Skip to content
acc-create-test-double logo

Test Double Generator

acc-create-test-double

Generates test doubles (Mocks, Stubs, Fakes, Spies) for PHP 8.5. Creates appropriate double type based on testing needs with PHPUnit MockBuilder patterns.

SKILL.md

Full skill instructions

Test Double Generator

Generates appropriate test doubles based on testing needs.

Test Double Types

TypePurposeBehaviorVerification
StubProvide canned answersReturns predefined valuesNo
MockVerify interactionsConfigurableYes (expectations)
FakeWorking implementationReal logic, simplifiedNo
SpyRecord interactionsPasses throughYes (inspection)

Decision Matrix

Need to verify method was called?
├── Yes → Need to record actual calls?
│   ├── Yes → Spy
│   └── No → Mock
└── No → Need real behavior?
    ├── Yes → Fake
    └── No → Stub

When to Use Each

ScenarioDouble TypeExample
External API responseStubHTTP client returns fixed JSON
Verify email sentMockAssert send() was called
Repository for domain testsFakeInMemory implementation
Audit loggingSpyRecord all log calls
Time-dependent codeFakeFrozenClock

Stub Examples

PHPUnit Stub

use PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase;

final class OrderServiceTest extends TestCase
{
    public function test_calculates_order_total(): void
    {
        // Create stub
        $taxCalculator = $this->createStub(TaxCalculatorInterface::class);
        $taxCalculator->method('calculate')
            ->willReturn(Money::EUR(100));

        $service = new OrderService($taxCalculator);

        $total = $service->calculateTotal($order);

        self::assertEquals(Money::EUR(1100), $total);
    }
}

Stub with Different Returns

public function test_handles_multiple_calls(): void
{
    $repository = $this->createStub(UserRepositoryInterface::class);

    // Return different values based on argument
    $repository->method('findById')
        ->willReturnCallback(function (UserId $id) {
            return match ($id->toString()) {
                'user-1' => UserMother::john(),
                'user-2' => UserMother::jane(),
                default => null,
            };
        });

    // Or return sequence
    $repository->method('findById')
        ->willReturnOnConsecutiveCalls(
            UserMother::john(),
            UserMother::jane(),
            null
        );
}

Manual Stub Class

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace Tests\Stub;

use App\Infrastructure\Http\HttpClientInterface;
use App\Infrastructure\Http\HttpResponse;

final class FixedHttpClientStub implements HttpClientInterface
{
    public function __construct(
        private readonly HttpResponse $response
    ) {}

    public function get(string $url, array $headers = []): HttpResponse
    {
        return $this->response;
    }

    public function post(string $url, array $data, array $headers = []): HttpResponse
    {
        return $this->response;
    }

    public static function returning(int $status, array $body): self
    {
        return new self(new HttpResponse($status, json_encode($body)));
    }

    public static function ok(array $body): self
    {
        return self::returning(200, $body);
    }

    public static function error(int $status = 500): self
    {
        return self::returning($status, ['error' => 'Server error']);
    }
}

Mock Examples

PHPUnit Mock

public function test_sends_notification_on_order_placed(): void
{
    // Create mock with expectations
    $notifier = $this->createMock(NotifierInterface::class);
    $notifier->expects($this->once())
        ->method('notify')
        ->with(
            $this->isInstanceOf(OrderPlacedNotification::class)
        );

    $service = new OrderService($this->repository, $notifier);

    $service->placeOrder($command);

    // Expectations verified automatically
}

Mock with Argument Matching

public function test_logs_with_correct_context(): void
{
    $logger = $this->createMock(LoggerInterface::class);
    $logger->expects($this->once())
        ->method('info')
        ->with(
            'Order placed',
            $this->callback(function (array $context) {
                return isset($context['orderId'])
                    && isset($context['customerId'])
                    && $context['amount'] > 0;
            })
        );

    $service = new OrderService($this->repository, $logger);

    $service->placeOrder($command);
}

Mock Method Call Count

public function test_retries_on_failure(): void
{
    $client = $this->createMock(HttpClientInterface::class);
    $client->expects($this->exactly(3))  // Called exactly 3 times
        ->method('post')
        ->willThrowException(new ConnectionException());

    $service = new PaymentService($client, maxRetries: 3);

    $this->expectException(PaymentFailedException::class);

    $service->charge($payment);
}

Fake Examples

InMemory Repository (Fake)

