| name | lisa-improve-tests |
| description | This skill should be used when improving test quality. It scans the test suite for weak, brittle, or poorly-written tests, generates a brief with improvement opportunities, and creates a plan with tasks to strengthen the tests. |
| allowed-tools | ["Read","Bash","Glob","Grep"] |
Improve Test Quality
Target: $ARGUMENTS
If no argument provided, scan the full test suite.
Step 1: Gather Requirements
- Run test suite to establish baseline:
status=0
bun run test >test.log 2>&1 || status=$?
tail -n 20 test.log; echo "exit=$status"
The status is captured before the pipe, because a pipeline reports its LAST stage's exit code — tail always succeeds, so a failing run reads as exit=0 (falsifiable-checks, pager-shadowed status). || status=$? rather than ; status=$?: under set -e the ; form exits before the assignment, so the failure is never reported at all.
- Scan test files for quality issues:
- Weak assertions (
toBeTruthy, toBeDefined instead of specific values)
- Missing edge cases (no boundary values, no error paths)
- Implementation coupling (testing internals rather than behavior)
- Missing error path coverage
- Duplicated setup that could indicate missing abstractions
- Identify 10-20 test files with highest improvement potential, noting:
- File path
- Issues found (weak assertions, missing edge cases, etc.)
- Estimated impact of improvement
Step 2: Compile Brief and Delegate
Compile the gathered information into a structured brief:
Improve test quality across the test suite.
Test files needing improvement (ordered by impact):
1. [test file] - [issues found]
- Weak assertions: [count]
- Missing edge cases: [description]
- Implementation coupling: [description]
2. ...
Verification: `bun run test` -> Expected: All tests pass, improved assertions and coverage
Invoke /lisa:implement with this brief to create the implementation plan.
