omit-should-in-tests

A test-writing rule that leaves the word “should” out of test descriptions and states the observed behavior directly.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when naming unit tests, for example writing `returns the correct value` instead of `should return the correct value`.
Why use it?
Direct descriptions are shorter and easier to scan. They describe what the test verifies rather than making a vague promise about what the code should do.

Cursor rule for Codex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/prisma/prisma-next/omit-should-in-tests
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/prisma/prisma-next

Made for: Codex.

Per session 148 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 148 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin 100% copy Near-identical to another mod in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00148 $0.00148
Opus 5 $0.00074 $0.00074
Sonnet 5 $0.00030 $0.00030
Haiku 4.5 $0.00015 $0.00015

Measured 3d ago against content hash f540283e3ad8, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

omit-should-in-tests scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 3d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

Origin

This is a copy

100% identical to omit-should-in-tests — 0 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

.agents/rules/omit-should-in-tests.mdc · 22 lines

What it actually says

When writing unit tests, omit the word "should" in test descriptions. Write concise, direct descriptions instead.

Good examples:

  • it("equals 1")
  • it("returns the correct value")
  • it("handles null input")
  • it("throws an error when invalid")

Avoid:

  • it("should equal 1")
  • it("should return the correct value")
  • it("should handle null input")
  • it("should throw an error when invalid")

This makes test descriptions more concise and easier to read.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 3d ago First seen · 22 lines · 148 tokens per session scan A f540283e3ad8

Subscribe to this mod's changes

omit-should-in-tests is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository prisma/prisma-next (420 stars, last pushed 8d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 148 tokens to every session, about $0.0007 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 100% identical to omit-should-in-tests, differing in 0 lines, and is treated as a copy.