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace Tests\Fake;

use App\Domain\User\User;
use App\Domain\User\UserId;
use App\Domain\User\UserRepositoryInterface;

final class InMemoryUserRepository implements UserRepositoryInterface
{
    /​** @var array<string, User> */
    private array $users = [];

    public function save(User $user): void
    {
        $this->users[$user->id()->toString()] = $user;
    }

    public function findById(UserId $id): ?User
    {
        return $this->users[$id->toString()] ?? null;
    }

    public function delete(User $user): void
    {
        unset($this->users[$user->id()->toString()]);
    }

    // Test helper methods
    public function clear(): void
    {
        $this->users = [];
    }

    public function count(): int
    {
        return count($this->users);
    }
}

Frozen Clock (Fake)

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace Tests\Fake;

use Psr\Clock\ClockInterface;
use DateTimeImmutable;

final class FrozenClock implements ClockInterface
{
    public function __construct(
        private DateTimeImmutable $now
    ) {}

    public function now(): DateTimeImmutable
    {
        return $this->now;
    }

    public static function at(string $datetime): self
    {
        return new self(new DateTimeImmutable($datetime));
    }

    public function advance(string $interval): void
    {
        $this->now = $this->now->modify($interval);
    }
}

// Usage
$clock = FrozenClock::at('2024-01-15 10:00:00');
$service = new SubscriptionService($clock);

$subscription = $service->create($user);
self::assertEquals('2024-01-15', $subscription->startDate()->format('Y-m-d'));

$clock->advance('+30 days');
self::assertTrue($subscription->isExpired($clock->now()));

Spy Examples

Collecting Spy

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace Tests\Spy;

use Psr\Log\LoggerInterface;
use Psr\Log\LogLevel;

final class SpyLogger implements LoggerInterface
{
    /​** @var list<array{level: string, message: string, context: array}> */
    private array $logs = [];

    public function log($level, string|\Stringable $message, array $context = []): void
    {
        $this->logs[] = [
            'level' => $level,
            'message' => (string) $message,
            'context' => $context,
        ];
    }

    public function emergency(string|\Stringable $message, array $context = []): void
    {
        $this->log(LogLevel::EMERGENCY, $message, $context);
    }

    public function alert(string|\Stringable $message, array $context = []): void
    {
        $this->log(LogLevel::ALERT, $message, $context);
    }

    public function critical(string|\Stringable $message, array $context = []): void
    {
        $this->log(LogLevel::CRITICAL, $message, $context);
    }

    public function error(string|\Stringable $message, array $context = []): void
    {
        $this->log(LogLevel::ERROR, $message, $context);
    }

    public function warning(string|\Stringable $message, array $context = []): void
    {
        $this->log(LogLevel::WARNING, $message, $context);
    }

    public function notice(string|\Stringable $message, array $context = []): void
    {
        $this->log(LogLevel::NOTICE, $message, $context);
    }

    public function info(string|\Stringable $message, array $context = []): void
    {
        $this->log(LogLevel::INFO, $message, $context);
    }

    public function debug(string|\Stringable $message, array $context = []): void
    {
        $this->log(LogLevel::DEBUG, $message, $context);
    }

    // Inspection methods
    /​** @return list<array{level: string, message: string, context: array}> */
    public function getLogs(): array
    {
        return $this->logs;
    }

    public function hasLogged(string $level, string $messageContains): bool
    {
        foreach ($this->logs as $log) {
            if ($log['level'] === $level && str_contains($log['message'], $messageContains)) {
                return true;
            }
        }
        return false;
    }

    public function clear(): void
    {
        $this->logs = [];
    }
}

Usage

public function test_logs_order_placement(): void
{
    $logger = new SpyLogger();
    $service = new OrderService($this->repository, $logger);

    $service->placeOrder($command);

    // Inspect recorded logs
    self::assertTrue($logger->hasLogged('info', 'Order placed'));

    $logs = $logger->getLogs();
    self::assertCount(1, $logs);
    self::assertArrayHasKey('orderId', $logs[0]['context']);
}

Generation Instructions

  1. Analyze the dependency:

    • Interface or class being doubled
    • Methods that need doubling
    • Expected behavior in test
  2. Choose double type:

    • Verification needed? → Mock or Spy
    • Real behavior needed? → Fake
    • Just return values? → Stub
  3. Generate appropriate implementation:

    • PHPUnit built-in for simple cases
    • Custom class for complex behavior
  4. File placement:

    • Stubs: tests/​Stub/
    • Fakes: tests/​Fake/
    • Spies: tests/​Spy/
    • Or combined in tests/​Double/

Best Practices

  1. Mock interfaces, not classes — avoid mocking final classes
  2. Prefer Fakes for repositories — more realistic behavior
  3. Use Stubs for external services — HTTP, payment gateways
  4. Limit to 3 mocks per test — more indicates design issue
  5. Never mock Value Objects — use real instances
  6. Don't mock what you don't own — wrap external libraries first

More skills from diegosouzapw

accessibility logo
diegosouzapw/awesome-omni-skill

accessibility

Accessibility guidelines for VS Code features — covers accessibility help dialogs, accessible views, verbosity settings, accessibility signals, ARIA alerts/status announcements, keyboard navigation, and ARIA labels/roles. Applies to both new interactive UI surfaces and updates to existing feature...

