pytest-glaze 0.2.5

A thin, transparent coat that makes your test output shine.

🏺 pytest-glaze

A thin, transparent coat that makes your test output shine.

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pytest-glaze is a drop-in pytest output formatter that replaces the default terminal reporter with a compact, color-semantic display. Failures surface inline — no scrolling to a deferred block — and every color carries a consistent meaning across every line type.

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Why pytest-glaze?

The default pytest reporter is designed for completeness. pytest-glaze is designed for reading speed. When you are deep in a debugging session the question is always the same: what failed, and what exactly was wrong?

	Default reporter	pytest-rich / pytest-pretty	pytest-glaze
Failures inline	✗ deferred block	Partial	✓
Consistent color semantics	✗	Partial	✓
Zero extra dependencies	✓	✗ Rich required	✓
Compact — one line per result	✗	✗	✓
Per-file summaries	✗	✗	✓
BDD-aware (pytest-bdd)	✗	✗	✓

Color convention

Every color carries one meaning, applied consistently across every line type:

Badge	Color	Meaning	Where you see it
🟢	Bright green	Received ✓ / expected value	PASS badge, ---, assert right side, - diff, Expected: label
🔴	Bright red	Received ✗ / wrong value / expected failure	FAIL · XFAIL badge, ---, assert left side, + diff, Obtained: label
🟡	Yellow	Skipped / unexpected pass	SKIP · XPASS badge, ---, skip reason
🔴	Standard red	Collection / setup errors	ERROR badge, ---, collection error messages
🍑	Soft peach	Context / prose	Exception messages, diff context, E prefix, operator keywords
🔅	Dim	Metadata	Duration, collection count, Total: line

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Installation

pip install pytest-glaze

pytest-glaze registers itself automatically — no configuration required. Install and run.

Requirements

• Python ≥ 3.10
• pytest ≥ 7.0

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Usage

Automatic

Once installed, pytest-glaze activates for every pytest invocation:

pytest tests/

Makefile (strongly recommended)

A Makefile gives you precise control: glaze on by default, raw output available when you need to debug the formatter itself. This is the recommended setup for any project with a regular test workflow.

PYTHON := python
PYTEST := uv run pytest          # or: python -m pytest
TESTS  := tests/

# Core formatter flags
# -p no:terminal    silence the default reporter
# -p pytest_glaze   load our plugin (PYTHONPATH=. makes it importable)
FMT := -p no:terminal -p pytest_glaze

# Optional pass-through filters
SUITE ?=
CASE  ?=
K     ?=
ARGS  ?=

_PATH  := $(if $(SUITE),$(SUITE),$(TESTS))
_KFLAG := $(if $(K),-k "$(K)",$(if $(CASE),-k "$(CASE)",))

.PHONY: test test-fast test-unit test-raw

## test        Run suite with glaze output.
##             SUITE=, CASE=, K= for filtering. ARGS= for raw pytest flags.
##             Examples:
##               make test
##               make test SUITE=tests/test_entities.py
##               make test CASE=test_return_statuses_dict
##               make test K="sprint and not slow"
test:
	@PYTHONPATH=. $(PYTEST) $(FMT) $(_PATH) $(_KFLAG) $(ARGS)

## test-fast   Stop on first failure (-x). Accepts same filters as `test`.
test-fast:
	@PYTHONPATH=. $(PYTEST) $(FMT) -x $(_PATH) $(_KFLAG) $(ARGS)

## test-unit   Unit tests only — clean pass/fail signal, no intentional failures.
test-unit:
	@PYTHONPATH=. $(PYTEST) $(FMT) tests/test_parsers.py tests/test_colorizer.py tests/test_plugin.py $(_KFLAG) $(ARGS)

## test-raw    Raw default pytest output. Useful for debugging the formatter.
test-raw:
	@$(PYTEST) $(_PATH) $(_KFLAG) $(ARGS)

## help        List all targets.
help:
	@grep -E '^##' Makefile | sed 's/^## /  /'

Disable for a single run

pytest -p no:pytest_glaze tests/

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What it formats

Passing tests

Passing tests render as compact single lines — one line per test, grouped by file and class. No noise, no clutter. Pure green signal.

Failing assertions — inline, never deferred

Assertion failures render immediately below the failing test — no scrolling to a separate deferred block. Received values are red, expected values are green, prose context stays soft peach.

Dict and list diffs

Received values render in red, expected values in green. Diff markers (- expected, + received) follow the same color convention. Prose context lines stay soft peach so the values stand out.

Approximate equality (pytest.approx)

Obtained renders in red — the wrong value. Expected renders in green — the target. Table column alignment is preserved so list and dict comparisons stay readable.

