Running Pester Tests in GitHub Actions
GitHub Actions is a powerful CI/CD platform that integrates tightly with your code repositories. Since PowerShell Core (pwsh) is available on all GitHub-hosted runners (Ubuntu, Windows, macOS), running Pester tests is straightforward.
Parent Topic: Pester CI/CD Integration Related: Pester Testing in PowerShell
1. The Workflow File
Create a file in your repository at .github/workflows/pester.yml.
Basic Workflow
This workflow runs on every push to main and executes the Build.ps1 script created in the Pester CI/CD Integration guide.
name: Pester Tests
on:
push:
branches: [ "main" ]
pull_request:
branches: [ "main" ]
jobs:
test:
name: Run Pester on Ubuntu
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout Code
uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Run Pester Tests
shell: pwsh
run: |
# Install Pester if needed (GitHub runners usually have it, but force latest is safer)
Install-Module Pester -Force -SkipPublisherCheck -Scope CurrentUser
# Run the build script that generates NUnit XML
./Build.ps1
- name: Upload Test Results Artifact
if: always()
uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
with:
name: Pester-Results
path: Artifacts/2. Visualizing Results (Test Reporting)
By default, GitHub Actions logs show text output. To see a nice summary of passed/failed tests in the "Actions" tab, you can use a third-party action to parse the NUnit XML generated by Pester.
Add this step after running the tests:
- name: Publish Test Report
uses: dorny/test-reporter@v1
if: always() # Run even if tests fail
with:
name: Pester Results
path: Artifacts/TestResults.xml
reporter: java-junit # Pester's NUnitXml is compatible here3. Cross-Platform Testing
One of Pester's strengths is cross-platform compatibility. You can run your tests on Windows, Linux, and macOS simultaneously using a matrix strategy.
jobs:
test:
name: Test on ${{ matrix.os }}
runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
strategy:
fail-fast: false
matrix:
os: [ubuntu-latest, windows-latest, macos-latest]
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Run Pester
shell: pwsh
run: ./Build.ps1Return to Pester CI/CD Integration