Publishing Pester Results in Azure DevOps

Once you have configured Pester to generate XML reports (see Pester CI/CD Integration), the next step is to configure your Azure DevOps pipeline to ingest these files so they appear in the "Tests" and "Code Coverage" tabs.

Parent Topic: Pester CI/CD Integration Related: Pester Testing in PowerShell

1. The Pipeline YAML

You need to add two specific tasks to your azure-pipelines.yml file after the step that runs your Pester script.

Task: Publish Test Results

This task reads the NUnit XML file and populates the "Tests" tab in the pipeline run.

- task: PublishTestResults@2
  displayName: 'Publish Test Results'
  inputs:
    testResultsFormat: 'NUnit'
    testResultsFiles: '**/TestResults.xml'
    failTaskOnFailedTests: true

Task: Publish Code Coverage

This task reads the JaCoCo XML file and populates the "Code Coverage" tab.

- task: PublishCodeCoverageResults@2
  displayName: 'Publish Code Coverage'
  inputs:
    summaryFileLocation: '**/coverage.xml'
    failIfCoverageEmpty: true

2. Full Pipeline Example

Here is a complete example of a job that runs Pester on PowerShell 7 (pwsh) and publishes the results.

trigger:
- main

pool:
  vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

steps:
- task: PowerShell@2
  displayName: 'Run Pester Tests'
  inputs:
    targetType: 'inline'
    script: |
      # Install Pester if not present
      Install-Module Pester -Force -SkipPublisherCheck -Scope CurrentUser

      # Run the build script defined in the previous guide
      ./Build.ps1
    pwsh: true

- task: PublishTestResults@2
  displayName: 'Publish Test Results'
  condition: always() # Run even if tests fail
  inputs:
    testResultsFormat: 'NUnit'
    testResultsFiles: '**/Artifacts/TestResults.xml'
    failTaskOnFailedTests: true

- task: PublishCodeCoverageResults@2
  displayName: 'Publish Code Coverage'
  condition: always()
  inputs:
    summaryFileLocation: '**/Artifacts/coverage.xml'

3. Troubleshooting

No Results Found: Ensure the paths in testResultsFiles and summaryFileLocation match exactly where your Build.ps1 outputs them.
Condition: always(): It is crucial to add condition: always() to the publish tasks. If Pester detects a failed test, it usually exits with an error code, which would normally stop the pipeline before the results are published.

Return to Pester CI/CD Integration

Created: March 17, 2026 • Last Modified: February 23, 2026

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