Skips, xfail, and xpass

XFAIL renders in bright red — an expected failure is still a red signal worth tracking. XPASS renders in yellow — an unexpected pass is a surprise worth investigating, but not an error.

Fixture errors

Setup and teardown errors are classified separately from test failures. A passing test body followed by a teardown ERROR both appear — neither is silently swallowed.

Captured output (shown only on failures)

Captured output sections are suppressed on passing tests and rendered inline on failures — no separate output block to hunt for.

Per-file summaries

Class-based test grouping

Class names render as section headers. Method names render without the class prefix. Non-class tests render as before — no header, just the test name.

BDD support (pytest-bdd)

pytest-glaze has first-class support for pytest-bdd. Install pytest-bdd alongside pytest-glaze and BDD scenarios render with Feature/Scenario headers, per-step results, and the same color semantics as regular tests.

Requirements

pip install pytest-bdd

Compact mode (default)

By default pytest-glaze renders BDD scenarios in compact mode — one line per scenario. Failures and errors always show full step-by-step output so you can see exactly where things went wrong.

Full step-by-step mode (--bdd-steps)

Pass --bdd-steps to see every step for every scenario:

pytest --glaze --bdd-steps tests/bdd/

Supported scenario types

pytest-glaze handles every pytest-bdd scenario type:

Type	Rendering
All steps pass	Compact PASS line (default) or full steps (--bdd-steps)
Failing assertion in Then	Full steps with colored assert X == Y E line
Non-assertion error in When	Full steps with ExceptionType: message E line
Error in Given (setup crash)	ERROR on the Given step
Step not found	ERROR on the missing step, trimmed message
Skipped (@pytest.mark.skip)	--- SKIP Scenario: … with reason
Skipped via Gherkin tag (@skip)	Same as above via pytest_bdd_apply_tag
Xfail	Last step gets --- XFAIL badge
Xpass	Last step gets --- XPASS badge
Background steps	Dim Background: label before first background step
Scenario Outline	One compact/full line per example row
Multiple example tables	Each table's rows rendered independently
Docstring arguments	Transparent — steps render normally
Datatable arguments	Transparent — steps render normally
Teardown failure	--- ERROR teardown failed after the scenario line
Unicode scenario/step names	Fully supported
Tagged scenarios	Tags applied as pytest marks, rendering unaffected
Rule blocks	Scenarios inside Rules render identically
Shared steps (conftest)	Transparent — steps render normally
Wildcard * keyword	Rendered as continuation step
Generic @step decorator	Rendered identically to @given/@when/@then

Makefile targets for BDD

BDD_TESTS := tests/bdd/

FILE     ?=   # scope to a single file:  make test-bdd FILE=test_checkout
SCENARIO ?=   # scope to a scenario:     make test-bdd SCENARIO="Guest completes a purchase"

_BDD_PATH  := $(if $(FILE),tests/bdd/$(FILE).py,$(BDD_TESTS))
_BDD_KFLAG := $(if $(SCENARIO),-k "$(SCENARIO)",)

## test-bdd          Compact BDD output (default).
test-bdd:
	@PYTHONPATH=. $(PYTEST) $(FMT) $(_BDD_PATH) $(_BDD_KFLAG) $(ARGS)

## test-bdd-steps    Full step-by-step BDD output.
test-bdd-steps:
	@PYTHONPATH=. $(PYTEST) $(FMT) --bdd-steps $(_BDD_PATH) $(_BDD_KFLAG) $(ARGS)

## test-bdd-gherkin  Native pytest-bdd Gherkin terminal reporter (-v).
test-bdd-gherkin:
	@PYTHONPATH=. $(PYTEST) --gherkin-terminal-reporter -v $(_BDD_PATH) $(_BDD_KFLAG) $(ARGS)

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Noise suppression

pytest-glaze automatically suppresses lines that add no value in compact output — before any line is rendered:

• Omitting N identical items, use -vv to show
• Use -v to get more diff
• Full diff:

The meaningful diff lines remain. The noise does not.

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Compatibility

pytest-glaze is a pure formatter with no opinion on how you write your tests. It works alongside:

• pytest-cov — coverage reporting is unaffected
• pytest-xdist — parallel runs are supported
• pytest-bdd — full BDD-aware rendering (see above)
• pytest-mock, pytest-asyncio, and any plugin that doesn't replace the terminal reporter

Note: Any plugin that also replaces the terminal reporter (e.g. pytest-rich) will conflict. Use one formatter at a time.

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Contributing

pytest-glaze is a personal project. If you find a failure shape the formatter doesn't handle well, open an issue with the raw pytest output and I'll take a look. Pull requests are welcome.

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License

MIT © mikejmz24

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pytest-glaze — because your test output deserves a coat of glaze. 🏺