In config/environments/test.rb:

config.gem 'cucumber', :lib => false
config.gem 'webrat', :lib => false
config.gem 'rspec', :lib => false
config.gem 'rspec-rails', :lib => false
config.gem 'thoughtbot-shoulda',
           :lib    => false,
           :source => 'http://gems.github.com'
config.gem 'thoughtbot-factory_girl',
           :lib    => false,
           :source => "http://gems.github.com"

Then from the command line:

rake gems:install RAILS_ENV=test

Then put the following in features/env.rb:

require 'factory_girl'
require 'spec/factories' 
require 'shoulda'

Helper:

Given(/^I receive a message from "(.*?)" with data$/) do |from, table|
  # Convert AST table into hash
  data = table.raw.transpose.to_h # ".with_indifferent_access" if needed
  # Do something with the data
end

Test:

And I receive a message from "jebus@hell.com" with data
  | first_name | last_name | status | price |
  | Jebus | Hell | broken | 4€ |

When Capybara/Cucumber tests fail:

undefined method `+' for nil:NilClass (NoMethodError)
.../.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/minitest-5.10.1/lib/minitest/assertions.rb:135:in `assert'

Do this:

1. Install test-unit

gem 'test-unit'

1. Include assertions in env.rb

World Test::Unit::Assertions

POC for scripting Cucumber:

require 'cucumber'
opts = {
  strict: Cucumber::Core::Test::Result::StrictConfiguration.new,
  require: ["features/support", "features/step_definitions"],
  dry_run: false,
  formats: [['json', {}, outs]], # This is not working
  excludes: [],
  tag_expressions: [],
  tag_limits: {},
  name_regexps: [],
  env_vars: {},
  diff_enabled: true,
  snippets: true,
  source: true,
  duration: true,
  retry: 0,
  default_profile: "default"
}
configuration = Cucumber::Configuration.new(opts)
runtime = Cucumber::Runtime.new(configuration)
Cucumber::Cli::Main.new([]).execute!(runtime)