k6 Load Testing

Overview

k6 is a modern, developer-centric load testing tool that helps you write and execute performance tests for HTTP APIs, WebSocket endpoints, and browser scenarios. This skill provides comprehensive guidance on writing realistic load tests, configuring test scenarios (smoke, load, stress, spike, soak), analyzing results, and integrating with CI/CD pipelines.

Use this skill when you need to validate system performance, identify bottlenecks, ensure SLA compliance, or catch performance regressions before deployment.

When to Use This Skill

• Use when you need to load test HTTP APIs, WebSocket endpoints, or browser scenarios
• Use when setting up performance regression tests in CI/CD
• Use when analyzing system behavior under various load conditions
• Use when comparing performance between code changes
• Use when validating SLA requirements and performance budgets

k6 Basics

Installation

# macOS
brew install k6

# Windows
choco install k6

# Linux
sudo gpg -k
sudo gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/k6-archive-keyring.gpg --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys C5AD17C747E3415A3642D57D77C6C491D6AC1D69
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/k6-archive-keyring.gpg] https://dl.k6.io/deb stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/k6.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install k6

Quick Start

// simple-test.js
import http from 'k6/http';
import { check, sleep } from 'k6';

export const options = {
  vus: 10,
  duration: '30s',
};

export default function () {
  const res = http.get('https://httpbin.test.k6.io/get');
  
  check(res, {
    'status is 200': (r) => r.status === 200,
    'response time < 500ms': (r) => r.timings.duration < 500,
  });
  
  sleep(1);
}

Run with: k6 run simple-test.js

Test Configuration

Common Options

export const options = {
  // Virtual Users (concurrent users)
  vus: 100,
  
  // Test duration
  duration: '5m',
  
  // Or use stages for ramp-up/ramp-down
  stages: [
    { duration: '30s', target: 20 },   // Ramp up
    { duration: '1m', target: 100 },  // Stay at 100
    { duration: '30s', target: 0 },    // Ramp down
  ],
  
  // Thresholds (SLA)
  thresholds: {
    http_req_duration: ['p(95)<500'],  // 95% requests < 500ms
    http_req_failed: ['rate<0.01'],     // Error rate < 1%
  },
  
  // Load zones (distributed testing)
  ext: {
    loadimpact: {
      name: 'My Load Test',
      distribution: {
        'amazon:us:ashburn': { weight: 50 },
        'amazon:eu: Dublin': { weight: 50 },
      },
    },
  },
};

Test Types

HTTP Testing

Basic Requests

import http from 'k6/http';
import { check, sleep } from 'k6';

export default function () {
  // GET request
  const getRes = http.get('https://api.example.com/users');
  
  check(getRes, {
    'GET succeeded': (r) => r.status === 200,
    'has users': (r) => r.json('data.length') > 0,
  });

  // POST request with JSON body
  const postRes = http.post('https://api.example.com/users', 
    JSON.stringify({ name: 'Test User', email: 'test@example.com' }),
    {
      headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        'Authorization': 'Bearer ' + __ENV.API_TOKEN,
      },
    }
  );
  
  check(postRes, {
    'POST succeeded': (r) => r.status === 201,
    'user created': (r) => r.json('id') !== undefined,
  });

  sleep(1);
}

Request Chaining

import http from 'k6/http';
import { check } from 'k6';

export default function () {
  // Login and extract token
  const loginRes = http.post('https://api.example.com/login', 
    JSON.stringify({ email: 'test@example.com', password: 'password123' })
  );
  
  const token = loginRes.json('access_token');
  
