# Splitting tests in CI

AVA automatically detects whether your CI environment supports parallel builds using [ci-parallel-vars](https://www.npmjs.com/package/ci-parallel-vars). When parallel builds support is detected, AVA sorts the all detected test files by name, and splits them into chunks. Each CI machine is assigned a chunk (subset) of the tests, and then each chunk is run in parallel.

To disable this feature, set `utilizeParallelBuilds` to `false` in your [AVA configuration](/docs/06-configuration.md#options).

To better distribute the tests across the machines, you can configure a custom comparator function:

**`ava.config.js`:**

```js
import fs from 'node:fs';

// Assuming 'test-data.json' structure is:
// {
// 	'tests/test1.js': { order: 1 },
// 	'tests/test2.js': { order: 0 }
// }
const testData = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('test-data.json', 'utf8'));

export default {
	sortTestFiles: (file1, file2) => testData[file1].order - testData[file2].order,
};
```

## Splitting tests on GitHub Actions

Although GitHub Actions doesn't support parallel builds out-of-the-box with AVA, you can configure it manually by using a matrix:

**`.github/workflows/test.yml`:**

```yml
on: push
jobs:
  test:
    strategy:
      # Don't cancel test runs if one fails
      fail-fast: false
      # Run 4 jobs in parallel, each executing a subset of all tests
      matrix:
        node_index: [0, 1, 2, 3]
        total_nodes: [4]

    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      # Check out code and perform setup steps
      # ...

      - name: Test
        run: npx ava
        env:
          CI_NODE_INDEX: ${{ matrix.node_index }}
          CI_NODE_TOTAL: ${{ matrix.total_nodes }}
```