---
name: Automated Test Planning
slug: automated-test-planning
category: Quality
description: Automated Test Planning analyzes source code to identify coverage gaps, edge cases, and the tests a branch needs. Use it when you need a standalone test plan for files or directories, not manual test steps or test code.
github: "https://github.com/testdouble/han/tree/main/han-coding/skills/automated-test-planning"
language: Shell
stars: 253
forks: 22
install: "npx degit https://github.com/testdouble/han/tree/main/han-coding/skills/automated-test-planning ~/.claude/skills/automated-test-planning"
installs_to: ~/.claude/skills/automated-test-planning
source_path: han-coding/skills/automated-test-planning/SKILL.md
collection_size: 25
category_size: 1418
collection_url: "https://dirskills.com/collections/testdouble/han"
added: 2026-09-02T05:20:49.729Z
last_synced: 2026-09-02T05:20:49.729Z
canonical_url: "https://dirskills.com/skills/automated-test-planning"
---

# Automated Test Planning

Automated Test Planning analyzes source code to identify coverage gaps, edge cases, and the tests a branch needs. Use it when you need a standalone test plan for files or directories, not manual test steps or test code.

**Install:**

```bash
npx degit https://github.com/testdouble/han/tree/main/han-coding/skills/automated-test-planning ~/.claude/skills/automated-test-planning
```

## README

## Operating Principles

- **Test behavior through the public API, never internals.** Every recommended test verifies observable behavior at a
  public seam: the inputs a real caller supplies, the outputs and side effects they observe, and the interactions the
  unit has with the other objects and services it collaborates with. Do not recommend tests that reach into private
  methods, internal state, or implementation structure — those tests pin the _how_ and break on every refactor. When two
  designs would produce the same observable behavior, the test must pass for both. If a behavior can only be observed by
  inspecting internals, that is a signal the behavior belongs at a different seam, not a license to test the internal;
  note it and move the recommendation to the public boundary that exposes it. This is the depth ceiling: cover the
  critical behaviors a caller depends on, and stop. Do not specify tests for every branch, every private helper, or
  every intermediate value.
- **YAGNI is a first-class operating principle for tests.** Apply the evidence-based YAGNI rule from
  [../../references/yagni-rule.md](../../references/yagni-rule.md). A test is worth recommending only when (a) the code
  under review commits to a behavior the test verifies and (b) the failure mode the test would catch is realistic for
  this codebase. Tests for code paths that don't exist yet, hypothetical adversaries the code doesn't face, hypothetical
  scaling problems the workload doesn't have, "completeness" with existing tests, or symmetry ("we have a test for
  create, so we should have one for delete") are YAGNI candidates and go to the Deferred Tests section with the trigger
  that would justify writing them. When many speculative low-level tests can be replaced by one durable behavioral test
  that catches the same realistic failure modes, recommend the single test instead. Every test is ongoing maintenance
  and a brittleness surface.

## Project Context

- git installed: !`which git 2>/dev/null || echo "not installed"`
- CLAUDE.md: !`find . -maxdepth 1 -name "CLAUDE.md" -type f`
- project-discovery.md: !`find . -maxdepth 3 -name "project-discovery.md" -type f`
- personal config directory: !`bash "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/han-config-dir.sh" 2>/dev/null || echo "$HOME/.claude"`
- project .han/config.md: !`cat .han/config.md 2>/dev/null || echo ""`

As your first action, use the Read tool on `.han/config.md` inside the `personal config directory` path above. A read
that returns no file is no personal configuration: continue silently. When that file or the `project .han/config.md`
probe supplies content, apply it per [config-rule.md](../../references/config-rule.md), which governs precedence
between the two files, relative-path resolution, and what to do with a file that reads but cannot be used.

## Step 1: Determine Scope

Resolve project config: read CLAUDE.md's `## Project Discovery` section for test command (under
`### Commands and Tests`, not `### Frameworks and Tooling`), language, and framework; fall back to project-discovery.md.
Store found values for use in later steps.

**Scope determination:** Check `git installed` from Project Context. If empty or `not installed`, skip to **Mode C**
below.

Run `${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/detect-test-context.sh` and parse its output. If `git-available: false`, skip to **Mode
C** below.

