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Approval Tests

Philosophy

"A picture's worth 1000 assertions."

Approval tests verify complex output by comparing against a saved "golden master" file instead of writing individual assertions. You capture the output once, review it, approve it, and future runs compare against that approved snapshot.

You don't need to know the expected output upfront. Run the code, see what it produces, decide if it's correct. Approval is a judgment - you're confirming this is what the code should produce. Whoever writes the code reviews and approves.

Use approval tests when:

• Output is complex - instead of 20 assertions, one approval captures everything
• Characterizing legacy code - snapshot behavior, then refactor safely
• Combinatorial testing - test all input combinations in one approval
• Assertions would be tedious or brittle