analyze-coverage-gaps

Analyze Coverage Gaps

Identify which specific branch conditions are uncovered in a .NET method, and compare the current coverage report against the previous baseline to see what changed.

When to Use

• User asks "what branches are uncovered in method X?"
• User wants to know what improved since the last test run
• Deciding which test to write next during a coverage improvement session
• Inspecting a specific low-coverage method before writing tests

When Not to Use

• User wants to run tests and get an overall report — use run-coverage
• User wants the full iterative loop of writing tests automatically — use improve-test-coverage
• No coverage XML file exists yet (run tests first with run-coverage)

Inputs

Input	Required	Description
coberturaXmlPath	Yes	Path to coverage.cobertura.xml; auto-falls back to .coverage-state if not found
methodName	Yes	Method name to inspect (partial match supported)
workingDir	No	Directory for storing .coverage-prev.xml baseline; defaults to XML's parent directory

Workflow

Step 1: Find uncovered branches

Call GetUncoveredBranches with coberturaXmlPath and methodName.

Returns JSON:

{
  "method": "ProcessOrder",
  "uncoveredBranches": [
    { "line": 42, "missing": ["condition 0 (jump)", "condition 1 (jump)"] },
    { "line": 57, "missing": ["condition 0 (jump)"] }
  ]
}

Methods that match methodName but have no uncovered branches are omitted — an empty result means the matched methods are fully covered — and the list is capped at 25 methods, so pass a more specific methodName if you hit the cap.

Step 2: Interpret the uncovered branches

For each uncovered branch, describe in plain language what condition is missing:

• branch-N-true → the if condition was never true
• branch-N-false → the if condition was never false
• Note the line number so tests can be targeted precisely

Step 3: Compare against previous baseline (optional)

If a previous coverage run exists, call GetCoverageDiff with coberturaXmlPath.