VS Code PHPUnit & Pest Test Explorer: Setup Guide

Originally published at recca0120.github.io I built a VS Code extension called PHPUnit & Pest Test Explorer , which has accumulated over 260,000 installs. This article covers everything: features, configuration, Pest support, Docker integration, and Xdebug debugging. Why I Built This Extension PHPUnit is the de facto testing framework in the PHP ecosystem, but running tests in VS Code has always been clunky. Either you open a terminal and type commands manually, or you use other extensions with limited functionality. What I wanted was: click a button to run a single test, click the stack trace to jump to the failing code, and make it work with Docker. Couldn't find anything that checked all the boxes, so I built one. Basic Features Once installed, the extension automatically detects phpunit.xml or phpunit.xml.dist in your project and lists all tests in VS Code's Test Explorer panel. Supported version range: PHPUnit 7 – 12 Pest 1 – 4 Running Tests Several ways to run tests: Click the pl