--- title: ultimately minimal unit testing | daily.dev description: An author shares three tiny, dependency-free unit-testing libraries he built for Lua (gambiarra), JavaScript (klud.js), and Unix shell (bricolage), each... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/ultimately-minimal-unit-testing-ez1kjgflb twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: ultimately minimal unit testing | daily.dev og:description: An author shares three tiny, dependency-free unit-testing libraries he built for Lua (gambiarra), JavaScript (klud.js), and Unix shell (bricolage), each... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/ultimately-minimal-unit-testing-ez1kjgflb og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/EZ1kjGFlb.png og:image:alt: ultimately minimal unit testing 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. # ultimately minimal unit testing **[zserge's blog](https://daily.dev/sources/zserge)** · 8 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary An author shares three tiny, dependency-free unit-testing libraries he built for Lua (gambiarra), JavaScript (klud.js), and Unix shell (bricolage), each exposing a minimal shared API of just four functions: test, ok, eq, and spy. He argues that testing tools should be trivial to learn and install, with no bloated assertion libraries, and walks through code examples for each library along with the design constraints of the underlying language (e.g. shell's lack of arrays and local variables). He closes with thoughts on why C, Go, and Java don't need (or can't easily support) the same minimalist approach. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Unit tests mark territory more than squash bugs](https://daily.dev/posts/unit-tests-mark-territory-more-than-squash-bugs-tjmwlmfzx) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 1 comments - [The Node.js built-in test runner](https://daily.dev/posts/the-node-js-built-in-test-runner-qw7ywroa9) · Flavio Copes · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [How to Test JavaScript Apps: From Unit Tests to AI-Augmented QA](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-test-javascript-apps-from-unit-tests-to-ai-augmented-qa-e6d6vpl8q) · freeCodeCamp · 6 upvotes · 0 comments - [Thinking about tests: assertions and matchers](https://daily.dev/posts/thinking-about-tests-assertions-and-matchers-cbfp1ttlt) · RUBYLAND · 1 upvotes · 1 comments - [Start With Ugly Code](https://daily.dev/posts/start-with-ugly-code-k1ikjfcaw) · Ruby Flow · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#javascript](https://daily.dev/tags/javascript), [#testing](https://daily.dev/tags/testing), [#bash](https://daily.dev/tags/bash), [#lua](https://daily.dev/tags/lua) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/ultimately-minimal-unit-testing-ez1kjgflb) ```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"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"ultimately minimal unit testing","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ultimately-minimal-unit-testing-ez1kjgflb","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/ultimately-minimal-unit-testing-ez1kjgflb"},"datePublished":"2026-08-23T10:20:23.532Z","dateModified":"2026-08-23T10:21:37.075Z","description":"An author shares three tiny, dependency-free unit-testing libraries he built for Lua (gambiarra), JavaScript (klud.js), and Unix shell (bricolage), each...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--58gMhC4P--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2012","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--58gMhC4P--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2012","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"zserge's blog","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"zserge's blog","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--KQnFBOIT--/f_auto,q_auto/v1787480407/logos/zserge","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/zserge"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/ultimately-minimal-unit-testing-ez1kjgflb","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"javascript,testing,bash,lua","timeRequired":"PT8M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"zserge's blog","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/zserge"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"ultimately minimal unit testing"}]} ```