Inline screenshots in system specs

I recently discovered a handy feature of rails system specs I wanted to share. This only works if you’re using the iTerm terminal on Mac.

Generate a new system test:

rails generate system_test example

Make sure the generated system test fails, for example by adding a the following:

assert_selector "h2", text: "I should fail!"

Run the test with the RAILS_SYSTEM_TESTING_SCREENSHOT ENV variable set to inline:

RAILS_SYSTEM_TESTING_SCREENSHOT=inline rails test:system

The failing test triggers a screenshot and renders it directly in the terminal, making it easy to debug the failure visually.

Read more about the available screenshot configurations in the official documentation.