# test-prompt

Test any prompt (commands, hooks, skills, subagent instructions) using the RED-GREEN-REFACTOR cycle with subagents for isolated testing.

* Purpose - Verify prompts produce desired behavior before deployment
* Output - Test results with improvement recommendations

```bash
/customaize-agent:test-prompt ["prompt path or content"]
```

## Usage Examples

```bash
# Test a command before deployment
> /customaize-agent:test-prompt .claude/commands/deploy.md

# Test inline prompt content
> /customaize-agent:test-prompt "Review this code for security issues"

# Start interactive testing workflow
> /customaize-agent:test-prompt
```

## Arguments

Optional path to prompt file or inline prompt content to test.

## How It Works

1. **RED Phase - Baseline Testing**: Run without prompt using subagent
   * Design test scenarios appropriate for prompt type
   * Launch subagent WITHOUT prompt
   * Document agent behavior, actions, and mistakes
2. **GREEN Phase - Write Minimal Prompt**: Make tests pass
   * Address specific baseline failures
   * Apply appropriate degrees of freedom
   * Use persuasion principles if discipline-enforcing
   * Test WITH prompt using subagent
3. **REFACTOR Phase - Optimize**: Improve while staying green
   * Close loopholes for discipline violations
   * Improve clarity using meta-testing
   * Reduce tokens without losing behavior
   * Re-test with fresh subagents

## Why Subagents?

| Benefit             | Description                                   |
| ------------------- | --------------------------------------------- |
| **Clean slate**     | No conversation history affecting behavior    |
| **Isolation**       | Test only the prompt, not accumulated context |
| **Reproducibility** | Same starting conditions every run            |
| **Parallelization** | Test multiple scenarios simultaneously        |
| **Objectivity**     | No bias from prior interactions               |

## Prompt Types & Testing Strategies

| Prompt Type              | Test Focus                  | Example               |
| ------------------------ | --------------------------- | --------------------- |
| **Instruction**          | Steps followed correctly?   | Git workflow command  |
| **Discipline-enforcing** | Resists rationalization?    | TDD compliance skill  |
| **Guidance**             | Applied appropriately?      | Architecture patterns |
| **Reference**            | Accurate and accessible?    | API documentation     |
| **Subagent**             | Task accomplished reliably? | Code review prompt    |

## Best Practices

* Use fresh subagents - Always via Task tool for isolated testing
* Design realistic scenarios - Include constraints, pressures, edge cases
* Document exact failures - "Agent was wrong" doesn't tell you what to fix
* Avoid over-engineering - Only address failures you documented in baseline
* Iterate on token efficiency - Reduce tokens without losing behavior


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://cek.neolab.finance/plugins/customaize-agent/test-prompt.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.