# Improvement Plan for tstest and tapbundle

!! FIRST: Reread /home/philkunz/.claude/CLAUDE.md to ensure following all guidelines !!

## 1. Enhanced Communication Between tapbundle and tstest

### 1.1 Real-time Test Progress API
- Create a bidirectional communication channel between tapbundle and tstest
- Emit events for test lifecycle stages (start, progress, completion)
- Allow tstest to subscribe to tapbundle events for better progress reporting
- Implement a standardized message format for test metadata

### 1.2 Rich Error Reporting
- Pass structured error objects from tapbundle to tstest
- Include stack traces, code snippets, and contextual information
- Support for error categorization (assertion failures, timeouts, uncaught exceptions)
- Visual diff output for failed assertions

## 2. Enhanced toolsArg Functionality

### 2.1 Test Flow Control
```typescript
tap.test('conditional test', async (toolsArg) => {
  const result = await someOperation();
  
  // Skip the rest of the test
  if (!result) {
    return toolsArg.skip('Precondition not met');
  }
  
  // Conditional skipping
  await toolsArg.skipIf(condition, 'Reason for skipping');
  
  // Mark test as todo
  await toolsArg.todo('Not implemented yet');
});
```

### 2.2 Test Metadata and Configuration
```typescript
tap.test('configurable test', async (toolsArg) => {
  // Set custom timeout
  toolsArg.timeout(5000);
  
  // Retry on failure
  toolsArg.retry(3);
  
  // Add tags for filtering
  toolsArg.tags(['slow', 'integration']);
  
  // Set test priority
  toolsArg.priority('high');
});
```

### 2.3 Test Data and Context Sharing
```typescript
tap.test('data-driven test', async (toolsArg) => {
  // Access shared context
  const sharedData = toolsArg.context.get('sharedData');
  
  // Set data for other tests
  toolsArg.context.set('resultData', computedValue);
  
  // Parameterized test data
  const testData = toolsArg.data<TestInput>();
  expect(processData(testData)).toEqual(expected);
});
```

## 3. Nested Tests and Test Suites

### 3.1 Test Grouping with describe()
```typescript
tap.describe('User Authentication', () => {
  tap.beforeEach(async (toolsArg) => {
    // Setup for each test in this suite
    await toolsArg.context.set('db', await createTestDatabase());
  });
  
  tap.afterEach(async (toolsArg) => {
    // Cleanup after each test
    await toolsArg.context.get('db').cleanup();
  });
  
  tap.test('should login with valid credentials', async (toolsArg) => {
    // Test implementation
  });
  
  tap.describe('Password Reset', () => {
    tap.test('should send reset email', async (toolsArg) => {
      // Nested test
    });
  });
});
```

### 3.2 Hierarchical Test Organization
- Support for multiple levels of nesting
- Inherited context and configuration from parent suites
- Aggregated reporting for test suites
- Suite-level lifecycle hooks

## 4. Advanced Test Features

### 4.1 Snapshot Testing
```typescript
tap.test('component render', async (toolsArg) => {
  const output = renderComponent(props);
  
  // Compare with stored snapshot
  await toolsArg.matchSnapshot(output, 'component-output');
});
```

### 4.2 Performance Benchmarking
```typescript
tap.test('performance test', async (toolsArg) => {
  const benchmark = toolsArg.benchmark();
  
  // Run operation
  await expensiveOperation();
  
  // Assert performance constraints
  benchmark.expect({
    maxDuration: 1000,
    maxMemory: '100MB'
  });
});
```

### 4.3 Test Fixtures and Factories
```typescript
tap.test('with fixtures', async (toolsArg) => {
  // Create test fixtures
  const user = await toolsArg.fixture('user', { name: 'Test User' });
  const post = await toolsArg.fixture('post', { author: user });
  
  // Use factory functions
  const users = await toolsArg.factory('user').createMany(5);
});
```

## 5. Test Execution Improvements

### 5.1 Parallel Test Execution
- Run independent tests concurrently
- Configurable concurrency limits
- Resource pooling for shared resources
- Proper isolation between parallel tests

### 5.2 Watch Mode
- Automatically re-run tests on file changes
- Intelligent test selection based on changed files
- Fast feedback loop for development
- Integration with IDE/editor plugins

### 5.3 Advanced Test Filtering
```typescript
// Run tests by tags
tstest --tags "unit,fast"

// Exclude tests by pattern
tstest --exclude "**/slow/**"

// Run only failed tests from last run
tstest --failed

// Run tests modified in git
tstest --changed
```

## 6. Reporting and Analytics

### 6.1 Custom Reporters
- Plugin architecture for custom reporters
- Built-in reporters: JSON, JUnit, HTML, Markdown
- Real-time streaming reporters
- Aggregated test metrics and trends

### 6.2 Coverage Integration
- Built-in code coverage collection
- Coverage thresholds and enforcement
- Coverage trending over time
- Integration with CI/CD pipelines

### 6.3 Test Analytics Dashboard
- Web-based dashboard for test results
- Historical test performance data
- Flaky test detection
- Test impact analysis

## 7. Developer Experience

### 7.1 Better Error Messages
- Clear, actionable error messages
- Suggestions for common issues
- Links to documentation
- Code examples in error output

### 7.2 Interactive Mode
- REPL for exploring test failures
- Debugging integration
- Step-through test execution
- Interactive test data manipulation

### 7.3 VS Code Extension
- Test explorer integration
- Inline test results
- CodeLens for running individual tests
- Debugging support

## Implementation Phases

### Phase 1: Core Enhancements (Priority: High)
1. Implement enhanced toolsArg methods (skip, skipIf, timeout, retry)
2. Add basic test grouping with describe()
3. Improve error reporting between tapbundle and tstest

### Phase 2: Advanced Features (Priority: Medium)
1. Implement nested test suites
2. Add snapshot testing
3. Create test fixture system
4. Implement parallel test execution

### Phase 3: Developer Experience (Priority: Medium)
1. Add watch mode
2. Implement custom reporters
3. Create VS Code extension
4. Add interactive debugging

### Phase 4: Analytics and Performance (Priority: Low)
1. Build test analytics dashboard
2. Add performance benchmarking
3. Implement coverage integration
4. Create trend analysis tools

## Technical Considerations

### API Design Principles
- Maintain backward compatibility
- Progressive enhancement approach
- Opt-in features to avoid breaking changes
- Clear migration paths for new features

### Performance Goals
- Minimal overhead for test execution
- Efficient parallel execution
- Fast test discovery
- Optimized browser test bundling

### Integration Points
- Clean interfaces between tstest and tapbundle
- Extensible plugin architecture
- Standard test result format
- Compatible with existing CI/CD tools