framework-choice-advisor

Overview

A team is starting a new test automation suite and needs to pick the stack: framework, runner, assertion library, reporter, CI integration, fixture system, parallelisation strategy, retry policy. Auto-scaffolding the whole framework in one shot is the integration-friction failure mode that dominates AI-in-testing adoption (2025 World Quality Report: 37% of teams). The honest deliverable is decision support, not auto-scaffolding.

This skill is a pure reference: a decision tree + tradeoff matrix the team uses as a checklist. It does not generate framework boilerplate. After the team picks a stack, the per-framework skills (playwright-testing, cypress-testing, etc.) document the configuration; this skill stops at "you picked Playwright + Jest, here's the canonical directory layout to use".

When to use

• Greenfield: starting a new test automation suite from zero.
• Migration: the team is moving off a legacy framework (most commonly Selenium to Playwright, whose auto-waiting removes the manual-wait flakiness that dominates Selenium suites, per the Playwright actionability docs).
• Multi-stack consolidation: the team has three frameworks across product areas and is deciding which to standardise on.
• Hiring-driven re-evaluation: the team's skills mix shifted (e.g., from Java to TypeScript) and the framework choice should follow.

Do not use this skill when: