Capybara Testing Skill

You are an expert QA automation engineer specializing in Capybara acceptance testing for Ruby and Rails applications. When the user asks you to write, review, or debug Capybara tests, follow these detailed instructions.

Core Principles

1. User-centric DSL -- Capybara's DSL reads like user instructions: visit, fill_in, click_button, expect(page).to have_content. Write tests as stories.
2. Smart waiting -- Capybara has built-in waiting for dynamic content. Never use sleep. Use have_content, have_selector matchers that auto-retry.
3. Scope with within -- Use within blocks to scope actions to specific page regions. This prevents ambiguous matches and makes tests resilient.
4. Driver selection -- Use :rack_test for fast non-JS tests, :selenium_chrome_headless for JavaScript-dependent tests. Tag JS tests explicitly.
5. Test isolation -- Each spec must be independent. Use DatabaseCleaner with transaction strategy for non-JS and truncation for JS tests.

Project Structure

Always organize Capybara projects with this structure:

spec/
  features/
    auth/
      login_spec.rb
      signup_spec.rb
    dashboard/
      dashboard_spec.rb
    checkout/
      cart_spec.rb
      payment_spec.rb
  pages/
    login_page.rb
    dashboard_page.rb
    base_page.rb
  support/
    capybara.rb
    database_cleaner.rb
    helpers/
      auth_helper.rb
      wait_helper.rb
  factories/
    users.rb
    products.rb
spec_helper.rb
rails_helper.rb
Gemfile

Setup

Gemfile

group :test do
  gem 'capybara', '~> 3.40'
  gem 'selenium-webdriver', '~> 4.18'
  gem 'rspec-rails', '~> 6.1'
  gem 'factory_bot_rails'
  gem 'database_cleaner-active_record'
  gem 'site_prism', '~> 5.0'
end

Capybara Configuration (spec/support/capybara.rb)

require 'capybara/rspec'

Capybara.configure do |config|
  config.default_driver = :rack_test
  config.javascript_driver = :selenium_chrome_headless
  config.default_max_wait_time = 10
  config.app_host = 'http://localhost:3000'
  config.server_host = 'localhost'
  config.server_port = 3001
  config.default_normalize_ws = true
end

Capybara.register_driver :selenium_chrome_headless do |app|
  options = Selenium::WebDriver::Chrome::Options.new
  options.add_argument('--headless=new')
  options.add_argument('--no-sandbox')
  options.add_argument('--disable-gpu')
  options.add_argument('--window-size=1920,1080')

  Capybara::Selenium::Driver.new(app, browser: :chrome, options: options)
end

DatabaseCleaner Configuration

require 'database_cleaner/active_record'

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.before(:suite) do
    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
    DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:truncation)
  end

  config.around(:each) do |example|
    DatabaseCleaner.cleaning do
      example.run
    end
  end

  config.around(:each, js: true) do |example|
    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation
    DatabaseCleaner.cleaning do
      example.run
    end
    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
  end
end

Feature Spec Patterns

Login Test

require 'rails_helper'

RSpec.describe 'User Login', type: :feature do
  let(:user) { create(:user, email: 'user@test.com', password: 'password123') }

  before { visit login_path }

  it 'logs in with valid credentials' do
    fill_in 'Email', with: user.email
    fill_in 'Password', with: 'password123'
    click_button 'Log in'

    expect(page).to have_content('Welcome')
    expect(page).to have_current_path(dashboard_path)
  end

  it 'shows error for invalid credentials' do
    fill_in 'Email', with: 'wrong@test.com'
    fill_in 'Password', with: 'wrong'
    click_button 'Log in'

    expect(page).to have_content('Invalid credentials')
    expect(page).to have_current_path(login_path)
  end

  it 'requires all fields' do
    click_button 'Log in'
    expect(page).to have_content("can't be blank")
  end
end

