continia-test

name	continia-test
description	Run AL tests on a BC environment and interpret results. Starts a test job via DemoPortal, waits for completion, and parses XML results with pass/fail status, error messages, and call stacks. Use when (1) the user asks to run tests, (2) a fix was deployed and needs verification, (3) regression testing is needed after code changes, or (4) a bug report references a test codeunit.

Run AL Tests

Execute AL test codeunits and interpret results.

The CLI is located at .tools/continia.exe.

Prerequisites

• Running environment ID (invoke continia-env-setup if needed)
• Code deployed to environment (invoke continia-deploy if needed)
• Test codeunit ID (the integer after codeunit in the AL source)

Finding the Codeunit ID

grep -rn "SubType = Test" --include="*.al" .

Test codeunits are declared as codeunit 148001 "CDO My Feature Test" -- the number is the ID.

Running Tests

Single function:

continia test run <envId> <codeunitId> <functionName>

All tests in codeunit:

continia test run <envId> <codeunitId>

Longer timeout (default 120s):

continia test run <envId> <codeunitId> --timeout 300

Output Modes

• Default — human-readable summary with pass/fail per test
• --json — structured JSON with summary, tests[] (no raw XML)
• --raw — raw xUnit XML (for manual parsing)

Interpreting Results

Default output shows a summary line and per-test results:

FAIL: 4/5 passed (82.5s) — CDO Setup Tests

  PASS  HideStandardMailActions_WhenEnabled (42.2s)
  FAIL  ActivateCompanyCDO_ShouldActivateProduct (15.3s)
        → record in table 'Access Token' is being updated...

With --json, the result is structured:

{
  "status": "completed",
  "passed": false,
  "summary": { "total": 5, "passed": 4, "failed": 1, "skipped": 0, "durationSeconds": 82.5, "codeunitName": "CDO Setup Tests" },
  "tests": [
    { "name": "ActivateCompanyCDO_ShouldActivateProduct", "fullName": "CDO Setup Tests:ActivateCompanyCDO_ShouldActivateProduct", "result": "Fail", "durationSeconds": 15.3, "errorMessage": "...", "stackTrace": "..." }
  ]
}

On failure, look at the stackTrace field — lines like "CDO Feature"(Codeunit 70001).Calculate line 123 point directly to the failing AL code.

Important: No Parallel Tests

BC does not support running multiple test jobs concurrently on the same environment. Always run tests sequentially — wait for one test run to complete before starting another. Running tests in parallel will cause failures or incorrect results.

Common Pattern: Fix-Test-Verify

1. Extract failing function name and line numbers from results
2. Navigate to the code and fix the issue
3. Deploy the fix: continia deploy <envId> <appPath> --json
4. Re-run the specific failing test: continia test run <envId> <codeunitId> <func>
5. If it passes, run the full codeunit for regressions: continia test run <envId> <codeunitId>

Gotchas

• Exit code 1 on success — The CLI returns exit code 1 when tests fail, which breaks && chaining. Use ; to run tests sequentially regardless of exit code: continia test run <envId> 148001 ; continia test run <envId> 148002
• Keep background commands simple — Complex bash pipelines (variable assignments + pipes to python/grep) sometimes produce empty output files in Claude Code background mode. Run continia test run as a simple standalone command, don't pipe or assign in the same line.
• Install deps on env first — The environment needs runtime dependencies (e.g. Continia Core Internal Activation App) even if the app compiled locally fine. Invoke continia-deps before running tests on a fresh environment.

Code Coverage

continia test coverage <envId> <jobId>

Returns CSV data showing which AL lines were executed.