brooks-test
Test quality review drawing on twelve classic engineering books — with primary focus on xUnit Test Patterns, The Art of Unit Testing, How Google Tests Software, and Working Effectively with Legacy Code — that diagnoses structural problems in an existing test suite: brittleness, mock abuse, coverage illusions, slow execution, poor readability. Triggers when: user asks about test quality, shares test files for review, or expresses frustration: "tests keep breaking whenever I change anything", "our tests take forever", "tests pass but bugs still reach production", or "we have too many mocks". Do
npx skills add hyhmrright/brooks-lint --skill brooks-test --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Brooks-Lint — Test Quality Review ## Setup Read in order: 1. `../_shared/common.md` — Iron Law, Project Config, Report Template, Health Score 2. `../_shared/source-coverage.md` — book coverage, exceptions, tradeoffs 3. `../_shared/test-decay-risks.md` — test-space symptom definitions and sources 4. `test-guide.md` (this directory) — the test quality review framework ## Process **Scope:** if the user did not share test files or point to a test directory, apply Auto Scope Detection (`../_shared/common.md`) first. 1. Build the test suite map (guide's "Before You Start" section) 2. Scan for each test decay risk in the order specified (Steps 1–4 of the guide) 3. Apply the Iron Law and output using the Report Template (Step 5 of the guide) **Mode line in report:** `Test Quality Review`
- Setup
- Process
What does the brooks-test skill do?
Test quality review drawing on twelve classic engineering books — with primary focus on xUnit Test Patterns, The Art of Unit Testing, How Google Tests Software, and Working Effectively with Legacy Code — that diagnoses structural problems in an existing test suite: brittleness, mock abuse, coverage illusions, slow execution, poor readability. Triggers when: user asks about test quality, shares test files for review, or expresses frustration: "tests keep breaking whenever I change anything", "our tests take forever", "tests pass but bugs still reach production", or "we have too many mocks". Do
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add hyhmrright/brooks-lint --skill brooks-test --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From hyhmrright/brooks-lint, a repository with 1,284 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.