What it is
A test is a small program that checks your app still does what it did yesterday: signing up creates an account, paying turns on the feature, a user can’t see another user’s data. Tests are a smoke alarm. Without one you find out there’s a fire when a customer smells smoke.
This matters more in an AI-built app than most, because the code changes every time you or a tool touches it. Each session rewrites things you didn’t ask about. Without tests, the only way to notice is to click around and hope you clicked on the thing that broke.
What it looks like from your side
Every fix breaks something else. You’ve stopped touching the parts that work. Releases are scary, so they happen less often, and each one is bigger and scarier. You describe the same bug to your AI tool three times because it keeps bringing it back.
What it costs if you ignore it
Slow, nervous shipping. Old bugs coming back and reaching customers. A developer you hire later who can’t change anything safely, because nothing tells them what they broke. And it compounds: the longer an app goes without tests, the more expensive the first ones are to write.
How to check it yourself in 30 seconds
- Open your project on GitHub. Look for a folder called
tests,test,__tests__orspec, or files whose names end in.test.ts,.test.jsor_test.py. If there are none, the app has no smoke alarm. - Click the Actions tab. This is where GitHub shows anything that runs automatically when the code changes. If it’s empty, nothing does. If there are runs, open the most recent one and see whether it actually ran tests or only built the app.
- If tests exist, open one and read it. A file with a single placeholder check, or tests that have been switched off, counts as none.
How I fix it
I write tests around the flows that would hurt most if they broke: sign-in, who can see what, payments, and whatever your app is actually for. They run automatically on every change, so a break shows up before it ships.
The point isn’t to test everything. It’s to make sure the alarm goes off for the fires that matter.
Find out before your users do.
The Production Readiness Review is $250, takes 2–3 business days, and ends with a clear verdict: fix, restructure, or rebuild.
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