Small helper to conditionally re-record VCR cassettes

I find it annoying to iterate on a spec that relies on a recorded VCR casette Show archive.org snapshot . You constantly have to remove the same YAMLs file before you can re-run that still-red test.

With this little helper, you (or your coding agent) can do the same with RE_RECORD_VCR=true bundle exec rspec spec/path/to/recorded_spec.rb:

# spec/support/vcr.rb

RSpec.configure do |config|
  deleted_vcr_cassettes = []

  config.around(:each, :vcr) do |example|
    name = example.metadata[:full_description].split(/\s+/, 2).join('/').underscore.gsub(/[^\w\/]+/, '_')
    options = example.metadata.slice(:record, :match_requests_on).except(:example_group)

    if %w[true 1].include?(ENV['RE_RECORD_VCR'])
      unless deleted_vcr_cassettes.include?(name)
        cassette_path = File.join(VCR.configuration.cassette_library_dir, "#{name}.yml")
        FileUtils.rm_f(cassette_path)
        deleted_vcr_cassettes << name
      end

      options[:record] = :new_episodes
    end

    VCR.use_cassette(name, options) { example.call }
  end
end

Small helper to conditionally re-record VCR cassettes

See also