# Node's Own Test Runner for the JavaScript of the Page

**Status:**
- proposed: 2026-10-14
- accepted: 2026-10-14
- rejected: -
- superseded: -

**Decision [accepted]:** The build tests the JavaScript of the page with `node --test`, without npm packages:
the smallest new technology that tests the logic of the page.

## Context and Problem Statement

`dashboard/src/main/resources/static/index.html` holds all JavaScript of the page; no automated test checks it.
werkrevisor named the gap in werkregie PR#78, on the counting of the merges by day, week and month.
A test framework for JavaScript is a new technology in werkregie and needs the consent of the human.

### Technical Background

- The page is plain JavaScript in classic scripts, served by the dashboard; there is no bundler and no `package.json`.
- In the Werk family, werkbaum tests its frontend with Vitest and jsdom; Werkator builds it with `npm ci`,
  so its build host has Node.
- Node has a test runner and assertions of its own since Node 18 (`node:test`, `node:assert`).
- The licence allowlist of the required checks does not hold UPL-1.0, the licence of GraalJS.

## Considered Options

* `node --test` without npm
* Vitest and jsdom, as werkbaum
* GraalJS in the Kotest tests

### `node --test` without npm

A Gradle task runs `node --test` on test files next to the Kotlin tests; the tested functions move into a script of their own.

#### Advantages

- No package, so no lock file, no `npm audit` and no licence check for npm.
- Node exists on Werkator's build host already.

#### Disadvantages

- Only functions without the DOM are testable.
- Each machine that runs `./gradlew build` needs Node.

### Vitest and jsdom, as werkbaum

#### Advantages

- Tests of the rendered HTML too; the same tools as werkbaum.

#### Disadvantages

- npm packages: a lock file, and the npm checks of vulnerabilities and licences become binding.

### GraalJS in the Kotest tests

#### Advantages

- The build stays a JVM build.

#### Disadvantages

- A large dependency under UPL-1.0, outside the licence allowlist.

## Decision Outcome

`mi` chose `node --test` without npm on 2026-10-14.
A move to Vitest and jsdom stays open for when the rendered HTML needs tests.