Field Notes
The Concurrency Test That Proved Nothing
A race test passed because its framework ran sequentially. Learn how to prove your concurrency test can fail on broken code.
Tag:
Test Design
9 articles
Field Notes
The Watchdog That Would Have Passed Every Test and Hung Anyway
How a retryable timeout can make every watchdog test pass while a stalled provider stream still hangs your session.
Field Notes
I Forked My Agent Harness So It Couldn’t Grade Its Own Homework
If your agent can author its own success, your checks are decoration. Learn the structural split that keeps a harness from grading itself.
Field Notes
Nine Defects, Zero Unit Tests: Drive Your Tool Like a Stranger
Nine defects appeared only when the Ranex CLI was driven like a new operator would use it. Here is what to test at your tool surface.
Field Notes
Six Roads to a False PASS (All One Root Cause)
A valid credential is not proof of what it was about. Learn how six false PASS paths exposed one weak observation boundary.
Field Notes
A Skipped Test Is Not a Passed Test
Exit code zero can conceal skipped or missing tests. Freeze outcomes and judge them against a manifest instead.
Field Notes
59 Refusals, Zero Tests: What Mutation Testing Found
Mutation testing exposed 59 refusal paths no test executed. Learn how to measure the safety net instead of trusting a green suite.
Governing Agent Labor
Measure Before Learning: Stop Calling One Run a Win
A single run cannot prove a change helped. Freeze the comparison, set the rules first, and keep observations separate from grades.
Field Notes
How a 12% Flaky Test Suite Got Approved Twice
Learn why a stable-looking test report is not evidence, and how rerunning checks against disk exposed a 12% flaky suite.