How to Install and Set Up Cypress: A Complete Beginner's Guide

1. Installation

Cypress supports Windows 64/32, Linux 64, and macOS 64. This guide uses the Windows 64 version, downloadable from the official Cypress download site.

First install node.js from https://nodejs.org/en and add it to the system PATH.

Create a new directory (e.g., mycypress) and open a command prompt in that folder.

Run npm init and accept the defaults (press Enter repeatedly, then type yes and press Enter) to generate a package.json file.

Install Cypress as a development dependency:

npm install cypress --save-dev

2. Opening Cypress

After installation, launch Cypress from the project root with one of the following commands:

cypress open

npx cypress open

If the command is not found, navigate to F:\mycypress\node_modules\.bin and execute the command from there.

When the Cypress UI appears, select a test file (e.g., testlogin.js) to run and debug.

3. Project File Structure

The default Cypress project layout contains the following directories:

fixtures : stores external test data such as JSON files.

integration : holds test case files (extensions .js, .jsx, .coffee, .cjsx).

plugins : contains plugin files.

results : generated test report JSON files (configurable via cypress.json).

screenshots : automatically saved screenshots of failed tests, located under cypress/screenshots.

support : includes commands.js for custom commands that are loaded before test files.

videos : stores video recordings produced by cypress run.