[simianwords]

Scenario testing is the new word for it and I think this is a game changer.

Two of the reasons I never liked writing tests is

- they didn’t seem to usually assert much internal logic

- they would have to be maintained along with the original code

I think scenario testing is much better instead because the actual way a person uses a feature hardly changes but the internals might change a lot.

So imagine I’m making an e-commerce website. There are lots of internal mechanisms. I’ll have an agent testing all the functionalities as if it were a customer. This gives me much much more confidence while writing code because it is more uncorellated with the code.

Tomorrow I can change a lot of internals but the testing agent stays the same.

There’s something to note though: not all code is possible to be scenario tested. Like data engineering and other things where the feedback time is huge.

[anthonypasq]

are we just re-inventing playwright tests except 10x slower and infinity times more expensive?

i feel like im going insane

[hugs]

since the rise of agentic coding tools, it feels like we're in a new "eternal september" of people discovering ui end-to-end test automation.

[acdha]

Also the merits of documentation and specs. It’s been eye-opening to see the subset of developers who were almost disdainful about writing documentation for their colleagues but are now tripping over themselves to do so for their clanker.

[Daishiman]

Agents read the docs. People don't. That's the underlying reason.

[simoncion]

> People don't.

People falling all over themselves to write docs for their pile-of-linear-algebra-with-a-smiley-face-painted-on-it [0] don't read the docs, no. People who give a shit about writing solid software that doesn't get them paged at three in the damn morning do.

[0] The face is there to provide social-trustworthiness signals to engage the human pack-bonding instinct, natch.

[simianwords]

Clanker is the new excuse to use hard R against something you don't like.

[acdha]

That’s a rather stunning comparison: racism is a problem because it’s unfairly treating sentient beings but a pile of linear algebra is not even sentient, much less your peer. That’s part of why I used the term: “agent” isn’t current because agents have, well, agency and can be held accountable.

https://lucumr.pocoo.org/2026/5/26/clankers/

[dragonwriter]

Positing an equivalence between a dismissive term for AI bots and a racial slur against black people is, like, super racist.

[inigyou]

People are rediscovering everything. Some people have proposed using a more formal language to tell the AI precisely what code to write. That's a compiler.

[righthand]

Well playwright tests used to be called puppeteer tests which used to be called selenium tests, so you tell me.

[dragonwriter]

Ťhose are all technology variations of “automated web ui tests”, which is a subset of “automated ui tests”, which is itself almost (but not quite exactly) a subset of “automated user acceptance tests”, none of which are new categories.

[konart]

>Scenario testing is the new word

How is scenario different from a behavior (as in Behavior-Driven Development)?

Gherkin and things like Cucumber are not something new, are they?

[rahoulb]

My clankers are instructed to use "Outside In development" with "red/green TDD" at all times.

They write really good Gherkin features and then work inwards writing unit tests as they go - checking that they fail before implementation so it's actually testing something worthwhile.

And the code they ship is decent quality (not as good as me most of the time - but a LOT better than me when I'm tired or I'm pissed off about something or the work is really boring).

[avensec]

So, throw out the traditional test pyramid, shift right, and rely more on persona testing than fine-grained atomic tests? I would hope teams don't need to re-learn that lesson for themselves, but...

[righthand]

This already exists. You mean capturing user flows which should already be supplied by product to the developer. A decent system is Behavior Driven Development (though honestly a poor acronym for it’s use).

[hulitu]

> Two of the reasons I never liked writing tests

Are you an engineer ? You must test your "creation". Or would you expect that the microwave owen you just bougth will be tested by your child while getting burned ?

[robotresearcher]

'I never liked writing tests' is not the same as 'I don't write tests'.