How do tags work in Cucumber and how do you run only specific tagged scenarios?

@smoke @login
Feature: User login

  @positive
  Scenario: Successful login
    ...

  @negative @wip
  Scenario: Login with wrong password
    ...

Tags on a Feature apply to all its scenarios. Tags on a Scenario apply only to that scenario.

Running by tag — CLI:

# Run all @smoke scenarios
cucumber --tags @smoke

# Run @smoke but not @wip
cucumber --tags "@smoke and not @wip"

# Run @smoke OR @regression
cucumber --tags "@smoke or @regression"

Java @CucumberOptions:

@CucumberOptions(tags = "@smoke and not @wip")

Common tagging strategies:

• @smoke — fast, critical-path tests run on every PR
• @regression — full suite run on scheduled pipeline
• @wip — work in progress; excluded from CI
• @slow — separated to a nightly job
• @api / @ui — split suites by layer
• @JIRA-1234 — link scenarios to tickets (useful for traceability)

Tagging hooks — run setup only for specific tags:

@Before("@db")
public void setupDatabase() { /* runs only for @db tagged scenarios */ }