Files
dotnet__skills/plugins/dotnet-test
Amaury Levé 3d59e44c7e Fix coverage-analysis activation for plateau diagnosis prompts (#647)
* Fix coverage-analysis activation for plateau diagnosis prompts

coverage-analysis SKILL.md:
- Trim verbose implementation details (provider detection,
  ReportGenerator) that consumed description budget without
  aiding skill activation
- Add explicit USE FOR keywords: coverage stuck, coverage plateau,
  can't increase coverage, what's blocking coverage

code-testing-agent SKILL.md:
- Add 'diagnosing coverage plateaus or CRAP score computation
  (use coverage-analysis)' to DO NOT USE FOR boundary to prevent
  test-generation skill from intercepting diagnostic prompts

* Potential fix for pull request finding

Co-authored-by: Copilot Autofix powered by AI <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

* Strengthen code-testing-agent activation; harden coverage-analysis isolated mode

Address eval regressions reported on PR #647 (run 25813728646):

1. code-testing-agent: `Generate tests for ContosoUniversity ASP.NET Core MVC app`
   was NOT ACTIVATED in plugin mode (detectedSkills=[], skillEventCount=0,
   invokedAgents=[]). The model bypassed the skill system entirely.

   - SKILL.md description: restructure to use the proven `Use when user says ...`
     pattern with quoted trigger phrases (matching the run-tests skill that
     consistently activates), make the link to the code-testing-generator
     sub-agent explicit, and tighten DO NOT USE FOR clauses.
   - eval prompt (eval.yaml + eval.vally.yaml): make the request
     pipeline-shaped (`project-wide, multi-file test generation task`,
     `scaffold a new test project`) so the model recognizes it as multi-step
     work that benefits from the orchestrated pipeline. Explicitly request
     coverlet.collector + a Cobertura XML run so rubric criterion 1
     (`high line coverage as reported by the Cobertura XML in TestResults/`)
     becomes achievable without overfitting.

2. code-testing-tester agent + code-testing-extensions/dotnet.md: open a
   scoped exception to the `skip coverage tools` rule. Default behavior
   stays the same, but when the user/harness explicitly asks for a
   Cobertura/XML coverage artifact, the agent may add coverlet.collector
   to the generated test csproj so the harness's coverage command produces
   output. The agent still does not run the coverage command itself.

3. coverage-analysis SKILL.md: add a `User-visible output is mandatory`
   guard at the top of the Workflow section. The latest eval showed isolated
   mode producing literally `(no output)` in 2 of 3 scenarios — the agent
   ran Compute-CrapScores.ps1 / Extract-MethodCoverage.ps1 / ReportGenerator
   in parallel, then the session ended without ever surfacing findings.
   The guard tells the agent to always return a partial summary instead of
   ending silent, and to deprioritize ReportGenerator HTML when budget is
   tight. (Plugin-mode quality is already strong: 4.3 / 4.3 / 5.0 — no
   regression risk there.)

Aggregate dotnet-test plugin description size: 14,925 chars (limit 15,000).
skill-validator check passes (22 skills, 11 agents, 1 plugin); markdownlint
passes for all 4 modified files.

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

* Restore MSTest modernization exclusion in code-testing-agent description

* Fix isolated-mode coverage-analysis: emit summary before optional ReportGenerator

The previous workflow encouraged the agent to run `dotnet tool install` for
ReportGenerator in parallel with the CRAP scoring scripts (Phase 2 "Steps
3 and 4 in parallel" + Phase 3 "Steps 5 and 6 in parallel"). In isolated
mode that pattern reliably crashed the session with "Failed to persist
session events: timeout while waiting for mutex to become available"
right after the scripts returned valid data, so the agent never produced
the user-facing summary.

Restructure the workflow into 5 phases:

- Phase 1 (Setup) - unchanged
- Phase 2 (Test execution) - skip when Cobertura XML already exists
- Phase 3 (Analysis) - run only the two PowerShell scripts, no RG
- Phase 4 (User-facing summary) - MANDATORY, must be the next assistant
  response after Phase 3, before any RG work; also save
  coverage-analysis.md as a secondary follow-up
- Phase 5 (ReportGenerator HTML/CSV) - strictly optional, post-summary,
  skipped by default for existing-Cobertura and plateau-diagnosis paths

Also update references/output-format.md so the Reports section marks RG
artifacts as "Not generated (optional - request HTML reports to enable)"
when Phase 5 has not run, and update references/guidelines.md so the
"show and open the markdown report" rule explicitly defers to the
user-facing assistant response.

Targets the isolated-mode regressions in PR #647 eval:
- Project-wide coverage with existing Cobertura: 1.0/5 -> expected 3+
- Coverage plateau diagnosis: 1.0/5 -> expected 3+
- Run coverage from scratch: 2.3/5 -> expected steady or up

Verified: skill-validator check --plugin ./plugins/dotnet-test passes;
markdownlint-cli2 clean on all 3 modified files.

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

* Address PR #647 review comments

1. Prerequisites: distinguish the from-scratch path (needs NuGet for the
   coverage-provider package install + optional internet for ReportGenerator)
   from the existing-Cobertura path (needs neither).

2. Add Step 2c "Discover or accept existing Cobertura XML" so the
   existing-data path actually has $coberturaFiles populated before
   Phase 3, instead of relying on Phase 2's discovery (which it
   skips). Also clarify Step 2's destructive Remove-Item only manages
   the skill-owned coverage-analysis/ subdirectory.

3. references/output-format.md: replace the unconditional
   "Reports saved to: <coverageDir>/reports/" line with one that
   always points at <coverageDir>/ (markdown summary + raw Cobertura)
   and only mentions reports/ if Phase 5 ran.

