How to set up Jest + RTL on Vite & React

October 27, 2025

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Shelner

Environment

I’m using React, Vite, and TypeScript

Prepare a environment

npm create vite@latest
-> select React
-> select typescript

Install dependencies

npm install -D @testing-library/jest-dom @testing-library/react @testing-library/user-event @types/jest babel-jest identity-obj-proxy jest jest-environment-jsdom jsdom ts-jest

Create a `tsconfig.test.json`

/tsconfig.test.json

{
    "compilerOptions": {
        "target": "esnext",
        "module": "commonjs",
        "moduleResolution": "node",
        "esModuleInterop": true,
        "skipLibCheck": true,
        "strict": true,
        "jsx": "react-jsx",
        "types": [
            "jest",
            "@testing-library/jest-dom"
        ]
    },
    "include": [
        "**/*.test.tsx",
        "**/*.test.ts",
        "./jest.config.js",
        "tests",
        "src"
    ]
}

Create a `jest.config.js`

/jest.config.js

export default {
    testEnvironment: 'jsdom', // for DOM testing
    transform: {
        '^.+\\.(t|j)sx?$': [
            'ts-jest',
            { tsconfig: 'tsconfig.test.json' }
        ],
    },
    moduleNameMapper: {
        // Handle CSS imports (Vite style)
        '\\.(css|less|scss|sass)$': 'identity-obj-proxy',
        '\\.(svg|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|webp|avif)$': '<rootDir>/__mocks__/fileMock.js',
    },
    setupFilesAfterEnv: ['<rootDir>/src/setupTests.ts'],
};

Create a Mock

/__mocks__/fileMock.js

module.exports = 'test-file-stub';

Create a firs test

/src/App.test.tsx

import { render, screen } from '@testing-library/react';
import App from "./App"

it('renders React text', () => {
    render(<App />);
    expect(screen.getByText('Vite + React')).toBeInTheDocument();
});

Create a `setupTests.ts`

/src/setupTests.ts

import '@testing-library/jest-dom';

Add scripts

package.json

    "test": "jest",
    "test:watch": "jest --watch"

For svg

/src/custom.d.ts

declare module '*.svg' {
    const content: string;
    export default content;
}

Run test

npm run test

Successfully! Your first test for React, Vite, TypeScript, Jest, and React Testing Library!