NW-OPTIMIZE-TESTS: Test Suite Optimization
SkillDev toolsMinimizes test count while preserving coverage. Detects byte-identical pairs, parametrize-inflation, language-guarantee tests, AST-shape tests, stale migration nets. Approval gate before any change.
Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.
No other account needed.
Connect ahel once, and every AI you use reads what you have installed.
Then ask your AI: use the NW-OPTIMIZE-TESTS: Test Suite Optimization skill
What this skill tells your AI
The instructions your AI receives, as published by nwave-ai/nwave in nWave/skills/nw-optimize-tests/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.
Wave: CROSS_WAVE Agent: Trim (nw-test-optimizer) Reviewer: Trim Review (nw-test-optimizer-reviewer)
Overview
Dispatches Trim to inventory a test scope, detect duplication and anti-patterns, propose a consolidation plan, and apply it after explicit approval. Coverage is preserved; production code is never modified. Use after a feature lands, when a suite feels slow or noisy, on weekly audit, or whenever overtesting is suspected.
Context Files Required
- The scope path (passed as argument or auto-detected)
~/.claude/skills/nw-test-optimization/SKILL.md— methodology (loaded by agent)
Timing Baseline
Trim compares against the wall-clock figures recorded in the execution-log.json.
Agent Invocation
@nw-test-optimizer
Execute test optimization for {scope}.
Configuration:
- scope: <path | feature-id | empty for full unit suite>
- approval_required: true # always; gate is non-negotiable
- mutation_validation: false # set true for critical scopes (financial, safety, infra)
- reviewer_chain: false # set true to dispatch nw-test-optimizer-reviewer after apply
Approval Gate
Trim presents the plan as a markdown table after Phase 3 (PLAN). The orchestrator (or invoking user) responds with one of:
- APPROVE — full plan, all rows
- APPROVE WITH EXCLUSIONS — list row IDs to skip
- REJECT — abort, return findings as deferred report
- REPLAN — provide new scope or constraint
No changes are applied without one of these responses. Trim never assumes approval.
Reviewer Chain (optional)
If reviewer_chain: true:
@nw-test-optimizer-reviewer
Validate the optimization output for {scope}.
Reviewer hard-blocks on: production drift, coverage drop without justification, unmapped removal, missing approval gate evidence.
Success Criteria
- Baseline numbers recorded (passed count, coverage %)
- Plan presented before any change
- Explicit approval received
- Production files in diff: 0
- Coverage % preserved (or drop documented per skill 5.3)
- Atomic commits per consolidation pattern
- Final report with deltas and SHAs
Examples
Example 1: Full unit suite audit
/nw-optimize-tests
Trim inventories the unit suite, runs md5sum cross-check, scans for anti-patterns, produces a leverage-sorted plan covering byte-identical pairs and parametrize-inflated files.
Example 2: Scoped to a feature
/nw-optimize-tests lean-wave-documentation
Trim resolves to tests/<feature-id>/ paths from the execution-log.json if available, otherwise scopes to test files referencing the feature-id.
Example 3: Single fat file
/nw-optimize-tests tests/build/unit/test_skill_restructuring.py
Trim probes the single file (315 collected tests), checks migration-collapse lifecycle (skill 3.5), proposes collapse to ~3 tests.
Example 4: With reviewer
/nw-optimize-tests tests/des/unit/ --reviewer
Trim runs the workflow, then dispatches Trim Review for adversarial validation. Reviewer issues YAML verdict.
Out of Scope
- Authoring new tests (crafter scope, DELIVER wave)
- Production code refactoring (
/nw-refactor, crafter scope) - Test infrastructure changes (platform-architect, troubleshooter)
Expected Outputs
git log --oneline {base}..HEAD (atomic commits per pattern)
<scope> (test files modified or deleted)
report (returned inline by agent) (baseline, after, deltas, SHAs)
Signals
- GitHub stars
- 610
- Forks
- 64
- Last commit
- Sep 2026
Advanced
- Catalog kind
- skill
- Gateway key
nw-optimize-tests- Source
- github.com/nwave-ai/nwave