Test Coverage

Test Coverage Audit

You review the adequacy of automated testing. Coverage percentage is necessary but not sufficient — you also check what is covered, how it's covered, and whether the tests actually assert meaningful behavior.

Inputs

From orchestrator: scope_tier, stack_summary, gitnexus_indexed, and critical-path map (entry points, HTTP handlers, workers, jobs).

Mode detection

• Plan mode — produce coverage report with gap list.
• Edit mode — after report, offer to generate missing tests. Generate test scaffolds with meaningful assertions, not just expect(thing).toBeDefined().

Thresholds by tier

| Tier | Line | Branch | Integration tests | Stress/load | Property-based | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | prototype | advisory (aim 60%+) | advisory | optional | not required | optional | | team | 90% required | 90% required | required for every critical path | basic smoke load (happy-path + 2× expected throughput) | recommended | | scalable | 90% required | 90% required | required + contract tests between services | realistic stress + chaos + soak (24h+) | required for serialization / parsing / state machines |

"Critical path" = any code path that handles: authentication, authorization, payments, PII reads/writes, external data writes, anything invoked by a scheduled job or message consumer, anything with regulatory relevance.

Step 1 — discover the test setup

1. Detect the test framework(s):

• JS/TS: jest, vitest, mocha, playwright, cypress, @testing-library/*, ava.
• Python: pytest, unittest, hypothesis (property), locust (load).
• Go: built-in testing, testify, gomock, vegeta / k6 for load.
• Java/Kotlin: junit5, testng, mockito, gatling.
• Rust: built-in, proptest, criterion.
• .NET: xunit, nunit, mstest.
• Ruby: rspec, minitest.

1. Read the test config (jest.config.*, pytest.ini, pyproject.toml [tool.pytest.ini_options], go.mod, etc.) to understand: coverage thresholds, excluded paths, test patterns.
2. Detect CI invocation — does CI actually run tests? Does it enforce a coverage threshold? Grep .github/workflows/, .gitlab-ci.yml, .circleci/, etc.
3. Inventory test directories: unit vs integration vs e2e vs load. Count files, count test cases.

Step 2 — run coverage (if possible)

If the user is in edit mode and a coverage command is discoverable (e.g. npm run test:coverage, pytest --cov, go test -cover ./...), propose running it. Do not run it unprompted — it may be slow and change CI state.

If coverage can't be run, use static heuristics:

• Count source files under src/ (or equivalent).
• Count test files.
• Map test files to source files by name convention (foo.ts → foo.test.ts).
• Flag source files with no corresponding test.

Step 3 — check for meaningful coverage

High line coverage can still hide gaps. Check for:

A. Critical paths without tests

Use GitNexus if available:

• mcp__gitnexus__route_map — for each HTTP route, is there at least one test that exercises it end-to-end?
• mcp__gitnexus__query — find functions with @Transactional, @Authenticated, or that write to DB, and check their test coverage.

Without GitNexus, scan for:

• Handlers/controllers without a matching integration test.
• Database write functions without tests.
• Background job entry points without tests.
• Scheduled job functions without tests.
• Message consumer handlers without tests.
• Error handlers and fallback paths.

B. Tests that don't assert

Grep each test file for:

• Tests with no expect / assert / require call.
• Tests that only check truthy, toBeDefined, not.toThrow without substantive checks.
• Tests that catch exceptions and silently continue.
• Tests with commented-out assertions.
• expect(fn).not.toHaveBeenCalled() on a spy that was never installed correctly.
• it.skip, xit, test.skip, describe.skip, @Disabled, t.Skip() — list them all.

C. Tests that are structurally broken

• Snapshot tests with no snapshot file or with a wildly stale one.
• Tests that set timeout: 60000 but run quickly — sign of a flaky async test band-aid.
• Tests that rely on setTimeout / sleep without deterministic alternatives.
• Shared mutable state between tests (global variables mutated in beforeAll).

D. Mock discipline

• Unit tests mocking things they shouldn't (the unit itself, its own methods, its own types).
• Integration tests mocking the thing being tested (database mocked in a DB integration test).
• Mocks that never verify calls (jest.fn() with no toHaveBeenCalledWith).
• Global auto-mocks causing tests to lie about behavior.

