michaelalber/tdd

TDD (Red-Green-Refactor)

"Write tests that are sensitive to behavior changes, insensitive to structure changes." — Kent Beck

Two Critical Properties

Every test must satisfy both before leaving RED:

| Property | A compliant test... | A violation looks like | |----------|---------------------|------------------------| | Behavioral | fails when the observable outcome breaks | assert repo.save.called — verifies a method was called, not what the system produced | | Structure-insensitive | survives a rename-only or extract-method refactor | assert order._total == 100 — reads internal state; breaks on any rename |

The Failure Mode: Horizontal Slicing

The most common TDD failure in AI-generated code:

# WRONG — horizontal slice
def test_register(): ...
def test_login(): ...
def test_logout(): ...
# ... then all implementation
class Auth: ...

# RIGHT — vertical slice
def test_register(): ...    # one test
class Auth:                 # minimal code to pass it
    def register(): ...
# refactor → commit → next test
def test_login(): ...

Horizontal slicing produces tests that were never red, implementations that were never minimal, and refactoring that was never constrained by a safety net. Never accumulate unimplemented tests.

The Cycle — One test → one implementation → repeat

RED

1. Write ONE failing test for the next smallest observable behavior
2. Run the suite — the new test must fail for a semantic reason (not import/syntax)
3. All other tests must still pass

GREEN

1. Write the minimum code to pass the failing test — nothing it does not require (no unrequested error handling, config, edge cases, or "while I'm here" features)
2. Prefer: Fake It (hardcode) → Obvious Implementation → Triangulation
3. Run the suite — all tests must pass
4. Strategies & per-language idioms (.NET/Python/PHP/TS): green idioms on demand; for .NET test structure see test-scaffold

REFACTOR

1. One structural change at a time — behavior must not change (no bug fixes, no new features; those start a new RED)
2. Run tests after every change — revert immediately if red
3. Smell→refactoring recipes: code smells · refactoring catalog on demand

Per-Cycle Self-Check

• [ ] This test was red before I wrote any implementation
• [ ] This test asserts an observable outcome, not a method call or internal state
• [ ] A rename-only refactor would NOT break this test
• [ ] My implementation passes this test and no others I have not written yet
• [ ] All tests are green entering REFACTOR

State Block

<tdd-state>
phase: RED | GREEN | REFACTOR
iteration: N
current_test: [test name]
failure_reason: [semantic description — not "syntax error"]
tests_passing: true | false
</tdd-state>

Modes & Companions

The one canonical loop (GREEN/REFACTOR depth in references/ above). Companions are modes and audits, not alternatives:

| Need | Skill | |------|-------| | AI drives all phases autonomously (defers here for mechanics) | tdd-agent | | Audit test quality or TDD compliance after the fact | evaluate-tests | | .NET test conventions — xUnit / AAA / mocks | test-scaffold | | RED before/after examples | Behavioral Examples |