copy attached break_test.feature Run behat with last argument as fullpath of above file Make sure you see "Paused. Press Enter/Return to continue..." and behat should wait for you to press Enter/Return key. If possible check this on Mac/windows/linux to ensure you don't see any problem with break message. On windows: run behat fetaure and make sure you get normal breakpoint message. Download latest version of ansicon from https://github.com/adoxa/ansicon/downloads Unzip and run it from console x64/ansicon.exe -I run behat feature and make sure you get colored breakpoint message. For Linux, please try with multiple terminal clients. Read http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prompt-HOWTO/x361.html and the section on save/restore. Try some of the named terminal clients.