* dotnet-test: make code-testing agent tools declarations Claude Code-compatible
PR #847 added `tools: ["agent", "skill", "read", "search", "edit", "execute"]`
to the code-testing-* agents to enable VS Code / Copilot CLI subagent fan-out.
Those lowercase aliases map to real tools in VS Code and the Copilot CLI, but
Claude Code matches `tools:` against its own vocabulary (Task, Skill, Read,
Glob, Grep, Edit, Write, Bash). None of the aliases matched, so when these
agents are loaded into Claude Code via --plugin-dir and selected with
`claude --agent`, the agent was granted ZERO tools. A tool-less model asked
to generate tests emits a textual <tool_call> block and exits after one turn,
producing no file changes.
Append the Claude Code tool names to each agent's `tools:` list so the same
declaration works across all three runtimes (each honors the names it knows and
ignores the foreign ones):
- Orchestrators (generator, implementer): add Task, Skill, Read, Glob, Grep,
Edit, Write, Bash (Task is the Claude Code equivalent of the `agent`
fan-out tool).
- Workers (researcher, planner, builder, tester, fixer, linter): add Skill,
Read, Glob, Grep, Edit, Write, Bash.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
* skill-validator: complete built-in tools + add cross-host tool portability check
Two related follow-ups to the agent tools fix:
1. Address the skill-check review feedback. The validator's BuiltInTools set was
missing three legitimate host tool spellings that are not case-insensitive
matches of existing entries, so they were flagged as non-built-in:
- "write" — Claude Code file-creation tool (Copilot CLI / VS Code: "create")
- "agent" — Copilot CLI / VS Code subagent fan-out tool (Claude Code: "task")
- "execute" — Copilot CLI / VS Code run-command tool (Claude Code: "bash")
"agent" and "execute" were already flagged before this branch (introduced by
the fan-out PR); adding them to BuiltInTools clears the pre-existing warnings.
2. Add a cross-host tool portability check (CheckAgentToolPortability) so an
agent that declares a capability for only one host is flagged. Tool names are
matched case-sensitively (hosts resolve tools by exact spelling), so an agent
that lists e.g. only "edit" (Copilot / VS Code) without "Edit"/"Write"
(Claude Code) is reported as working on one host and silently tool-less on the
other. Findings are advisory (do not fail CI) and allowlistable via
"agent-tool-portability:AGENT:capability". Wired into the agents loop in
CheckCommand and covered by unit tests.
Also make the one existing single-host agent (optimizing-dotnet-performance)
portable by adding its Claude Code tool spellings, so the new check reports a
clean tree.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
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Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
* Add VS Code subagent metadata to dotnet-test code-testing agents
Enable the code-testing-* Research-Plan-Implement pipeline to fan out as
subagents in VS Code while keeping the GitHub Copilot CLI working.
Frontmatter (VS Code "coordinator/worker" pattern; portable tool aliases that
map in both VS Code and the CLI):
- code-testing-generator: tools: [agent, read, search, edit, execute] + an
agents: list (researcher, planner, implementer, builder, tester, fixer,
linter); softened the three runSubagent({ agent, prompt }) blocks to
tool-agnostic delegation prose.
- code-testing-implementer: tools: [agent, read, search, edit, execute] +
agents: (builder, tester, fixer, linter).
- Leaf agents (researcher/planner/builder/tester/fixer/linter):
tools: [read, search, edit, execute].
Why explicit tools (not ["*"]): VS Code has no all-tools wildcard for ools:
and a subagent's ools: overrides its inherited set, so ["*"] matched nothing
and stripped subagents of file tools (they ran without read/edit/search). The
CLI treats ["*"] as all-tools, so this was VS-Code-specific. The portable
aliases agent/read/search/edit/execute map to real tools in both environments;
agents: is ignored by the CLI.
README: document the VS Code chat.subagents.allowInvocationsFromSubagents
setting (off by default) needed for the nested implementer->builder/tester/
fixer/linter layer to fan out on large scopes; the CLI has no such gate.
