fixtures

Imported from gencau/test-practices-agent-configurations (dataset/repos/prefecthq§prefect/tests/fixtures/AGENTS.md). Install upstream with npx skills add gencau/test-practices-agent-configurations --skill fixtures. Copyright stays with the author.

Test Fixtures

Shared pytest fixtures used across the test suite, organized by concern.

Key Contract

Server-side and client-side fixtures serve different purposes and should not be mixed.

• prefect_client / sync_prefect_client — Full SDK clients. For client-side tests.
• client / test_client — Raw HTTP clients against an ephemeral server. For server API tests.
• session — Async SQLAlchemy session. For server model/orchestration tests.

Fixture Files

• api.py — Ephemeral FastAPI app and HTTP test clients
• client.py — SDK client fixtures (prefect_client, sync_prefect_client, cloud_client)
• database.py — Database session, pre-built ORM objects (flow, flow_run, task_run, deployment, work_pool, blocks, etc.), and initialize_orchestration for testing orchestration rules
• events.py — Event client fixtures
• time.py — frozen_time, advance_time
• logging.py — Log handler reset (autouse)
• telemetry.py — Instrumentation fixtures
• storage.py — Local filesystem fixtures
• docker.py — Docker container helpers
• collections_registry.py — K8s job template fixtures
• deprecation.py — Deprecation warning helpers

Commonly Used Fixtures

For server tests, the typical fixture chain is:

session → flow → flow_run → task_run

Each creates an ORM object in the database and commits. Fixtures like deployment depend on flow, work_queue_1, and storage_document_id.

initialize_orchestration is the key fixture for testing orchestration rules — it sets up a FlowOrchestrationContext or TaskOrchestrationContext with configurable initial and proposed states.