Where does Serenity BDD write its HTML report?

`target/site/serenity/index.html`, after `mvn clean verify` followed by `mvn serenity:aggregate`. The Gradle plugin writes to the same `target/site/serenity` path by default, which surprises people expecting `build/reports`.

Why can't I just send index.html?

Because Serenity's report is a site, not a page. `index.html` is a summary that links to a page per requirement, a page per test, the step breakdown, and every screenshot the run captured. On its own it's an unstyled index with dead links — the evidence is in the files next to it.

The report has thousands of files. What do I do?

Turn the screenshot policy down. `serenity.take.screenshots=FOR_FAILURES` captures evidence only where it's needed, instead of one PNG per action, and takes the report from thousands of files to dozens. That's also the version reviewers actually want to read.

How do I publish it from a CI job?

Run the aggregate step, zip `target/site/serenity`, and publish it to a Comma report — PATCHing the same report id each run keeps one URL per branch and appends a revision, so a flaky test's history is visible instead of gone with the last build's artifacts.

Can someone comment on a specific failing step?

Yes. Threads anchor to the rendered content, so 'this step fails because the fixture data expired' sits on that step, and stays there when the suite runs again.

Share a Serenity BDD report

Serenity's output is unusually good and unusually hard to send. Two commands produce it:

mvn clean verify
mvn serenity:aggregate
# → target/site/serenity/index.html

Gradle users get the same path — the Serenity plugin writes to target/site/serenity rather than build/reports, which trips up almost everyone once.

What's in there is a site: the summary, a page per requirement, a page per test with the narrated step breakdown, the CSS and JS that make the tabs work, and every screenshot the run captured. The narrative is the product; a single index.html is a table of contents for files that aren't there.

Publish the directory

Zip target/site/serenity and drop it into Comma:

index.html becomes the report body.
Every requirement page, test page, stylesheet, script and screenshot uploads alongside, and the relative links between them are rewritten to the uploaded copies — so clicking from a failing scenario into the step that failed, and into the screenshot taken at that moment, still works.
Scripts run inside a sandboxed iframe with no same-origin access, so the tabs and filters behave — interactive HTML reports.

Trim the screenshots first

The default screenshot policy is generous. In serenity.properties:

serenity.take.screenshots=FOR_FAILURES

Options run from FOR_EACH_ACTION (a PNG per interaction — thousands of files on a real suite) down through AFTER_EACH_STEP and FOR_FAILURES to DISABLED. FOR_FAILURES is the setting that makes the report both publishable and readable: evidence where something went wrong, nothing where it didn't.

From CI

mvn clean verify -Dserenity.take.screenshots=FOR_FAILURES
mvn serenity:aggregate
zip -qr serenity.zip target/site/serenity

Publish the zip to a report id per branch. The URL stays stable and each run appends a revision — which is how you tell an intermittent failure from a new one, instead of losing last week's evidence to the artifact retention window. See publishing from CI and the Jenkins walkthrough, which covers the Content-Security-Policy setting that makes Jenkins serve these reports unstyled in the first place.

What review adds

Anchored threads on the failing step, next to the screenshot — commenting on HTML.
Revisions, so "this test has failed three nights running" is visible rather than remembered.
Access per report — private, team, domain-gated or link-based. See sharing & access control.

Limits

Assets: 25 MB per file, 250 MB and 500 files per report. A full-screenshot Serenity run blows past the file count; FOR_FAILURES is the fix, and it's the right setting anyway.
Entry HTML: 5 MB. 60 requests/minute per token.

Try it

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

Publish a Serenity report →