tdd-test-first

tdd-test-first is a skill for Claude Code from helmedeiros/clean-code-skills. It costs 49 tokens per session (712 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A test-first development guide: write a test describing the desired behavior before writing the production code. TDD means test-driven development.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when adding a feature or fixing a bug to define behavior, write a failing test, and then implement the code that makes it pass.
Why use it?
It clarifies what the code should do early and reveals designs that are difficult to test before implementation grows around them.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin.

Part of the clean-code-skills plugin — 21 skills, 2 commands shipped together

Good fit Use it when adding a feature or fixing a bug to define behavior, write a failing test, and then implement the code that makes it pass.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/helmedeiros/clean-code-skills/tdd-test-first
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 helmedeiros/clean-code-skills --skill tdd-test-first
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/helmedeiros/clean-code-skills

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install clean-code-skills, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 21 skills, 2 commands.

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 tdd-test-first

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/helmedeiros/clean-code-skills/tdd-test-first/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/helmedeiros/clean-code-skills/tdd-test-first)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/helmedeiros/clean-code-skills/tdd-test-first"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/helmedeiros/clean-code-skills/tdd-test-first/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 tdd-test-first

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/helmedeiros/clean-code-skills/tdd-test-first"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/helmedeiros/clean-code-skills/tdd-test-first.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 49 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 712 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.
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 $0.00049 $0.00712
Opus 5 $0.00024 $0.00356
Sonnet 5 $0.00010 $0.00142
Haiku 4.5 $0.00005 $0.00071

Measured 9d ago against content hash 325b04798362, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

tdd-test-first 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.

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/tdd-test-first/SKILL.md · 67 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 67 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

TDD: Test-First Approach

Enforce the discipline of writing tests before production code to ensure that every behavior is specified, verified, and designed for testability from the start.

When This Skill Applies

  • The user wants to add a new feature or fix a bug
  • The user mentions writing tests first or test-first development
  • Code is being written without corresponding tests
  • The user wants to improve testability of existing code

Core Principle

Write the test before the code it tests. A test-first approach forces you to think about the desired behavior and public API before committing to an implementation. Code that is hard to test is usually hard to use — test-first design produces better interfaces naturally.

Workflow

Step 1: Define the Desired Behavior

State in plain language what the code should do. Focus on observable outcomes, not implementation details. Ask: "What should the caller see happen?"

Step 2: Write the Test

Translate the behavior into a test. Choose a descriptive name. Set up the minimum context (Arrange), invoke the behavior (Act), and verify the outcome (Assert). Do not write any production code yet.

Step 3: Watch It Fail

Run the test and confirm it fails for the right reason — typically a missing class, method, or incorrect return value. If it fails for an unexpected reason (syntax error, wrong import), fix the test first.

Step 4: Implement Just Enough

Write the simplest production code that makes the test pass. Do not anticipate future requirements.

Step 5: Verify and Continue

Run the full suite. If green, consider the next behavior. If a test breaks, fix the issue before moving on.

Detection / Indicators

  • Production code exists without a corresponding test
  • Tests were added after the code was "done"
  • Tests mirror implementation structure instead of describing behavior
  • The user writes a full class before any test
  • Mocking is excessive because the code was not designed for testability

Transformation Pattern

Read the full file on GitHub · 67 lines

Files

What ships with it

1 file 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 · 67 lines · 49 tokens per session scan A 325b04798362

Subscribe to this mod's changes

tdd-test-first is a skill published in the GitHub repository helmedeiros/clean-code-skills (2 stars, last pushed 6mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 49 tokens to every session and 712 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 2026-08-31.

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