Overview
This guide teaches developers how to get AI coding agents to write high-quality Python tests. The key insight is that coding agents learn from existing patterns in your codebase, so maintaining good test examples leads to better AI-generated tests.
What You’ll Learn
- Use existing tests as templates by having agents clone and imitate testing patterns from well-written projects
- Leverage pytest’s rich ecosystem - agents understand commands like ‘use pytest-httpx to mock endpoints’ due to extensive training data
- Maintain clean existing test suites as coding agents automatically pick up and replicate good patterns without extra prompting
- Apply targeted refactoring prompts like ‘use pytest.mark.parametrize’ and ’extract common setup into fixtures’ to reduce duplication
- Point agents to specific repositories using commands like ‘clone datasette/datasette-enrichments and imitate its testing patterns’
Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of Python testing with pytest, experience working with AI coding agents