K6 Performance Testing

A collection of Grafana k6 scripts for learning and practicing load and performance testing. Each script covers one k6 feature: HTTP methods, checks, thresholds, scenarios and executors, custom metrics, data parameterization, groups, and HTML reporting.

Prerequisites

• k6 installed locally

  # macOS
  brew install k6
  
  # verify
  k6 version

• Network access. Several scripts import remote modules at runtime (papaparse, faker, k6-reporter) and call public test sites.

Project Structure

K6/
├── scripts/                     # Core k6 feature examples
│   ├── get_script.js            # Basic GET request
│   ├── post_script.js           # POST login with a JSON payload
│   ├── checks.js                # Response assertions with check()
│   ├── thresholds.js            # Pass/fail criteria with abortOnFail
│   ├── k6_script.js             # Ramping stages, thresholds, HTML report, BASE_URL env var
│   ├── scenarios-executors.js   # Every executor type (uncomment the one to run)
│   ├── metrics-outputs.js       # Custom Trend, Counter, Gauge and Rate metrics
│   ├── quickpizza.js            # End-to-end user journey: home → login → pizza recommendation → rating
│   ├── faker.js                 # Random test data with Faker
│   ├── user_groups.js           # Grouped requests with an HTML report
│   └── traffic_distribution.js  # Weighted traffic split across pages (60/20/20)
├── httpMethods/
│   ├── httpBatch.js             # Parallel requests with http.batch() (array form)
│   └── httpBatchObjects.js      # Batch with request objects and named requests
└── dataParam/
    ├── csvRead/
    │   ├── csvRead.js           # Read credentials from CSV and send Basic Auth requests
    │   └── data.csv             # Username/password test data
    └── simple-data-param/
        ├── data-param.js        # Pick a random tag from a JSON file
        └── tags.json            # Tag test data

Running Scripts

Run any script with k6 run:

k6 run scripts/checks.js

Override options from the command line:

k6 run --vus 10 --duration 30s scripts/get_script.js

Scripts that read BASE_URL (k6_script.js, user_groups.js, traffic_distribution.js, quickpizza.js) default to QuickPizza, Grafana's public demo app for k6. Pass -e to point them at another target, such as a local copy started with docker run --rm -it -p 3333:3333 ghcr.io/grafana/quickpizza-local:latest:

k6 run -e BASE_URL=http://localhost:3333 scripts/k6_script.js

Scripts in dataParam/ open their data files with relative paths, so run them from inside their folder:

cd dataParam/csvRead && k6 run csvRead.js

Script Reference

Script	Concept	Target
scripts/get_script.js	Basic GET request	k6.io
scripts/post_script.js	POST with JSON body and headers	dummyjson.com
scripts/checks.js	Status, body content and size checks	reqres.in
scripts/thresholds.js	checks, http_req_blocked, http_req_duration thresholds with abortOnFail	reqres.in
scripts/k6_script.js	Ramp up/down stages, p95 and error-rate thresholds, handleSummary	quickpizza.grafana.com
scripts/scenarios-executors.js	per-vu-iterations, shared-iterations, constant-vus, ramping-vus, constant-arrival-rate, ramping-arrival-rate, externally-controlled	k6.io
scripts/metrics-outputs.js	Custom metrics (Trend, Counter, Gauge, Rate)	k6.io
scripts/quickpizza.js	Multi-step journey, token auth, JSON response parsing	quickpizza.grafana.com
scripts/faker.js	Generating random user data	—
scripts/user_groups.js	group() for sequential page flows	quickpizza.grafana.com
scripts/traffic_distribution.js	Probabilistic traffic split between pages	quickpizza.grafana.com
httpMethods/httpBatch.js	Parallel requests for pages, assets and APIs	quickpizza.grafana.com
httpMethods/httpBatchObjects.js	batch/batchPerHost options, named batch requests	example.com, duckduckgo.com, k6.io, grafana.com
dataParam/csvRead/csvRead.js	SharedArray + papaparse CSV, Basic Auth encoding	http://localhost/login
dataParam/simple-data-param/data-param.js	SharedArray with JSON data	http://localhost

Scenarios and Executors

Every scenario in scripts/scenarios-executors.js is commented out. Uncomment the one you want to try, then run:

k6 run scripts/scenarios-executors.js

Custom Metrics

scripts/metrics-outputs.js has sample blocks for each metric type. Only the Gauge block is active; uncomment the others to see how each one aggregates in the end-of-test summary.

HTML Reports

k6_script.js and user_groups.js use k6-reporter in handleSummary to write an HTML report when the run finishes:

Script	Output file
scripts/k6_script.js	report.html
scripts/user_groups.js	HTMLReport.html

traffic_distribution.js has the same hook commented out. Reports are written to the directory you run k6 from, and *.html files are ignored by git.

Resources

• k6 documentation
• Executors
• Thresholds
• Metrics