beads/docs/TEST_OPTIMIZATION.md

Test Suite Optimization - November 2025

Problem

Test suite was timing out after 5+ minutes, making development workflow painful.

Root Cause

Slow integration tests were running during normal go test ./...:

• Daemon tests: 7 files with git operations and time.Sleep calls
• Multi-clone convergence tests: 2 tests creating multiple git repos
• Concurrent import test: 30-second timeout for deadlock detection

Solution

Tagged slow integration tests with //go:build integration so they're excluded from normal runs:

Files moved to integration-only:

1. cmd/bd/daemon_test.go (862 lines, 15 tests)
2. cmd/bd/daemon_sync_branch_test.go (1235 lines, 11 tests)
3. cmd/bd/daemon_autoimport_test.go (408 lines, 2 tests)
4. cmd/bd/daemon_watcher_test.go (7 tests)
5. cmd/bd/daemon_watcher_platform_test.go
6. cmd/bd/daemon_lock_test.go
7. cmd/bd/git_sync_test.go
8. beads_hash_multiclone_test.go (already tagged)
9. internal/importer/importer_integration_test.go (concurrent test)

Fix for build error:

• Added const windowsOS = "windows" to test_helpers_test.go (was in daemon_test.go)

Results

Before:

$ go test ./...
> 300 seconds (timeout)

After:

$ go test ./...
real    0m1.668s  ✅
user    0m2.075s
sys     0m1.586s

99.4% faster! From 5+ minutes to under 2 seconds.

Running Integration Tests

Normal development (fast):

go test ./...

Full test suite including integration (slow):

go test -tags=integration ./...

CI/CD:

# Fast feedback on PRs
- run: go test ./...

# Full suite on merge to main
- run: go test -tags=integration ./...

Benefits

1. ✅ Fast feedback loop for developers (<2s vs 5+ min)
2. ✅ Agents won't timeout on test runs
3. ✅ Integration tests still available when needed
4. ✅ CI can run both fast and comprehensive tests
5. ✅ No tests deleted - just separated by speed

What Tests Remain in Fast Suite?

• All unit tests (~300+ tests)
• Quick integration tests (<100ms each)
• In-memory database tests
• Logic/validation tests
• Fast import/export tests

Notes

• Integration tests still have testing.Short() checks for double safety
• The integration build tag is opt-in (must explicitly request with -tags=integration)
• All slow git/daemon operations are now integration-only