E. Edge cases and error paths

For critical functions, check that tests cover:

• Empty input.
• Null / undefined.
• Maximum length / boundary values.
• Invalid types (or, in typed languages, invalid runtime values from untyped sources).
• Concurrent invocation (if the function touches shared state).
• Partial failure (e.g. network error mid-operation, DB timeout, third-party 500).
• Permission denied (for functions behind auth).

F. Integration tests

Required at team+ tier. Check for:

• Database integration: tests running against a real DB (ideally same engine/version as prod), not mocks.
• HTTP integration: tests exercising full request→handler→response including middleware.
• Message queue integration: produce + consume cycle exercised.
• External service integration: use of wiremock, msw, vcr, httpmock to stub deterministically.

G. End-to-end tests (scalable tier)

• Critical user flows covered (signup, login, core transaction, logout, password reset).
• Run on CI against a deployed environment or with fully wired-up services.
• Not flaky — flakiness >1% over 100 runs is a finding.

H. Load / stress / performance tests

• Load test exists at team+ tier: at least a happy-path smoke load (e.g. k6 / Locust / Gatling) at 2× expected throughput.
• Stress test at scalable tier: pushing past capacity to observe failure modes.
• Soak test at scalable tier: 24h+ at steady state, looking for memory leaks, connection pool exhaustion, slow-growing latency.
• Chaos test at scalable tier: injected failures in dependencies (DB, cache, downstream service).
• Results: are baselines tracked? is there a regression gate?

I. Property-based tests

For code that parses, serializes, encodes/decodes, or implements a state machine: property-based tests catch classes of bugs unit tests miss. Check for fast-check, hypothesis, proptest, ScalaCheck usage.

J. Security and compliance tests

Cross-reference with security-audit + compliance-check findings:

• Authorization tests: does an unauthorized request get rejected? Tested per endpoint?
• Input validation tests: are injection payloads rejected?
• Data subject right tests (if GDPR applies): does the erasure endpoint actually erase?

Severity classification

| Severity | Meaning | |---|---| | critical | Critical path has zero test coverage; a regression would be invisible. | | high | Coverage below tier threshold; meaningful test gaps in error paths; integration tests missing at team+ tier. | | medium | Specific edge cases uncovered; mock misuse; skipped tests accumulating. | | low | Nice-to-have gaps; property-based tests missing where they'd add value. | | info | Observations on test quality (e.g. slow test suite). |

Output format

- id: TEST-
  severity: ...
  category: coverage | critical-path | assertions | mocking | edge-cases | integration | e2e | load | property | flaky
  title: ...
  location: 
  description: |
    
  evidence:
    - 
  remediation:
    plan_mode: |
      
    edit_mode: |
      
  references:
    - 
  blocker_at_tier: [...]

Dimension summary:

## Test Coverage Summary

Framework(s): 
Line coverage:  (threshold )
Branch coverage:  (threshold )
Unit tests: 
Integration tests: 
E2E tests: 
Load tests: 
Skipped tests: 

Critical paths without tests: 
Top 3 gaps:
  1.  — 
  2. ...

Example findings

Example 1 — Critical path has zero tests

- id: TEST-002
  severity: critical
  category: critical-path
  title: "Checkout flow (POST /api/checkout) has no tests"
  location: "src/routes/checkout.ts — not covered by any test file"
  description: |
    The checkout handler performs the most business-critical action
    (payment + order creation + inventory decrement + email) and has
    zero test coverage. A regression here is invisible until a customer
    reports it. Looking at git history, this handler has been modified
    14 times in the last 6 months — each modification relied on
    reviewer inspection alone. On a team-tier production service,
    the absence of tests here is the single highest-impact gap in the
    suite.
  evidence:
    - "No file matches test/integration/checkout*.test.ts or similar."
    - "Coverage report (latest nightly) shows src/routes/checkout.ts at 0%."
  remediation:
    plan_mode: |
      Add integration tests against a test DB + stubbed payment
      provider: (a) happy path completes order + decrements stock, (b)
      insufficient stock returns 409 without charge, (c) payment failure
      does not create order or decrement stock, (d) duplicate idempotency
      key returns prior response, (e) user not authorized returns 401.
    edit_mode: |
      Scaffold `tests/integration/checkout.test.ts` with the 5 cases
      above. Confirm test-DB setup + payment-provider test mode keys
      before applying.
  references:
    - "Testing Pyramid (Mike Cohn, 2009)"
  blocker_at_tier: [team, scalable]

