testing-anti-patterns

Testing anti-patterns often involve asserting on mock implementations rather than real component behavior. This Skill identifies when tests verify mock behavior instead of actual code, ensuring your tests provide genuine confidence that the system works as intended.

Common mocking anti-patterns include mocking dependencies without understanding their real side effects, creating test-only production methods, and using incomplete mocks that don't mirror actual API structures. This Skill prevents these pitfalls by enforcing complete mocks and blocking assertions on mock-only code.

Test-only methods pollute production codebases and signal design issues. This Skill guides against adding test-specific code to production, maintaining code purity and ensuring your codebase remains focused on actual requirements rather than testing convenience.

Yes. When reviewing pull requests, use this Skill to identify whether new tests are asserting on mock implementations rather than real component behavior, ensuring tests are genuinely valuable and will catch actual bugs in production.

This Skill enforces iron laws of testing: verify real component behavior, maintain code purity by avoiding test-only production code, and ensure mocks completely reflect real API structures and side effects, preventing brittle and misleading tests.