Publishing Drift Results to PactFlow

Working example

The example-bi-directional-provider-drift repository demonstrates a complete BDCT setup with Drift. Use it as a reference alongside this guide.

For a browser-based, interactive walkthrough, try the Killercoda BDCT tutorial.

After running Drift tests against your API, you can publish the results to PactFlow. This integrates your provider verification with PactFlow's Bi-Directional Contract Testing (BDCT) feature, giving you a complete picture of contract adherence across your system.

What You'll Learn

By the end of this guide, you'll be able to:

• Run Drift tests and capture results
• Publish verification results to PactFlow
• View results in the PactFlow UI
• Enable BDCT for comprehensive contract testing

Prerequisites

Before publishing to PactFlow, you need:

• PactFlow Account: Sign up for a free account
• API Token: From your PactFlow account settings
• Drift Installed: On your system or available in CI/CD
• OpenAPI Specification: Published in your repository
• Test Results: From running drift verify

Setting Up Authentication

Set these environment variables in your CI/CD system:

export PACT_BROKER_BASE_URL="https://your-pact-broker.example.com"
export PACT_BROKER_TOKEN="your-api-token"

Finding your token: Log in to PactFlow → Settings → API Tokens → Copy token

How It Works

┌──────────────────┐
│ Run Drift Tests  │
└────────┬─────────┘
         │
         ├─ Executes drift verify with --generate-result
         │
         ├─ Generates PactFlow-specific verification bundle
         │ (output/results/verification.{timestamp}.result)
         │
         ▼
┌──────────────────────────────┐
│ Publish to PactFlow          │
│ pactflow publish-provider... │
└────────┬─────────────────────┘
         │
         ├─ Sends OpenAPI spec
         │
         ├─ Sends verification results
         │
         ├─ Associates with provider version
         │
         ▼
┌────────────────────────────┐
│ PactFlow BDCT Dashboard    │
│ - Contract verification    │
│ - Coverage insights        │
│ - Consumer/Provider view   │
└────────────────────────────┘

Step 1: Run Drift Tests generating a PactFlow Verification Result Bundle

First, run your Drift tests with the --generate-result flag to generate a PactFlow-specific verification bundle:

drift verify \
  --test-files drift.yaml \
  --server-url http://localhost:8080 \
  --output-dir ./output \
  --generate-result

The --generate-result flag tells Drift to generate a special report format for PactFlow integration. This creates a verification result file with a timestamp in the name:

output/results/verification.20260211221227.result

The file follows the pattern: verification.{timestamp}.result where the timestamp is in YYYYMMDDHHmmss format.

Check that the bundle was generated:

ls -la output/results/verification.*.result

Step 2: Publish Results to PactFlow

After Drift tests complete, publish the results using the pactflow CLI. You'll need to reference the generated verification bundle file:

# Capture the exit code from Drift
EXIT_CODE=$?

# Find the generated verification bundle
VERIFICATION_FILE=$(ls output/results/verification.*.result | head -n 1)

# Publish to PactFlow
pactflow publish-provider-contract \
  openapi.yaml \
  --provider "my-product-api" \
  --provider-app-version "$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)" \
  --branch "$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)" \
  --content-type application/yaml \
  --verification-exit-code $EXIT_CODE \
  --verification-results "$VERIFICATION_FILE" \
  --verification-results-content-type application/vnd.smartbear.drift.result \
  --verifier drift

Key parameters:

• --provider - Unique name for your API (e.g., product-api, auth-service)
• --provider-app-version - Version identifier (commit SHA, tag, build number)
• --branch - Git branch name for tracking across versions
• --content-type application/yaml - Your OpenAPI spec format
• --verification-exit-code - Exit code from Drift (0 = success)
• --verification-results - Path to the generated verification bundle file (e.g., output/results/verification.20260211221227.result)
• --verification-results-content-type application/vnd.smartbear.drift.result - Must be this exact value
• --verifier drift - Identifies Drift as the verification tool

Step 3: View the results in PactFlow UI

TBC

Example Github Workflow

Create .github/workflows/contract-tests.yml:

name: Contract Tests

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
      - develop
  pull_request:

jobs:
  contract-tests:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    services:
      # Your API server (if needed)
      api:
        image: your-api:latest
        ports:
          - 8080:8080

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Install Drift
        run: |
          wget -O - https://download.pactflow.io/drift/latest/linux-x86_64.tgz | tar xz -C /usr/local/bin
          drift --version

      - name: Install PactFlow CLI
        run: |
          npm install -g @pactfoundation/pact-cli

      - name: Run Drift Tests
        run: |
          drift verify \
            --test-files drift.yaml \
            --server-url http://localhost:8080 \
            --output-dir ./output \
            --generate-result
        continue-on-error: true  # Continue even if tests fail, to publish results

      - name: Publish Results to PactFlow
        if: always()  # Run even if tests failed
        run: |
          export EXIT_CODE=${{ job.status == 'success' && '0' || '1' }}
          export VERIFICATION_FILE=$(ls output/results/verification.*.result | head -n 1)
          
          pactflow publish-provider-contract \
            openapi.yaml \
            --provider "my-product-api" \
            --provider-app-version "${{ github.sha }}" \
            --branch "${{ github.ref_name }}" \
            --content-type application/yaml \
            --verification-exit-code $EXIT_CODE \
            --verification-results "$VERIFICATION_FILE" \
            --verification-results-content-type application/vnd.smartbear.drift.result \
            --verifier drift
        env:
          PACT_BROKER_BASE_URL: ${{ secrets.PACT_BROKER_BASE_URL }}
          PACT_BROKER_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.PACT_BROKER_TOKEN }}

      - name: Upload Test Results
        if: always()
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
        with:
          name: drift-results
          path: output/

Setup in GitHub:

1. Go to repository → Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions
2. Add PACT_BROKER_BASE_URL and PACT_BROKER_TOKEN
3. Push to trigger the workflow