# RSpec

RSpec runner and formatters

Repository: https://github.com/rspec/rspec-core
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/rspec
Homepage: http://rspec.info
Language: Ruby
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: rspec, ruby
Archived: true
Last push: 2024-11-30T10:40:27+00:00
Link (homepage): http://rspec.info
Link (site_page): http://rspec.info/about
Link (site_page): http://rspec.info/documentation

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 6274, "days_push": 641, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: archived
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1229, forks 749 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:03.574818+00:00)

## What it is
RSpec is Ruby's behaviour-driven development (BDD) testing framework, composed of modular libraries: rspec-core (spec runner), rspec-expectations (readable matchers), rspec-mocks (test doubles), and rspec-rails (drop-in Rails integration replacing Minitest). Tests are written as plain-English specifications of application behaviour.

## Use cases
- test a ruby on rails application with rspec instead of minitest
- write readable behaviour-driven specs for ruby code
- mock and stub dependencies in unit tests with test doubles
- run a test suite from the command line with flexible reporting
- express expected outcomes with composable matchers

## When to choose
- you're building a Rails app and want a mature, idiomatic alternative to Minitest
- you prefer BDD-style, plain-English specifications over xUnit assertions
- you need a modular setup where the runner, matchers, and mocking libraries can be used independently

## When to avoid
- you're on an unsupported or very old Rails version without a matching rspec-rails major version
- your team is standardized on Minitest and doesn't want a second testing stack
- you need a framework-agnostic test runner for non-Ruby languages

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: testing, e2e-testing, mocking
- domain: testing, web-development, developer-tools
- platform: ruby, cli
- tags: bdd, test-framework, rails, spec-runner, test-doubles, matchers

## Member repositories
- rspec/rspec-core (main) score 10
- rspec/rspec-rails (plugin) score 77
- rspec/rspec-metagem (infra) score 10
- rspec/rspec-expectations (main) score 10
- rspec/rspec-mocks (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:03.574818+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:59:28.040383+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/rspec/rspec-core (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:03.574818+00:00, sha 7291a2c9195b)
  - homepage: http://rspec.info (fetched 2026-08-29T08:54:15.543053+00:00, sha fb85d6c6f71d)
  - site_page: http://rspec.info/about (fetched 2026-08-29T08:54:15.546813+00:00, sha 983be271fbb1)
  - site_page: http://rspec.info/documentation (fetched 2026-08-29T08:54:15.548525+00:00, sha 3d19eb7ba809)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.