Maven Test Explorer Bridge

Bridge between Maven/Surefire and the VS Code Testing sidebar — no Microsoft Java Test Runner required.

Why?

When tests are run via Maven (from a terminal, a CI pipeline, or an AI agent like Claude Code), the VS Code Testing sidebar stays silent — it simply doesn't know what happened.

This extension fixes that. It watches target/surefire-reports/TEST-*.xml, parses the results, and pushes them into the native VS Code Testing UI automatically.

Maven runs the tests. VS Code shows the results. That's it.

Features

• Auto-discovery — finds all Maven modules and JUnit 5 test classes in the workspace
• Live sync — detects Surefire/Failsafe XML changes and updates the sidebar without any manual action
• Full JUnit 5 support — @Test, @ParameterizedTest, @RepeatedTest, @Nested (including deeply nested classes)
• Run from UI — run all tests, a single class, or a single method via Maven directly from Test Explorer; multi-selection supported
• Aggregate stats — each tree node shows | ✓N | ✗N | = N | T counts at a glance
• Run History — last 20 runs stored per workspace; restore any previous result set with one click
• Clear Results — wipes all pass/fail colours and returns the tree to a neutral state
• Re-run Failed — reruns only the classes that failed in the last run
• Copy... — right-click any test item to copy: Maven command, package name, class name (FQCN), full file path, or method name; works with multi-selection
• Codicon icons — test tree uses native VS Code icons: $(symbol-method) for methods, $(symbol-class) for classes, $(symbol-namespace) for packages

Requirements

• VS Code ^1.84.0
• Java project with pom.xml
• Maven available on PATH (or configured via mavenTestExplorer.mavenExecutable)
• JUnit 5 + Maven Surefire Plugin

Getting Started

1. Open a workspace containing a pom.xml
2. The extension activates automatically and builds the test tree
3. Run mvn clean test from any terminal — the sidebar updates on its own

Toolbar Buttons

Commands

All commands are available via Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P):

Configuration

{
  // Path to Maven executable
  "mavenTestExplorer.mavenExecutable": "mvn",

  // Maven goals to execute
  "mavenTestExplorer.defaultCommand": "clean test",

  // Maven profiles to activate
  "mavenTestExplorer.defaultProfiles": [],

  // Extra arguments appended to every Maven command
  "mavenTestExplorer.additionalArgs": "",

  // Glob patterns for report files
  "mavenTestExplorer.reportGlobs": [
    "**/target/surefire-reports/TEST-*.xml",
    "**/target/failsafe-reports/TEST-*.xml"
  ],

  // Watch report files and auto-refresh
  "mavenTestExplorer.watchReports": true,

  // Delete old reports before each run to avoid stale results
  "mavenTestExplorer.clearReportsBeforeRun": true,

  // Show the output channel when a run starts
  "mavenTestExplorer.showOutputChannel": true
}

How It Works

mvn clean test
      │
      ▼
target/surefire-reports/TEST-*.xml
      │
      ▼  (FileSystemWatcher, 500ms debounce)
 surefireParser
      │
      ▼
 resultPublisher  ──►  VS Code Testing API
      │
      ▼
 Test Explorer sidebar updated

For AI-agent workflows (Claude Code, etc.) the flow is identical — the agent runs Maven, the extension picks up the results.

Project Structure

src/
├── constants.ts           # All string literals and config keys
├── settings.ts            # Typed settings wrapper
├── mavenProjectDetector.ts # Finds pom.xml, extracts artifactId
├── javaTestScanner.ts     # Scans Java sources, detects @Test / @Nested
├── testTreeBuilder.ts     # Builds VS Code TestItem hierarchy
├── surefireParser.ts      # Parses TEST-*.xml via fast-xml-parser
├── resultPublisher.ts     # Pushes results into VS Code Testing API
├── mavenRunner.ts         # Spawns Maven process
├── reportWatcher.ts       # FileSystemWatcher + debounce
├── runHistory.ts          # Workspace-scoped run history
└── extension.ts           # Entry point, command registration

License

MIT © covenant-17