# Tdd Green

> Green phase of TDD — the smallest source change that makes a failing test pass. Use when the user has a red test and wants it green, or when tdd-loop needs the green phase.

- Skill: `sbradl/tdd-green` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add sbradl/tdd-green`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/sbradl/tdd-green/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: sbradl (https://skillmd.com/u/sbradl)
- Updated: 2026-09-22
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/sbradl/tdd-green

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# The green phase of TDD

The green phase takes one failing test to a **green** bar with the smallest source change that gets there. You start from a red test written in the red phase; you finish when the whole suite passes.

You edit source only. Test files are read-only and the mount enforces it — the bar goes green through source, every time. A test that looks like it needs to change is telling you the implementation is wrong: change the source instead.

## 1. Read the artifacts

Red hands you two **artifacts**: the failing test file and the runner transcript. Read the test and run it yourself — work from those, not from anyone's description of what the test needs.

From the transcript, name the exact gap — the missing symbol, or the assertion's expected-vs-actual. That gap is what the next source change closes, and nothing more.

## 2. Make the smallest change that could work

Choose the change by the **Transformation Priority Premise**: apply the transformation highest on this list that turns the current red green.

1. `{} → nil` — code where there was none, returning nothing
2. `nil → constant`
3. `constant → constant+` — a more elaborate constant
4. `constant → scalar` — a constant becomes a variable or argument
5. `statement → statements` — add unconditional code
6. `unconditional → if` — split the path with a condition
7. `scalar → array`
8. `array → container`
9. `statement → recursion`
10. `if → while`
11. `expression → function` — extract an expression into a named computation
12. `variable → assignment` — reassign an existing variable

Higher is simpler and safer. Faking it — returning the literal the test expects (`nil → constant`) — is legitimate green; a later test forces the code more generic. A constant that greens the current test **is done** — even when you can see the next case coming. Adding its handling now writes code no assertion pins; the next red is what forces the generality.

Write only what a currently-failing assertion demands: no unused branches, no speculative parameters, no handling for inputs nothing asserts.

## 3. Audit the change against the assertions

Before running the suite, read `git diff` of the source. For every line, branch, condition, parameter, and guard you added, name the assertion in the current test that fails without it. Revert anything you cannot tie to a failing assertion — a branch nothing forces down it, a parameter nothing passes, a validation nothing checks, a boundary nothing pins. The suite still has to go green with only what survives the audit; if it doesn't, you cut too much or the earlier choice was wrong.

This is what keeps coverage and mutation holes out of the suite: every construct exists because an assertion demanded it.

Then, if `CLAUDE.md` records a coverage command, run it scoped to the file you changed and read the report against your diff. Any line or branch you added that the suite does not execute is over-coding the audit missed — revert it and re-run. Coverage only proves a construct runs, not that anything pins its result; the batch-boundary mutation pass covers what it can't.

## 4. Run the full suite

Run every test, not just the one you started from. Paste the runner output verbatim into the conversation.

## Done

The pasted transcript shows the full suite passing — zero failures, zero errors — `git diff --name-only` lists no path under the test directory, and every construct in the source diff traces to an assertion (step 3). All hold → stop. Refactoring is the next phase, not this one.