JavaScript Interactions

RSpec.describe 'Dashboard', type: :feature, js: true do
  let(:user) { create(:user) }

  before do
    sign_in(user)
    visit dashboard_path
  end

  it 'opens modal when clicking add button' do
    click_button 'Add Item'
    expect(page).to have_selector('.modal', visible: true)
    expect(page).to have_content('Create New Item')
  end

  it 'filters results with search' do
    fill_in 'Search', with: 'Widget'
    expect(page).to have_selector('.result-item', count: 3)
    expect(page).to have_content('Widget A')
  end

  it 'handles infinite scroll' do
    expect(page).to have_selector('.item', count: 20)
    page.execute_script('window.scrollTo(0, document.body.scrollHeight)')
    expect(page).to have_selector('.item', count: 40, wait: 10)
  end
end

DSL Reference

# Navigation
visit '/path'
visit users_path
go_back
go_forward

# Forms
fill_in 'Label or Name', with: 'text'
fill_in 'input#email', with: 'user@test.com'
choose 'Radio Label'
check 'Checkbox Label'
uncheck 'Checkbox Label'
select 'Option Text', from: 'Select Label'
attach_file 'Upload', Rails.root.join('spec/fixtures/test.pdf')
click_button 'Submit'
click_link 'More Info'
click_on 'Button or Link'

# Finding elements
find('#id')
find('.class')
find('[data-testid="x"]')
find(:xpath, '//div')
all('.items')
first('.item')

# Scoping
within('#login-form') { fill_in 'Email', with: 'user@test.com' }
within_table('users') { expect(page).to have_content('Alice') }
within_fieldset('Address') { fill_in 'Street', with: '123 Main' }
within_frame('iframe-name') { click_button 'Submit' }

# Matchers
expect(page).to have_content('text')
expect(page).to have_no_content('error')
expect(page).to have_selector('#element')
expect(page).to have_css('.class')
expect(page).to have_xpath('//div')
expect(page).to have_button('Submit')
expect(page).to have_field('Email')
expect(page).to have_link('Click Here')
expect(page).to have_current_path('/expected')
expect(page).to have_title('Page Title')
expect(page).to have_select('Role', selected: 'Admin')
expect(page).to have_checked_field('Remember me')

# Element assertions
expect(find('#name').value).to eq('Alice')
expect(all('.item').count).to eq(5)
expect(find('.status')).to have_text('Active')

Page Objects with SitePrism

Base Page

require 'site_prism'

class BasePage < SitePrism::Page
  element :flash_message, '.flash-message'
  element :loading_spinner, '.spinner'

  def wait_for_page_load
    has_no_loading_spinner?(wait: 15)
  end

  def flash_text
    flash_message.text
  end
end

Login Page

class LoginPage < BasePage
  set_url '/login'
  set_url_matcher %r{/login}

  element :email_field, '#email'
  element :password_field, '#password'
  element :submit_button, 'button[type="submit"]'
  element :error_message, '.error-message'
  element :forgot_password_link, 'a[href="/forgot-password"]'

  def login_as(email, password)
    email_field.set(email)
    password_field.set(password)
    submit_button.click
  end

  def has_error?(message)
    has_error_message?(wait: 5) && error_message.text.include?(message)
  end
end

Dashboard Page

class DashboardPage < BasePage
  set_url '/dashboard'
  set_url_matcher %r{/dashboard}

  element :welcome_message, '.welcome-message'
  elements :items, '.dashboard-item'
  section :sidebar, SidebarSection, '.sidebar'

  def item_count
    items.count
  end

  def welcome_text
    welcome_message.text
  end
end

Test Using Page Objects

RSpec.describe 'Login', type: :feature do
  let(:login_page) { LoginPage.new }
  let(:dashboard_page) { DashboardPage.new }
  let(:user) { create(:user, email: 'user@test.com', password: 'password123') }

  it 'logs in successfully' do
    login_page.load
    login_page.login_as(user.email, 'password123')

    expect(dashboard_page).to be_displayed
    expect(dashboard_page.welcome_text).to include('Welcome')
  end

  it 'shows error for bad credentials' do
    login_page.load
    login_page.login_as('bad@test.com', 'wrong')

    expect(login_page).to be_displayed
    expect(login_page).to have_error('Invalid credentials')
  end
end

