Hooks

Hooks let you run setup and teardown code at different points in the test lifecycle.

Available hooks

Hook	When it runs
beforeAll(...fns)	Once before all tests in the current suite
afterAll(...fns)	Once after all tests in the current suite
beforeEach(...fns)	Before each test in the current suite
afterEach(...fns)	After each test in the current suite

All hooks accept one or more functions. Multiple functions passed in a single call run in the order they are provided.

Basic usage

import { describe, it, expect, beforeAll, afterAll, beforeEach, afterEach } from "unrift";

describe("database", () => {
  let db: Database;

  beforeAll(async () => {
    db = await Database.connect();
  });

  afterAll(async () => {
    await db.close();
  });

  beforeEach(async () => {
    await db.beginTransaction();
  });

  afterEach(async () => {
    await db.rollback();
  });

  it("inserts a record", async () => {
    await db.insert({ name: "Alice" });
    const rows = await db.query("SELECT * FROM users");
    expect(rows).toHaveLength(1);
  });
});

Inheritance

Hooks are inherited from parent suites. This is the execution order for nested suites:

describe("outer", () => {
  beforeEach(() => console.log("outer beforeEach"));
  afterEach(() => console.log("outer afterEach"));

  describe("inner", () => {
    beforeEach(() => console.log("inner beforeEach"));
    afterEach(() => console.log("inner afterEach"));

    it("runs hooks in order", () => {
      // Execution order:
      // 1. outer beforeEach
      // 2. inner beforeEach
      // 3. test
      // 4. inner afterEach
      // 5. outer afterEach
    });
  });
});

Rule: beforeEach runs outer-to-inner. afterEach runs inner-to-outer.

For beforeAll/afterAll, each suite’s hooks run once for that suite’s scope:

• beforeAll runs depth-first (parent before child)
• afterAll runs reverse depth-first (child before parent)

Error handling

• If beforeAll fails, all tests in that suite are marked as skipped
• If beforeEach fails, the test is marked as failed
• afterEach always runs, even if the test or beforeEach failed
• afterAll always runs for suites that were entered (where beforeAll succeeded)
• Multiple hook errors are combined into a single error message

Multiple hooks

You can register multiple hooks of the same type. They run in registration order:

beforeEach(() => console.log("first"));
beforeEach(() => console.log("second"));
// Output: "first", then "second"

Async hooks

All hooks support async functions:

beforeAll(async () => {
  await seedDatabase();
});