**Mode A: Full git context** — `git-available: true` and the output contains a `changed-files-start` block with content.

- If the user provided file paths, directories, or a description: use those as scope (do not go searching for plan files
  or try to locate plans)
- Otherwise: use the changed files list from the script output as scope

**Mode B: Uncommitted changes** — `git-available: true` but output contains `changed-files: none`.

- If the user provided scope: use it as-is
- Otherwise: run `git diff` (unstaged changes), `git diff --cached` (staged changes), and `git status --short`
  (untracked files) to identify changed files; if any files are found, use those as scope
- If no files found in any of those commands, fall through to **Mode C**

**Mode C: No git / no changes found** — git missing, not in a repo, or no changes detected in any state.

- If the user provided file paths, directories, or a description of what to test: use those as-is
- Otherwise: use Glob to discover source files in the current directory, excluding `node_modules/`, `.git/`, `vendor/`,
  `dist/`, `build/`, `__pycache__/`, lock files; present the discovered files and ask the user to confirm scope

Build a list of source files to analyze: expand directories to find source files; identify relevant source files from
branch changes or project structure for descriptions.

## Step 2: Dispatch Testing Agents

Launch the testing agents **in parallel** using the `Agent` tool with `run_in_background: true`. Pass each agent the
file list from Step 1. In Mode A or Mode B, include `on branch {branch}` in agent prompts if a branch name was detected
by the script; in Mode C or when no branch was detected, omit the branch reference entirely. If the user described what
they want tested, include that description in every agent prompt so they can focus their analysis.

### Always dispatch

1. **Launch han-core:test-engineer agent** — prompt: "Analyze test coverage for the following files{on branch {branch}
   if applicable}: {file list}. Recommend tests only at the public API: the inputs a real caller supplies, the outputs
   and side effects they observe, and the interactions the unit has with the objects and services it collaborates with.
   Do not recommend tests that reach into private methods, internal state, or implementation structure — if two
   implementations would produce the same observable behavior, the test must pass for both. Cover the critical behaviors
   a caller depends on and stop; do not specify a test for every branch, private helper, or intermediate value. Apply
   the YAGNI rule from [../../references/yagni-rule.md](../../references/yagni-rule.md) — recommend a test only when the
   code commits to a behavior the test verifies AND the failure mode is realistic for this codebase. Symmetry,
   completeness, and hypothetical scaling are YAGNI; defer those to the Deferred Tests section with the trigger that
   would justify writing them. {any additional context from user arguments}"

2. **Launch han-core:edge-case-explorer agent** — prompt: "Explore edge cases for the following files{on branch {branch}
   if applicable}: {file list}. Focus on inputs, integration points, and error paths observable through the public API
   and through interactions with collaborating objects and services — not internal state or private implementation.
   Apply the YAGNI rule from [../../references/yagni-rule.md](../../references/yagni-rule.md) — raise an edge case only
   when a real caller produces the input, the failure mode has plausible production trigger, or the case is
   critical-path correctness regardless of caller. Hypothetical adversaries the code doesn't face and symmetry-driven
   boundaries go to Dropped Edge Cases with the trigger that would justify revisiting. {any additional context from user
   arguments}"

### Conditional dispatch

Inspect the file list before launching. Skip any that do not apply.

3. **Launch han-core:concurrency-analyst agent** — only if the file list touches threads, async/await, goroutines,
   actors, shared mutable state across requests, timers, locks, or message queues. Prompt: "Identify concurrency test
   gaps for the following files{on branch {branch} if applicable}: {file list}. Focus on race conditions, lock ordering,
   shared-resource contention, deadlock potential, and async error handling that should be covered by tests. {any
   additional context from user arguments}"

4. **Launch han-core:adversarial-security-analyst agent** — only if the file list touches authentication, authorization,
   input validation, data isolation, session handling, crypto, file uploads, external API calls with secrets, or SQL/ORM
   query construction. Prompt: "Identify negative security tests that should exist for the following files{on branch
   {branch} if applicable}: {file list}. Focus on exploit paths that tests could catch before production — authorization
   bypass, injection, broken isolation, insecure defaults. Return test recommendations, not general threat modeling.
   {any additional context from user arguments}"

Extra agents named in the project config's `## Extra Agents` list join this conditional-dispatch pool under the same
file-list-signal selection, per [../../references/config-rule.md](../../references/config-rule.md): dispatch one only
when the file list carries a signal matching its stated specialty, and skip an entry that does not resolve to a
dispatchable agent with a one-line note.

Wait for every dispatched agent to complete and collect full output for processing in Step 3.

