Go Test Engineering

Make Go tests trustworthy, strict, and maintainable. Optimize for their value as behavioral constraints, not for test count, coverage percentage, or a green go test ./... at any cost.

Non-Negotiable Principles

1. Correctness outranks pass rate.
2. Establish the intended contract before judging either the test or implementation.
3. Fix or delete an incorrect, obsolete, duplicate, or meaningless test.
4. Fix production code when a sound test exposes an implementation defect.
5. Never weaken an assertion merely to accommodate current behavior.
6. Test observable behavior and owned contracts, not incidental implementation details.
7. Prefer the standard testing package and the smallest useful test design.
8. Do not add tests solely to increase coverage.

Choose the Operating Mode

Infer the narrowest authorized mode from the request and state it before changing files.