Fix test-anti-patterns skill activation for 5 evals#786
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Sibling skills with overlapping descriptions were stealing activation from test-anti-patterns in plugin eval runs (coverage-analysis, assertion-quality, test-smell-detection). Reword descriptions so test-anti-patterns owns the umbrella 'audit my tests for anti-patterns' severity-ranked report, and add DO NOT USE redirects in the metric-focused siblings. Kept all descriptions within the 1024-char cap. Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Skill Coverage Report
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Pull request overview
Updates dotnet-test skill frontmatter descriptions to prevent sibling skills (e.g., coverage-analysis, assertion-quality) from “stealing” activation during eval runs, which was causing skill_not_activated failures for test-anti-patterns.
Changes:
- Makes
test-anti-patternsexplicitly the umbrella “severity-ranked anti-pattern audit” skill and clarifies when not to use it (redirecting to metric-focused siblings). - Adds DO NOT USE redirects in
coverage-analysisfor the “coverage-touching” anti-pattern scenario (redirect totest-anti-patterns). - Tightens
assertion-qualityscope to metrics-focused assertion diversity, and redirects general anti-pattern audits totest-anti-patterns.
Show a summary per file
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| plugins/dotnet-test/skills/test-anti-patterns/SKILL.md | Repositions the skill as the default anti-pattern audit umbrella and adds redirects to sibling metric skills. |
| plugins/dotnet-test/skills/coverage-analysis/SKILL.md | Redirects “coverage-touching” test-quality audits to test-anti-patterns and clarifies Cobertura/CRAP metrics focus. |
| plugins/dotnet-test/skills/assertion-quality/SKILL.md | Narrows/clarifies scope to assertion-diversity metrics and redirects general anti-pattern audits to test-anti-patterns. |
Copilot's findings
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- Files reviewed: 3/3 changed files
- Comments generated: 1
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👋 @Evangelink — this PR has 1 unresolved review thread(s). When you're ready, please address the feedback and push an update; the triage bot will pick up the next state automatically. (Add the |
Addresses review feedback: the Jest matcher example read like a property without parentheses. Description stays within the 1024-char cap (1023). Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
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/evaluate |
Skill Validation Results❌ Skill validation errors
[1] (Plugin) Quality unchanged but weighted score is -7.7% due to: tokens (27827 → 92391), tool calls (3 → 6), time (28.4s → 49.3s) Model: claude-opus-4.6 | Judge: claude-opus-4.6 🔍 Full Results - additional metrics and failure investigation steps
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- assertion-quality eval.yaml/eval.vally.yaml: replace hyphenated 'assertion-quality' (the target skill name) with spaced 'assertion quality' in two scenario prompts, fixing the 'prompt mentions target name' validation error that biased baseline runs. - test-anti-patterns description: add 'what's wrong with my tests' / 'are these tests any good' / 'flaky tests' trigger phrasing to improve organic activation for the flakiness, well-written and polyglot scenarios (which intermittently failed to activate in plugin runs). Stays within the 1024-char description cap (1007). Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
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/evaluate |
Addresses review feedback: write toBeDefined()/toBeTruthy()/not.toBeNull()/ toBe()/toThrow() in call form in the prompt so they read as matcher calls, consistent with the skill description examples. Regex assertions and rubric left untouched (they match agent output, which may use either form). Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
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/evaluate |
Skill Validation Results
[1]
Model: claude-opus-4.6 | Judge: claude-opus-4.6 🔍 Full Results - additional metrics and failure investigation steps
▶ Sessions Visualisation -- interactive replay of all evaluation sessions |
github-actions
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added
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✅ Evaluation passed for |
