agentic-tdd SKILL.md skillA
agentic-tdd from reticlehq/reticle is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add reticlehq/reticle/agentic-tdd@v3.7.0Pins v3.7.0 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- reticlehq/reticle
- Path
skills/agentic-tdd/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 14
- Latest version
- v3.7.0, committed Oct 9, 2026
- First version recorded
- Aug 21, 2026
- Size
- 4,961 bytes
- Repository stars
- 1,263
- License
- a license file GitHub does not identify
Test-driven development for behaviour a unit test cannot reach, by writing the expectation against the running app before writing the code. Declare the consequence first, watch it fail, implement, watch it pass. Use when building a user-facing feature, when the user asks for TDD on UI or full-stack work, when a unit test cannot express the outcome that matters, or when you want a red-green loop that runs against the real app instead of mocks.
Collected from public GitHub. Every version is saved exactly as it was and never changes. Install it at an exact version with the mdr tool, and every file is checked before it reaches your agent. The main file is checked against the SHA-256 fingerprint recorded here, and the others against the fingerprints GitHub keeps for its source commit. The automatic checks below grade the latest version, and the same checks always give the same file the same grade.
What the file says
# Red, green, refactor: against the running app Unit tests drive the units. They cannot say "clicking Deploy posts to `/api/deploy`, moves the store to `deploying`, and shows the banner": that outcome only exists when the whole app runs. So the loop stalls exactly where the interesting bugs are, and the agent falls back to writing code and hoping. This runs the same discipline one level up, using **Reticle** to drive the real app. Not installed? `RETICLE_INSTALL_SOURCE=npx_skill npx @reticlehq/server@latest init`, then the [`install-and-verify`](https://github.com/reticlehq/reticle/blob/main/skills/install-and-verify/SKILL.md) skill. ## Why this is TDD and not just testing afterwards The whole value of test-first is that the oracle is written while you still do not know the answer. An expectation written **after** seeing the result can always be adjusted into agreeing with whatever happened, and an agent is especially good at that adjustment. It will find a reading of the output under which the code it just wrote is correct. …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add reticlehq/reticle/agentic-tdd@sha256:6adfce7d7af6372bThe line at the top of this page pins the label v3.7.0, which is what most people want. This one pins the sha256 fingerprint of the contents instead, so it survives a label being moved. Either way the exact version is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install downloads and checks those contents again, so it installs them exactly or stops with an error.
[](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_t4jj5fcxjqb7geaz)
4 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 14 versions of this file, between Aug 21, 2026 and Oct 9, 2026, about one every 4 days.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| v3.7.0 latest | 2026-10-09 | 4019204 | 4,961 B | A | view · diff |
| v3.6.0 | 2026-10-07 | c08be48 | 4,961 B | A | view · diff |
| v3.5.0 | 2026-10-01 | 14085e6 | 4,961 B | A | view · diff |
| v3.4.0 | 2026-09-30 | 2685d9a | 4,961 B | A | view · diff |
| v3.3.0 | 2026-09-30 | f9b1ada | 4,961 B | A | view · diff |
| v3.3.0 | 2026-09-25 | 0b8afcc | 4,942 B | A | view · diff |
| v3.2.0 | 2026-09-23 | d400c5d | 4,942 B | A | view · diff |
| v3.1.0 | 2026-09-18 | 5d475e0 | 4,942 B | A | view · diff |
| v2.14.0 | 2026-09-09 | f3be3a9 | 4,943 B | A | view · diff |
| v2.13.1 | 2026-09-02 | 96d872c | 4,943 B | A | view · diff |
| v2.13.0 | 2026-09-02 | a6ee238 | 4,943 B | A | view · diff |
| v2.12.0 | 2026-09-02 | 9814709 | 4,943 B | A | view · diff |
| v2.9.0 | 2026-08-21 | 9d5de92 | 4,942 B | A | view · diff |
| v2.9.0 | 2026-08-21 | e019802 | 4,920 B | A | view |
Audit of the latest version
- pass: Frontmatter block present
- pass: Frontmatter declares a name
- pass: Frontmatter declares a description
- pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (4961 bytes)
- pass: No zero-width or bidi control characters
- pass: No instruction hidden inside an HTML comment
- pass: No link to an exfiltration or paste host
- pass: No credential-shaped string
- pass: No instruction to send local credentials anywhere
- pass: No text hidden with inline styles
- pass: No prompt-injection phrasing
- pass: No curl or wget piped into a shell
- pass: No recursive delete of root, home or parent
- pass: No instruction to read or print local credentials
- pass: No base64 blob over 200 characters
- pass: No link to a raw IP address
- pass: No script tag
Source
reticlehq/reticle · 1,263 stars · license a license file GitHub does not identify · pushed 2026-10-22 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_t4jj5fcxjqb7geaz GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=reticlehq/reticle/agentic-tdd GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/6adfce7d7af6372bab213b55800f15fe52e6fddec260d71c0fc5c05e400b6c69
Your AI assistant does the legwork. You hear about the deals worth your word. Hand yours the standing instructions at modelranch.com and it joins the network that reads files like this one.
Guides: the SKILL.md format and its required fields · what to check before you install a skill · how to pin a skill to an exact version · where to find agent skills · keeping a team on the same skills · which agent file does what.