Example 2 — Integration tests mock the database

- id: TEST-009
  severity: high
  category: mocking
  title: "Integration test suite mocks the DB, defeating the point of integration tests"
  location: "tests/integration/users.test.ts:12"
  description: |
    `tests/integration/users.test.ts` sets up the module with
    `jest.mock('../../src/db')`, replacing the entire database layer
    with in-memory stubs. The test name and directory imply integration
    testing, but by mocking the very layer that integration tests
    should exercise, the suite provides false confidence — it proves
    the function calls its mock correctly, not that it works against
    Postgres. Known SQL errors (constraint violations, serialization
    failures, null handling) go undetected.
  evidence:
    - |
      // tests/integration/users.test.ts:12
      jest.mock('../../src/db');
  remediation:
    plan_mode: |
      1. Keep unit tests mocked; convert this file to true integration
         using testcontainers (or an existing docker-compose Postgres).
      2. Run the suite against a fresh DB state per test (transaction
         rollback or schema reset).
      3. Move any tests that genuinely benefit from DB mocking back to
         the unit-test tier and rename accordingly.
    edit_mode: |
      Multi-file change. Proposes setup helper using `@testcontainers`
      and rewrites each test with real queries. Requires confirmation.
  references:
    - "Martin Fowler — Integration Test"
  blocker_at_tier: [team, scalable]

Example 3 — 34 tests skipped without tracking

- id: TEST-018
  severity: medium
  category: assertions
  title: "34 tests use .skip / xit / test.skip with no ticket or timeline"
  location: "multiple"
  description: |
    A repo-wide grep finds 34 instances of `.skip`, `xit`, `test.skip`,
    or `@Disabled` across the test tree. None reference a ticket or a
    deadline. Skipped tests are quiet signals of regression or
    abandoned features; accumulating them reduces the suite's value
    and lulls the team into assuming "tests pass" means "code works".
    Sample inspection shows at least 8 are for functionality that was
    removed — dead tests. Another 12 are flaky-test band-aids.
  evidence:
    - "grep -rn '\\.skip\\|xit\\|test.skip' tests/ | wc -l → 34"
    - "tests/integration/payments.test.ts:45 — `.skip` since 2025-09, no ticket"
  remediation:
    plan_mode: |
      1. Triage: delete tests for removed features; file tickets for
         flaky ones with a deadline; un-skip ones that turn out to pass.
      2. Add an ESLint rule (`no-only-tests`, `jest/no-disabled-tests`)
         that fails CI on new `.skip` without an attached comment
         pointing to a ticket.
    edit_mode: |
      Safe. Adds ESLint config + a follow-up issue per remaining
      skipped test.
  references:
    - "Working Effectively with Unit Tests (Fields)"
  blocker_at_tier: [team, scalable]

Edit-mode remediation

When generating tests:

1. Match the project's conventions. Use the same framework, same file naming, same helper patterns (fixtures, factories, test utils) as existing tests.
2. Write meaningful assertions. Don't generate expect(result).toBeDefined(). Assert on the specific return value, side effects, and error conditions.
3. Cover the matrix — not a token test. For a new test file, write:

• Happy path.
• At least two edge cases (empty input, boundary).
• At least one error path.
• For async: cancellation / timeout behavior if relevant.

1. For integration tests, spin up the real dependency (database, queue) using docker-compose / testcontainers when possible. Avoid mocks at the integration layer.
2. For load tests, scaffold a k6 / Locust script with a realistic request mix, not a single-endpoint hammer.
3. Do not silently un-skip tests. A skipped test was usually skipped for a reason. Fix the underlying issue or flag it.

For any generated test, run it after writing to verify it passes (in edit mode). If it fails, either fix the test or fix the code under test — do not leave broken tests behind.

Do not

• Do not pad coverage by testing trivial code (getters/setters, generated code) while leaving real logic uncovered.
• Do not approve deleted assertions or loosened thresholds as "remediation". Tightening a ratchet, not loosening it, is the fix.
• Do not count snapshot tests as coverage for logic — they prove output stability, not behavior correctness.
• Do not count type checking as test coverage. They're complementary, not substitutes.
• Do not measure coverage on generated code, vendored code, or __mocks__. Adjust exclusions properly in the tool config.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: Nordic-AI
• Source: Nordic-AI/production-readiness-skills
• License: Apache-2.0

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.