Unit tests are essential for ensuring code reliability and identifying bugs early in the development process. Zencoder’s AI-powered unit test generation simplifies this process, enabling developers to create unit test cases quickly. By automating the unit testing process, Zencoder ensures your code is thoroughly tested and reliable, saving you time and effort.

Zentester Platform

The Unit Testing Agent is a key component of Zencoder’s Zentester platform, which provides comprehensive testing coverage throughout the software development lifecycle.

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Steps to Generate Unit Tests with Zencoder

1

Access the Unit Test Agent

Open the agent selector with Cmd+. (Mac) or Ctrl+. (Windows/Linux) and select Unit Test from the dropdown.Agent selector showing Unit Test agent optionExample prompts to get started:
Generate unit tests for the calculateTax function

Create unit tests for the UserService class

Generate unit tests for the authentication logic
2

Specify What to Test

You can specify what to test in two ways - both approaches are equally valid:Option A - Select Code + Prompt: Select the code you want to test in your editor, then use a prompt like:
Generate unit tests for this code

Create unit tests for the selected function
Option B - Detailed Prompt: Provide a specific description:
Generate unit tests for the calculateTax function in utils.py

Create unit tests for all methods in the PaymentProcessor class
3

Agent Analysis & Scenarios

The Unit Test agent analyzes your codebase and detects existing testing frameworks like Jest, pytest, JUnit, or RSpec. It may also suggest installing new frameworks if needed.The agent may offer testing scenarios for you to customize, or proceed directly to generation if it has sufficient information. You can adjust scenarios to focus on specific edge cases or testing approaches.Unit Test agent showing testing scenarios for user customization
4

Test Generation

The agent creates comprehensive unit test files following your project’s testing patterns and conventions, with proper setup, assertions, and cleanup code.
5

Review & Iterate

Review and run the generated tests to ensure they work correctly. Continue the conversation to add more test cases, request different testing approaches (integration tests, edge cases, performance tests), modify existing tests, or generate tests for related code.
Alternative Access Method: You can also click on the Code Lens above functions, classes, or methods in VS Code and JetBrains IDEs to directly invoke unit test generation for that specific code element.Code Lens showing unit test generation option above a functionNote: The Code Lens appearance may vary slightly between VS Code and JetBrains IDEs, and might need to be enabled in your IDE settings.
Other agents and features that complement the Unit Testing Agent:

E2E Testing Agent

Complement your unit tests with end-to-end tests to ensure complete application functionality

Coding Agent

Generates code that can be tested with the Unit Testing Agent

Repo-Info Agent

Enhance test generation with comprehensive project context and structure understanding

Q&A Agent

Ask questions about testing strategies and best practices for your codebase

AI Agents

Create custom agents for specialized workflows and frameworks