test: improve database test setup #14982

AlessioGr · 2025-12-19T00:41:11Z

This PR brings over most of the test suite improvements I made here to our payload monorepo.

Replaces mongodb-memory-server with an actual mongo db using the mongodb-community-server docker image. This unblocks the vitest migration PR (test: migrate to vitest #14337). Currently, debugging does not work in that PR - this is due to the global setup script that has to start the mongo memory db.
Just like postgres, all mongodb databases now support vector search. mongodb-atlas-local supports it natively, and for mongodb-community-server, our docker compose script installs mongot, which unlocks support for vector search. This means we could add vector storage/search tests similar to the ones we have for postgres
Int tests now run against both mongodb adapters: mongodb (mongodb-community-server) and mongodb-atlas (mongodb-atlas-local)
Adds docker scripts for mongodb, mongodb-atlas, and postgres, documented in README.md. Updates default db adapter URLs to automatically pick up databases started by those scripts. This makes it easier for people cloning the repo to get started with consistent databases matching CI - no complicated manual installation steps
Simplified db setup handling locally in CI. In CI, everything is scoped to .github/actions/start-database/action.yml. Locally, everything is scoped to test/helpers/db. Each database adapter now shares the same username, password and db name
Use consistent db connection string env variables, all ending with _URL
Updates the CONTRIBUTING.md with up-to-date information and adds a new database section. We now recommend everyone to use those docker scripts

github-actions · 2025-12-19T00:48:25Z

📦 esbuild Bundle Analysis for payload

This analysis was generated by esbuild-bundle-analyzer. 🤖
This PR introduced no changes to the esbuild bundle! 🙌

AlessioGr · 2025-12-19T08:45:40Z

.github/workflows/main.yml

      - name: Cache Docker images
-        uses: ScribeMD/docker-cache@0.5.0
+        # Use AndreKurait/docker-cache@0.6.0 instead of ScribeMD/docker-cache@0.5.0 to fix the following issue: https://github.com/ScribeMD/docker-cache/issues/837 ("Warning: Failed to restore: Cache service responded with 400")
+        uses: AndreKurait/docker-cache@0.6.0


The caching was completely broken before.

I'm not adding it to the start-database action, as it seems to break health checks. Need to investigate further, but not in this PR

AlessioGr · 2025-12-19T08:47:58Z

test/plugin-cloud-storage/.env.emulated

@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 # Sample creds for working locally with docker-compose

-MONGODB_URI=mongodb://localhost/payload-plugin-cloud-storage


Don't know why we had this - this won't work anymore. It should use the default URL or whatever env variable the CI action sets

AlessioGr · 2025-12-19T08:48:08Z

test/dev.ts

 await runInit(testSuiteArg, true)

-if (shouldStartMemoryDB) {
-  await startMemoryDB()


AlessioGr · 2025-12-19T08:48:46Z

test/jest.config.js

  testMatch: ['<rootDir>/**/*int.spec.ts'],
  setupFilesAfterEnv: ['<rootDir>/jest.setup.js'],

-  globalSetup: path.resolve(dirname, './helpers/startMemoryDB.ts'),


The vitest equivalent of this is what breaks debugging. Breakpoints are simply ignored.

AlessioGr · 2025-12-19T08:50:36Z

CONTRIBUTING.md

-Payload is structured as a Monorepo, encompassing not only the core Payload platform but also various plugins and packages. To install all required dependencies, you have to run `pnpm install` once in the root directory. **PNPM IS REQUIRED!** Yarn or npm will not work - you will have to use pnpm to develop in the core repository. In most systems, the easiest way to install pnpm is to run `corepack enable` in your terminal.
+Payload is structured as a Monorepo, encompassing not only the core Payload platform but also various plugins and packages. To install all required dependencies, you have to run `pnpm install` once in the root directory. **PNPM IS REQUIRED!** Yarn or npm will not work - you will have to use pnpm to develop in the core repository. In most systems, the easiest way to install pnpm is to run `npm add -g pnpm` in your terminal.

