testing-anti-patterns
Reviews test code to identify and fix common testing anti-patterns including flaky tests, over-mocking, brittle assertions, test interdependency, and hidden test logic. Flags bad patterns, explains the specific defect, and provides corrected implementations. Use when reviewing test code, debugging intermittent or unreliable test failures, or when the user mentions flaky tests, test smells, brittle tests, test isolation issues, mock overuse, slow tests, or test maintenance problems.
90
88%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
Pending
No eval scenarios have been run
Passed
No known issues
Quality
Discovery
100%Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.
This is an excellent skill description that clearly articulates specific capabilities (identifying and fixing named anti-patterns, providing corrected implementations), includes a comprehensive 'Use when...' clause with natural trigger terms developers would actually use, and occupies a distinct niche. It follows third-person voice throughout and balances detail with conciseness.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | Lists multiple specific concrete actions: 'identify and fix common testing anti-patterns including flaky tests, over-mocking, brittle assertions, test interdependency, and hidden test logic. Flags bad patterns, explains the specific defect, and provides corrected implementations.' | 3 / 3 |
Completeness | Clearly answers both 'what' (reviews test code to identify anti-patterns, flags bad patterns, explains defects, provides corrected implementations) and 'when' (explicit 'Use when...' clause covering reviewing test code, debugging intermittent failures, and multiple specific trigger scenarios). | 3 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Excellent coverage of natural terms users would say: 'flaky tests', 'test smells', 'brittle tests', 'test isolation issues', 'mock overuse', 'slow tests', 'test maintenance problems', 'unreliable test failures'. These are all terms developers naturally use when encountering these problems. | 3 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | Occupies a clear niche focused specifically on test code quality and anti-patterns. The specific trigger terms like 'flaky tests', 'test smells', 'over-mocking', and 'brittle assertions' are highly distinctive and unlikely to conflict with general code review or other testing skills. | 3 / 3 |
Total | 12 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
77%Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.
This is a solid, actionable skill with excellent concrete examples and a clear review workflow including validation steps. Its main weakness is length — the eight detailed anti-pattern sections with full code examples make it token-heavy for a single file, and some of the explanatory text could be trimmed given Claude's existing knowledge of testing concepts. The content would benefit from splitting detailed examples into a reference file while keeping the SKILL.md as a lean overview.
Suggestions
Consider moving the detailed anti-pattern code examples into a separate PATTERNS.md reference file, keeping SKILL.md as a concise overview with the workflow, checklist, and one-line descriptions of each pattern.
Trim explanatory text like 'Problem: Test passes even when the code is broken' — the pattern name and code example already convey this; a terse detection heuristic is more useful than restating the obvious.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | The content is mostly efficient with good code examples, but some explanations are slightly verbose (e.g., 'Problem:' descriptions state things Claude would already understand). The anti-patterns could be presented more tersely while retaining clarity. | 2 / 3 |
Actionability | Every anti-pattern includes fully executable TypeScript code showing both the bad and good patterns, with concrete detection strategies and specific refactoring guidance. The checklist and refactoring strategies are directly actionable. | 3 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | The review workflow is clearly sequenced with four explicit steps including a validation checkpoint (step 4: verify the test still fails when code breaks). The checklist provides a structured scanning process, and the refactoring strategies map directly to detected problems. | 3 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | The content is well-organized with clear sections and headers, but it's a long monolithic file (~200 lines) with no references to external files. Some content like the detailed code examples for each anti-pattern could be split into a reference file, keeping the SKILL.md as a concise overview with the checklist and workflow. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 10 / 12 Passed |
Validation
90%Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.
Validation — 10 / 11 Passed
Validation for skill structure
| Criteria | Description | Result |
|---|---|---|
frontmatter_unknown_keys | Unknown frontmatter key(s) found; consider removing or moving to metadata | Warning |
Total | 10 / 11 Passed | |
- Repository
- rohitg00/skillkit
- Commit
a9e5c83
- Reviewed
Table of Contents
Is this your skill?
If you maintain this skill, you can claim it as your own. Once claimed, you can manage eval scenarios, bundle related skills, attach documentation or rules, and ensure cross-agent compatibility.