php-test-quality

AST-based test quality analyser for PHPUnit tests. Detects common test smells by parsing PHP test files and walking the abstract syntax tree.

Requirements

• PHP >= 8.4

Installation

PHAR (no Composer needed):

curl -L https://github.com/jorjives/php-test-quality/releases/latest/download/tq.phar -o tq.phar
chmod +x tq.phar
php tq.phar path/to/tests/

Docker (no PHP needed):

docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/code ghcr.io/jorjives/php-test-quality /code/tests/

Composer global:

composer global require jorj-sh/php-test-quality
tq path/to/tests/

Composer dev dependency:

composer require --dev jorj-sh/php-test-quality
vendor/bin/tq path/to/tests/

Usage

# Analyse a test directory
tq path/to/tests/

# JSON output
tq path/to/tests/ --format=json

# Run only specific detectors
tq path/to/tests/ --only=no_assertions,assertion_roulette

# List available detectors
tq list-types

# Generate a baseline (requires --reason)
tq path/to/tests/ --generate-baseline --baseline=.tq-baseline.json --reason="Initial baseline"

# Filter using a baseline
tq path/to/tests/ --baseline=.tq-baseline.json

Configuration

tq auto-detects a .tq.yaml file in the scan directory. Override with --config=path/to/.tq.yaml or skip entirely with --no-config. CLI flags always take precedence over config values.

thresholds:
  long_test: 40
  magic_number_allowlist:        # replaces default list entirely
    - 0
    - 1
    - 200
    - 404
  magic_number_allowlist_extra:   # appends to active list
    - 42

detectors:
  enabled: all
  disabled:
    - conditional_test_logic

baseline: .tq-baseline.json

Detectors

Type	Name	Description
no_assertions	Assertion Count	Tests with no assertions
assertion_roulette	Assertion Roulette	Multiple assertions without descriptive messages
constructor_initialization	Constructor Initialization	Test classes using __construct() instead of setUp()
empty_test	Empty Test	Test methods with no executable statements
sleepy_test	Sleepy Test	Tests using sleep()/usleep()
redundant_print	Redundant Print	Debug output (var_dump, echo, etc.) in tests
exception_handling	Exception Handling	Try-catch blocks instead of expectException()
interface_testing	Interface Testing Anti-Patterns	Mock-only interface testing
conditional_test_logic	Conditional Test Logic	if/switch/ternary in tests
magic_number_test	Magic Number Test	Non-trivial numeric literals in assertions
redundant_assertion	Redundant Assertion	Tautological assertions like assertEquals(1, 1)
rotten_green_test	Rotten Green Test	Assertions inside conditionals or after return/throw
mystery_guest	Mystery Guest	File I/O or database calls in test bodies
long_test	Long Test	Tests exceeding 40 lines

Docker

# Use the published image
docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/code ghcr.io/jorjives/php-test-quality /code/tests/

# Or build locally
docker build -t php-test-quality .
docker run --rm -v /path/to/tests:/tests php-test-quality /tests

Licence

MIT