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Test agents via subagents: known inputs, captured outputs, verification.
Passed 15 of 18 test cases with the skill, and 9 of 18 without it.
and 6 more in the full report
8 fixed10 passed either way3 still failing1 broke
Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.
One of 8 test cases the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.
Why should a test plan be written to a file before executing subagent dispatches during the RED phase of agent development?
| Checked | Without skill | With skill |
|---|---|---|
| The response states that writing the test plan to a file creates a reproducible baseline. | Missed | Passed |
The instructions your model reads when the skill loads.
This skill applies TDD methodology to agent development — RED (observe failures), GREEN (fix agent definition), REFACTOR (edge cases and robustness) — with subagent dispatch as the execution mechanism.
Test what the agent DOES, not what the prompt SAYS. Evidence-based verification only: capture exact outputs from subagent dispatch, verify every prompt change through testing. Always test via the Task tool, always test via the Task tool rather than reading prompts.
Minimum test counts vary by agent type: Reviewer agents need 6 cases (2 real issues, 2 clean, 1 edge, 1 ambiguous), Implementation agents 5 cases (2 typical, 1 complex, 1 minimal, 1 error), Analysis agents 4 cases (2 standard, 1 edge, 1 malformed), Routing/orchestration 4 cases (2 correct route, 1 ambiguous, 1 invalid). No agent is simple enough to skip testing — get human confirmation before exempting any agent.
Each test runs in a fresh subagent to avoid context pollution. After any fix, re-run ALL test cases to catch regressions. One fix at a time — you cannot determine what changed the outcome with multiple simultaneous fixes.
| Signal | Load These Files | Why |
|---|---|---|
| example-driven tasks, errors | examples-and-errors.md | Loads detailed guidance from examples-and-errors.md. |
| dispatch-and-capture, negative, consistency, A/B, and routing-verification test patterns | testing-patterns.md | Loads detailed guidance from testing-patterns.md. |
Goal: Read the agent definition and understand what it claims to do before writing tests.
Step 1: Read the agent file
# Read agent definition
cat agents/{agent-name}.md
# Read any referenced skills
cat skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md
Step 2: Identify testable claims
Extract concrete, testable behaviors from the agent definition:
test cases passed, vs 9 / 18 without
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