-If you're coming from a very outdated version of payload, it is recommended to nuke the node_modules folder before running pnpm install. On UNIX systems, you can easily do that using the `pnpm clean:unix` command, which will delete all node_modules folders and build artefacts.


The clean:unix script does not exist anymore and has been replaced with a cross-platform reinstall script long ago.

AlessioGr · 2025-12-19T08:51:07Z

CONTRIBUTING.md

-If you're coming from a very outdated version of payload, it is recommended to nuke the node_modules folder before running pnpm install. On UNIX systems, you can easily do that using the `pnpm clean:unix` command, which will delete all node_modules folders and build artefacts.
+If you're coming from a very outdated version of payload, it is recommended to perform a clean install, which nukes the node_modules folder and reinstalls all dependencies. You can easily do that using the `pnpm reinstall` command.

-It is also recommended to use at least Node v18 or higher. You can check your current node version by typing `node --version` in your terminal. The easiest way to switch between different node versions is to use [nvm](https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm#intro).


23.11.0 is what we have defined in our .node-version file

AlessioGr · 2025-12-19T08:51:59Z

CONTRIBUTING.md

-4. Add a `DOCS_DIR` environment variable to the `.env` file which points to the absolute path of your modified docs folder. For example `DOCS_DIR=/Users/yourname/Documents/GitHub/payload/docs`
-5. Run `pnpm fetchDocs:local`. If this was successful, you should see no error messages and the following output: _Docs successfully written to /.../website/src/app/docs.json_. There could be error messages if you have incorrect markdown in your local docs folder. In this case, it will tell you how you can fix it
-6. You're done! Now you can start the website locally using `pnpm dev` and preview the docs under [http://localhost:3000/docs/local](http://localhost:3000/docs/local)
+3. Follow the instructions in the [README of the website repository](https://github.com/payloadcms/website/blob/main/README.md#documentation) to preview the docs locally.


The docs here were outdated. No need to maintain this documentation in two places, just read the website readme which is kept up-to-date

denolfe

Very well done, glad we're finally making this change. Thank you for the narration comments on the PR as well, very helpful.

github-actions · 2025-12-19T21:44:00Z

🚀 This is included in version v3.69.0

test

44fd301

github-actions bot added the created-by: Payload team label Dec 19, 2025

AlessioGr added 17 commits December 18, 2025 17:18

test against mongo atlas

de4c01e

remove mongo memory db

53a126c

simplify main.yml, incorrect env variables

bb8e646

also start up mongodb when using cosmosdb, documentdb or firestore

142f973

fix some actions.yml errors

454513d

cache db docker images

f70b68c

fix mongo transaction and ci docker cache issues

f1d2b5d

fix docker caching

b7e1653

fix attempt

8e3fab8

remove docker caching for now

7d45872

set fixed replica name for mongodb-atlas

392b35f

remove collation

ecc16e0

URI => URL

2ca8728

make DATABASE_URL for every db adapter

de37057

update contributing.md

8744d18

update .env.example

f98d681

fix plugin cloud storage not being able to connect to db

ac96216

AlessioGr changed the title ~~test: simplify db test setup~~ Dec 19, 2025

AlessioGr marked this pull request as ready for review December 19, 2025 08:44

AlessioGr requested a review from denolfe as a code owner December 19, 2025 08:44

AlessioGr commented Dec 19, 2025

View reviewed changes

test/dev.ts

await runInit(testSuiteArg, true)

if (shouldStartMemoryDB) {

await startMemoryDB()

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goodbye!

AlessioGr commented Dec 19, 2025

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AlessioGr enabled auto-merge (squash) December 19, 2025 08:52

denolfe approved these changes Dec 19, 2025

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AlessioGr merged commit e3c512a into main Dec 19, 2025
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AlessioGr deleted the test/dbs branch December 19, 2025 15:07

DanRibbens mentioned this pull request Dec 19, 2025

chore: revert fallback connection string for testing postgres #14990

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		@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
		# Sample creds for working locally with docker-compose

		MONGODB_URI=mongodb://localhost/payload-plugin-cloud-storage

test: improve database test setup #14982

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