Rule of Five — Tests

Each pass has ONE job. Re-read the entire artifact through that lens. See references/pass-order-rationale.md for order rationale.

Quick Start

Create native tasks for 5 passes with sequential dependencies:

TaskCreate: "Pass 1: Draft"
  description: "Shape and structure. Test organization mirrors source. All test cases exist."
  activeForm: "Drafting"

TaskCreate: "Pass 2: Coverage"
  description: "Significant code paths tested? Happy, error, boundary? Every public function covered?"
  activeForm: "Checking coverage"
  addBlockedBy: [draft-task-id]

TaskCreate: "Pass 3: Independence"
  description: "Each test runs alone? Shared state? Order dependence? Test coupling?"
  activeForm: "Checking independence"
  addBlockedBy: [coverage-task-id]

TaskCreate: "Pass 4: Speed"
  description: "Unnecessary waits? Heavy fixtures? Could mock I/O? Any test >1s unjustified?"
  activeForm: "Checking speed"
  addBlockedBy: [independence-task-id]

TaskCreate: "Pass 5: Maintainability"
  description: "Descriptive names? Clear intent? DRY helpers? A newcomer could add tests by following patterns?"
  activeForm: "Improving maintainability"
  addBlockedBy: [speed-task-id]

ENFORCEMENT:

Each pass is blocked until the previous completes
Cannot commit until all 5 tasks show status: completed
TaskList shows your progress through the passes
Skipping passes is visible - blocked tasks can't be marked in_progress

For each pass: re-read the full artifact, evaluate through that lens only, make changes, then mark task complete.

Detection Triggers

Invoke when: >50 lines of test code written/modified, new test suites, comprehensive test refactoring, or about to claim test work "done".

For code, use rule-of-five-code. For plans/design docs, use rule-of-five-plans.

Skip for: Single test additions, trivial test fixes, changes under 20 lines.

Announce: "Applying rule-of-five-tests to [artifact]. Starting 5-pass review."

The 5 Passes

Pass	Focus	Exit when...
Draft	Shape and structure. Test organization mirrors source. All test cases exist.	All test cases exist; structure follows source
Coverage	Significant code paths tested? Happy, error, boundary?	Every public function tested; error paths covered
Independence	Each test runs alone? Shared state? Order dependence?	Each test passes individually; no coupling
Speed	Unnecessary waits? Heavy fixtures? Could mock I/O?	No test >1s unjustified; no unnecessary I/O
Maintainability	Descriptive names? Clear intent? DRY helpers?	A newcomer could add tests by following patterns

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Fix
Multiple lenses in one pass	ONE lens per pass. Coverage pass ignores naming.
Checking for code bugs in tests	Tests don't have "bugs" in the traditional sense — check coverage and independence instead.
Skipping Independence pass	Shared state is the #1 cause of flaky tests. Always check.
Testing implementation details	Test behavior, not internal state. Mock at boundaries, not everywhere.
Speed pass removes useful tests	Speed pass optimizes execution, not coverage. Never remove tests to go faster.
Not running tests after each pass	Run the test suite after each pass to catch regressions in test code itself.

Reference Files

references/pass-definitions.md: Detailed pass definitions with checklists
references/pass-order-rationale.md: Why this order for tests