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Version: 30.5

Getting Started

Install Jest using your favorite package manager:

npm install --save-dev jest

Let's get started by writing a test for a hypothetical function that adds two numbers. First, create a sum.js file:

function sum(a, b) {
  return a + b;
}
module.exports = sum;

Then, create a file named sum.test.js. This will contain our actual test:

const sum = require('./sum');

test('adds 1 + 2 to equal 3', () => {
  expect(sum(1, 2)).toBe(3);
});

Add the following section to your package.json:

{
  "scripts": {
    "test": "jest"
  }
}

Finally, run yarn test or npm test and Jest will print this message:

PASS  ./sum.test.js
✓ adds 1 + 2 to equal 3 (5ms)

You just successfully wrote your first test using Jest!

This test used expect and toBe to test that two values were exactly identical. To learn about the other things that Jest can test, see Using Matchers.

Running from command line​

You can run Jest directly from the CLI (if it's globally available in your PATH, e.g. by yarn global add jest or npm install jest --global) with a variety of useful options.

Here's how to run Jest on files matching my-test, using config.json as a configuration file and display a native OS notification after the run:

jest my-test --notify --config=config.json

If you'd like to learn more about running jest through the command line, take a look at the Jest CLI Options page.

Additional Configuration​

Generate a basic configuration file​

Based on your project, Jest will ask you a few questions and will create a basic configuration file with a short description for each option:

npm init jest@latest

Using Babel​

To use Babel, install required dependencies:

npm install --save-dev babel-jest @babel/core @babel/preset-env

Configure Babel to target your current version of Node by creating a babel.config.js file in the root of your project:

babel.config.js
module.exports = {
  presets: [['@babel/preset-env', {targets: {node: 'current'}}]],
};

The ideal configuration for Babel will depend on your project. See Babel's docs for more details.

Making your Babel config jest-aware

Jest will set process.env.NODE_ENV to 'test' if it's not set to something else. You can use that in your configuration to conditionally setup only the compilation needed for Jest, e.g.

babel.config.js
module.exports = api => {