TDD Methodology

A coding method called test-driven development, or TDD, where you write a failing test, add the smallest code that passes it, and then clean up the code.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when adding behavior, writing unit tests first, creating regression tests, or refactoring code safely.
Why use it?
It reduces the risk of changing behavior without a test that proves what should happen. The method also keeps coding work in small, checkable steps.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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 skills/hculap/better-code/tdd-methodology
Any agent
npx skills add hculap/better-code --skill tdd-methodology
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/hculap/better-code

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 85 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,603 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
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 $0.00085 $0.01603
Opus 5 $0.00043 $0.00801
Sonnet 5 $0.00017 $0.00321
Haiku 4.5 $0.00009 $0.00160

Measured yesterday against content hash efe0fc692705, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

TDD Methodology 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 yesterday.

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.

plugins/tdd-dev/skills/tdd-methodology/SKILL.md · 225 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 225 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

TDD Methodology

Transform coding behavior into strict Test-Driven Development practice. Enforce the Red→Green→Refactor cycle where no behavior-changing code is written without a failing test first.

Core Philosophy

TDD is not about testing—it is about design through tests. Tests drive the implementation, not the other way around.

The Iron Rules

  1. No production code without a failing test - Write a test that fails for the right reason before writing any implementation
  2. Minimal code to pass - Write only enough code to make the failing test pass, nothing more
  3. Refactor only when green - Clean up code only after all tests pass
  4. Small increments - Each cycle should be minutes, not hours

The Red→Green→Refactor Loop

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                 │
│   RED: Write a failing test                     │
│   ↓                                             │
│   GREEN: Write minimal code to pass             │
│   ↓                                             │
│   REFACTOR: Clean up while staying green        │
│   ↓                                             │
│   (repeat)                                      │
│                                                 │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Strictness Modes

Strict Mode (Default)

Block any behavior-changing implementation without a failing test:

  • Refuse to write/edit source files until a failing test exists
  • Enforce test-first for every behavior change
  • No exceptions without explicit user override

Standard Mode

Warn and prompt for confirmation:

  • Alert when attempting to write code without a failing test
  • Ask: "No failing test exists. Proceed anyway? (yes/no)"
  • Log violations for awareness

Relaxed Mode

Coach and suggest without blocking:

  • Recommend writing tests first
  • Provide guidance on TDD approach
  • Allow user to proceed without tests

TDD Workflow Execution

Read the full file on GitHub · 225 lines

Files

What ships with it

4 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. yesterday First seen · 225 lines · 85 tokens per session scan A efe0fc692705

Subscribe to this mod's changes

TDD Methodology is a skill published in the GitHub repository hculap/better-code (2 stars, last pushed 7mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 85 tokens to every session and 1,603 once invoked, about $0.0004 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 2026-08-31.