#Watch Plugin

• Overview
• Installation
• Running Watch
• Default directories
• Custom directories

#Overview

The Watch plugin keeps an eye on your application and automatically runs your Pest tests when you change files inside specific directories.

Note: This is still a development package and needs further testing.

#Installation

First, install fswatch on your machine, or check if you already have it:

1fswatch --version

Then, install the Watch Plugin via the Composer package manager:

1composer require pestphp/pest-plugin-watch --dev

Once the installation is finished, your Pest CLI will have a new --watch option available.

#Running Watch

Running pest --watch starts Pest in watch mode and, from this point on, any file modification inside the directories will trigger Pest to run your tests.

1pest --watch # Night gathers, and now my watch begins

#Default directories

By default, the Watch plugin observes the following directories:

• tests/
• app/
• src/

#Custom directories

If you need to watch a custom set of directories, just provide a comma-separated list to the --watch flag.

Example:

1pest --watch=app,routes,tests

The command will watch the app, routes, and tests directories.

Next section: Creating Plugins →