Hi Lukasz,
The boot features are installed in the early stage of the Karaf
bootstrap. That's why we have to add in the cfg file.
You can install a feature with the provided features just after the
bootstrap (in @before as you did).
So, what's exactly your request ? CoreOptions.featureInstall()
A bit self-answering: I’ve taken the class
https://github.com/apache/karaf/blob/master/itests/common/src/main/java/org/apache/karaf/itests/KarafTestSupport.java
and extended it, basing on tests from the same project.
Which resulted in another question on my side: is there really no option to