[[command]]
name = "karma"
description = "JavaScript test runner (Testacular's successor) that launches browsers, serves the project's test files over a local loopback HTTP server, and reports results. start runs the suite (with --single-run it runs once and exits; otherwise it watches and re-runs), executing arbitrary user-authored test and config code in the browser and in the Node config; the config file (karma.conf.js, passed as a positional or discovered) is loaded and executed, so it can do anything the test setup does. run triggers a run against an already-running server and stop shuts one down, both over loopback. completion prints a shell-completion script. init interactively scaffolds a karma.conf.js in the working directory (a local file write). No subcommand reaches a remote host or installs anything; output files (coverage, reports) are produced only where the config directs, not via a CLI path flag. The project entered maintenance/deprecation in 2023 but remains widely used; the CLI surface is frozen."
url = "https://karma-runner.github.io/latest/index.html"
researched_version = "karma 6.4.x (final major; project deprecated 2023, CLI frozen)"
bare_flags = ["--help", "--version", "-h"]
examples_safe = [
"karma start --single-run",
"karma start karma.conf.js --single-run --browsers ChromeHeadless",
"karma run",
]
examples_denied = [
"karma init",
"karma start /etc/evil.conf.js",
"karma start ~/evil.conf.js",
"karma start ./ok.conf.js /etc/evil.conf.js",
"karma start --format-error /etc/evil.js",
]
# The config file is loaded and EXECUTED. `positional = "exec"` used to be declared here as well,
# because `dispatch_executor` returned the locus verdict INSTEAD of checking the flag policy — so
# `max_positional = 1` went unenforced and a second config path was neither counted nor gated
# (`karma start ./ok.conf.js /etc/evil.conf.js` was admitted). The gate was compensation for that.
#
# It is redundant now that the dispatch enforces the grammar: `max_positional = 1` allows at most
# one positional, and that one is the executor, which `executor = "file"` already locus-gates.
# Removed rather than left in place, so this entry says what karma is instead of also carrying a
# repair to something else. Verified by measurement, not inference — the two-config form still
# denies with no positional gate at all.
#
# The FLAG roles below are not redundant and stay: `--format-error` names a JS module karma
# requires and runs, and nothing else would gate it.
[command.path_gate]
# Valued flags authored explicitly, so a value is never walked as a positional and exec-gated by
# accident. `--format-error` names a JS module karma requires and runs; the rest are names, hosts
# and numbers.
[command.path_gate.flags]
"--format-error" = "exec"
"--reporters" = "ignore"
"--browsers" = "ignore"
"--hostname" = "ignore"
"--log-level" = "ignore"
"--port" = "ignore"
"--protocol" = "ignore"
"--report-slower-than" = "ignore"
[[command.sub]]
name = "start"
level = "SafeRead"
executor = "file"
bare = true
max_positional = 1
standalone = [
"--auto-watch", "--colors", "--detached", "--fail-on-empty-test-suite",
"--fail-on-failing-test-suite", "--help", "--no-auto-watch", "--no-colors",
"--no-fail-on-empty-test-suite", "--no-fail-on-failing-test-suite",
"--no-single-run", "--single-run", "-h",
]
valued = [
"--browsers", "--format-error", "--hostname", "--log-level", "--port",
"--protocol", "--report-slower-than", "--reporters",
]
[[command.sub]]
name = "run"
level = "SafeRead"
bare = true
max_positional = 0
standalone = ["--fail-on-empty-test-suite", "--help", "--no-refresh", "-h"]
valued = ["--port"]
[[command.sub]]
name = "stop"
level = "SafeRead"
bare = true
max_positional = 0
standalone = ["--help", "-h"]
valued = ["--port"]
[[command.sub]]
name = "completion"
level = "Inert"
max_positional = 0
standalone = ["--help", "-h"]