Testing Skills With Subagents

Testing Skills With Subagents

Overview

Testing skills is just TDD applied to process documentation.

Choose your testing approach based on development phase:

• Fast variant: Quick iteration during skill development (15-30 min)
• Slow variant: Rigorous validation before deployment (45-90 min)

Announce at start: "I'm using the testing-skills-with-subagents skill."

Workflow

Follow this workflow exactly - do not skip steps:

graph TD
    a@{ shape: stadium, label: "Start: Announce Skill Usage" }
    b@{ shape: diam, label: "Variant Specified?" }
    c@{ shape: rect, label: "Ask Variant Question" }
    d@{ shape: diam, label: "Variant Choice?" }
    e@{ shape: rect, label: "Read variants/fast-conversational.md" }
    f@{ shape: rect, label: "Read variants/slow-isolated.md" }
    g@{ shape: stadium, label: "Execute Variant Workflow" }

    a --> b
    b -->|No| c
    b -->|Yes: Fast| e
    b -->|Yes: Slow| f
    c --> d
    d -->|Fast| e
    d -->|Slow| f
    e --> g
    f --> g

    classDef start fill:#ccffcc
    classDef decision fill:#ffffcc
    classDef action fill:#ccccff

    a:::start
    b:::decision
    d:::decision
    c:::action
    e:::action
    f:::action
    g:::start

Design Rationale: Mermaid flowchart provides visual enforcement of workflow sequence. Allows variant to be pre-specified to skip user question, enabling smoother workflow integration.

Step 1: Determine Testing Variant

First, check if variant was pre-specified:

Check conversation history and skill invocation context for explicit variant specification:

• Keywords: "fast variant", "slow variant", "conversational testing", "worktree-based testing"
• Pattern: User or calling skill explicitly specified which variant to use

IF variant was NOT specified:

• Use the AskUserQuestion tool with these exact parameters:

Question: "Which testing variant do you want to use?"

Options:

1. "Fast: Conversational testing with control scenarios" - 15-30 min iteration, lightweight logging, good for skill development
2. "Slow: Worktree-based isolated testing" - 45-90 min validation, full infrastructure, deployment-ready confidence

Trade-offs:

Step 2: Execute Selected Variant

IF user selected "Fast: Conversational testing":

• Read the file: variants/fast-conversational.md
• Follow ALL instructions in that file

IF user selected "Slow: Worktree-based testing":

• Read the file: variants/slow-isolated.md
• Follow ALL instructions in that file

Do NOT proceed without reading the selected variant file.

Error Handling

If variant file doesn't exist: Display this error message:

❌ Error: Variant file not found

Expected file: variants/{variant-name}.md

This indicates incomplete skill installation. Please check:
1. File structure is correct (.claude/skills/testing-skills-with-subagents/variants/)
2. Variant files exist (fast-conversational.md, slow-isolated.md)
3. Repository is up to date

Cannot proceed without variant file.

Design Rationale:

• <critical-instruction> tags ensure LLM doesn't skip file read
• Context passed forward but doesn't override variant's workflow
• Clear error message for missing files