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Reproducing drupalci Failures Locally

When to Use

Use this when a CI job fails on your MR and you need to reproduce the failure locally before pushing a fix — faster than waiting for a full pipeline run.

Decision

Reproduction route Best for Requirement
ddev phpcs / ddev phpunit (via ddev-drupal-contrib) Day-to-day inner loop; contrib module development Docker + DDEV add-on already installed
gitlab-ci-local (drupal-ci-local wrapper) Running exact CI jobs locally; debugging job internals Docker
Push a commit and read the pipeline Browser/Nightwatch tests; full multi-version matrix None beyond a GitLab account

There is no Docker-free route to run the CI jobs locally.

Pattern

DDEV route (inner loop):

ddev phpcs
ddev phpstan
ddev phpunit web/modules/contrib/my_module/tests
ddev eslint
ddev stylelint

gitlab-ci-local route (full job reproduction):

npm install -g @laktawan/drupal-ci-local

drupal-ci-local          # run all jobs
drupal-ci-local phpunit  # run a single job by name
drupal-ci-local phpcs
# Artifacts land in .gitlab-ci-local/

phpcs — debug and fix:

vendor/bin/phpcs --standard=Drupal,DrupalPractice \
  --extensions=php,module,inc,install,test,profile,theme,info,txt,md,yml \
  path/to/module

# Auto-fix locally (never runs in CI):
vendor/bin/phpcbf --standard=Drupal,DrupalPractice path/to/module

phpunit — isolate a single test:

vendor/bin/phpunit -c web/core/phpunit.xml.dist \
  --filter testMySpecificTest web/modules/contrib/my_module/tests

phpunit failure types: - Test failure — assertion failed; fix the code or test logic - PHP warning — failOnWarning="true" in core/phpunit.xml.dist turns warnings into failures - Deprecation notice — controlled by SYMFONY_DEPRECATIONS_HELPER; fix the deprecated call

eslint / stylelint: jobs emit a _eslint.patch / _stylelint.patch artifact; run --fix locally, then push.

Common Mistakes

  • Wrong: Running phpcbf and pushing without re-running phpcs → Right: Always verify after auto-fix; phpcbf does not fix all violations
  • Wrong: Interpreting a local DDEV phpunit pass as CI parity when PHP/PHPUnit versions differ → Right: Environment must match _TARGET_PHP / _TARGET_CORE
  • Wrong: Using CI_DEBUG_SERVICES: "true" in committed configuration → Right: Use it sparingly; it floods artifact storage

What Does Not Reproduce Locally

  • Browser / Nightwatch tests — require a full browser stack
  • Full multi-version matrix (OPT_IN_TEST_PREVIOUS_MAJOR / _NEXT_MINOR) — run from the pipeline's manual trigger

See Also