mutation-testing

mutation-testing is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from aj-geddes/useful-ai-prompts. It costs 40 tokens per session (535 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A way to check whether a test suite can detect small, deliberate changes in source code. Each changed version, called a mutation, should cause the relevant tests to fail.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to evaluate test quality, find untested code paths, and check that important business logic and error handling are actually covered.
Why use it?
Passing tests do not always mean that tests verify the right behaviour. Mutation testing exposes weak, redundant, or missing tests beyond ordinary line-coverage numbers.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one.

Good fit Use it to evaluate test quality, find untested code paths, and check that important business logic and error handling are actually covered.

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Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/aj-geddes/useful-ai-prompts/mutation-testing
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.

Any agent
npx skills add aj-geddes/useful-ai-prompts --skill mutation-testing
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/aj-geddes/useful-ai-prompts

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for mutation-testing

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/aj-geddes/useful-ai-prompts/mutation-testing/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/aj-geddes/useful-ai-prompts/mutation-testing)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/aj-geddes/useful-ai-prompts/mutation-testing"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/aj-geddes/useful-ai-prompts/mutation-testing/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for mutation-testing

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/aj-geddes/useful-ai-prompts/mutation-testing"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/aj-geddes/useful-ai-prompts/mutation-testing.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 40 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 535 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe. Third-party audits
  • Socket pass 18 Mar 2026
  • Snyk pass 4 Mar 2026
How audits are shown
Origin original No closer match found 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 5.1 $0.00040 $0.00535
Opus 5 $0.00020 $0.00267
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00107
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00053

Measured 9d ago against content hash 4e1242e2164c, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-12, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

mutation-testing 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 9d ago.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 2 executable files (scripts/scaffold-tests.sh, templates/test-template.js), listed below but not scanned — reading those needs a real analyzer, not pattern matching.

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.

skills/mutation-testing/SKILL.md · 80 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 80 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Mutation Testing

Table of Contents

Overview

Mutation testing assesses test suite quality by introducing small changes (mutations) to source code and verifying that tests fail. If tests don't catch a mutation, it indicates gaps in test coverage or test quality. This technique helps identify weak or ineffective tests.

When to Use

  • Evaluating test suite effectiveness
  • Finding untested code paths
  • Improving test quality metrics
  • Validating critical business logic is well-tested
  • Identifying redundant or weak tests
  • Measuring real test coverage beyond line coverage
  • Ensuring tests actually verify behavior

Quick Start

Minimal working example:

# Install Stryker
npm install --save-dev @stryker-mutator/core @stryker-mutator/jest-runner

# Initialize configuration
npx stryker init

# Run mutation testing
npx stryker run

Reference Guides

Detailed implementations in the references/ directory:

Guide Contents
Stryker for JavaScript/TypeScript Stryker for JavaScript/TypeScript
PITest for Java PITest for Java
mutmut for Python mutmut for Python
Mutation Testing Reports Mutation Testing Reports

Best Practices

✅ DO

  • Target critical business logic for mutation testing
  • Aim for 80%+ mutation score on important code
  • Review survived mutants to improve tests
  • Mark equivalent mutants to exclude them
  • Use mutation testing in CI for critical modules
  • Test boundary conditions thoroughly
  • Verify actual behavior, not just code execution

❌ DON'T

  • Expect 100% mutation score everywhere
  • Run mutation testing on all code (too slow)
  • Ignore equivalent mutants
  • Test getters/setters with mutations
  • Run mutations on generated code
  • Skip mutation testing on complex logic
  • Focus only on line coverage

Read the full file on GitHub · 80 lines

Files

What ships with it

6 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

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. 9d ago First seen · 80 lines · 40 tokens per session scan A 4e1242e2164c

Subscribe to this mod's changes

mutation-testing is a skill published in the GitHub repository aj-geddes/useful-ai-prompts (338 stars, last pushed 6mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 40 tokens to every session and 535 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-09-03.