| name | test-design |
| description | Deep test-design review and forward-design advisor. Dispatches test-review (tactical quality) and test-smell-review (xUnit smells, double selection, pyramid placement) in parallel, and runs the test-design-advisor worker to recommend how to test hard-to-test code. Use when the user says "review my tests", "how should I test this", "is this testable", "design tests for this", "what's the right test for X", "test design review", or before writing a suite for an untested module. For a single unit, pass --advise --path <file>. Advisory — it recommends, it does not edit. |
| argument-hint | [--path <dir>] [--since <ref>] [--advise] |
| role | orchestrator |
| user-invocable | true |
| allowed-tools | Read, Grep, Glob, Bash(git diff *), Skill, Agent |
Test Design
Role: orchestrator. This command dispatches the two test review agents as
sub-agents and the test-design-advisor skill, then aggregates one report. It
does not review files itself — it coordinates.
This command is executed under orchestrator direction. Dispatch each agent with
its model:/effort: frontmatter as declared — the harness resolves both
fields natively before dispatch, per Model/Effort Resolution in
agents/orchestrator.md (ADR 0026).
Orchestrator constraints
- Advisory only. Aggregate findings and recommendations. Do not edit
production code or write test files. Hand actionable fixes to
/apply-fixes
or /build.
- Dispatch in parallel.
test-review and test-smell-review are
independent — spawn them in one batch for context isolation; each returns
structured JSON, not file dumps.
- No double-reporting. Apply
knowledge/test-review-division-of-labor.md:
when the same line appears in both test-review and test-smell-review,
keep the design-level framing and drop the duplicate — record every such
drop in the report's ### Suppressed duplicates section (see step 6).
For test-smell-review and test-design-advisor, no de-duplication is
required: per the "test-smell-review ↔ test-design-advisor — remedy
division" section of the knowledge doc, the smell agent cites the remedy
family (via remedyFamily) and the advisor names the specific remedy
pattern and refactor sequence — smell rows and advisor rows join
structurally on remedyFamily, not by prose match.
- Be concise. One aggregated report. Issue messages one sentence;
recommendations map to a concrete next edit.
- MinimumCD vocabulary. Layer labels in the aggregated report use the
MinimumCD six test types (static analysis / unit / component / contract /
integration / E2E) from
knowledge/cd-test-architecture.md. Prefer
"contract test" over "narrow integration test"; if you must use the
alias, gloss it once: contract test (also called narrow integration test). Define each test type on first use (one-line gloss inline or
a "Test type definitions used in this report" block at the top).
- No target-shape tables. Per
knowledge/cd-test-architecture.md#the-pyramid-is-a-cost-heuristic-not-a-target-shape,
do not emit "current shape vs recommended shape" tables or per-layer target
counts; the aggregated report carries the advisor's per-behavior placement
table, not a silhouette target.
- E2E justification gate. Forward the advisor's four-condition E2E verdict
verbatim (the gate is canonical in
knowledge/cd-test-architecture.md#the-e2e-justification-gate). Never
recommend E2E in the rollup without it.
Parse Arguments
Arguments: $ARGUMENTS
Optional:
--path <dir>: target directory (default: current working directory)
--since <ref>: target files changed since a git ref (git diff --name-only <ref>...HEAD)
--advise: also run the test-design-advisor skill for forward-looking design (default on when the target has untested production code or few/no test files, or when the target resolves to a single production file — via --path <file> or a --since diff that touches exactly one production file; this is the path for forward-design on a single unit — the test-design-advisor skill has no user-facing slash command)
Steps
1. Determine target files
Same auto-scope logic as /code-review: uncommitted changes if present, else
all source files; honor --since and --path. Identify test files and the
production code they cover.
Single-file → auto---advise. If the resolved target is exactly one
production file (--path <file> pointing at a production source file, or a
--since diff whose production set has one file), set --advise on for this
run and record it in the report header. This is the entry path for
forward-design on a single unit (the test-design-advisor worker skill has
no user-facing slash command).
2. Dispatch review agents (parallel)
Spawn both as sub-agents in one batch:
test-review — tactical quality gate (assertions, hygiene, non-determinism mechanics, testability blockers)
test-smell-review — xUnit smells, test-double selection, pyramid-layer placement
Each returns its standard JSON (status/issues/summary). If no test files
exist, both skip — proceed to Step 4 with --advise.
3. Score the in-scope tests (Farley Score)
Using the file set already resolved in Step 1 (Step 1 is the single
scope-resolution authority in this skill), invoke Skill(farley-score ...)
to produce the Farley Score, rating, and distribution. Label the score with
the scope it was computed over:
- No
--path / no --since → every test file in the repository (test-file
indicators in knowledge/test-file-indicators.md); label all tests.
--path <dir> → tests under <dir> or covering production code under
<dir>; label under <dir>.
--since <ref> → tests touched in the diff plus tests covering production
files touched in the diff; label changed since <ref>.
--path <dir> and --since <ref> together → tests under <dir> that are
also touched (directly or via covered production code) since <ref> — the
intersection of both sets; label under <dir>, changed since <ref>.
- Empty in-scope test set → skip the score and print
no in-scope test files
in the report instead of a number.
4. Run the advisor (when applicable)
If --advise is set (or auto-triggered), use the Skill tool (Skill(test-design-advisor ...)) on the production code to produce testability assessment, pyramid
placement, double strategy, and a behavior-preserving refactor sequence for
any untestable units.
5. Aggregate and de-duplicate
Merge findings. Resolve overlaps per constraint 3. Group by file. Rank:
behavior/project smells and testability blockers first (they undermine the
whole suite), then fragile/obscure smells, then suggestions.
6. Report
Produce one report (chat for a small target; .dev-team-reports/test-design-<date>.md
for a module):
## Test Design Review — <target>
**Health**: <pass|attention|critical> **Test files**: N **Findings**: N
**Farley Score (<scope>)**: <score> (<rating>) — Exemplary N · Good N · Adequate N · Poor N
`<scope>` is the label produced by Step 3; render it verbatim. Concrete
forms: `Farley Score (all tests)`, `Farley Score (under <dir>)`,
`Farley Score (changed since <ref>)`, `Farley Score (under <dir>, changed since <ref>)`.
When the in-scope set was empty, replace the whole line with
`**Farley Score**: no in-scope test files`.
### Test type definitions used in this report
<one-line glosses for MinimumCD terms appearing below; verbatim from
`knowledge/cd-test-architecture.md` § The Six Test Types — at minimum
the terms actually used in the report>
### Findings (by severity)
| File:line | Smell / Issue | Severity | Source | Suggested fix |
### Design recommendations (advisor)
Mechanical fixes → /apply-fixes
Refactor sequence → /plan or /build
Surface only what's actionable. If everything is clean, say so in one line.
Do NOT include a "current shape vs recommended shape" table — see Orchestrator
constraint #6.