Run your tests in CI with swc

swc is the Swastik Codes command-line tool: one file, nothing else to install. It runs collections with the same engine as the app, so a test that passes in the app passes in CI.

Install it

# Linux
curl -fsSL -o swc https://swastik.codes/download/files/swc-linux-x86_64
chmod +x swc && sudo mv swc /usr/local/bin/
swc version

On Windows, download swc-windows-x86_64.exe and put it in a folder on your PATH.

Run a collection

From a file exported from the app (or a Postman collection):

swc run shop.json -e staging.json

Or straight from your account, by id, so CI always runs the latest version. Create an API key in the app under Account → API keys, then:

export SWC_API_KEY=swc_...        # keep it in your CI's secret store
swc run <collection-id> -e <environment-id>

Find the ids in the app: right-click a collection or an environment and choose Copy id. The runner's Run in CI dialog also fills them in for you.

The exit code is 0 when every test passed and 1 otherwise, which is all a CI system needs to pass or fail the build.

Reports

swc run <collection-id> -e <environment-id> -r cli,junit,html

junit writes swc/swc-run-report-<time>.xml (choose the path with --reporter-junit-export); most CI systems show it as a test report. html writes a page to keep as a build artifact, and json a machine-readable result.

Other useful options: --folder <name or id> to run part of the collection, -d data.csv for a data file, --env-var key=value to override a variable, --bail to stop at the first failure.

A GitHub Actions job

name: API tests
on: [push, pull_request]
jobs:
  api:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Install swc
        run: curl -fsSL -o swc https://swastik.codes/download/files/swc-linux-x86_64 && chmod +x swc && sudo mv swc /usr/local/bin/
      - name: Run the collection
        env:
          SWC_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.SWC_API_KEY }}
        run: swc run <collection-id> -e <environment-id> -r cli,junit

You do not have to write this by hand: the runner's Run in CI button writes it for GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, Azure Pipelines and CircleCI.

Run only what a change affects

On a big collection, a pull request that touches one endpoint does not need every test. If the repository holds the API's code, swc can work out which requests call an endpoint that changed:

swc run <collection-id> -e <environment-id> --affected-since origin/main --project ./backend

It reads the routes in the code now and at origin/main, finds the endpoints that changed, and runs only the requests that call them. Run the full collection on your main branch as well, so nothing is missed.

What you learned

• swc run runs a collection from a file or your account and exits 1 when a test fails.
• -r junit gives your CI a test report; --affected-since runs only the requests a change touches.

Next: catch breaking API changes before they are merged.