## Step 3: Merge and Prioritize

Combine findings from every dispatched agent into a unified, prioritized test plan:

1. **Classify findings** —
   - **han-core:test-engineer items** (T1, T2, ...): map High to CRIT or HIGH depending on the code path (security, data
     integrity, auth = CRIT; business logic, error handling = HIGH), Medium to MED, Low to LOW.
   - **han-core:edge-case-explorer items** (EC1, EC2, ...): map directly — Critical to CRIT, High to HIGH, Medium to
     MED, Low to LOW.
   - **han-core:concurrency-analyst items** (C1, C2, ...) when dispatched: races on auth/billing/isolation = CRIT;
     realistic load contention, async error swallowing = HIGH; theoretical interleaving = MED.
   - **han-core:adversarial-security-analyst items** (SEC-NNN) when dispatched: every item lands at CRIT. Retain the
     SEC-### cross-reference in the unified item so the source is visible. CRIT ranks the finding's severity and says
     nothing about whose ticket the fix belongs to; the prerequisite sweep below still applies to every one of them.
2. **Apply the behavioral sweep** — walk every surviving recommendation and confirm it verifies observable behavior at a
   public seam (caller-supplied inputs, observed outputs and side effects, interactions with collaborating objects and
   services). Rewrite any item that asserts on private methods, internal state, or implementation structure so it tests
   the same behavior through the public boundary; if no public seam exposes it, drop the item and note that the behavior
   should be observed at a higher level rather than pinned to internals. Collapse multiple low-level items that protect
   the same observable behavior into the single behavioral test that catches the same realistic failure modes.
3. **Apply the prerequisite sweep** — walk every surviving recommendation and ask what has to be true before the test
   can be written at all. An item whose test approach needs a production-code change first, meaning an added `order`,
   a new validation, a changed return value, a schema column, or any other edit to shipped code, is not a test to
   write. It is a production change wearing a test's clothes, and folding it into the plan hands the implementer a code
   change nobody authorized. Move it out of the priority tiers into Blocked by a Production Change, recording the
   change it needs, the file that would carry it, and who else consumes that file, so a reader can see the blast radius
   and open a separate ticket. Run this sweep before IDs are assigned, and run it over security items too: an honest
   finding at CRIT is still out of scope if it cannot be tested without first changing shipped code.
4. **Assign unified IDs** — sequential IDs: TP-001, TP-002, TP-003, etc. Include the original agent ID as a
   cross-reference (e.g., "TP-001 (from T3)", "TP-002 (from C1, concurrency)", "TP-003 (from SEC-001, security)").
5. **Order by priority** — interleave items from every agent by priority: all CRIT items first, then HIGH, then MED,
   then LOW. Within each priority level, order by the agent's own ranking.
6. **Cap at 40 items** — keep a maximum of 40 items total, prioritized by severity. Security items (SEC-derived) are
   exempt from the cap. If more than 40 non-security items exist, note how many were omitted and recommend running the
   skill again after addressing high-priority items.
7. **Apply the YAGNI sweep** — walk every test recommendation that survived classification and apply
   [../../references/yagni-rule.md](../../references/yagni-rule.md). Demote any test whose justification reduces to
   "completeness", "best practice", "for future flexibility", symmetry with another test, or hypothetical
   scaling/adversaries the change doesn't touch — these go to the Deferred Tests section with a
   `Reason: YAGNI — {gate failure}` and the trigger that would justify writing the test (a third real customer hits the
   edge case, the feature actually ships the path, a measured production failure occurs, etc.). When several recommended
   low-level tests can be replaced by one durable behavioral test that catches the same realistic failure modes, replace
   them with the single test and record the dropped low-level tests under Deferred with
   `Reason: YAGNI — single behavioral test catches the same realistic failure modes`.

## Step 4: Generate Output

Before generating, invoke `han-communication:readability-guidance` to source the shared readability standard into your
context, then apply it as you write the plan's plain-language spine (Summary, What Needs Testing and Why, What Each Test
Covers), holding the named audience: the engineer who will implement the tests. The frame governs how a fact is said,
never whether a required fact appears — keep the file:line references, test levels, and TP-IDs the plan depends on.

Use the template at [template.md](./references/template.md) for the output structure. The test plan leads with plain
language and defers the implementation detail.