  // Use token in subsequent requests
  const headers = {
    'Authorization': `Bearer ${token}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  };
  
  const profileRes = http.get('https://api.example.com/profile', {
    headers: headers,
  });
  
  check(profileRes, {
    'profile loaded': (r) => r.status === 200,
  });
}

Parameterized Testing

import http from 'k6/http';
import { check } from 'k6';

const usernames = ['user1', 'user2', 'user3', 'user4', 'user5'];

export default function () {
  // Use shared array with VU-specific index
  const username = usernames[__VU % usernames.length];
  
  const res = http.get(`https://api.example.com/users/${username}`);
  
  check(res, {
    'user found': (r) => r.status === 200,
  });
}

Browser Testing (k6 Browser)

import { browser } from 'k6/browser';

export const options = {
  scenarios: {
    browser_test: {
      executor: 'constant-vus',
      vus: 5,
      duration: '30s',
      browser: {
        type: 'chromium',
      },
    },
  },
};

export default async function () {
  const page = await browser.newPage();
  
  try {
    await page.goto('https://example.com');
    
    const title = await page.title();
    console.log(`Page title: ${title}`);
    
    // Click and interact
    await page.click('button[data-testid="submit"]');
    
    // Wait for response
    await page.waitForSelector('.success-message');
    
  } finally {
    await page.close();
  }
}

Install browser support: k6 install chromium

WebSocket Testing

import ws from 'k6/ws';
import { check } from 'k6';

export default function () {
  const url = 'wss://echo.websocket.org';
  
  ws.connect(url, {}, function (socket) {
    socket.on('open', () => {
      console.log('WebSocket connected');
      socket.send('Hello WebSocket');
    });
    
    socket.on('message', (data) => {
      console.log(`Received: ${data}`);
      check(data, {
        'echo received': (d) => d.includes('Hello'),
      });
    });
    
    socket.on('close', () => {
      console.log('WebSocket closed');
    });
    
    // Send periodic messages
    socket.setInterval(function () {
      socket.send('ping');
    }, 1000);
    
    // Close after 5 seconds
    socket.setTimeout(function () {
      socket.close();
    }, 5000);
  });
}

Data Handling

CSV Data Source

import http from 'k6/http';
import { check } from 'k6';
import { SharedArray } from 'k6/data';

// Option 1: Load once, shared across VUs
const users = new SharedArray('users', function () {
  return open('./users.csv').split('\n').slice(1).map(line => {
    const [email, password] = line.split(',');
    return { email, password };
  });
});

export default function () {
  const user = users[__VU % users.length];
  
  const res = http.post('https://api.example.com/login',
    JSON.stringify({ email: user.email, password: user.password })
  );
  
  check(res, { 'login successful': (r) => r.status === 200 });
}

JSON Data Source

import http from 'k6/http';
import { check } from 'k6';
import { SharedArray } from 'k6/data';

const products = new SharedArray('products', function () {
  return JSON.parse(open('./products.json'));
});

export default function () {
  const product = products[Math.floor(Math.random() * products.length)];
  
  const res = http.get(`https://api.example.com/products/${product.id}`);
  
  check(res, { 'product found': (r) => r.status === 200 });
}

Thresholds & SLA

Basic Thresholds

export const options = {
  vus: 50,
  duration: '2m',
  
  thresholds: {
    // Response time thresholds
    http_req_duration: ['p(95)<500', 'p(99)<1000'],
    
    // Error rate threshold
    http_req_failed: ['rate<0.01'],
    
    // Throughput threshold
    http_reqs: ['rate>100'],
  },
};

Advanced Thresholds

export const options = {
  thresholds: {
    // Multiple thresholds on same metric
    http_req_duration: [
      'p(90)<300',   // 90th percentile < 300ms
      'p(95)<500',  // 95th percentile < 500ms
      'p(99)<1000', // 99th percentile < 1s
      'avg<200',    // average < 200ms
    ],
    
    // Custom metrics
    my_custom_metric: ['avg<100'],
    
    // Abort on threshold failure
    'http_req_duration{method:GET}': ['p(95)<300'],
  },
};

Custom Metrics

Counters

import http from 'k6/http';
import { Counter, Trend, Rate, Gauge } from 'k6/metrics';

// Define custom metrics
const myCounter = new Counter('api_calls_total');
const responseTime = new Trend('response_time');
const errorRate = new Rate('error_rate');
const activeUsers = new Gauge('active_users');

export default function () {
  const res = http.get('https://api.example.com/data');
  
