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 hits all the marks. It provides specific concrete actions (identifying anti-patterns, flagging issues, explaining defects, providing fixes), includes a comprehensive explicit 'Use when' clause with numerous natural trigger terms, and carves out a distinct niche in test code quality review that is unlikely to conflict with other skills.
| 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 and fix common testing anti-patterns... Flags bad patterns, explains the specific defect, and provides corrected implementations') and when ('Use when reviewing test code, debugging intermittent or unreliable test failures, or when the user mentions flaky tests, test smells, brittle tests...') with an explicit 'Use when' clause. | 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 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 testing framework 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 code examples and a well-defined review workflow including validation steps. Its main weakness is length — the eight detailed anti-patterns with full code examples make it token-heavy for a SKILL.md, and some of this content could be split into a reference file. The content is slightly verbose in places, explaining concepts Claude likely already knows.
Suggestions
Move the detailed anti-pattern examples (patterns 1-8 with code) into a separate PATTERNS.md reference file, keeping only a brief summary table and the checklist in SKILL.md.
Trim explanatory sentences that restate what the pattern name already conveys (e.g., 'Problem: Test passes even when the code is broken' after 'The Liar - Tests That Always Pass').
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | The content is reasonably well-structured but somewhat verbose for Claude. Some patterns like 'The Slow Poke' and 'The Chain Gang' are concepts Claude already understands well. The BAD/GOOD code examples are helpful but could be more compact in places. The explanatory sentences like 'Test passes even when the code is broken' after naming 'The Liar' add marginal value. | 2 / 3 |
Actionability | Every anti-pattern includes concrete, executable TypeScript code examples showing both the bad pattern and the corrected version. The detection tips ('Remove or break the implementation - test should fail'), the checklist, and refactoring strategies are all specific and directly usable. | 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). This feedback loop is critical for test refactoring and is well-articulated. The checklist provides an additional structured verification step. | 3 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | The content is well-organized with clear headers and sections, but it's a long monolithic file (~200 lines of content) that could benefit from splitting detailed pattern examples into a separate reference file while keeping the checklist and workflow in the main SKILL.md. No external references are provided. | 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
dfa8d12
- Reviewed
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