tdd: add tautological-test anti-pattern

Tests whose assertion is recomputed the way the code computes it pass by
construction and give zero confidence. Add it as a peer of the existing
implementation-coupling anti-pattern: a Philosophy principle, a per-cycle
checklist gate, and a BAD/GOOD example pair in tests.md. Includes a patch
changeset.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Matt Pocock
2026-06-29 21:22:50 +01:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 4.8
parent a116824938
commit 43ea0884b0
3 changed files with 24 additions and 0 deletions
+16
View File
@@ -59,3 +59,19 @@ test("createUser makes user retrievable", async () => {
expect(retrieved.name).toBe("Alice");
});
```
**Tautological tests**: Expected value restates the implementation, so the test passes by construction.
```typescript
// BAD: Expected value is recomputed the way the code computes it
test("calculateTotal sums line items", () => {
const items = [{ price: 10 }, { price: 5 }];
const expected = items.reduce((sum, i) => sum + i.price, 0);
expect(calculateTotal(items)).toBe(expected);
});
// GOOD: Expected value is an independent, known literal
test("calculateTotal sums line items", () => {
expect(calculateTotal([{ price: 10 }, { price: 5 }])).toBe(15);
});
```