# Cypress Mochawesome Report Only Shows the Last Spec — The Fix

Canonical: https://commareports.com/fix/cypress-mochawesome-report-only-last-spec
Published: 2026-11-02

> Cypress runs each spec file separately, so mochawesome writes one report per spec and the last one overwrites the rest. How to merge them with mochawesome-merge and marge, or let cypress-mochawesome-reporter do it.

# Cypress mochawesome report only shows the last spec

You ran `cypress run` across twelve spec files. The mochawesome report
opens fine — and contains exactly one of them. Run it again and it is a
different one.

Nothing is lost by the tests. The reports are overwriting each other.

## Why it happens

Cypress does not run your suite as one Mocha run. It runs **each spec
file as its own run**, in a fresh browser context, and starts the
reporter from scratch every time.

mochawesome writes `mochawesome.json` and `mochawesome.html` with
`overwrite: true` by default. Spec 1 writes the file, spec 2 replaces
it, and the last spec to finish is the report you see. In a parallel or
randomised order, "last" changes from run to run.

## Fix 1: one JSON per spec, merge, render

Tell mochawesome to keep every spec's output, as JSON only:

```js
// cypress.config.js
module.exports = defineConfig({
  reporter: "mochawesome",
  reporterOptions: {
    reportDir: "cypress/results",
    overwrite: false,
    html: false,
    json: true,
  },
});
```

With `overwrite: false` the files come out as `mochawesome.json`,
`mochawesome_001.json`, `mochawesome_002.json` and so on. Then merge
them and render once:

```bash
rm -rf cypress/results
npx cypress run || true
npx mochawesome-merge "cypress/results/*.json" -o merged.json
npx marge merged.json --reportDir mochawesome-report --inline
```

`marge` is the CLI of `mochawesome-report-generator`. `--inline` puts the
CSS and JS into the HTML instead of an `assets/` folder beside it, which
matters as soon as the file leaves the runner.

Write `merged.json` **outside** the results folder. Put it inside and the
next run's glob merges the previous merged file back in, doubling every
test.

## Fix 2: cypress-mochawesome-reporter

If you would rather not script the merge, `cypress-mochawesome-reporter`
does it inside Cypress:

```js
// cypress.config.js
module.exports = defineConfig({
  reporter: "cypress-mochawesome-reporter",
  reporterOptions: { embeddedScreenshots: true, inlineAssets: true },
  e2e: {
    setupNodeEvents(on) {
      require("cypress-mochawesome-reporter/plugin")(on);
    },
  },
});
```

```js
// cypress/support/e2e.js
import "cypress-mochawesome-reporter/register";
```

It merges the per-spec results when `cypress run` finishes and, with
`embeddedScreenshots`, puts the failure screenshot next to the failing
test — which the plain mochawesome setup does not do on its own. Miss
either the plugin line or the support import and you are back to one
spec, or to no report at all.

## The other ways the merge goes wrong

| Symptom                                 | Cause                                                     | Fix                                               |
| --------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- |
| Tests from yesterday in today's report  | Old JSON files still in the results folder                | `rm -rf cypress/results` before `cypress run`     |
| Every test appears twice                | `merged.json` written inside the globbed dir              | Write the merged file elsewhere                   |
| No report when a test fails in CI       | `cypress run` exits 1, later steps skipped                | `if: always()` / `when: always` on merge + render |
| Report has no styling once downloaded   | `assets/` folder left behind                              | `marge --inline`, or upload the whole folder      |
| `No files found` from mochawesome-merge | Unquoted glob expanded by the shell, or `html: true` only | Quote the glob; set `json: true`                  |
| Parallel CI shards each have a fragment | Each machine merged only its own specs                    | Collect every shard's JSON, merge once at the end |

## In CI

```yaml
- name: Cypress
  run: npx cypress run

- name: Build mochawesome report
  if: always()
  run: |
    npx mochawesome-merge "cypress/results/*.json" -o merged.json
    npx marge merged.json --reportDir mochawesome-report --inline
```

## Then get it read

A merged report sitting in a zipped [build
artifact](/glossary/build-artifact) is still one download and an unzip
away from anyone looking at it, and it expires under
[retention](/glossary/artifact-retention).

Publish `mochawesome-report/` instead and the report is a link that opens
in the browser. Publish to the same report on every run and each build
becomes a revision, so the run where a [flaky test](/glossary/flaky-test)
failed is still there next week. Reviewers comment on the failing test
itself instead of screenshotting it into chat ([comment on
HTML](/comment-on-html)). Scripts run in a sandboxed iframe, so the
mochawesome filters and charts keep working.

**Limits:** entry HTML 5 MB; assets 25 MB per file, 250 MB and 500 files
per report. A report with embedded base64 screenshots grows fast — keep
an eye on the 5 MB entry limit, or let screenshots upload as separate
files.

## Try it

Comma is free — unlimited reports, unlimited commenters, unlimited
revision history.

**[Publish a Cypress report →](https://commareports.com/)**

### Related

- [Share a mochawesome report](/share-mochawesome-report) · [Cypress reports](/share-cypress-report)
- [pytest-html report has no CSS](/fix/pytest-html-report-no-css) — the same `assets/` problem
- [Flaky test](/glossary/flaky-test) · [Test quarantine](/glossary/test-quarantine)
- [The CI artifact link expired](/fix/ci-artifact-expired)
- [Publish from CI](/docs/ci)