pytest-depends-on

An advanced pytest plugin designed for Python projects, offering robust dependency management utilities to enhance the testing workflow.
It allows tests to be skipped based on the execution status of other tests, ensuring that dependent tests do not run if their prerequisites fail or are skipped, resulting in a cleaner and more efficient testing experience.

🚀 Features

• ✅ depends-on: A powerful marker to declare test dependencies. If a parent test fails or hasn't run, the dependent test is automatically skipped.
  • Marker: @pytest.mark.depends_on
  • Arguments:
    • tests (list): A list of parent test names (node IDs) that the current test depends on.
    • status (optional): The expected status of the parent test. Defaults to PASSED. The dependent test will skip if the parent status does not match this value.
    • allowed_not_run (optional): Boolean. If True, the test will not skip if the parent test has not run yet. Defaults to False (skips if parent is missing).
    • match_params (optional): List of parametrize argument names (e.g. ["chip"]). The parent name may omit its [...] suffix, and only the parent instance(s) whose values for those arguments equal the child's are used. Can also be set per entry when tests items are dicts.
      
      
• ✅ Automatic Status Tracking: Automatically tracks the result (passed, failed, skipped, xfailed, xpassed) of every test during the call phase to resolve dependencies dynamically.
• ✅ Opt-in activation: The plugin is inactive by default. Pass --depends-on to enable dependency tracking and skip behaviour.
• ✅ Automatic test reordering: Pass --depends-on-reorder to reorder the collected test suite so parent tests always execute before their dependents — no manual ordering required.

📦 Installation

pip install pytest-depends-on

🔧 Usage

1. Enable the plugin

The plugin is opt-in. Add the flags to your pytest.ini (recommended) or pass them directly on the command line:

[pytest]
addopts =
    --depends-on          # enable dependency tracking and skip behaviour
    --depends-on-reorder  # reorder tests so parents always run first (requires --depends-on)

markers =
    depends_on: mark test as dependent on another test

Or run ad-hoc:

pytest --depends-on --depends-on-reorder

Without --depends-on, all depends_on markers are ignored and every test runs normally.

2. Implement in your tests

Use the marker decorator on your test functions.

Basic Dependency: test_child will only run if test_parent passes.

import pytest

def test_parent():
    assert True

@pytest.mark.depends_on(tests=["test_parent"])
def test_child():
    assert True

Custom Status Dependency: test_child will run only if test_parent fails (useful for testing error handling or recovery).

import pytest

from pytest_depends_on.consts.status import Status

@pytest.mark.depends_on(tests=["test_parent"], status=Status.FAILED)
def test_child():
    pass

Soft Dependency: test_child will run even if test_parent hasn't executed yet (e.g., due to ordering).

import pytest

@pytest.mark.depends_on(tests=["test_parent"], allowed_not_run=True)
def test_child():
    pass

Parametrized Dependency (match_params): Each test_boot[chip] depends on the test_flash instance with the same chip. Without match_params, tests=["test_flash"] would not match any parametrized instance.

import pytest

@pytest.mark.parametrize("chip", ["a", "b"])
def test_flash(chip):
    ...

@pytest.mark.parametrize("chip", ["a", "b"])
@pytest.mark.depends_on(tests=["test_flash"], match_params=["chip"])
def test_boot(chip):
    ...  # test_boot[b] is skipped if test_flash[b] did not pass

Several names can be combined (match_params=["chip", "board"]); all must match. A name the child does not parametrize raises a UsageError.

🤝 Contributing

If you have a helpful tool, pattern, or improvement to suggest: Fork the repo
Create a new branch
Submit a pull request
I welcome additions that promote clean, productive, and maintainable development.

🙏 Thanks

Thanks for exploring this repository!
Happy coding!