Is it compatible with all testing frameworks?

Yes, the logic is language-agnostic and the patterns can be implemented in any environment, including Jest, Cypress, Playwright, and Pytest.

Does it support exponential backoff?

Yes, the skill includes implementation patterns for increasing polling intervals over time to balance system responsiveness with resource usage.

How does this skill help with flaky tests?

It replaces fixed 'sleep' timers with logic that waits for specific conditions to be true, ensuring tests only proceed when the application state is ready, regardless of environment speed.

When should I avoid using polling?

Polling should be avoided when native event-based systems like WebSockets, Promises, Message Buses, or DOM event listeners are available, as these are more efficient.

Can this be used for production code?

While primarily designed for improving test stability, the polling and backoff patterns provided are useful for any asynchronous coordination task involving external systems.

Condition-Based Waiting

Name: Condition-Based Waiting
Author: samjhecht

bysamjhecht

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Security & Testing

Replaces arbitrary timeouts with intelligent condition polling and event-based waiting to eliminate flaky tests and race conditions.

About

This skill provides Claude with advanced patterns for handling asynchronous timing dependencies in software testing. By replacing fragile setTimeout or sleep calls with dynamic polling and event-based waiting, it helps developers build more resilient test suites that are both faster and more reliable across different environments. It includes logic for choosing polling intervals, implementing exponential backoff, and identifying when native event listeners are a superior alternative to polling, ensuring tests only wait as long as strictly necessary.

Key Features

Optimizes test execution speed by completing as soon as conditions are met
Eliminates flaky tests caused by race conditions and timing dependencies
Guides users on when to prefer native event-based systems over polling
1 GitHub stars
Supports intelligent exponential backoff for external system checks
Provides standardized polling patterns with configurable intervals and timeouts

Use Cases

Handling non-deterministic file system or third-party service states
Fixing inconsistent CI/CD test failures caused by environmental load
Waiting for asynchronous DOM changes or API responses in end-to-end tests

About

Key Features

Optimizes test execution speed by completing as soon as conditions are met
Eliminates flaky tests caused by race conditions and timing dependencies
Guides users on when to prefer native event-based systems over polling
1 GitHub stars
Supports intelligent exponential backoff for external system checks
Provides standardized polling patterns with configurable intervals and timeouts

Use Cases

Handling non-deterministic file system or third-party service states
Fixing inconsistent CI/CD test failures caused by environmental load
Waiting for asynchronous DOM changes or API responses in end-to-end tests