test: retry flaky system tests

[mschile]

• Closes N/A (no linked issue)

Additional details

• Adds optional retries support to the system test runner (ItOptions and localItFn default options) so individual tests can be retried on failure.
• Applies retries to known flaky system tests: downloads (5 retries), service worker / protocol (10 retries), and Vite dev server fresh (10 retries).

---

Note

Low Risk
Low risk: changes are confined to the system test harness and a handful of system specs, only affecting CI test retry behavior.

Overview
Adds optional retries support to systemTests.it (ItOptions) and applies it via Mocha’s this.retries() when generating per-browser tests.

Updates several known-flaky system tests to run with retries (e.g. downloads, service worker/protocol, Vite dev server fresh), and resets service-worker request counters within the retried onRun hook to avoid cross-attempt state leakage.

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Steps to test

• Run the affected system tests (e.g. yarn test-system scoped to downloads, service worker, or vite dev server specs) and confirm they run with retries on failure where configured.

How has the user experience changed?

• No user-facing change. CI/system test stability only.

PR Tasks

• Have tests been added/updated?
• [na] Has a PR for user-facing changes been opened in cypress-documentation?
• [na] Have API changes been updated in the type definitions?

[cursor]

Cursor Bugbot has reviewed your changes and found 2 potential issues.

Autofix Details

Bugbot Autofix prepared fixes for both issues found in the latest run.

• ✅ Fixed: Options-based retries never applied to Mocha tests
  • systemTests.it() now applies the configured retry count by calling this.retries(options.retries) inside the generated Mocha test callback.
• ✅ Fixed: Accumulated counter makes retries always fail after first attempt
  • The service worker request counter is reset at the start of onRun, so each retry attempt validates against a fresh counter value.

Or push these changes by commenting:

@cursor push 364f2ac9c7

Preview (364f2ac9c7)

diff --git a/system-tests/lib/system-tests.ts b/system-tests/lib/system-tests.ts
--- a/system-tests/lib/system-tests.ts
+++ b/system-tests/lib/system-tests.ts
@@ -537,6 +537,8 @@
     const testTitle = `${title} [${browser}]`
 
     return mochaItFn(testTitle, function () {
+      this.retries(options.retries)
+
       if (options.useSeparateBrowserSnapshots) {
         title = testTitle
       }

diff --git a/system-tests/test/service_worker_spec.js b/system-tests/test/service_worker_spec.js
--- a/system-tests/test/service_worker_spec.js
+++ b/system-tests/test/service_worker_spec.js
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@
     spec: 'service_worker.cy.js',
     retries: 10,
     onRun: async (exec, browser) => {
+      requestsForServiceWorkerCache = 0
       await exec()
       // Ensure that we only called this once even though we loaded the
       // service worker twice

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[cypress]

cypress    Run #69372

Run Properties:   Passed #69372  •  420aabb05e: updates

Project	cypress
Branch Review	mschile/retry_system_tests
Run status	Passed #69372
Run duration	18m 33s
Commit	420aabb05e: updates
Committer	Matthew Schile
View all properties for this run ↗︎

---

Test results
Failures	0
Flaky	11
Pending	1112
Skipped	0
Passing	27193
View all changes introduced in this branch ↗︎

UI Coverage  61.84%
Untested elements	27
Tested elements	47

Accessibility  98.98%
Failed rules	0 critical   3 serious   1 moderate   0 minor
Failed elements	19

[cursor]

Cursor Bugbot has reviewed your changes and found 1 potential issue.

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[cursor]

Default retries overrides suite-level Mocha retry inheritance

Low Severity

The retries: 0 default in DEFAULT_OPTIONS causes this.retries(0) to be called unconditionally for every systemTests.it() test. In Mocha, explicitly calling this.retries(0) is semantically different from never calling this.retries() — the former prevents the test from inheriting retry settings from a parent suite, while the latter allows inheritance. This means all systemTests.it() tests now silently override any suite-level retry configuration. The call to this.retries() would be better guarded with a condition like checking if options.retries was explicitly provided.

 

^{Triggered by project rule: Overview}