**Writing rules:**

Lead with behavior. These rules make the plan a human-readable overview first and an implementation outline second:

1. **Lead with the why.** Write the Summary, What Needs Testing and Why, and What Each Test Covers in plain language
   before the `## Technical Reference` region. Describe what needs testing and what would break without it, in
   functional terms a reader who has not seen the code can follow. Name files, types, and test levels only where they
   aid understanding.
2. **Summary is prose plus bullets.** Open with a 2-4 sentence plain-language paragraph: what was analyzed, the overall
   state of coverage, where the biggest risk sits, and what to test first. No file paths, no TP-IDs, no framework jargon
   in the paragraph. Then the scannable orienting bullets.
3. **What Needs Testing and Why groups the work into themes.** Cover the 2-4 themes a reader can hold in their head
   (e.g. "Authorization", "Payment edge cases", "Concurrent writes"), not every item. For each, explain in everyday
   terms what behavior needs coverage and why it matters — what could break, who is affected. End each theme by naming
   the test IDs that fall under it so the reader can jump to detail.
4. **What Each Test Covers narrates the tests in plain language.** Walk the tests in priority order. Lead each line with
   its test ID so it cross-links to the Technical Reference, then state what behavior it protects and what would break
   untested — not how to write it. Summarize a long low-priority tail in one line rather than listing each.
5. **Technical Reference is supporting detail.** Place the per-item Test Plan (with test level, code paths, test
   approach, priority justification), Deferred Tests, Dropped Edge Cases, Coverage Summary counts, and Scope under the
   `## Technical Reference` region, below the plain-language spine. A reader who only needs to know what to test and why
   can stop above.

**Fill in all sections:**

1. **Summary** — Plain-language paragraph plus orienting bullets (scope, coverage health, most significant gap, where to
   start, and how many items the prerequisite sweep blocked). This is the qualitative coverage assessment, promoted to
   the top and written for a non-author. The blocked count belongs in the Summary because a caveat buried under the
   Technical Reference loses every attention contest to a CRIT label above it.
2. **What Needs Testing and Why** — The themes, in plain language, each ending with the test IDs it covers.
3. **What Each Test Covers** — Every meaningful test as a plain-language line led by its TP-ID.
4. **Technical Reference → Test Plan** — All items from Step 3, grouped by priority tier. Every test plan item should
   include file:line references from the agent output, and preserve agent detail — carry through the test approach, code
   paths, and risk assessments into the merged output.
5. **Technical Reference → Deferred Tests** — Items the han-core:test-engineer excluded due to brittleness risk.
6. **Technical Reference → Dropped Edge Cases** — Items the han-core:edge-case-explorer intentionally excluded.
7. **Technical Reference → Blocked by a Production Change** — Items the prerequisite sweep moved out of the priority
   tiers, each with the production change it would need, the file that would carry it, and that file's other consumers.
   Write each one as separate work to be ticketed, never as a test this plan asks anyone to write.
8. **Technical Reference → Coverage Summary** — Counts by priority tier.
9. **Technical Reference → Scope** — Scope type, file count, branch, language, test framework, and the file list.

## Step 5: Review the Output

Dispatch two reviewers against the generated test plan, **in parallel**, using the `Agent` tool. The plan is produced
in-channel, so embed the full plan text in each agent's prompt (in place of `{plan text}` below). If the plan was
written to a file, pass that path instead and let the agent read it.

1. **Launch han-core:information-architect agent** — prompt: "Audit the following test plan for findability,
   orientation, and comprehension. The intended audience is an engineer or technically-literate stakeholder who needs to
   understand what needs testing and why before reading the implementation detail. Check: (1) Do the plain-language
   Summary, What Needs Testing and Why, and What Each Test Covers sections appear before the `## Technical Reference`
   region? If the plain-language content is missing or sits below the reference detail, that is a finding. (2) Does the
   Summary paragraph read for someone who has not seen the code — no file paths, TP-IDs, or framework jargon? (3) Does
   the heading list let a scanning reader see where the plain-language overview ends and the deep Technical Reference
   begins? (4) Do the What Each Test Covers lines cross-link to their TP-IDs so a reader can move from plain language to
   detail? Return a list of structural edits; do not return an empty list unless the plan leads with plain language and
   defers the implementation detail.\n\n{plan text}"

2. **Launch han-core:junior-developer agent** — prompt: "Review the following test plan as a generalist teammate who has
   not seen this code. Reading only the plain-language sections (Summary, What Needs Testing and Why, What Each Test
   Covers), can you understand what needs testing and why it matters without dropping into the Technical Reference? Flag
   any plain-language line that is unclear, leans on undefined jargon, assumes context a reader would not have, or
   states a test without conveying what would break if it were missing. Return a list of clarity findings with the
   section and line they apply to; return an empty list only if the plain-language layer stands on its own.\n\n{plan
   text}"

Apply every actionable edit the agents return. For findings that require author judgment (scope or audience ambiguity),
surface them to the user with a recommended resol