62 1
View
mermaid-diagrams logo
diegosouzapw/awesome-omni-skill

mermaid-diagrams

Mermaid diagram creation for flowcharts, sequences, ERDs, and more. Generate diagrams from text in markdown files. Use for documentation, architecture diagrams, and visual representations. Triggers on mermaid, flowchart, sequence diagram, ERD, entity relationship, gantt chart, pie chart, class di...

62 1
View
tauri2-react-rust logo
diegosouzapw/awesome-omni-skill

tauri2-react-rust

Guides development of cross-platform desktop apps with Tauri 2, TypeScript, React, and Rust. Use when building Tauri apps, implementing IPC, designing Rust backend or TypeScript/React frontend, when researching or cloning a website (open site, snapshot elements), when verifying local dev or built...

62 1
View
fp-ts-errors logo
diegosouzapw/awesome-omni-skill

fp-ts-errors

Handle errors as values using fp-ts Either and TaskEither for cleaner, more predictable TypeScript code. Use when implementing error handling patterns with fp-ts.

62 0
View
ring:pre-dev-research logo
diegosouzapw/awesome-omni-skill

ring:pre-dev-research

Gate 0 research phase for pre-dev workflow. Dispatches 3 parallel research agents to gather codebase patterns, external best practices, and framework documentation BEFORE creating PRD/TRD. Outputs research.md with file:line references.

62 0
View
create-assistant logo
diegosouzapw/awesome-omni-skill

create-assistant

Create and configure Vapi voice AI assistants with models, voices, transcribers, tools, hooks, and advanced settings. Use when building voice agents, phone bots, customer support assistants, or any conversational AI that handles phone or web calls.

62 0
View
codex-headless logo
diegosouzapw/awesome-omni-skill

codex-headless

Delegiere Aufgaben an OpenAI Codex CLI im Headless-Mode. Nutzt ChatGPT Subscription (KEIN API Key). Nur Workspace-Zugriff, KEIN System-Zugriff. Auto-Accept mit --full-auto. Web-Recherche mit --search.

62 0
View
social-media-scheduler logo
diegosouzapw/awesome-omni-skill

social-media-scheduler

Generate a full week of social media content for any topic. Outputs platform-optimized posts for Twitter/X, LinkedIn, and Instagram with hashtags and posting times.

62 0
View
Data Privacy Compliance logo
diegosouzapw/awesome-omni-skill

Data Privacy Compliance

Data privacy and regulatory compliance specialist for GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, and international data protection laws. Use when implementing privacy controls, conducting data protection impact assessments, ensuring regulatory compliance, or managing data subject rights. Expert in consent management, da...

62 0
View
triple-review logo
diegosouzapw/awesome-omni-skill

triple-review

Reviews a task using the TRIPLE protocol, as the review agent.

62 0
View
Tech Stack & Architecture Decision logo
diegosouzapw/awesome-omni-skill

Tech Stack & Architecture Decision

Define and document the technology stack and architecture decisions for a project. Use when the user needs to choose a tech stack, make architecture decisions, define infrastructure choices, or document technology selections. Triggers on requests like "define the tech stack", "choose technologies...

62 0
View

Popular AI tools

Kaiber logo
Video

Kaiber

Generate, edit, and beat-sync AI video with leading models in one workspace.

Paid
View
Vimcal logo
Productivity

Vimcal

The world's fastest calendar for remote work

Free
View

Transform Your Design with AI Designer by ImgCreator.ai

Freemium
View
Akool AI logo
Content & writing

Akool AI

Revolutionizing Video Production with AI-Powered Creativity

Paid
View

Extend an image past the frame and let AI fill the new aspect ratio.

Freemium
View
StarByFace logo
Security

StarByFace

Discover your celebrity doppelgänger with StarByFace!

Free
View
C

ChainClarity explains 700+ crypto whitepapers in plain English, with layered summaries, comparisons, research tools, alerts, and a $4.99 Pro plan.

Freemium
View
Opus Clip logo
Coding & apps

Opus Clip

Opus.ai: Revolutionize Your Web Experience

Free
View