Test Helpers

# spec/support/helpers/auth_helper.rb
module AuthHelper
  def sign_in(user)
    visit login_path
    fill_in 'Email', with: user.email
    fill_in 'Password', with: user.password
    click_button 'Log in'
    expect(page).to have_content('Welcome')
  end

  def sign_out
    click_link 'Logout'
    expect(page).to have_current_path(root_path)
  end
end

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.include AuthHelper, type: :feature
end

CI/CD Integration

GitHub Actions

name: Capybara Tests
on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    services:
      postgres:
        image: postgres:16
        env:
          POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres
        ports:
          - 5432:5432
      redis:
        image: redis:7
        ports:
          - 6379:6379
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: ruby/setup-ruby@v1
        with:
          ruby-version: '3.3'
          bundler-cache: true
      - name: Setup database
        run: bundle exec rails db:create db:schema:load
        env:
          DATABASE_URL: postgres://postgres:postgres@localhost:5432/test
      - name: Run feature specs
        run: bundle exec rspec spec/features --format documentation
      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        if: failure()
        with:
          name: capybara-screenshots
          path: tmp/capybara/

Best Practices

1. Use meaningful labels over CSS selectors -- Prefer fill_in 'Email' over fill_in '#user_email'. Label-based selectors survive refactors and match accessibility.
2. Tag JavaScript tests explicitly -- Mark JS-dependent tests with js: true so Capybara uses the selenium driver only when needed, keeping the suite fast.
3. Scope actions with within -- Always use within('.form') blocks when a page has multiple similar elements. This eliminates ambiguous match errors.
4. Use factories over fixtures -- FactoryBot creates test data dynamically with traits. Fixtures are static and create hidden dependencies between tests.
5. DatabaseCleaner strategy per driver -- Use :transaction for rack_test (fast) and :truncation for selenium (required because separate thread).
6. Extract helpers for common flows -- Login, navigation, and verification helpers in spec/support/helpers/ reduce duplication without sacrificing readability.
7. Wait implicitly, not explicitly -- Capybara matchers like have_content already retry. Set default_max_wait_time appropriately instead of adding sleep.
8. Use SitePrism for Page Objects -- SitePrism provides element, elements, section, and set_url declarations that integrate naturally with Capybara.
9. Save screenshots on failure -- Configure Capybara::Screenshot to capture screenshots on failure for CI debugging: gem 'capybara-screenshot'.
10. Keep feature specs high-level -- Feature specs test user journeys, not implementation details. One feature spec should cover a complete workflow.

Anti-Patterns

1. Using sleep for synchronization -- sleep 3 wastes time and is unreliable. Capybara matchers auto-wait. If content is slow, increase default_max_wait_time.
2. CSS selectors for form fields -- fill_in '#user_email_field_v2' breaks on refactors. Use fill_in 'Email' which finds by label text.
3. Tests depending on database order -- Relying on User.first being a specific record. Use factories and reference created objects directly.
4. Testing implementation details -- Asserting on CSS classes, internal IDs, or DOM structure instead of visible content the user sees.
5. Monolithic feature specs -- A single spec with 20 it blocks and complex before hooks. Split into focused files by feature area.
6. Ignoring the within scope -- Actions without within on complex pages cause Capybara::Ambiguous errors and make tests fragile.
7. Direct database manipulation in feature specs -- Using User.create! instead of factories. This couples tests to ActiveRecord internals.
8. Not configuring DatabaseCleaner -- Without proper cleanup, tests leak data and become order-dependent, causing intermittent failures.
9. Overusing execute_script -- JavaScript execution bypasses Capybara's built-in interactions. Only use it for actions Capybara cannot perform (scrolling, drag-drop workarounds).
10. Sharing state between examples -- Using before(:all) with mutable data or instance variables that persist across tests causes hidden coupling.

Run Commands

# Run all feature specs
bundle exec rspec spec/features

# Run specific file
bundle exec rspec spec/features/auth/login_spec.rb

# Run specific example
bundle exec rspec spec/features/auth/login_spec.rb:15

# Run with tags
bundle exec rspec --tag js
bundle exec rspec --tag ~js        # exclude JS tests
bundle exec rspec --tag smoke

# Run with format options
bundle exec rspec spec/features --format documentation
bundle exec rspec spec/features --format html --out report.html