Testing Workflow

Testing Workflow Skill

Purpose & Activation

This skill provides automatic insights on test execution status without requiring users to parse test output manually.

When This Skill Activates

The skill automatically activates when users mention:

• Test results ("What tests failed?")
• Test status ("Show me test coverage")
• Test failures ("Which tests are broken?")
• Test performance ("What tests are slowest?")
• Test modules ("Show auth module tests")

What This Skill Does

READ-ONLY Operations:

• Reads test result files (JSON, XML, logs)
• Identifies failed/passed tests
• Calculates statistics (pass rate, duration)
• Filters by module/suite
• Identifies slow tests
• Tracks recently fixed tests

Complements Test Runners:

• For WRITE operations (run tests), skill recommends test commands
• Works with any test framework (Jest, pytest, RSpec, etc.)
• Provides intelligence layer, test runner provides execution

JIT Help Available: For quick reference on test commands and troubleshooting, see: Cheat Sheet

• 5 most common test queries (90% usage)
• Speed commands for Jest/pytest/RSpec
• Quick decision tree
• Common scenarios (CI failures, slow tests, refactoring)
• Pass rate and duration benchmarks
• Performance optimization guide

Core Knowledge

Supported Test Result Formats

Jest (JavaScript/TypeScript):

{
  "success": false,
  "numTotalTests": 145,
  "numPassedTests": 142,
  "numFailedTests": 3,
  "testResults": [
    {
      "name": "auth/login.test.js",
      "status": "failed",
      "duration": 2300,
      "message": "Expected 401, got 500"
    }
  ]
}

pytest (Python):

{
  "tests": [
    {
      "nodeid": "tests/test_auth.py::test_login_invalid",
      "outcome": "failed",
      "duration": 1.23,
      "longrepr": "AssertionError: expected 401, got 500"
    }
  ],
  "summary": {
    "passed": 142,
    "failed": 3,
    "total": 145
  }
}

RSpec (Ruby):

{
  "examples": [
    {
      "description": "handles invalid credentials",
      "file_path": "./spec/auth/login_spec.rb",
      "line_number": 45,
      "status": "failed",
      "run_time": 0.023,
      "exception": {
        "message": "expected 401, got 500"
      }
    }
  ],
  "summary": {
    "example_count": 145,
    "failure_count": 3
  }
}

Status Values

• passed - Test executed successfully
• failed - Test failed with assertion error
• skipped - Test was skipped/pending
• error - Test had runtime error (not assertion)

Key Operations

1. List Failed Tests

User Queries:

"What tests failed?" "Show me failing tests" "Which tests are broken?"

Confidence: 🟢 High (0.92)

• Exact keyword matches: "failed", "failing", "broken"
• Test result files accessible (JSON/XML/logs)
• Clear intent to identify specific failures

Skill Response:

3 tests failed:

❌ auth/login.test.js - 'handles invalid credentials' (2.3s)
   Module: authentication
   Error: Expected 401, got 500
   File: src/auth/login.test.js:45

❌ auth/signup.test.js - 'validates email format' (1.8s)
   Module: authentication
   Error: Validation not triggered
   File: src/auth/signup.test.js:78

❌ payments/checkout.test.js - 'processes refund' (0.5s)
   Module: payments
   Error: Stripe API timeout
   File: src/payments/checkout.test.js:120

To fix, check the error messages and file locations above.

Why This Matters:

• Failed tests block deployment and indicate broken functionality
• File locations and line numbers speed up debugging (no hunting)
• Error messages reveal root cause patterns (2 auth tests = likely auth service issue)
• Quick win: Fix auth/login.test.js first (2.3s duration suggests integration issue)

Next Step: Want to see test stats to understand overall health? Ask "Give me test stats"

2. Test Statistics Dashboard

User Queries:

"Give me test stats" "Test summary" "How many tests passed?"

Confidence: 🟢 High (0.94)

• Exact keyword matches: "stats", "summary", "passed"
• Test result aggregation is deterministic (JSON parsing)
• Clear intent for high-level overview

Skill Response:

📊 Test Execution Summary:

Total Tests: 145
✅ Passed: 142 (97.9%)
❌ Failed: 3 (2.1%)
⏭️ Skipped: 0 (0%)

By Module:
- authentication: 45 tests (3 failed)
- payments: 30 tests (0 failed)
- user-profile: 25 tests (0 failed)
- api-routes: 45 tests (0 failed)

Total Duration: 42.3s
Average: 0.29s per test

Why This Matters:

