaby.conf.js).

To start Wallaby for your project, run:

npx wallaby --config wallaby.js

We recommend starting with a simple configuration file example for your testing framework.