Server-Sent Events (SSE)

hitspec can test Server-Sent Events (SSE) endpoints. SSE is a standard for servers to push real-time updates to clients over a single HTTP connection. When hitspec detects a text/event-stream Content-Type in a response, it automatically parses the SSE events and makes them available in the test results. Events are shown in verbose console output and returned in JSON/API results.

Basic Usage

Connect to an SSE endpoint and assert on the events received:

### Listen to event stream
# @name eventStream

GET {{baseUrl}}/events
Accept: text/event-stream

>>>
expect status 200
expect header Content-Type contains "text/event-stream"
<<<

How It Works

hitspec sends the HTTP request normally (the Accept: text/event-stream header is set by your test file).
The server responds with Content-Type: text/event-stream and a body containing SSE-formatted events.
hitspec detects the content type and parses the response body into structured events.
Each event has optional id, type, and data fields per the SSE specification.
Parsed events appear in verbose output and in the JSON/API result under sseEvents.

Configuration

Control how long hitspec listens for events using the @timeout directive:

### Listen for 5 seconds
# @name longStream
# @timeout 5000

GET {{baseUrl}}/events
Accept: text/event-stream

>>>
expect status 200
<<<

Verbose Output

Run with --verbose to see parsed SSE events in the console:

  ✓ eventStream (234ms)
    SSE Events: 3 received
      [1] message: hello
      [2] update: {"count":42}
      [3] message: goodbye

Multi-line Data

SSE events with multiple data: lines are joined with newlines, per the SSE specification:

### Multi-line event data

GET {{baseUrl}}/events
Accept: text/event-stream

>>>
expect status 200
<<<

A server response like:

data: line one
data: line two
data: line three

Produces a single event with data equal to "line one\nline two\nline three".

Last modified on February 10, 2026

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Server-Sent Events (SSE)

Basic Usage

How It Works

Configuration

Verbose Output

Multi-line Data

​Basic Usage

​How It Works

​Configuration

​Verbose Output

​Multi-line Data

Basic Usage

How It Works

Configuration

Verbose Output

Multi-line Data