Behave Runner

A VS Code extension for running, debugging, and navigating Behave (Python BDD) scenarios.

Features

Run & Debug Scenarios

Run or debug Behave scenarios directly from your .feature files using CodeLens.

• Run Scenario: Click the play button above any Scenario or Scenario Outline
• Debug Scenario: Click the bug button to start a debugging session
• Run Feature: Run all scenarios in a feature file

Go to Step Definition

Ctrl+Click (Cmd+Click on Mac) on any step in a .feature file to navigate to its Python definition.

Supports all Behave patterns:

• Typed placeholders: {name:d}, {value:f}, {word:w}
• Untyped placeholders: {name}
• Scenario Outline placeholders: <variable>

Find Step Usages

Ctrl+Click (Cmd+Click on Mac) on a step function in Python to see all .feature files where that step is used. This works on any function decorated with @given, @when, @then, or @step.

Step Autocomplete

Start typing a step after Given, When, Then, And, or But and get autocomplete suggestions based on your existing Python step definitions.

• Filters suggestions by keyword (Given shows @given + @step definitions)
• Converts Behave placeholders to VS Code snippets for easy tab completion
• Resolves And/But to their parent keyword for accurate filtering

Undefined Step Diagnostics

Get real-time warnings for steps in .feature files that don't have a matching Python definition. Undefined steps are highlighted with a yellow underline.

Document Formatting

Format your .feature files with proper Gherkin indentation and table alignment.

• Format Document: Use Shift+Alt+F (or Shift+Option+F on Mac) to format the entire file
• Format Selection: Select a range and format just that section
• Proper indentation for Feature, Scenario, steps, and tables
• Automatic table column alignment
• Tag and doc string formatting
• Supports Rule keyword with nested indentation

Syntax Highlighting

Full syntax highlighting for .feature files including keywords, strings, comments, tags, and data tables.

Configuration

Setting	Description	Default
behaveRunner.debug.justMyCode	Only debug user code (skip library code)	true
behaveRunner.stepDefinitions.patterns	Glob patterns for Python step definition files	["**/steps/**/*.py", "**/*_steps.py", "**/step_*.py", "**/steps.py"]
behaveRunner.featureFiles.patterns	Glob patterns for Gherkin feature files	["**/*.feature"]
behaveRunner.additionalArgs	Additional command-line arguments to pass to Behave	[]

Example: Additional Arguments

To disable output capturing (useful for debugging with print statements):

{
  "behaveRunner.additionalArgs": ["--no-capture", "--no-capture-stderr"]
}

Common Behave arguments:

• --no-capture - Don't capture stdout
• --no-capture-stderr - Don't capture stderr
• --tags=@smoke - Run only scenarios with specific tags
• --dry-run - Invokes formatters without running steps
• --no-skipped - Don't print skipped steps

Requirements

• Python with Behave installed (pip install behave)