Validated end to end: VS Code shows researcher->planner->implementer fanning out
with real file I/O (no "subagents lack file tools" warning); CLI fan-out intact
with skills still loading and tests passing. An all-tools baseline used only
tools within this enumerated set, confirming no CLI capability is restricted.
* Include skill tool in code-testing agent tool allowlists
Address PR review: the explicit `tools:` allowlists omitted the `skill`
tool, but every code-testing-* agent's prompt instructs calling skills
(e.g. `code-testing-extensions` for per-language guidance, `test-gap-analysis`,
`assertion-quality`). Because `tools:` is an override, omitting `skill` can
prevent the agents from loading those skills in environments that gate skill
invocation by the allowlist.
Add `skill` to all eight agents:
- orchestrators (generator, implementer): [agent, skill, read, search, edit, execute]
- workers (researcher/planner/builder/tester/fixer/linter): [skill, read, search, edit, execute]
Re-verified in the Copilot CLI: full fan-out (researcher -> planner ->
implementer/tester), the `code-testing-extensions` skill is invoked, and the
generated tests pass.
* Fix coverage-analysis activation for plateau diagnosis prompts
coverage-analysis SKILL.md:
- Trim verbose implementation details (provider detection,
ReportGenerator) that consumed description budget without
aiding skill activation
- Add explicit USE FOR keywords: coverage stuck, coverage plateau,
can't increase coverage, what's blocking coverage
code-testing-agent SKILL.md:
- Add 'diagnosing coverage plateaus or CRAP score computation
(use coverage-analysis)' to DO NOT USE FOR boundary to prevent
test-generation skill from intercepting diagnostic prompts
* Potential fix for pull request finding
Co-authored-by: Copilot Autofix powered by AI <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
* Strengthen code-testing-agent activation; harden coverage-analysis isolated mode
Address eval regressions reported on PR #647 (run 25813728646):
1. code-testing-agent: `Generate tests for ContosoUniversity ASP.NET Core MVC app`
was NOT ACTIVATED in plugin mode (detectedSkills=[], skillEventCount=0,
invokedAgents=[]). The model bypassed the skill system entirely.
- SKILL.md description: restructure to use the proven `Use when user says ...`
pattern with quoted trigger phrases (matching the run-tests skill that
consistently activates), make the link to the code-testing-generator
sub-agent explicit, and tighten DO NOT USE FOR clauses.
- eval prompt (eval.yaml + eval.vally.yaml): make the request
pipeline-shaped (`project-wide, multi-file test generation task`,
`scaffold a new test project`) so the model recognizes it as multi-step
work that benefits from the orchestrated pipeline. Explicitly request
coverlet.collector + a Cobertura XML run so rubric criterion 1
(`high line coverage as reported by the Cobertura XML in TestResults/`)
becomes achievable without overfitting.
2. code-testing-tester agent + code-testing-extensions/dotnet.md: open a
scoped exception to the `skip coverage tools` rule. Default behavior
stays the same, but when the user/harness explicitly asks for a
Cobertura/XML coverage artifact, the agent may add coverlet.collector
to the generated test csproj so the harness's coverage command produces
output. The agent still does not run the coverage command itself.
3. coverage-analysis SKILL.md: add a `User-visible output is mandatory`
guard at the top of the Workflow section. The latest eval showed isolated
mode producing literally `(no output)` in 2 of 3 scenarios — the agent
ran Compute-CrapScores.ps1 / Extract-MethodCoverage.ps1 / ReportGenerator
in parallel, then the session ended without ever surfacing findings.
The guard tells the agent to always return a partial summary instead of
ending silent, and to deprioritize ReportGenerator HTML when budget is
tight. (Plugin-mode quality is already strong: 4.3 / 4.3 / 5.0 — no
regression risk there.)
