test-driven-development

A test-first coding method, commonly called TDD, where a failing test is written before the code that should make it pass.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it for new features, bug fixes, refactoring, and other changes by repeating the failing-test, passing-code, and cleanup cycle.
Why use it?
It checks the intended behavior before implementation and reduces the chance of writing code that is not properly tested.

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/humanbean17/jrag/test-driven-development
Any agent
npx skills add HumanBean17/jrag --skill test-driven-development
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/HumanBean17/jrag

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 17 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,414 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
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 $0.00017 $0.02414
Opus 5 $0.00009 $0.01207
Sonnet 5 $0.00003 $0.00483
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00241

Measured 2d ago against content hash b5b4717b8b76, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

test-driven-development 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 2d 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 test-driven-development — 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.

.claude/skills/test-driven-development/SKILL.md · 372 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 372 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Test-Driven Development (TDD)

Overview

Write the test first. Watch it fail. Write minimal code to pass.

Core principle: If you didn't watch the test fail, you don't know if it tests the right thing.

Violating the letter of the rules is violating the spirit of the rules.

When to Use

Always:

  • New features
  • Bug fixes
  • Refactoring
  • Behavior changes

Exceptions (ask your human partner):

  • Throwaway prototypes
  • Generated code
  • Configuration files

Thinking "skip TDD just this once"? Stop. That's rationalization.

The Iron Law

NO PRODUCTION CODE WITHOUT A FAILING TEST FIRST

Write code before the test? Delete it. Start over.

No exceptions:

  • Don't keep it as "reference"
  • Don't "adapt" it while writing tests
  • Don't look at it
  • Delete means delete

Implement fresh from tests. Period.

Red-Green-Refactor

digraph tdd_cycle {
    rankdir=LR;
    red [label="RED\nWrite failing test", shape=box, style=filled, fillcolor="#ffcccc"];
    verify_red [label="Verify fails\ncorrectly", shape=diamond];
    green [label="GREEN\nMinimal code", shape=box, style=filled, fillcolor="#ccffcc"];
    verify_green [label="Verify passes\nAll green", shape=diamond];
    refactor [label="REFACTOR\nClean up", shape=box, style=filled, fillcolor="#ccccff"];
    next [label="Next", shape=ellipse];

    red -> verify_red;
    verify_red -> green [label="yes"];
    verify_red -> red [label="wrong\nfailure"];
    green -> verify_green;
    verify_green -> refactor [label="yes"];
    verify_green -> green [label="no"];
    refactor -> verify_green [label="stay\ngreen"];
    verify_green -> next;
    next -> red;
}

RED - Write Failing Test

Write one minimal test showing what should happen.

const result = await retryOperation(operation);

expect(result).toBe('success'); expect(attempts).toBe(3); });

Clear name, tests real behavior, one thing
</Good>

Read the full file on GitHub · 372 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. 2d ago First seen · 372 lines · 17 tokens per session scan A b5b4717b8b76

Subscribe to this mod's changes

test-driven-development is a skill published in the GitHub repository HumanBean17/jrag (9 stars, last pushed 7d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 17 tokens to every session and 2,414 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 100% identical to test-driven-development, differing in 0 lines, and is treated as a copy.

Related

Other skills, from other repositories

develop

Run /develop to build a feature, UI or backend, from an approved design, a page, component, API, service, or data slice. If something load bearing is undecided and no spec records it, it stops and routes you to /architect; otherwise it reads the spec plus AGENTS.md, builds, and advances the scope.

jsmastery-pro/skills · 71 tokens

sync

Run /sync as the last step after a change is complete, around merge, to keep durable knowledge current. Updates root and nested AGENTS.md, reconciles the scope from repo evidence, and flags specs the change made stale. Surgical edits only: it adds lines, and rewrites single lines it owns. Never a whole section, never…

jsmastery-pro/skills · 73 tokens

test

Run /test to write a test suite for code you just built or changed, after implementing a feature, route, or fix. Targets uncommitted changes automatically, reads test preferences.json for your framework (asks and saves it if absent), and picks the right strategy per file: happy path, edge cases, error states…

jsmastery-pro/skills · 69 tokens

document

Run /document pr | changelog | release-note | postmortem (or let it ask) to write the human facing prose about a change. Drafts from the real commits and diff, writing to the right place. Does not write code, tests, or specs.

jsmastery-pro/skills · 65 tokens

debug

Run /debug to find and fix a bug's root cause: a test failing for an unclear reason, /check verify finding a failure, or behavior being wrong. Runs a reproduce, localize, hypothesize, test, fix, verify loop, makes the minimal fix, and hands a regression test to /test. No features, no extra refactors.

jsmastery-pro/skills · 74 tokens

check

Confirm a change before merge. /check verify drives the real app to prove behavior against the spec (every acceptance criterion met, every surface built). /check review runs a senior code review on a fresh model, one that did not write the code. Verify after /develop, review before a PR. Writes to docs/reviews/, never…

jsmastery-pro/skills · 74 tokens