---

name: spring-mvc-testing description: "Boot 4+ replaced MockMvc assertions with MockMvcTester — incompatible API your training data gets wrong. Read before writing any @WebMvcTest. Triggers: @WebMvcTest, MockMvc, MockMvcTester, @RestController, jsonPath, @GetMapping, @PostMapping, @AutoConfigureMockMvc, MockMvcRequestBuilders, status().isOk(), @RestControllerAdvice, contentType(APPLICATION_JSON)." version: 0.1.0 license: Apache-2.0

Spring MVC Testing

Signals: @WebMvcTest, MockMvc, jsonPath, @AutoConfigureMockMvc, @RestController, MockMvcRequestBuilders, MockMvcResultMatchers, objectMapper

Tested With

• Spring Boot 3.2+ / Spring Boot 4.x
• Spring Framework 6.x / Spring Framework 7.x
• Spring Security 6.x / 7.x (auto-configured in @WebMvcTest)
• JUnit 5

Do NOT Use This Skill When

• Testing authentication, authorization, CSRF, JWT, or OAuth2 specifically → use spring-security-testing
• Testing reactive endpoints (WebFlux, WebClient, SSE) → use spring-webflux-testing
• Testing JPA repositories or database persistence → use spring-jpa-testing
• Testing WebSocket or STOMP messaging → use spring-websocket-testing
• Writing pure unit tests without a Spring context → use spring-testing-fundamentals

When to Read References

Situation	Read
Setting up @WebMvcTest, MockMvc configuration, static imports	references/mvc-rest-testing-patterns.md
GET, POST, PUT, DELETE request patterns	references/mvc-rest-testing-patterns.md
jsonPath assertions, response headers, multipart uploads	references/mvc-rest-testing-patterns.md
Testing @Valid bean validation, @RestControllerAdvice exception handlers	references/mvc-rest-testing-patterns.md
Boot 4 RestTestClient migration	references/mvc-rest-testing-patterns.md
Anti-patterns and common mistakes	references/mvc-rest-testing-patterns.md