• 97.9% pass rate = generally healthy codebase (industry standard: >95%)
• Module breakdown reveals authentication as problem area (3 failures localized)
• Total duration 42.3s is reasonable for 145 tests (fast feedback loop)
• Quick win: All failures in one module = likely single root cause to fix

Next Step: Drill into authentication failures with "Show auth module tests"

3. Filter by Module

User Queries:

"Show auth module tests" "What tests failed in payments?" "Authentication test results"

Confidence: 🟢 High (0.91)

• Module name explicitly mentioned ("auth", "payments")
• Test organization by module is standard practice
• Clear filtering intent

Skill Response:

Authentication Module Tests:

Total: 45 tests
✅ Passed: 42 (93.3%)
❌ Failed: 3 (6.7%)

Failed Tests:
1. login.test.js - 'handles invalid credentials'
2. signup.test.js - 'validates email format'
3. token.test.js - 'refreshes expired tokens'

Duration: 8.5s (average: 0.19s)

To run only auth tests:
  npm test -- auth
  # or
  pytest tests/auth/

Why This Matters:

• Module filtering isolates failures (93.3% pass rate within auth vs 97.9% overall)
• Focused view reveals related test failures (3 auth tests = likely 1 root cause)
• Faster iteration cycle (8.5s to run auth module vs 42.3s for all tests)
• Quick win: Run npm test -- auth to verify fixes without waiting for full suite

Next Step: After fixing auth tests, ask "What tests are newly passing?" to confirm success

4. Identify Slow Tests

User Queries:

"What tests are slowest?" "Show me slow tests" "Which tests take longest?"

Confidence: 🟢 High (0.88)

• Exact keyword matches: "slowest", "slow", "longest"
• Duration data available in test results
• Clear performance optimization intent

Skill Response:

🐌 Slowest Tests (>1s):

1. integration/api-e2e.test.js (5.2s)
   Status: ✅ Passed
   Module: integration
   Consider: Mocking external API calls

2. auth/login.test.js (2.3s)
   Status: ❌ Failed
   Module: authentication
   Consider: Database setup might be slow

3. payments/checkout.test.js (1.8s)
   Status: ✅ Passed
   Module: payments
   Consider: Mocking Stripe API

Average test duration: 0.29s
Target: <0.5s per test

Why This Matters:

• Slow tests block fast iteration (3 tests account for 21% of total test time)
• External API calls are optimization targets (5.2s + 1.8s = 7s wasted on Stripe/API mocks)
• Developer productivity loss: 42.3s wait → potentially 33s wait (22% faster)
• Quick win: Mock external services in integration/api-e2e.test.js to save 5.2s per run

Next Step: After optimization, re-run "What tests are slowest?" to verify improvements

5. Recently Fixed Tests

User Queries:

"What tests are newly passing?" "Recently fixed tests" "Tests that were broken but work now"

Confidence: 🟢 High (0.89)

• Exact keyword matches: "newly passing", "recently fixed", "broken but work now"
• Requires comparing current and previous test results
• Clear intent to track progress

Skill Response:

✅ Recently Fixed Tests (3):

These tests failed last run but pass now:

1. user-profile/avatar.test.js - 'uploads image'
   Was: Failed (file size validation)
   Now: ✅ Passed
   Fixed: 2 hours ago

2. api-routes/posts.test.js - 'creates new post'
   Was: Failed (database constraint)
   Now: ✅ Passed
   Fixed: 1 hour ago

3. auth/password-reset.test.js - 'sends email'
   Was: Failed (email service timeout)
   Now: ✅ Passed
   Fixed: 30 minutes ago

Great progress! Keep it up!

Why This Matters:

• Progress tracking motivates continued testing work (positive reinforcement)
• Recently fixed tests reveal which bug fixes are working (validation of recent code changes)
• Time stamps show velocity (3 fixes in 2 hours = good debugging pace)
• Quick win: 3 tests fixed means 3 fewer failures to worry about - celebrate this!

Next Step: Run full test suite again to confirm no regressions: "Give me test stats"

Integration with Test Runners

When to Use Skill vs Test Commands

Use Skill (This) For:

• Quick status checks
• Filtering and searching
• Test discovery
• Statistics and insights
• Performance analysis

Use Test Commands For:

• Running tests
• Watching tests
• Generating coverage
• Debugging specific tests

Test Runner Commands Reference

The skill recommends these commands when appropriate:

Jest (JavaScript/TypeScript):

# Run all tests
npm test

# Run specific file
npm test -- auth/login.test.js

# Run tests in watch mode
npm test -- --watch

# Run with coverage
npm test -- --coverage

# Run only failed tests
npm test -- --onlyFailures

pytest (Python):

# Run all tests
pytest

# Run specific module
pytest tests/auth/

# Run specific test
pytest tests/auth/test_login.py::test_invalid_credentials

# Run with verbose output
pytest -v

# Run only failed tests
pytest --lf

RSpec (Ruby):

# Run all tests
rspec

# Run specific file
rspec spec/auth/login_spec.rb

# Run specific test
rspec spec/auth/login_spec.rb:45

# Run only failed tests
rspec --only-failures

Examples

Example 1: Quick Status Check

User: "How are my tests doing?"

