--- title: Is TDD the next big thing for agentic development on... description: A comparison of using an agentic test-driven development skill (from the popular 'superpowers' plugin with 270k GitHub stars) versus a custom Android unit... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/is-tdd-the-next-big-thing-for-agentic-development-on-android--piyggmgfn twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Is TDD the next big thing for agentic development on Android? | daily.dev og:description: A comparison of using an agentic test-driven development skill (from the popular 'superpowers' plugin with 270k GitHub stars) versus a custom Android unit... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/is-tdd-the-next-big-thing-for-agentic-development-on-android--piyggmgfn og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/PIYGGMgFn.png og:image:alt: Is TDD the next big thing for agentic development on Android? og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Is TDD the next big thing for agentic development on Android? **[Philipp Lackner](https://daily.dev/sources/philipplackner)** · 15 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A comparison of using an agentic test-driven development skill (from the popular 'superpowers' plugin with 270k GitHub stars) versus a custom Android unit testing skill, applied to building a calculator app with expression parsing on Android. The TDD approach produced around 34 test cases before implementation, while the custom non-TDD skill (writing tests after implementation) produced roughly three times as many test cases, covered many more edge cases (locale decimal separators, malformed input, emojis, empty strings), and used JUnit 5 with parameterized and nested tests. The presenter argues TDD works well when inputs/outputs are simple and easy to define, but is less suited to Android scenarios involving complex ViewModels, flows, and coroutines, or instrumentation tests requiring an emulator, and personally prefers writing tests after implementation with an edge-case-focused mindset. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Is test-driven development a good approach for AI coding agents building Android apps? Test-driven development works well for agents when logic has clear inputs and outputs, like mathematical expression evaluation, but is less effective for Android view models with complex flows and coroutines, or for code requiring instrumentation tests on an emulator. A comparison using a calculator app found the TDD skill produced 34 test cases, while a post-implementation testing skill produced roughly three times as many, with more thorough edge-case coverage. _Developers weighing agentic testing strategies for Android can compare real experience reports like this on daily.dev._ ### What is the superpowers plugin for AI coding agents and why is it popular? Superpowers is a plug-in providing a set of skills for AI-driven development, including brainstorming, systematic debugging, and test-driven development, and has gained roughly 270,000 GitHub stars. Its TDD skill instructs an agent to write an empty function signature, then write failing test cases covering edge cases, and finally write minimal production code to make those tests pass, following the red-green-refactor approach. _Track fast-moving AI agent tooling like superpowers on daily.dev before adopting it in a project._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [An Optimized Agentic Android Development Workflow](https://daily.dev/posts/an-optimized-agentic-android-development-workflow-tgmzigta4) · Atomic Spin · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [TDD is more important than ever](https://daily.dev/posts/tdd-is-more-important-than-ever-hoeecbmpk) · Justin Searls · 118 upvotes · 8 comments - [TDD is a Luxury: Pragmatic Testing for the Solo Developer](https://daily.dev/posts/tdd-is-a-luxury-pragmatic-testing-for-the-solo-developer-tawfchoo4) · Ruby Flow · 0 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#testing](https://daily.dev/tags/testing), [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#android](https://daily.dev/tags/android), [#claude-code](https://daily.dev/tags/claude-code), [#tdd](https://daily.dev/tags/tdd) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/is-tdd-the-next-big-thing-for-agentic-development-on-android--piyggmgfn) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} 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