Why do people run TDD with coding agents? Question sparks debate

johncrickett · x · 2026-10-02

John Crickett asked: "Why do people do TDD with agents? Seems an incredibly inefficient way to use agents."

The question drew responses from practitioners, with the core counterpoint being that unit tests act as cheap guardrails that keep AI coding agents in check (see companion post).

Related event: Debate: Why TDD and Guardrails Matter for AI Coding Agents(3 posts)→

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