#onlyFailures

• Type: boolean
• Default: false
• CLI: -f, --onlyFailures

Re-run only the test files that failed in the previous run.

When a change breaks several test files, verifying each fix normally costs you a full-suite run. With onlyFailures, Rstest remembers which files failed last time and runs only those, so each fix-and-verify round stays fast.

npx rstest --onlyFailures
# or the short flag
npx rstest -f

import { defineConfig } from '@rstest/core';

export default defineConfig({
  onlyFailures: true,
});

#Example

A change broke 2 of 14 test files:

npx rstest

 Test Files 2 failed | 12 passed

Fix the code, then verify with -f — only the 2 previously failed files run:

npx rstest -f

onlyFailures: running 2 of 14 test files (12 deselected).

Repeat until everything passes. Once no failure is left on record, the next -f run falls back to the full suite:

npx rstest -f

No failed tests found from the previous run. Running all tests.

#Which files are re-run

onlyFailures selects whole test files:

• If any test in a file failed, the entire file re-runs — including the tests in it that passed. Re-running individual failed test cases is not supported.
• A file that has never been run (for example, one you just added) has no failure record and is not selected. Run once without onlyFailures to include it.

#Failure records

Rstest keeps each test file's latest pass/fail state in node_modules/.cache/.rstest-results/ under the workspace root, refreshed after every run. In a multi-project setup, all projects share this single record file, with entries keyed by project. Delete the directory to reset the records.

Partial runs do not overwrite the records, so onlyFailures always works from the last complete run:

• Runs filtered with testNamePattern (-t), which execute only some of the tests in each file.
• Runs aborted by bail, which never reached the remaining files.

#Combining with other selection

onlyFailures only takes effect on full runs. When the run scope is specified in any of the following ways, that scope takes precedence and onlyFailures is ignored with a warning (the same applies when onlyFailures is set in the config file):

• File filters — npx rstest some.test.ts -f runs exactly the files you named, whether they failed last time or not.
• --changed / --related — the change-based selection already defines the scope. Run a plain npx rstest -f afterwards if you only want the failures from that run.
• testNamePattern (-t) — a name pattern must search every file for matching tests; narrowing to previously failed files would silently skip matches in files that passed.
• Watch mode — watch already re-runs the files you edit and provides a shortcut for re-running failed tests.