test-like-you-mean-it

test-like-you-mean-it is a skill for Claude Code from mikestangdevs/craft-skills. It costs 131 tokens per session (1,251 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A testing approach that tries to break newly built code instead of checking only its expected examples. It examines edge cases, rules that must always hold, unusual inputs, and comparisons with trusted references.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it after building a feature, calculation, model, or migration, especially when existing tests only cover normal cases or were written alongside the code.
Why use it?
It exposes defects that happy-path or implementation-matching tests can miss. A passing test suite is treated as evidence only when the tests could genuinely fail.

Skill for Claude Code

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

Part of the craft-skills plugin — 17 skills shipped together

Good fit Use it after building a feature, calculation, model, or migration, especially when existing tests only cover normal cases or were written alongside the code.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/mikestangdevs/craft-skills/test-like-you-mean-it
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 mikestangdevs/craft-skills --skill test-like-you-mean-it
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mikestangdevs/craft-skills

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install craft-skills, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 17 skills.

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 test-like-you-mean-it

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/mikestangdevs/craft-skills/test-like-you-mean-it/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/mikestangdevs/craft-skills/test-like-you-mean-it)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/mikestangdevs/craft-skills/test-like-you-mean-it"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/mikestangdevs/craft-skills/test-like-you-mean-it/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 test-like-you-mean-it

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/mikestangdevs/craft-skills/test-like-you-mean-it"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/mikestangdevs/craft-skills/test-like-you-mean-it.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 131 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,251 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 $0.00131 $0.01251
Opus 5 $0.00066 $0.00626
Sonnet 5 $0.00026 $0.00250
Haiku 4.5 $0.00013 $0.00125

Measured 11d ago against content hash 8b14cbbcff23, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-11, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

test-like-you-mean-it 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 11d 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/rigor/test-like-you-mean-it/SKILL.md · 77 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 77 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Test Like You Mean It

The failure mode this fixes

Agents write tests the way a student grades their own exam. They built the code, they want the code to work, so they write tests that confirm the happy path and assert whatever the code currently returns. The suite goes green, everyone relaxes — and nothing was actually verified. A test written to pass is worse than no test: it's a green light bolted over a blind corner.

The tell: tests that mirror the implementation ("returns X when given Y" where X was copied from the function's output), no test that could conceivably fail, no edge regimes, no invariants. Smoke tests presented as verification.

This skill replaces that with an adversarial wave: after the build, you switch sides. You are no longer the author defending the code — you are the reviewer trying to break it. Finding a real defect is the expected outcome, not an embarrassment.

When to Use This Skill

  • A feature, calculation, model, or migration just landed and the next step would be "looks done"
  • The only tests that exist were written in the same session as the code they test
  • The suite passes but you couldn't say what property of the system it proves
  • The domain has ground truth to check against — math identities, conservation laws, a reference implementation, a spec, known real-world values
  • Someone (including you) is about to say "tests pass" as the reason to ship

Don't use when: the change is trivial plumbing with no behavior (a rename, a re-export), or you're in a genuine throwaway spike. Don't use it as a reason to write 100 shallow tests — ten tests that could fail beat a hundred that can't.

Instructions

1. Switch sides

Before writing a single test, write down (briefly) how this code could be wrong in ways the existing tests wouldn't catch. You're drafting an attack plan, not a checklist of what it does. If you can't name a way it could be wrong, you don't understand it yet — go read it again.

2. Test properties, not outputs

Read the full file on GitHub · 77 lines

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. 11d ago First seen · 77 lines · 131 tokens per session scan A 8b14cbbcff23

Subscribe to this mod's changes

test-like-you-mean-it is a skill published in the GitHub repository mikestangdevs/craft-skills (4 stars, last pushed 3mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 131 tokens to every session and 1,251 once invoked, about $0.0007 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.

Related

Other skills, from other repositories

craft-testing

Craftsman standard for automated testing: strategy, unit/integration/e2e selection, refactor-proof design, flaky tests, mocking boundaries, deterministic data, and merge-gate policy. Use WHENEVER work touches tests: writing/reviewing tests, strategy, "add tests", "why is this flaky", "what should I test", "tests pass…

gul-labs/craftsman-marketplace · 162 tokens

integration-e2e-testing

Integration and E2E test design principles, ROI calculation, test skeleton specification, and review criteria. Use when designing integration tests, E2E tests, or reviewing test quality.

shinpr/claude-code-workflows · 42 tokens

working-effectively-with-legacy-code

Apply Michael Feathers-inspired legacy-code rules when changing hard-to-test code safely with characterization tests, seams, sprout methods, or wrap methods.

ciembor/agent-rules-books · 37 tokens

refactoring-guru

Apply Refactoring.Guru-inspired rules when diagnosing code smells, choosing refactoring techniques, and stopping cleanup before uncontrolled redesign.

ciembor/agent-rules-books · 29 tokens

refactoring

Apply Martin Fowler-inspired refactoring rules when improving existing code structure while preserving observable behavior.

ciembor/agent-rules-books · 20 tokens

lab:autoresearch

Self-improving loop for plugin skills. Reads program.md, proposes one mutation per iteration, evaluates against deterministic scorer, keeps improvements via git, reverts failures. Targets weakest skill+dimension. Use with /loop for overnight runs.

oliver-kriska/claude-elixir-phoenix · 52 tokens