The flakiness and Python-pytest scenarios failed to activate even in isolated runs (where it's the only candidate skill), because their prompts enumerate the methodology and the description's keywords were too generic. Front-load the concrete trigger keywords those prompts use: Thread.Sleep, DateTime.Now, time.sleep, order-dependent, reflection coupling, and Python/pytest. Stays within the 1024-char cap. Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
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/evaluate |
Skill Validation Results
[1] Model: claude-opus-4.6 | Judge: claude-opus-4.6 🔍 Full Results - additional metrics and failure investigation steps
▶ Sessions Visualisation -- interactive replay of all evaluation sessions |
The mixed-severity and flakiness scenarios consistently failed to activate test-anti-patterns in plugin runs (detected=[] — the agent loaded no skill at all and answered directly). Both prompts enumerated the full anti-pattern catalog inline, acting as an answer key that made the agent self-sufficient. Replace the embedded checklists with realistic user asks while keeping the 'for .NET test anti-patterns' trigger, file references, severity-ranked output format, and read-only constraint. Rubric and output_matches assertions are unchanged — they validate the produced report. Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
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/evaluate |
Skill Validation Results
[1] Model: claude-opus-4.6 | Judge: claude-opus-4.6 🔍 Full Results - additional metrics and failure investigation steps
▶ Sessions Visualisation -- interactive replay of all evaluation sessions |
Problem
Five
test-anti-patternseval scenarios were reported asskill_not_activated: an overlapping sibling skill (or no skill) loaded instead oftest-anti-patterns. Separately, theassertion-qualityeval had a validation error (prompts naming the target skill).Root cause
In plugin eval runs a scenario only counts as activated if the target skill fires. Several prompts matched a sibling's advertised capability:
coverage-analysisassertion-qualitytest-smell-detectionassertion-quality/test-smell-detectionassertion-quality/test-gap-analysisChanges
Skill descriptions (disambiguation + activation):
test-anti-patterns— rewrote the description to own the umbrellaaudit/review my tests for anti-patternsrequest and front-load concrete trigger keywords (self-referential/round-trip, coverage-touching, flakiness:Thread.Sleep/DateTime.Now/time.sleep/reflection coupling,Python/pytest). AddedDO NOT USE FORredirects to the three metric-focused siblings. Kept within the 1024-char cap.assertion-quality—DO NOT USE FORredirect: a general severity-ranked anti-pattern audit (even self-referential focused) →test-anti-patternsunless an assertion-diversity metrics report is requested.coverage-analysis—DO NOT USE FORredirect: auditing test code for the "coverage-touching" anti-pattern →test-anti-patterns; clarified it needs/produces Cobertura/CRAP metrics.Eval fixes:
assertion-qualityeval.yaml/eval.vally.yaml — replaced the hyphenated target nameassertion-qualitywith spaced "assertion quality" in two prompts (fixes the "prompt mentions target name" validation error), and used Jest matcher call-form (toBeTruthy()etc.) per review feedback.test-anti-patternseval.yaml/eval.vally.yaml — made the mixed-severity and flakiness prompts realistic by removing the inline "answer-key" catalog enumeration (which made the agent self-sufficient and skip the skill). Rubric andoutput_matchesassertions unchanged.Results
detectedSkills=[]on misses).Why some scenario verdicts remain ❌ (pre-existing, structural — not caused by this PR)
These scenarios were already ❌ before this PR. They hit pattern #8 from
InvestigatingResults.md("baseline already good"): a strong model audits test anti-patterns at ~5.0/5 without any skill, so there's no quality headroom. The scenario score ismin(isolated, plugin), and the plugin run is structurally ≤ 0 — loading the full plugin keeps ~27 sibling skill descriptions in context, adding token overhead even when the skill doesn't activate. Somin()stays ≤ 0 regardless of activation.This is not fixable by activation/description tuning. The only honest remedy is to give the skill genuine headroom (harder fixtures where the un-skilled baseline misses findings) — a separate, judgment-heavy change the repo's own docs flag as bordering on eval-gaming, intentionally left out of this PR. Compare
coverage-analysis(baseline 2–3/5 → 5/5), which passes precisely because it has real headroom.Scope
This PR fixes the activation/disambiguation problem and the validation error. The residual pattern-#8 verdicts are pre-existing and tracked separately; they predate and are unaffected by these changes.