  // Increment counter
  myCounter.add(1);
  
  // Add to trend (for percentiles)
  responseTime.add(res.timings.duration);
  
  // Track error rate
  errorRate.add(res.status !== 200);
  
  // Set gauge value
  activeUsers.add(__VU);
  
  // Tagged metrics
  const taggedRes = http.get('https://api.example.com/users', {
    tags: { endpoint: 'users', env: 'prod' },
  });
}

CI/CD Integration

GitHub Actions

# .github/workflows/load-test.yml
name: Load Tests

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 2 * * *'  # Daily at 2 AM

jobs:
  load-test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      
      - name: Setup k6
        uses: grafana/k6-action@v0.2.0
        
      - name: Run load test
        env:
          API_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.API_TOKEN }}
        run: k6 run --out json=results.json load-test.js
        
      - name: Upload results
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: k6-results
          path: results.json
          
      - name: Check thresholds
        if: failure()
        run: |
          echo "Load test failed thresholds!"
          exit 1

GitLab CI

# .gitlab-ci.yml
load_test:
  image: grafana/k6:latest
  script:
    - k6 run load-test.js
  artifacts:
    when: always
    paths:
      - results.json
    reports:
      junit: results.xml

Results Analysis

Built-in Reports

# Text summary
k6 run load-test.js

# JSON output for parsing
k6 run --out json=results.json load-test.js

# InfluxDB + Grafana
k6 run --out influxdb=http://localhost:8086/k6 load-test.js

# Prometheus remote write
k6 run --out prometheus=localhost:9090/k6 load-test.js

# Cloud results
k6 run --out cloud load-test.js

Interpreting Results

Examples

Example 1: Basic API Load Test

import http from 'k6/http';
import { check, sleep } from 'k6';

export const options = {
  vus: 50,
  duration: '2m',
  thresholds: {
    http_req_duration: ['p(95)<500'],
    http_req_failed: ['rate<0.01'],
  },
};

export default function () {
  const res = http.get('https://api.example.com/users');
  
  check(res, {
    'status is 200': (r) => r.status === 200,
    'response time < 500ms': (r) => r.timings.duration < 500,
  });
  
  sleep(1);
}

Example 2: Test with Authentication and Data Parameterization

import http from 'k6/http';
import { check } from 'k6';
import { SharedArray } from 'k6/data';

const users = new SharedArray('users', function () {
  return JSON.parse(open('./users.json'));
});

export default function () {
  const user = users[__VU % users.length];
  
  const loginRes = http.post('https://api.example.com/login',
    JSON.stringify({ email: user.email, password: user.password })
  );
  
  const token = loginRes.json('access_token');
  
  const headers = { 'Authorization': `Bearer ${token}` };
  const res = http.get('https://api.example.com/profile', { headers });
  
  check(res, { 'profile loaded': (r) => r.status === 200 });
}

Best Practices

• Start with smoke test: Verify test works with 1-5 VUs before scaling up
• Use realistic data: Parameterize with real user data and behaviors
• Set meaningful thresholds: Match your SLA and business requirements
• Warm up systems: Include ramp-up time in stages
• Monitor external dependencies: Track not just your APIs but downstream services
• Use tags: Tag requests for granular analysis (tags: { endpoint: 'users' })
• Keep tests focused: One test file per scenario for clarity

Common Pitfalls

• Problem: Tests pass locally but fail in CI Solution: Ensure CI environment has similar resources and network conditions

• Problem: Inconsistent results between runs Solution: Check for external dependencies, random data, or test data pollution

• Problem: k6 runs out of memory Solution: Use SharedArray for large data, reduce VUs, or use --max-memory flag

• Problem: Thresholds too strict Solution: Start with relaxed thresholds, tighten based on historical data

Related Skills

• @performance-engineer - For broader performance optimization
• @api-testing-observability-api-mock - For API mocking during testing
• @application-performance-performance-optimization - For performance optimization

Additional Resources

• k6 Documentation
• k6 Examples
• k6 Load Testing Guides
• k6 Cloud