k6 Performance Lab

A professional performance testing suite built with Grafana k6, targeting the QuickPizza demo application. Covers all major performance test types with a clean, modular codebase and full observability via Grafana dashboards.

---

Tech Stack

Tool	Purpose
k6	Performance test scripting and execution
QuickPizza	Target application under test (Grafana's official k6 demo app)
InfluxDB	Stores k6 metrics output in real-time
Grafana	Visualizes metrics via auto-provisioned dashboards
Docker	Runs the full local observability stack
GitHub Actions	Runs smoke test on every push to main

---

Test Types

Test	File	VUs	Duration	Purpose
Smoke	tests/smoke-test.js	5	30s	Sanity check — is the system up?
Load	tests/load-test.js	50	5m	Normal + peak traffic simulation
Stress	tests/stress-test.js	200	~8m	Find performance degradation point
Spike	tests/spike-test.js	200	~3.5m	Sudden traffic burst recovery
Soak	tests/soak-test.js	50	~34m	Endurance — catch memory leaks
Breakpoint	tests/breakpoint-test.js	300	~12m	Find absolute system capacity ⚠️

---

Architecture

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                   Local Stack                    │
│                                                  │
│   k6 (local) ──► QuickPizza (Docker :3333)       │
│        │                                         │
│        └───► InfluxDB (Docker :8086)             │
│                   │                              │
│                   └──► Grafana (Docker :3000)    │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

---

Project Structure

k6-performance-lab/
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       └── k6-smoke.yml             # CI — runs smoke test on every push
├── docker-compose.yml               # Full local stack
├── run-tests.sh                     # Shell wrapper — loads .env and runs k6
├── .env.example                     # Environment variable template
├── config/
│   ├── env.js                       # Centralised env config with fallback defaults
│   └── options.js                   # Shared k6 options for all test types
├── utils/
│   ├── http-client.js               # Reusable HTTP request wrapper
│   └── checks.js                    # Shared k6 check functions
├── tests/
│   ├── smoke-test.js
│   ├── load-test.js
│   ├── stress-test.js
│   ├── spike-test.js
│   ├── soak-test.js
│   └── breakpoint-test.js
├── dashboards/
│   └── k6-dashboard.json            # Grafana dashboard (auto-provisioned)
├── grafana-provisioning/
│   ├── datasources/influxdb.yml     # Auto-provisions InfluxDB datasource
│   └── dashboards/dashboard.yml     # Auto-provisions k6 dashboard
└── docs/
    └── screenshots/                 # Grafana dashboard screenshots

---

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Docker Desktop
• k6 — brew install k6

---

1. Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/qa-ashutosh/k6-performance-lab.git
cd k6-performance-lab

---

2. Start the Docker stack

docker compose up -d

Service	URL
QuickPizza	http://localhost:3333
Grafana	http://localhost:3000
InfluxDB	http://localhost:8086

---

3. Get your Auth Token

1. Open http://localhost:3333
2. Click the user/profile icon top right
3. Copy the token shown

---

4. Set up environment

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env and paste your token

AUTH_TOKEN=your_token_here
BASE_URL=http://localhost:3333

---

5. Make run script executable (first time only)

chmod +x run-tests.sh

---

6. Run tests

# Smoke — quick sanity check
./run-tests.sh tests/smoke-test.js

# Load test
./run-tests.sh tests/load-test.js

# Stress test
./run-tests.sh tests/stress-test.js

# Spike test
./run-tests.sh tests/spike-test.js

# Soak test (~34 minutes)
./run-tests.sh tests/soak-test.js

# Breakpoint test (manual only)
./run-tests.sh tests/breakpoint-test.js

---

7. Run with Grafana live dashboard

./run-tests.sh --out influxdb=http://localhost:8086/k6 tests/load-test.js

Open http://localhost:3000 → k6 Performance Lab dashboard loads automatically.

---

8. Stop the stack

docker compose down

---

CI — GitHub Actions

Every push and pull request to main automatically runs the smoke test against the public QuickPizza endpoint.

To enable: add QUICKPIZZA_TOKEN as a GitHub Actions secret in your repo settings:

• Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions → New repository secret
• Name: QUICKPIZZA_TOKEN
• Value: your QuickPizza auth token

---

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
BASE_URL	http://localhost:3333	Target application URL
AUTH_TOKEN	``	QuickPizza API auth token
TARGET_VUS	50	Virtual user count override
DURATION	5m	Test duration override

---

Thresholds Summary

Test	Error Rate	p(95)	p(99)
Smoke	< 1%	< 800ms	—
Load	< 5%	< 1500ms	< 2500ms
Stress	< 10%	< 4000ms	< 6000ms
Spike	< 20%	< 8000ms	—
Soak	< 5%	< 1500ms	< 2500ms
Breakpoint	< 30%	< 10000ms	—

---

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines on adding tests, branch naming, and the PR process.

---

Roadmap

• Upgrade Grafana to latest with timeseries panel migration
• TypeScript migration for better IDE support
• HTML test reports via k6 web dashboard