test-driven

A development method where tests are written from the requirements before the code. It uses a repeated cycle: write a failing test, make it pass, then improve the code.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to build features, prove bug fixes, protect interfaces, and check rules or edge cases with automated tests.
Why use it?
It turns requirements into checks and helps catch regressions during feature work, bug fixes, and refactoring.

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/outlinedriven/odin-codex-plugin/test-driven
Any agent
npx skills add OutlineDriven/odin-codex-plugin --skill test-driven
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/OutlineDriven/odin-codex-plugin

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 38 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,248 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 $0.00038 $0.01248
Opus 5 $0.00019 $0.00624
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00250
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00125

Measured 2d ago against content hash c2092a85c429, 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 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

Copies of this mod

1 near-identical copy found in the catalogue:

skills/test-driven/SKILL.md · 114 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 114 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Test-driven development (XP-style)

Tests define the specification. Design them from requirements before any implementation. The RED-GREEN-REFACTOR cycle is the heartbeat: write a failing test, make it pass with minimal code, then clean up while green.

Modern insight (2025): TDD + property-based testing pairing is the standard -- example tests prevent regressions, property tests discover edge cases. TDD also serves AI-assisted development: structural integrity keeps code understandable for both human and AI collaborators (Kent Beck, "Augmented Coding"). Mutation testing validates test quality beyond coverage metrics (TDD+Mutation: 63.3% vs TDD-alone: 39.4% mutation coverage).

See frameworks for language-specific test runners, property testing, coverage, and mutation tools. See examples for brief TDD cycle patterns per language.


When to Apply

  • New features with clear requirements (both inside-out and outside-in approaches valid)
  • Bug fixes -- write a failing test that proves the bug before fixing
  • Refactoring -- ensure coverage exists before restructuring
  • API contract enforcement -- test the interface, not internals
  • Property-based invariants -- complement example tests with PBT
  • Legacy code -- add characterization tests before modifying (Michael Feathers pattern)

When NOT to Apply

  • Exploratory prototyping or spike research
  • One-off scripts, data migrations, generated code
  • Purely visual UI layout work (prefer visual regression testing)
  • Highly experimental algorithmic research (but PBT still helps)
  • Throwaway code with <1 week lifespan

Anti-patterns

  • Test-last: Writing tests after implementation defeats the design benefit
  • Testing implementation details: Tests should verify behavior, not internal structure -- breaks refactoring confidence
  • Over-mocking: Testing the mocks instead of the code; mock external I/O, not core logic
  • Skipping RED: Tests that never fail aren't tests -- they verify nothing
  • 100% coverage obsession: Coverage does not equal quality. Mutation testing exposes gaps coverage cannot
  • Refactoring on RED: Never restructure with failing tests
  • Test-induced architectural damage: Letting mock boundaries dictate design
  • Snapshot bloat: Approval-style tests without curation become maintenance burden

Read the full file on GitHub · 114 lines

Files

What ships with it

7 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. 2d ago First seen · 114 lines · 38 tokens per session scan A c2092a85c429

Subscribe to this mod's changes

test-driven is a skill published in the GitHub repository OutlineDriven/odin-codex-plugin (15 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 38 tokens to every session and 1,248 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 2026-08-30.

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