running-task-tests

name	running-task-tests
description	Use when running, writing, or troubleshooting functional tests for Tekton tasks in this catalog

Running Task Tests

Overview

Tests are Tekton Pipelines that exercise a task on a kind cluster with Konflux CI. The test runner creates a namespace, applies the task, and runs each test pipeline via tkn p start.

When to Use

• Running tests for a new or modified task
• Writing positive or negative test cases
• Understanding why a test pipeline failed in CI
• Not for: YAML lint or validation (use yamllint . directly)

Quick Reference

Action	Command
Run tests for one task	.github/scripts/test_tekton_tasks.sh tasks/<cat>/<name>/<ver>
Run a single test file	.github/scripts/test_tekton_tasks.sh tasks/<cat>/<name>/<ver>/tests/test-<name>-pass.yaml
Run multiple tasks	.github/scripts/test_tekton_tasks.sh <dir1> <dir2> ...

Prerequisites: kind cluster with Konflux CI, plus tkn, kubectl, yq, jq on PATH.

Writing Tests

File placement

tasks/<category>/<name>/<version>/tests/
  test-<name>-pass.yaml            # Positive test (required)
  test-<name>-fail.yaml            # Negative test (recommended)
  pre-apply-task-hook.sh           # Optional cluster setup

Positive test

Pipeline succeeds with valid inputs:

apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1
kind: Pipeline
metadata:
  name: test-<task-name>-pass
spec:
  tasks:
    - name: run-<task-name>
      taskRef:
        name: <task-name>
      params:
        - name: param1
          value: "valid-value"

Negative test

Annotate which task should fail:

metadata:
  name: test-<task-name>-fail
  annotations:
    test/assert-task-failure: "run-<task-name>"

The runner verifies the pipeline failed at the annotated task, not earlier.

Pre-apply hook

pre-apply-task-hook.sh receives $1 (task YAML path) and $2 (test namespace). Use it for ConfigMaps, Secrets, PVCs, Deployments, or RBAC the task needs.

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Fix
Tests share PVC data path	Each test must use a unique path (e.g. test-repo-pass, test-repo-fail)
No tests/ directory	CI silently skips the task — no gate, no coverage
Wrong test/assert-task-failure value	Must match the pipeline task name, not the taskRef
Missing appstudio-pipeline SA	Runner creates it, but hooks adding RoleBindings must reference it correctly

Exemplar

Reference implementation: tasks/linters/yamllint/0.1/ — has positive test, negative test, pre-apply hook with git-daemon service, and PVC-based data sharing.