4. Have Compute-CrapScores.ps1 emit OVERALL_LINE_COVERAGE and
   OVERALL_BRANCH_COVERAGE from the Cobertura root attributes, and
   update Phase 4 to read those values directly from the script's
   output. The Phase 4 mandatory-summary rule no longer requires a
   separate XML parse before composing the response.

Verified: skill-validator check --plugin ./plugins/dotnet-test passes;
markdownlint-cli2 clean on all modified files; Compute-CrapScores.ps1
smoke-tested on a synthetic Cobertura XML (emits OVERALL_LINE_COVERAGE:75,
OVERALL_BRANCH_COVERAGE:50 alongside HOTSPOTS).

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

* Apply suggestion from @Evangelink

* Address unresolved coverage-analysis and eval review comments

* Refine follow-up review feedback from validation

* Tighten coverage aggregation fallback notes and counters

* Clarify pre-response save instruction wording

---------

Co-authored-by: Copilot Autofix powered by AI <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: copilot-swe-agent[bot] <198982749+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
2026-05-14 17:41:31 +00:00
..

dotnet-test

Skills and agents for running, generating, analyzing, migrating, and improving .NET tests across all major frameworks (MSTest, xUnit, NUnit, TUnit) and platforms (VSTest, Microsoft.Testing.Platform).

When to use this plugin

  • Run tests — execute dotnet test with automatic platform/framework detection and filter syntax
  • Generate tests — scaffold comprehensive unit tests for any language via a multi-agent pipeline
  • Migrate tests — upgrade MSTest v1/v2 → v3 → v4, xUnit v2 → v3, or VSTest → Microsoft.Testing.Platform
  • Audit test quality — detect anti-patterns, test smells, assertion gaps, and coverage risks
  • Improve testability — find static dependencies, generate wrappers, and migrate call sites to injectable abstractions
  • Measure coverage — collect code coverage, compute CRAP scores, and surface risk hotspots

Skills

Test execution

Skill Description
run-tests Run .NET tests via dotnet test with platform/framework auto-detection and filter support
mtp-hot-reload Rapid test-fix iteration using MTP hot reload (edit code → re-run without rebuilding)

Test generation

Skill Description
code-testing-agent Multi-agent pipeline (Research → Plan → Implement → Build → Test → Fix → Lint) that generates tests for any language
writing-mstest-tests Best practices and modern APIs for writing MSTest 3.x/4.x tests

Test migration

Skill Description
migrate-mstest-v1v2-to-v3 Upgrade MSTest v1 (assembly refs) or v2 (NuGet 1.x2.x) to v3
migrate-mstest-v3-to-v4 Upgrade MSTest v3 to v4 — handles all source and behavioral breaking changes
migrate-xunit-to-xunit-v3 Upgrade xUnit.net v2 to v3
migrate-vstest-to-mtp Migrate from VSTest runner to Microsoft.Testing.Platform

Test quality & analysis

Skill Description
test-anti-patterns Quick pragmatic scan for ~15 common test quality issues with severity ranking
test-smell-detection Deep formal audit using academic test smell taxonomy (19 smell types)
assertion-quality Measure assertion variety and depth — find shallow tests that barely verify anything
test-gap-analysis Pseudo-mutation analysis to find test blind spots that coverage numbers miss
test-tagging Tag tests with standardized traits (smoke, regression, boundary, critical-path, etc.)

Coverage & risk

Skill Description
coverage-analysis Project-wide code coverage collection with CRAP score computation and risk hotspot reporting
crap-score Calculate CRAP (Change Risk Anti-Patterns) scores for individual methods, classes, or files

Testability improvement

Skill Description
detect-static-dependencies Scan C# code for hard-to-test statics (DateTime.Now, File.*, HttpClient, etc.)
generate-testability-wrappers Generate wrapper interfaces or guide adoption of built-in abstractions (TimeProvider, IFileSystem)
migrate-static-to-wrapper Bulk-replace static call sites with injected wrapper calls and add constructor injection

Reference data (loaded by other skills)

Skill Description
code-testing-extensions Language-specific guidance files loaded by the code-testing pipeline
platform-detection Detect VSTest vs MTP and identify the test framework from project files
filter-syntax Test filter syntax reference for VSTest and MTP across all frameworks
dotnet-test-frameworks Framework detection patterns, assertion APIs, skip annotations, and lifecycle methods

Agents

User-facing agents

These are the entry-point agents you invoke directly:

Agent Purpose
code-testing-generator Orchestrates the full test generation pipeline (research → plan → implement → build → test → fix → lint)
test-migration Auto-detects framework/version and routes to the correct migration skill
test-quality-auditor Runs multi-skill audit pipelines for comprehensive test suite assessment
testability-migration End-to-end testability improvement: detect → generate wrappers → migrate call sites

Internal subagents

These are pipeline stages invoked automatically by the agents above (user-invocable: false). You do not need to call them directly:

Agent Called by Purpose
code-testing-researcher code-testing-generator Analyzes codebase structure, testing patterns, and testability
code-testing-planner code-testing-generator Creates phased test implementation plans from research findings
code-testing-implementer code-testing-generator Implements one phase from the plan, runs build-test-fix cycles
code-testing-builder code-testing-implementer Runs build/compile commands and reports results
code-testing-tester code-testing-implementer Runs test commands and reports pass/fail results
code-testing-fixer code-testing-implementer Fixes compilation errors in source or test files
code-testing-linter code-testing-implementer Runs code formatting and linting

Prerequisites

  • .NET SDK installed (dotnet on PATH)
  • A project with an existing test framework (MSTest, xUnit, NUnit, or TUnit) for execution and analysis skills