Use a separate database for running tests in Laravel

One thing I always stumble upon when creating a new Laravel app (with the Breeze starter kit) is the default behavior when running tests: By default, the whole database will be wiped out and re-created from scratch. This means that all data in the database will be gone after running tests!

One way to fix this is adjusting phpunit.xml. It doesn’t matter if you use PHPUnit or Pest for testing, they both use this file for configuration. Inside the file, search for these two lines and un-comment them:

<!-- <env name="DB_CONNECTION" value="sqlite"/> -->
<!-- <env name="DB_DATABASE" value=":memory:"/> -->

After that, tests will from now on run in a separate database and no more data will be wiped out.