Test with Spanner FAQs

Question 1

What does the Test with Spanner skill do?

Accepted Answer

This skill automates the execution of Go unit tests that depend on a Spanner database. It handles the entire lifecycle of the Spanner emulator, including checking for existing environments, starting the emulator in the background, and cleaning up processes after testing.

Question 2

Does it handle cleanup after tests are finished?

Accepted Answer

Yes. If the skill starts a new Spanner emulator instance, it will track the process ID and offer to stop and kill the emulator process once your testing session is complete, keeping your local development environment clean.

Question 3

When should I use this Claude Code skill?

Accepted Answer

Use this skill whenever you are working on Go packages that interact with Spanner, such as satellite/metabase or satellite/metainfo. It is ideal for developers who want to run database-dependent tests without manually configuring environment variables or managing emulator instances.

Question 4

How does this skill improve my development workflow?

Accepted Answer

It eliminates the friction of manual environment setup. Claude automatically detects if the emulator is running, configures required variables like SPANNER_EMULATOR_HOST, and provides interactive reporting, allowing you to focus on fixing code rather than managing infrastructure.

Question 5

What capabilities does it provide for testing?

Accepted Answer

The skill provides automatic environment configuration, background execution of the Spanner emulator, targeted Go test execution for specific packages, configurable host/port mapping, and interactive support for investigating test failures.

Test with Spanner

Test with Spanner

Key Features

Use Cases

Key Features

Use Cases