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Pact command line tools

There are Pact implementations written in more than 10 languages (see the sidebar of this page for a full list). The Pact tests for the consumer side of an integration are usually written in the same language as the consumer itself, as they typically run as part of the consumer's unit test suite. On the provider side, the verification tests can be run using either the Pact verifications API for that language, or by running the Pact provider verifier CLI (see below). Under the hood, many of the languages use the CLI themselves, and wrap native language syntax sugar around some of the features.

Provider verifier​

You can run Pact verifications against any provider, regardless of its implementation language, using one of the following tools.

Having a standard method of executing your Pact provider verifications can be very useful if you want to build Pact into your CI/CD pipeline in a standard way across all your languages.

We have two command line verification tools to choose from, but in most cases, you should stick with the newer native binary.

Native binary (new)​

Our Pact Provider Verifier is distributed as a native binary, that can test both HTTP and Message Based interactions.

Ruby based (legacy)​

Our Ruby based Pact Provider Verifier is packaged as a Docker image and a standalone executable (see the Distributions section below). If your Pact verification tests are going to be running on Docker anyway, and you are using one of the Pact implementations that "wrap" the Pact Ruby Standalone (PactJS v2, PactNet, PactPython, PactPHP, Pact Swift, Pact Go) then you will have better performance running the Pact verification Docker image, rather than installing the standalone into a Docker image.

You should use this version only if the native binary doesn't work for you.

Pact Broker CLI​

The Pact command line tools include a command line interface to the Pact Broker. You can read more about it here.

Stub Service​

The pact files that are generated from your tests can be used to support other tests by using one of the stub service implementations. There is a Ruby implementation that is available in the distributions listed below, and a native binary implementation.

In most cases, you should stick with the native binary.

Distributions​

Pact CLI​

The Pact CLI is packaged as a Docker image. It contains the Ruby implementations of the provider verifier, Pact Broker CLI, mock service and stub service.

Pact Ruby Standalone​

The pact-ruby-standalone is an earlier packaging of the same tools that are now made available in the pact-cli Docker image. This is a good option if your builds cannot use Docker. It can be installed as a standalone executable for Linux, Mac and Windows. As it has its own version of Ruby contained within the package, you do not need to install Ruby on the machine. If you are using Mac or Linux, you do need to have bash installed however.

The package and is available here (scroll down to the Installation section of the release notes for installation instructions).

Brew​

You can install the pact-ruby-standalone using this Homebrew custom repository.