Test Smell Detection

If you need a citable, research-grounded audit of test code, this one maps every finding to a named smell from the testsmells.org 19-smell catalog, things like Assertion Roulette, Mystery Guest, Eager Test, and Sleepy Test, with a severity ranking behind each. It covers a wide spread of ecosystems (.NET, Python, JS/TS, Java, Go, Ruby, Rust, Swift, Kotlin, PowerShell, C++), and the calibration rules are thoughtful: it won't flag parametrized tests as Conditional Test Logic or call a deliberate integration test a smell just for touching real resources. The flip side is that it's deliberately narrow. For a quick pragmatic review, the test-anti-patterns skill is the better fit, and it won't write or run tests for you. Reach for this one when a reviewer or paper needs formal smell names rather than general advice.

skills.sh installs: 4.1K
GitHub stars: 5.9K
last updated: Aug 1, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add dotnet/skills --skill test-smell-detection --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

Test Smell Detection

Deep formal audit of test code in any supported language using an academic test smell taxonomy. Detects symptoms of bad design or implementation decisions that make tests harder to understand, more fragile, less effective at catching bugs, or more expensive to maintain. Produces a severity-ranked report with specific locations and actionable fixes.

Language-specific guidance: Call the test-analysis-extensions skill to discover available extension files, then read the file matching the target codebase. The extension file documents test markers, sleep / time / random APIs, skip annotations, setup/teardown, mystery-guest indicators (file/database/network/env), integration markers, and language-specific calibration notes that drive the smell detectors below.