Kotlin Test Adapter for VS Code
A Visual Studio Code extension that discovers, runs and reports Kotlin unit
tests authored with JUnit 5 in Gradle projects (single- or multi-module).
It uses VS Code's native Testing API,
so tests show up in the built-in Test Explorer view automatically. To use
the legacy hbenl.vscode-test-explorer
UI, install the ms-vscode.test-adapter-converter
extension which adapts the native API to the Test Adapter protocol.
Status
This is an MVP focused on:
- ✅ Kotlin + JUnit 5 test discovery (regex-based, no LSP required)
- ✅ Gradle multi-module support (auto-discovers subprojects)
- ✅ Run via Gradle (
./gradlew :module:test --tests ...)
- ✅ JUnit XML result parsing (pass / fail / skipped, durations, messages)
- ✅ Refresh on file save / via command
- ⏳ Debug support (currently falls back to Run; planned)
- ⏳ Kotest / Spek (planned)
- ⏳ kotlin-lsp powered semantic discovery (planned)
How discovery works
- The extension scans each workspace folder for Gradle build scripts
(
build.gradle, build.gradle.kts, settings.gradle*).
- Every directory containing a build script becomes a module in the test
tree.
- For each module, files matching
kotlinTestAdapter.testSourceGlobs are
scanned with a lightweight Kotlin tokenizer that recognises:
- the
package declaration,
- top-level
class / object declarations,
- functions annotated with
@Test, @ParameterizedTest, @RepeatedTest or
@TestFactory.
- Results are grouped by class and surfaced in the Test Explorer.
Running tests
When you click ▶ on an item, the extension invokes Gradle in the workspace
folder for the corresponding module:
./gradlew :module:test --tests "fq.ClassName.methodName" --rerun-tasks --continue
Reports are read from build/test-results/<task>/*.xml and applied back to
each TestItem.
Configuration
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
kotlinTestAdapter.gradleCommand |
(auto) |
Override the Gradle command. Falls back to ./gradlew (or gradlew.bat) if a wrapper exists, otherwise gradle. |
kotlinTestAdapter.gradleExtraArgs |
[] |
Extra arguments appended to every Gradle invocation. |
kotlinTestAdapter.testSourceGlobs |
src/test/kotlin/**/*.kt, … |
Globs (relative to each module) used to find test files. |
kotlinTestAdapter.excludeGlobs |
**/build/**, **/.gradle/**, **/node_modules/** |
Globs excluded from discovery. |
Sample project
The repository ships with a multi-module Gradle Kotlin sample under
sample/ that you can use to try the extension:
sample/
├── settings.gradle.kts # includes :core and :app
├── build.gradle.kts
├── core/
│ ├── build.gradle.kts
│ └── src/{main,test}/kotlin/sample/core/
└── app/
├── build.gradle.kts
└── src/test/kotlin/sample/app/
Press F5 in this repository to launch a new Extension Development Host
already opened on the sample/ folder.
Building the extension
bun install
bun run compile
Then either press F5 or package with vsce package.
License
MIT