Skill:

✅ Looking good! 142/145 tests passing (97.9%)

3 tests failed in the authentication module.
Want to see the failures?

Example 2: Module-Specific Failure

User: "What failed in auth?"

Skill:

Authentication module has 3 failures:

❌ login.test.js - Invalid credentials (Expected 401, got 500)
❌ signup.test.js - Email validation not triggered
❌ token.test.js - Token refresh failed

All 3 seem related to API status codes. Check auth/routes.js:67

Example 3: Performance Investigation

User: "Why are tests so slow?"

Skill:

Total test time: 42.3s (average: 0.29s per test)

🐌 3 tests taking >1s:
- integration/api-e2e.test.js (5.2s) - external API calls
- auth/login.test.js (2.3s) - database setup
- payments/checkout.test.js (1.8s) - Stripe API mock

Recommendation: Mock external services. This could save ~9s (21%)

Example 4: Coverage Check

User: "What's our test coverage?"

Skill:

Test Coverage (from last run):

Lines: 87.3% (2,453 / 2,810)
Branches: 82.1% (445 / 542)
Functions: 91.2% (312 / 342)

Modules needing coverage:
- payments/refund.js: 45% (needs 15 more tests)
- auth/2fa.js: 62% (needs 8 more tests)
- api/webhooks.js: 71% (needs 5 more tests)

To generate updated coverage:
  npm test -- --coverage

Token Efficiency Analysis

Without This Skill (800 tokens per query)

Process:

1. User asks: "What tests failed?" (150 tokens)
2. Claude explains: "Let me check the test results..." (200 tokens)
3. Execute command: cat test-results.json (100 tokens)
4. Parse JSON output (200 tokens)
5. Format response (150 tokens)

Total: ~800 tokens

With This Skill (300 tokens per query)

Process:

1. User asks: "What tests failed?" (50 tokens)
2. Skill auto-activates from SKILL.md context (50 tokens)
3. Read test results file (100 tokens)
4. Return formatted answer (100 tokens)

Total: ~300 tokens

Savings Analysis

Per Query:

• Without skill: 800 tokens
• With skill: 300 tokens
• Savings: 500 tokens (62% reduction)

Frequency Impact:

For QA engineers checking test results ~10 times per day:

Cost Savings (at Anthropic pricing):

• Daily: ~$0.15 saved
• Weekly: ~$0.75 saved
• Monthly: ~$3.00 saved per QA engineer

ROI: Implementation cost (~500 tokens) recovered in first day.

Best Practices

For Users

1. Keep test results accessible - Ensure test output is saved to JSON
2. Use consistent naming - Module/suite names help filtering
3. Run tests regularly - Skill needs recent data
4. Check after failures - Use skill to quickly understand what broke

For Claude (Using This Skill)

1. Auto-activate proactively - When user mentions test failures
2. Filter intelligently - Show most critical failures first
3. Provide context - Don't just list failures, suggest fixes
4. Link to commands - Direct users to test runner for execution
5. Be concise - Status emoji + test name + error = enough

Troubleshooting

Test Results File Not Found

If test results don't exist:

Test results file not found.

To generate test results:
  Jest: npm test -- --json --outputFile=test-results.json
  pytest: pytest --json-report --json-report-file=test-results.json
  RSpec: rspec --format json --out test-results.json

Then I can provide insights on your test execution!

Test Results Out of Date

If results are stale:

Test results are from 3 days ago.

To get current status:
  [appropriate test command for framework]

Then ask me again for up-to-date insights!

See Also

• Skills Paradigm: docs/01-fundamentals/02_skills-paradigm.md
• Skill Creation Guide: .claude/skills/skill-creation-guide.md
• API Debugging Skill: .claude/skills/api-debugging/SKILL.md
• Component Finder Skill: .claude/skills/component-finder/SKILL.md

Skill Version: 3.3.0 Last Updated: 2025-12-12 Target Audience: QA Engineers, Test Engineers, Backend/Frontend developers Maintained By: claude-config-template project

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