git:20260620.c77dcc6 to git:20260804.cbed805

8 added, 6 removed. Audit A to A.

---

name: brooks-test

description: >

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 NOT trigger for: writing new tests from scratch (use the regular test-writing

workflow) or testing framework/syntax questions — this skill reviews an existing

suite for structural quality problems, not individual test authoring.

---

# Brooks-Lint — Test Quality Review

## Setup

- 1. Read `../_shared/common.md` for the Iron Law, Project Config, Report Template, and Health Score rules

- 2. Read `../_shared/source-coverage.md` for book-level coverage, exceptions, and tradeoffs

- 3. Read `../_shared/test-decay-risks.md` for test-space symptom definitions and source attributions

- 4. Read `test-guide.md` in this directory for the test quality review framework

+ 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

- **If the user has not shared test files or pointed to a test directory:** apply Auto

- Scope Detection from `../_shared/common.md` to determine the review scope before proceeding.

+ **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`