Windsurf
testing
Test Database Not Resetting Between Tests in Windsurf Project
Tests in your Windsurf-generated project fail intermittently because the database retains data from previous test runs. Tests that pass individually fail when run together, test order matters, and adding a new test breaks existing ones. The test suite is unreliable and developers lose confidence in the results.
Cascade generates tests that create database records but doesn't clean them up afterward. Test A inserts a user, Test B expects an empty users table, and Test B fails because Test A's user is still there. The problem gets worse as more tests are added, creating an increasingly tangled web of data dependencies.
The failures are often non-deterministic — they depend on which tests run first, whether a previous test run completed fully, and sometimes even on timing. This makes them extremely hard to debug.
Error Messages You Might See
Expected 1 row but found 5
Error: duplicate key value violates unique constraint
Test passed individually but fails in suite
Error: relation has dependent rows - cannot truncate
Expected empty array but received [previous test data]
Common Causes
- No afterEach cleanup — Tests create database records but don't have afterEach hooks to clean up created data
- Shared database between test runs — Tests use the development database instead of a dedicated test database that gets reset
- No transaction rollback — Tests don't wrap operations in transactions that get rolled back, so changes persist
- Truncation order wrong — Tables with foreign keys must be truncated in the correct order, or truncation fails silently
- Seed data conflicts — Database seeds run before tests and create data with fixed IDs that conflict with test-created records
- Parallel tests sharing state — Tests running in parallel write to the same tables and interfere with each other
How to Fix It
- Use transactions with rollback — Wrap each test in a database transaction and roll it back in afterEach. This is the fastest and cleanest approach
- Add truncation in beforeEach — Truncate all tables before each test with TRUNCATE TABLE ... CASCADE (PostgreSQL) or DELETE FROM (SQLite)
- Use a dedicated test database — Configure a separate database for tests in .env.test. Never run tests against your development or production database
- Install a test cleanup library — Use libraries like pg-mem (in-memory PostgreSQL), or prisma's test utils that handle cleanup automatically
- Isolate parallel tests — If running tests in parallel, use separate schemas or databases per worker to prevent interference
- Reset sequences and IDs — After truncation, reset auto-increment sequences so tests don't depend on specific ID values
Real developers can help you.
Sage Fulcher
Hey I'm Sage! Im a Boston area software engineer who grew up in South Florida. Ive worked at a ton of cool places like a telehealth kidney care startup that took part in a billion dollar merger (Cricket health/Interwell health), a boutique design agency where I got to work on a ton of exciting startups including a photography education app, a collegiate Esports league and more (Philosophie), a data analytics as a service startup in Cambridge (MA) as well as at Phillips and MIT Lincoln Lab where I designed and developed novel network security visualizations and analytics. I've been writing code and furiously devoted to using computers to make people’s lives easier for about 17 years. My degree is in making computers make pretty lights and sounds. Outside of work I love hip hop, the Celtics, professional wrestling, magic the gathering, photography, drumming, and guitars (both making and playing them)
Jacek Rozanski
Senior PHP/Symfony developer and DevOps engineer with 20+ years of professional experience, running opcode.pl (web development agency, est. 2004).
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ISHANTDEEP SINGH
Senior Software Engineer with 7+ years of experience in React, JavaScript, TypeScript, Next.js, and Node.js. I’ve also worked as a tech lead for startups, owning end-to-end technical execution including architecture, development, scaling, and delivery. I bring a strong mix of hands-on coding, product thinking, and technical leadership, and I’m comfortable building products from scratch as well as improving and scaling existing systems.
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Experienced Professional Full stack Developer with 8+ years of experience across react, python, js, ts, golang and react-native. Developed inhouse websearch tooling for AI before websearch was solved : )
PawelPloszaj
I'm fronted developer with 10+ years of experience with big projects. I have small backend background too
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As a Product Engineer at Klasio, I contributed to end-to-end product development, focusing on scalability, performance, and user experience.
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10 years as fullstack developer
Costea Adrian
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Taufan
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Get HelpFrequently Asked Questions
Should I use truncation or transaction rollback for test cleanup?
Transaction rollback is faster and cleaner — each test runs in a transaction that gets rolled back, leaving no trace. However, it doesn't work if your code commits transactions internally. Truncation is simpler but slower because it actually deletes and recreates data.
Why do my tests pass individually but fail together?
This is a classic sign of missing test isolation. One test creates data that another test doesn't expect. Add cleanup (truncation or rollback) in beforeEach or afterEach hooks so each test starts with a known database state.