Bdd Scaffold

BDD Scaffold — Behave + Databricks Project Setup

Generate a complete Python Behave project structure pre-wired with Databricks SDK integration, including environment.py hooks, test isolation via ephemeral schemas, and behave.ini configuration.

When to use

• Starting a new BDD test suite for a Databricks project
• Adding Behave-based acceptance tests to an existing repo
• Setting up integration testing against Unity Catalog, pipelines, jobs, or Apps

Process

1. Detect project context

Identify the project root and existing tooling:

git rev-parse --show-toplevel

Check for existing test infrastructure: pyproject.toml, Makefile, behave.ini, features/ directory. If a features/ directory already exists, confirm before overwriting.

2. Determine test domains

Ask (or infer from the codebase) which Databricks domains to scaffold step files for:

Always generate common_steps.py (shared workspace connection, row counting, table existence checks).

3. Generate the directory structure

features/
├── environment.py           # Databricks SDK setup, ephemeral schema lifecycle
├── steps/
│   ├── common_steps.py      # Shared steps (always generated)
│   └── <domain>_steps.py    # Per-domain (based on step 2)
├── catalog/                 # Feature file directories (one per domain)
├── pipelines/
├── jobs/
├── apps/
└── sql/
behave.ini
Makefile                     # (append BDD targets if Makefile exists)

Refer to references/environment-template.md for the full environment.py template with:

• before_all: WorkspaceClient init, warehouse auto-discovery, ephemeral schema creation
• after_all: Schema cascade drop
• before_scenario / after_scenario: Per-scenario resource tracking and cleanup
• Tag-based hooks for @wip, @skip, @slow

Refer to references/behave-config.md for behave.ini and pyproject.toml configuration.

4. Add dependencies

If pyproject.toml exists and uses uv:

uv add --group test behave databricks-sdk httpx

If no pyproject.toml, create a minimal one with test dependencies.

5. Add Makefile targets

Append these targets (or create a Makefile if none exists):

.PHONY: bdd bdd-smoke bdd-report

bdd:
	uv run behave --format=pretty

bdd-smoke:
	uv run behave --tags="@smoke" --format=pretty

bdd-report:
	uv run behave --junit --junit-directory=reports/ --format=progress

6. Verify scaffold

Run behave --dry-run to confirm step discovery works and there are no import errors:

uv run behave --dry-run

Report the generated structure and next steps to the user.

Key design decisions

• Ephemeral schemas — each test run creates a timestamped schema (behave_test_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS) and drops it in after_all. Prevents cross-run contamination.
• -D userdata for parameterization — warehouse IDs, catalog names, and targets are passed via CLI args, never hardcoded.
• Step files are globally scoped in Behave — all files in steps/ are imported regardless of which feature runs. Name step patterns carefully to avoid collisions.

Additional resources

• references/environment-template.md — Full annotated environment.py template
• references/behave-config.md — behave.ini and pyproject.toml configuration reference