Aggregate dotnet-test plugin description size: 14,925 chars (limit 15,000).
skill-validator check passes (22 skills, 11 agents, 1 plugin); markdownlint
passes for all 4 modified files.
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
* Restore MSTest modernization exclusion in code-testing-agent description
* Fix isolated-mode coverage-analysis: emit summary before optional ReportGenerator
The previous workflow encouraged the agent to run `dotnet tool install` for
ReportGenerator in parallel with the CRAP scoring scripts (Phase 2 "Steps
3 and 4 in parallel" + Phase 3 "Steps 5 and 6 in parallel"). In isolated
mode that pattern reliably crashed the session with "Failed to persist
session events: timeout while waiting for mutex to become available"
right after the scripts returned valid data, so the agent never produced
the user-facing summary.
Restructure the workflow into 5 phases:
- Phase 1 (Setup) - unchanged
- Phase 2 (Test execution) - skip when Cobertura XML already exists
- Phase 3 (Analysis) - run only the two PowerShell scripts, no RG
- Phase 4 (User-facing summary) - MANDATORY, must be the next assistant
response after Phase 3, before any RG work; also save
coverage-analysis.md as a secondary follow-up
- Phase 5 (ReportGenerator HTML/CSV) - strictly optional, post-summary,
skipped by default for existing-Cobertura and plateau-diagnosis paths
Also update references/output-format.md so the Reports section marks RG
artifacts as "Not generated (optional - request HTML reports to enable)"
when Phase 5 has not run, and update references/guidelines.md so the
"show and open the markdown report" rule explicitly defers to the
user-facing assistant response.
Targets the isolated-mode regressions in PR #647 eval:
- Project-wide coverage with existing Cobertura: 1.0/5 -> expected 3+
- Coverage plateau diagnosis: 1.0/5 -> expected 3+
- Run coverage from scratch: 2.3/5 -> expected steady or up
Verified: skill-validator check --plugin ./plugins/dotnet-test passes;
markdownlint-cli2 clean on all 3 modified files.
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
* Address PR #647 review comments
1. Prerequisites: distinguish the from-scratch path (needs NuGet for the
coverage-provider package install + optional internet for ReportGenerator)
from the existing-Cobertura path (needs neither).
2. Add Step 2c "Discover or accept existing Cobertura XML" so the
existing-data path actually has $coberturaFiles populated before
Phase 3, instead of relying on Phase 2's discovery (which it
skips). Also clarify Step 2's destructive Remove-Item only manages
the skill-owned coverage-analysis/ subdirectory.
3. references/output-format.md: replace the unconditional
"Reports saved to: <coverageDir>/reports/" line with one that
always points at <coverageDir>/ (markdown summary + raw Cobertura)
and only mentions reports/ if Phase 5 ran.
4. Have Compute-CrapScores.ps1 emit OVERALL_LINE_COVERAGE and
OVERALL_BRANCH_COVERAGE from the Cobertura root attributes, and
update Phase 4 to read those values directly from the script's
output. The Phase 4 mandatory-summary rule no longer requires a
separate XML parse before composing the response.
Verified: skill-validator check --plugin ./plugins/dotnet-test passes;
markdownlint-cli2 clean on all modified files; Compute-CrapScores.ps1
smoke-tested on a synthetic Cobertura XML (emits OVERALL_LINE_COVERAGE:75,
OVERALL_BRANCH_COVERAGE:50 alongside HOTSPOTS).
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
* Apply suggestion from @Evangelink
* Address unresolved coverage-analysis and eval review comments
* Refine follow-up review feedback from validation
* Tighten coverage aggregation fallback notes and counters
* Clarify pre-response save instruction wording
---------
Co-authored-by: Copilot Autofix powered by AI <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: copilot-swe-agent[bot] <198982749+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
- Add 'Use when:' trigger phrases to all 7 sub-agent descriptions
so parent agents can reliably discover and delegate to them
- Add .testagent/ cleanup rule to generator agent to prevent
ephemeral pipeline state from being committed
Amaury Levé