Testing Laravel Applications with Pest

Pest is a modern testing framework for PHP that makes writing tests more enjoyable and readable.

Getting Started with Pest

Install Pest in your Laravel project:

composer require pestphp/pest --dev
composer require pestphp/pest-plugin-laravel --dev
php artisan pest:install

Writing Your First Test

Pest uses a clean, expressive syntax:

it('can create a post', function () {
    $response = post('/posts', [
        'title' => 'My First Post',
        'content' => 'Hello World',
    ]);

    $response->assertCreated();
    expect(Post::count())->toBe(1);
});

Feature Tests vs Unit Tests

Understanding when to use each:

• Feature tests: Test HTTP endpoints and full request cycles
• Unit tests: Test individual classes and methods in isolation

Advanced Testing Patterns

We'll also cover:

• Test organization with describe blocks
• Custom helpers and higher-order tests
• Database testing with RefreshDatabase
• Mocking external services

By the end, you'll write beautiful, maintainable tests for your Laravel applications.