---
title: Test your project
meta:
  description: Set up local checks, fixtures, ingest API tests, and test suites for your Tinybird project.
---

# Test your project

Test your data project before deploying to Tinybird Cloud. Use this guide to validate deployments, load fixture data, call local ingest APIs, and run YAML test suites.

You can validate and test with these workflows:

- Check the deployment before creating it.
- Create fixture files in your project.
- Ingest sample data through local APIs.
- Run and update YAML tests with `tb test`.

## Check deployment

After finishing development, run `tb deploy --check` to validate the deployment before creating it.

```shell
tb deploy --check
```

## Connection checks

When you run `tb deploy --check` (local) or `tb --cloud deploy --check` (cloud), Tinybird validates [external connections](/forward/core-concepts/connections) to S3, Kafka, GCS, and databases referenced via [table functions](/forward/ingest-data/table-functions).

For local checks:

- Use [tb secret set](/forward/dev-reference/commands/tb-secret) to store connection secrets.
- If you use [S3 locally](/forward/ingest-data/connectors/s3#local-environment), start Tinybird Local with `tb local start --use-aws-creds`.

## Fixture files

Fixtures are sample files stored in the `fixtures/` folder.

```text
my-app/
├─ datasources/
│  ├─ user_actions.datasource
│  └─ ...
├─ fixtures/
│  ├─ user_actions.ndjson
│  └─ ...
```

Create fixtures manually. For example:

```shell
cat > fixtures/user_actions.ndjson <<'EOF'
{"timestamp":"2026-01-01 00:00:00","action":"CLICKED","user_id":"u_1"}
{"timestamp":"2026-01-01 00:01:00","action":"VIEWED","user_id":"u_2"}
EOF
```

When fixture files match the data source name (for example, `fixtures/user_actions.ndjson` for `datasources/user_actions.datasource`), `tb build` loads them automatically.

If you use custom fixture filenames, append them manually:

```shell
tb datasource append user_actions --file fixtures/custom_user_actions.ndjson
```

## Call the ingest APIs

You can also test by calling local ingest APIs:

- Send events to the local [Events API](/api-reference/events-api).
- Ingest files through the [Data Sources API](/api-reference/datasource-api).

Get a token with `tb token ls`, then call your local endpoint:

{% tabs initial="cURL (Events API)" %}

{% tab label="cURL (Events API)" %}

```shell
curl \
      -X POST 'http://localhost:7181/v0/events?name=<your_datasource>' \
      -H "Authorization: Bearer <your_token>" \
      -d $'<your_data>'
```

{% /tab %}

{% tab label="Local file (Data sources API)" %}

```shell
curl \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <your-token>" \
-X POST "http://localhost:7181/v0/datasources?mode=append&name=<your_datasource>" \
-F csv=@local_file.csv
```
{% /tab %}

{% tab label="Remote file (Data sources API)" %}

```shell
curl \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <your-token>" \
-X POST "http://localhost:7181/v0/datasources?mode=append&name=<your_datasource>" \
-d url='<https://s3.amazonaws.com/remote_file.csv>'
```
{% /tab %}

{% /tabs %}

## Create a test suite

Create test YAML files manually in the `tests/` folder.

Example `tests/user_action_insights_widget.yaml`:

```yaml
- name: user_action_insights_widget_clicked
  description: Returns user actions filtered by CLICKED
  expected_http_status: 200
  parameters: action=CLICKED
  expected_result: |
    {"action":"CLICKED", "user_id":"u_1"}
```

Then run tests:

```shell
tb test run
```

To refresh expected results for a test file or resource:

```shell
tb test update user_action_insights_widget
```

Copy Pipes write into target data sources instead of returning rows directly. To test them:

1. Create a YAML test file for the copy pipe in `tests/`.
2. Run `tb copy run <copy_pipe>` to populate the target data source.
3. Run `tb test update <copy_pipe>` to capture expected results.

## Next steps

- Make changes to your data sources and test them. See [Evolve data sources](/forward/guides/evolve-data-source).
- Learn more about [deployments](/forward/core-concepts/deployments).
- Learn about datafiles, like `.datasource` and `.pipe` files. See [Datafiles](/forward/dev-reference/datafiles).