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Testing.instructions

GPTClaudeDeepSeek··▲ 881 copies·updated 2026-07-14

testing-instructions-4.prompt

---
applyTo: '**/*'
description: 'Test writing best practices and conventions'
---

# Testing Instructions

Language-agnostic guidelines for writing effective tests.

## Discovering Existing Test Tooling

Before creating scripts for test-related tasks (running tests, gathering coverage, generating reports):

1. **Check for build systems** - Look for `Makefile`, `build.ps1`, `package.json` scripts, `tox.ini`,
   `pyproject.toml`, or similar build configuration files
2. **Search README and CI configs** - Existing commands are often documented or visible in CI workflows
3. **Ask the user** - If unsure whether tooling exists, ask before creating anything new

**Never create new scripts when existing build tooling already handles the task.**

## Test Structure

### Arrange-Act-Assert (AAA)

Structure each test in three clear sections:

when to use it

Community prompt sourced from the open-source GitHub repo tablackburn/ai-agent-instruction-modules (MIT). A "Testing.instructions" style prompt — adapt the placeholders and specifics to your task. Imported as-is and not independently retested here, so check the output before relying on it.