skill-seekers-reference/docs/TEST_EXAMPLE_EXTRACTION.md

Test Example Extraction (C3.2)

Transform test files into documentation assets by extracting real API usage patterns

Overview

The Test Example Extractor analyzes test files to automatically extract meaningful usage examples showing:

• Object Instantiation: Real parameter values and configuration
• Method Calls: Expected behaviors and return values
• Configuration Examples: Valid configuration dictionaries
• Setup Patterns: Initialization from setUp() methods and pytest fixtures
• Multi-Step Workflows: Integration test sequences

Supported Languages (9)

Language	Extraction Method	Supported Features
Python	AST-based (deep)	All categories, high accuracy
JavaScript	Regex patterns	Instantiation, assertions, configs
TypeScript	Regex patterns	Instantiation, assertions, configs
Go	Regex patterns	Table tests, assertions
Rust	Regex patterns	Test macros, assertions
Java	Regex patterns	JUnit patterns
C#	Regex patterns	xUnit patterns
PHP	Regex patterns	PHPUnit patterns
Ruby	Regex patterns	RSpec patterns

Quick Start

CLI Usage

# Extract from directory
skill-seekers extract-test-examples tests/ --language python

# Extract from single file
skill-seekers extract-test-examples --file tests/test_scraper.py

# JSON output
skill-seekers extract-test-examples tests/ --json > examples.json

# Markdown output
skill-seekers extract-test-examples tests/ --markdown > examples.md

# Filter by confidence
skill-seekers extract-test-examples tests/ --min-confidence 0.7

# Limit examples per file
skill-seekers extract-test-examples tests/ --max-per-file 5

MCP Tool Usage

# From Claude Code
extract_test_examples(directory="tests/", language="python")

# Single file with JSON output
extract_test_examples(file="tests/test_api.py", json=True)

# High confidence only
extract_test_examples(directory="tests/", min_confidence=0.7)

Codebase Integration

# Combine with codebase analysis
skill-seekers analyze --directory . --extract-test-examples

Output Formats

JSON Schema

{
  "total_examples": 42,
  "examples_by_category": {
    "instantiation": 15,
    "method_call": 12,
    "config": 8,
    "setup": 4,
    "workflow": 3
  },
  "examples_by_language": {
    "Python": 42
  },
  "avg_complexity": 0.65,
  "high_value_count": 28,
  "examples": [
    {
      "example_id": "a3f2b1c0",
      "test_name": "test_database_connection",
      "category": "instantiation",
      "code": "db = Database(host=\"localhost\", port=5432)",
      "language": "Python",
      "description": "Instantiate Database: Test database connection",
      "expected_behavior": "self.assertTrue(db.connect())",
      "setup_code": null,
      "file_path": "tests/test_db.py",
      "line_start": 15,
      "line_end": 15,
      "complexity_score": 0.6,
      "confidence": 0.85,
      "tags": ["unittest"],
      "dependencies": ["unittest", "database"]
    }
  ]
}

Markdown Format

# Test Example Extraction Report

**Total Examples**: 42
**High Value Examples** (confidence > 0.7): 28
**Average Complexity**: 0.65

## Examples by Category

- **instantiation**: 15
- **method_call**: 12
- **config**: 8
- **setup**: 4
- **workflow**: 3

## Extracted Examples

### test_database_connection

**Category**: instantiation
**Description**: Instantiate Database: Test database connection
**Expected**: self.assertTrue(db.connect())
**Confidence**: 0.85
**Tags**: unittest

```python
db = Database(host="localhost", port=5432)

Source: tests/test_db.py:15

## Extraction Categories

### 1. Instantiation

**Extracts**: Object creation with real parameters

```python
# Example from test
db = Database(
    host="localhost",
    port=5432,
    user="admin",
    password="secret"
)

Use Case: Shows valid initialization parameters

2. Method Call

Extracts: Method calls followed by assertions

# Example from test
response = api.get("/users/1")
assert response.status_code == 200

Use Case: Demonstrates expected behavior

3. Config

Extracts: Configuration dictionaries (2+ keys)

# Example from test
config = {
    "debug": True,
    "database_url": "postgresql://localhost/test",
    "cache_enabled": False
}

Use Case: Shows valid configuration examples

4. Setup

Extracts: setUp() methods and pytest fixtures

# Example from setUp
self.client = APIClient(api_key="test-key")
self.client.connect()

Use Case: Demonstrates initialization sequences

5. Workflow

Extracts: Multi-step integration tests (3+ steps)

# Example workflow
user = User(name="John", email="john@example.com")
user.save()
user.verify()
session = user.login(password="secret")
assert session.is_active

Use Case: Shows complete usage patterns

Quality Filtering

Confidence Scoring (0.0 - 1.0)

• Instantiation: 0.8 (high - clear object creation)
• Method Call + Assertion: 0.85 (very high - behavior proven)
• Config Dict: 0.75 (good - clear configuration)
• Workflow: 0.9 (excellent - complete pattern)

Automatic Filtering

Removes:

• Trivial patterns: assertTrue(True), assertEqual(1, 1)
• Mock-only code: Mock(), MagicMock()
• Too short: < 20 characters
• Empty constructors: MyClass() with no parameters

Adjustable Thresholds:

# High confidence only (0.7+)
--min-confidence 0.7

# Allow lower confidence for discovery
--min-confidence 0.4

Use Cases

1. Enhanced Documentation

Problem: Documentation often lacks real usage examples

Solution: Extract examples from working tests

# Generate examples for SKILL.md
skill-seekers extract-test-examples tests/ --markdown >> SKILL.md

2. API Understanding

Problem: New developers struggle with API usage

Solution: Show how APIs are actually tested

3. Tutorial Generation

Problem: Creating step-by-step guides is time-consuming

Solution: Use workflow examples as tutorial steps

4. Configuration Examples

Problem: Valid configuration is unclear

Solution: Extract config dictionaries from tests

Architecture

Core Components

TestExampleExtractor (Orchestrator)
├── PythonTestAnalyzer (AST-based)
│   ├── extract_from_test_class()
│   ├── extract_from_test_function()
│   ├── _find_instantiations()
│   ├── _find_method_calls_with_assertions()
│   ├── _find_config_dicts()
│   └── _find_workflows()
├── GenericTestAnalyzer (Regex-based)
│   └── PATTERNS (per-language regex)
└── ExampleQualityFilter
    ├── filter()
    └── _is_trivial()

Data Flow

1. Find Test Files: Glob patterns (test_*.py, *_test.go, etc.)
2. Detect Language: File extension mapping
3. Extract Examples:
   • Python → PythonTestAnalyzer (AST)
   • Others → GenericTestAnalyzer (Regex)
4. Apply Quality Filter: Remove trivial patterns
5. Limit Per File: Top N by confidence
6. Generate Report: JSON or Markdown

Limitations

Current Scope

• Python: Full AST-based extraction (all categories)
• Other Languages: Regex-based (limited to common patterns)
• Focus: Test files only (not production code)
• Complexity: Simple to moderate test patterns

Not Extracted

• Complex mocking setups
• Parameterized tests (partial support)
• Nested helper functions
• Dynamically generated tests

Future Enhancements (Roadmap C3.3-C3.5)

• C3.3: Build 'how to' guides from workflow examples
• C3.4: Extract configuration patterns
• C3.5: Architectural overview from test coverage

Troubleshooting

No Examples Extracted

Symptom: total_examples: 0

Causes:

1. Test files not found (check patterns: test_*.py, *_test.go)
2. Confidence threshold too high
3. Language not supported

Solutions:

# Lower confidence threshold
--min-confidence 0.3

# Check test file detection
ls tests/test_*.py

# Verify language support
--language python  # Use supported language

Low Quality Examples

Symptom: Many trivial or incomplete examples

Causes:

1. Tests use heavy mocking
2. Tests are too simple
3. Confidence threshold too low

Solutions:

# Increase confidence threshold
--min-confidence 0.7

# Reduce examples per file (get best only)
--max-per-file 3

Parsing Errors

Symptom: Failed to parse warnings

Causes:

1. Syntax errors in test files
2. Incompatible Python version
3. Dynamic code generation

Solutions:

• Fix syntax errors in test files
• Ensure tests are valid Python/JS/Go code
• Errors are logged but don't stop extraction

Examples

Python unittest

# tests/test_database.py
import unittest

class TestDatabase(unittest.TestCase):
    def test_connection(self):
        """Test database connection with real params"""
        db = Database(
            host="localhost",
            port=5432,
            user="admin",
            timeout=30
        )
        self.assertTrue(db.connect())

Extracts:

• Category: instantiation
• Code: db = Database(host="localhost", port=5432, user="admin", timeout=30)
• Confidence: 0.8
• Expected: self.assertTrue(db.connect())

Python pytest

# tests/test_api.py
import pytest

@pytest.fixture
def client():
    return APIClient(base_url="https://api.test.com")

def test_get_user(client):
    """Test fetching user data"""
    response = client.get("/users/123")
    assert response.status_code == 200
    assert response.json()["id"] == 123

Extracts:

• Category: method_call
• Setup: # Fixtures: client
• Code: response = client.get("/users/123")\nassert response.status_code == 200
• Confidence: 0.85

Go Table Test

// add_test.go
func TestAdd(t *testing.T) {
    calc := Calculator{mode: "basic"}
    result := calc.Add(2, 3)
    if result != 5 {
        t.Errorf("Add(2, 3) = %d; want 5", result)
    }
}

Extracts:

• Category: instantiation
• Code: calc := Calculator{mode: "basic"}
• Confidence: 0.6

Performance

Metric	Value
Processing Speed	~100 files/second (Python AST)
Memory Usage	~50MB for 1000 test files
Example Quality	80%+ high-confidence (>0.7)
False Positives	<5% (with default filtering)

Integration Points

1. Standalone CLI

skill-seekers extract-test-examples tests/

2. Codebase Analysis

codebase-scraper --directory . --extract-test-examples

3. MCP Server

# Via Claude Code
extract_test_examples(directory="tests/")

4. Python API

from skill_seekers.cli.test_example_extractor import TestExampleExtractor

extractor = TestExampleExtractor(min_confidence=0.6)
report = extractor.extract_from_directory("tests/")

print(f"Found {report.total_examples} examples")
for example in report.examples:
    print(f"- {example.test_name}: {example.code[:50]}...")

See Also

• Pattern Detection (C3.1) - Detect design patterns
• Codebase Scraper - Analyze local repositories
• Unified Scraping - Multi-source documentation

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Status: ✅ Implemented in v2.6.0 Issue: #TBD (C3.2) Related Tasks: C3.1 (Pattern Detection), C3.3-C3.5 (Future enhancements)