Testimize Integration

Optional integration with Testimize that adds algorithmic test data optimization to SPECTRA’s AI generation pipeline: precise boundary value analysis, equivalence partitioning, pairwise covering arrays, and ABC heuristic optimization.

Disabled by default. SPECTRA works fine without Testimize — the AI applies ISTQB techniques (spec 037) and approximates boundary values from documentation. Testimize adds algorithmic precision on top: exact min-1/ min/max/max+1 boundaries, security-focused invalid patterns (XSS, SQLi, SSTI), and optimized multi-field combinations.

Prerequisites

  • SPECTRA v1.48.3+
  • No separate installation needed — the Testimize library ships as a bundled NuGet dependency inside Spectra.CLI. When you install spectra, Testimize is included automatically.

Setup

  1. Enable in spectra.config.json:

    {
  "testimize": {
    "enabled": true,
    "mode": "exploratory",
    "strategy": "HybridArtificialBeeColony"
  }
}

  2. Verify:

    spectra testimize check

    Expected output:

    Testimize Integration Status
  Enabled:     true
  Library:     loaded (v1.1.10)
  Ready:       yes
  Mode:        exploratory
  Strategy:    HybridArtificialBeeColony

Ready to generate optimized test data.

How it works

When testimize.enabled is true, SPECTRA runs the Testimize engine in-process during test generation — no child process, no MCP server, no JSON-RPC. The flow integrates into the existing generation pipeline:

  1. Behavior analysis (AI step, unchanged) — the AI analyzes your documentation and identifies testable behaviors. When Testimize is enabled, the prompt also asks the AI to emit a field_specs[] array listing every constrained input field it finds (name, type, min/max, required, allowed values, expected error messages).

  2. Field spec extraction — SPECTRA parses the AI’s field_specs from the response JSON. If the AI returned none (e.g., the documentation describes a button-tap UI with no text inputs), a local regex fallback (FieldSpecAnalysisTools.Analyze) scans the raw documentation for patterns like “3 to 20 characters” or “between 18 and 100”.

  3. TestimizeRunner — maps each field spec to a Testimize parameter type (IntegerDataParameter, EmailDataParameter, DateDataParameter, etc.) and calls TestimizeEngine.Configure(...).Generate() in-process:
    • Single field: bypasses generators entirely and reads the pre-computed BVA boundary values + invalid equivalence classes directly from the parameter’s TestValues (populated at construction time by the field’s strategy). Produces e.g., 4 boundary values + security-focused invalids.
    • Multiple fields (2+): runs the full Pairwise or Hybrid-ABC generator for optimized cross-field combinations.

  4. Prompt embedding — the pre-computed test data is rendered as a literal YAML block in the test-generation prompt, attributed to Testimize:

    ## PRE-COMPUTED ALGORITHMIC TEST DATA (from Testimize, strategy=HybridArtificialBeeColony)

    The AI uses these exact values verbatim in the generated test cases. It does not need to “decide” to call a tool — the data is already in the prompt as authoritative facts.

  5. Generation + critic — proceed normally. Test steps reference the exact boundary values and expected error messages from the Testimize data.

What Testimize computes vs what the AI handles

Testimize (algorithmic, deterministic) AI (contextual, from docs)
Precise BVA: exact min-1, min, max, max+1 Valid equivalence partition values (context-aware)
Security invalids: XSS, SQLi, SSTI patterns Domain-specific invalid scenarios
Multi-field pairwise/ABC combinations Normal EP from documentation context
Type-confusion invalids (e.g., “abc” for integer) Workflow / state-transition test data

Configuration reference

Field Type Default Notes
enabled bool false Master switch.
mode string "exploratory" Maps to Testimize’s TestCaseCategory: "exploratory" or unknown → All (valid + invalid + boundary), "valid" → Valid only, "validation" → Validation (invalid only).
strategy string "HybridArtificialBeeColony" Algorithm for multi-field generation. One of: Pairwise, OptimizedPairwise, Combinatorial, OptimizedCombinatorial, HybridArtificialBeeColony. Single-field suites bypass this (direct BVA/EP extraction).
settings_file string? null Optional path to a testimizeSettings.json with ABC tuning and per-type equivalence classes. When null, uses SPECTRA’s bundled defaults.

abc_settings (optional tuning)

When null, Testimize uses sensible defaults. Override individual properties to tune the Hybrid-ABC algorithm:

Field Type Default Notes
abc_settings.total_population_generations int 100 Number of ABC algorithm iterations. Higher = more thorough but slower.
abc_settings.mutation_rate double 0.6 Probability of mutating a test value during each generation (0.0–1.0).
abc_settings.final_population_selection_ratio double 0.5 Fraction of final population to keep (0.0–1.0).
abc_settings.elite_selection_ratio double 0.3 Fraction of best solutions preserved without modification.
abc_settings.allow_multiple_invalid_inputs bool false When true, a single test case may contain invalid values for multiple fields simultaneously.
abc_settings.seed int? null Fix the random seed for reproducible runs. When null, uses the bundled default (12345).

Example with tuning:

{
  "testimize": {
    "enabled": true,
    "strategy": "HybridArtificialBeeColony",
    "abc_settings": {
      "total_population_generations": 50,
      "mutation_rate": 0.4,
      "seed": 42
    }
  }
}

Without Testimize

SPECTRA does not require Testimize. When disabled (the default), the AI generation pipeline uses spec 037’s ISTQB technique-driven prompts and approximates boundary values from documentation. You get systematic boundary coverage either way — Testimize makes the boundary values mathematically precise (exact min-1/max+1) and adds security-focused invalid patterns the AI might not consistently include.

Graceful degradation

If testimize.enabled is true but the engine produces no usable data (no field specs found, engine error, etc.), SPECTRA logs a diagnostic line and proceeds with normal AI-only generation. The run always completes successfully — Testimize failures never block test generation.

Skip reasons logged to .spectra-debug.log:

Log line Meaning
TESTIMIZE SKIP reason=disabled testimize.enabled is false in config
TESTIMIZE SKIP reason=no_field_specs suite=X Neither AI nor regex fallback found any constrained fields
TESTIMIZE SKIP reason=insufficient_fields fields=1 suite=X Only 1 field found but it’s a type that needs generators (rare — most single fields use direct BVA extraction)
TESTIMIZE FALLBACK source=regex fields=N AI returned no field specs; regex extractor recovered N fields from raw docs
TESTIMIZE ERROR exception=Type message="..." Engine threw; generation continues without Testimize data
TESTIMIZE OK strategy=X fields=N test_data_sets=M elapsed=Xs Success — N fields produced M test data rows

Health check 

spectra testimize check
spectra testimize check --output-format json

JSON output contains the fields enabled, installed, healthy, mode, strategy, and version. Since v1.48.3, installed is always true (the library is a compile-time dependency) and version shows the bundled Testimize assembly version (e.g., "1.1.10.0").