Failed to commit transaction when rolling back schema changes in Cucumber @After hook

Answer the exact question first

1. Safest way to revert DDL changes made in a @Before hook without triggering a “Failed to commit transaction” error

• Do not wrap the DDL in an ORM-managed transaction. Most RDBMSs issue an implicit COMMIT when a DDL statement runs, so the surrounding transaction is already closed.
• Record the exact DDL you executed, e.g., keep a list of SQL strings or the migration name.
• In the @After hook run compensating DDL outside any ORM transaction, e.g. DROP TABLE IF EXISTS … or DROP SCHEMA … CASCADE, using a new connection or a connection with auto-commit enabled.
• Alternatively, reset the schema to a clean baseline by dropping the test schema or database and recreating it per scenario.

2. Cucumber’s built-in support for per-scenario isolated databases

• Cucumber-JVM only orchestrates scenario execution; it does not provide per-scenario database isolation or transaction management. Isolation is the responsibility of the test framework, ORM or custom hooks.
• Common patterns are a fresh schema or database per scenario dropped in @After, or a transaction-aware ORM that can start a new transaction per scenario and roll it back for DML only.

3. Detecting and handling a failed transaction commit in an @After hook

• Before calling commit() or rollback(), check connection state and auto-commit.

Connection conn = dataSource.getConnection();
if (!conn.getAutoCommit() && !conn.isClosed()) {
    try { conn.rollback(); } catch (SQLException e) { log.warn("Rollback failed", e); }
}

• Run compensating DDL with auto-commit enabled or in a fresh connection; catch SQLException and log it. If cleanup cannot be guaranteed, fail the scenario to avoid silent pollution.

Practical steps for this case

1. In @Before, execute DDL directly via native query, do not start a transaction.
2. Store the DDL statements in a List<String> for the @After hook.
3. In @After:
   1. Check conn.getAutoCommit(); if false, rollback inside try/catch.
   2. Run compensating DDL in a new connection with auto-commit enabled.
   3. Optionally drop the entire test schema: DROP SCHEMA IF EXISTS test_uuid CASCADE;
4. Log every step. Fail the scenario if cleanup fails.

Likely explanation vs confirmed facts

Confirmed: Cucumber-JVM does not provide built-in per-scenario DB isolation. Confirmed: most relational databases cause an implicit commit on DDL, so a surrounding transaction is ended by the database.

Likely explanation for the error: the ORM attempts to commit or rollback a transaction that is already closed because DDL auto-committed, and the driver reports the commit failure when the hook runs.

Missing diagnostic detail

Which database and ORM/driver you are using changes the exact compensating DDL syntax and auto-commit behavior. Confirming that will let you choose the correct drop statements and connection handling.