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Agent skill

Absolute Deflake

by maddhruv in maddhruv/absolute

Flaky test fixes: detect nondeterministic tests empirically (repeat/shuffle/parallel runs), diagnose the root cause, fix it — never retry/skip/sleep — and verify across many randomized runs.

MITAuto-check passedTesting & QA

Install Absolute Deflake

skills CLI
$ npx skills add maddhruv/absolute --skill absolute-deflake -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install maddhruv/absolute absolute-deflake --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/maddhruv/absolute.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/absolute-deflake .claude/skills/absolute-deflake && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
absolute-deflake
GitHub stars
218
Used in
1 other repo
Token cost
~1.2k tokens
SKILL.md length
616 words
Files
3 (incl. references)
Skills in repo
10
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Flaky test fixes: detect nondeterministic tests empirically (repeat/shuffle/parallel runs), diagnose the root cause, fix it — never retry/skip/sleep — and verify across many randomized runs.

  • Works in 5 steps: Retry/skip as a fix. Masks the flake,… → sleep to dodge a race. Slows the suite… → One green run = done. Flakes are… → …
  • Absolute deflake
  • SKILL.md covers Absolute Deflake, When to use, What it scans and Common root causes (diagnose,…, plus 4 more sections
  • Calls pytest and go

What it does

Absolute Deflake is an agent skill from maddhruv/absolute. Flaky test fixes: detect nondeterministic tests empirically (repeat/shuffle/parallel runs), diagnose the root cause, fix it — never retry/skip/sleep — and verify across many randomized runs. Triggers on "absolute deflake", "fix flaky tests", "CI is flaky", "this test fails randomly/intermittently".

Its SKILL.md is about 1.2k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 3 other files, including reference files (for example `README.md` and `references/health-engine.md`).

It sits in Testing & QA, covering Failing and flaky tests and Root cause analysis. It works with pytest. The repository describes itself as: Absolute Skills to 10x your Development Lifecycle. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Absolute deflake
  • Fix flaky tests
  • This test fails randomly/intermittently

Example prompts

  • “absolute deflake”
  • “fix flaky tests”
  • “CI is flaky”
  • “/absolute-deflake”

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Retry/skip as a fix. Masks the flake, ships the nondeterminism. Forbidden here.
  2. sleep to dodge a race. Slows the suite and still flakes under load. Await the condition.
  3. One green run = done. Flakes are probabilistic — verify with many randomized runs.
  4. Stabilizing a real product race. If the code races, fix the code, not just the assertion.
  5. Ignoring order/parallel dimension. Run isolated and in-suite; the bug hides in whichever you skip.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 2166274. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • pytest
    • go

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Absolute Deflake loads about 1.2k tokens when it runs, and up to ~2.6k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 79 tokens; SKILL.md has 616 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~79
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.2k
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~2.6k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from maddhruv/absolute at commit 2166274, republished under its MIT licence (© maddhruv). 616 words, ~1,241 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/absolute-deflake/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 2 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
absolute-deflake
description
Flaky test fixes: detect nondeterministic tests empirically (repeat/shuffle/parallel runs), diagnose the root cause, fix it — never retry/skip/sleep — and verify across many randomized runs. Triggers on "absolute deflake", "fix flaky tests", "CI is flaky", "this test fails randomly/intermittently".
version
0.5.0
category
workflow
tags
workflow, testing, flaky-tests, maintenance
platforms
claude-code, gemini-cli, openai-codex, mcp
user-invocable
true
argument-hint
[target]
license
MIT

Start your first response with the 🧪 emoji.

Absolute Deflake

Find tests that pass and fail nondeterministically, diagnose the root cause of each, and fix it — not by retrying or skipping, but by removing the source of nondeterminism. Output is evidence (failure rate per test) → cause → fix, verified by repeated runs.

Runs the shared engine in references/health-engine.md — read it for the DETECT → SCAN → TRIAGE → FIX → VERIFY → REPORT loop and the safety contract. This file covers only what's specific to flaky tests.

When to use

  • "Our CI is flaky", "this test fails randomly", "fix the intermittent failures".
  • A test passes locally but fails in CI (or vice versa), or fails ~1 in N runs.
  • Burning down a backlog of retry/skip-marked tests that mask real flakiness.

Not for tests that fail deterministically — that's a real bug or a real regression (/absolute work for a fix, or just fix it). deflake targets nondeterministic failures.

What it scans

Establish flakiness empirically — a test isn't flaky because someone said so. Use preferences.health.deflakeRuns from config as the default N for repeat-runs (else 20):

EcosystemRepeat-run / detect
Jest/Vitestrun suite N× (--run loop), randomize order (--shuffle / testSequencer)
pytestpytest-randomly + pytest --count=N (pytest-repeat); -p no:randomly to A/B
Gogo test -count=N -shuffle=on ./..., -race

Also mine signals: existing retry/flaky/skip annotations, CI history if reachable, and run the suite both in isolation and in full/parallel — order- and concurrency- dependent failures only show one way. Record a failure rate per suspect test.

Common root causes (diagnose, don't guess)

CauseTellFix
Test-order / shared statepasses alone, fails in suite (or vice versa)isolate state; reset/teardown between tests
Time / clockfails near midnight, DST, or under loadfake timers / inject clock; no real sleep
Async race / missing awaitfails under parallelism or slow CIawait the actual condition; no fixed timeouts
Randomnessfails ~X% with no patternseed the RNG; fix the seed in tests
Network / external I/Ofails offline or on slow linksmock/stub the boundary
Unordered collectionsfails on map/set iteration ordersort before asserting
Resource leak / port reusefails on repeat or parallel runsunique resources; clean up
Show full SKILL.md (268 more words)Show less

Risk ranking (TRIAGE)

WaveClassDefault
1clear, isolated cause (seed, await, fake clock, sort)fix now
2shared-state / ordering — needs fixture refactorfix this pass, per test
3flakiness pointing at a real product race, not just the testgated — surface; may be a genuine bug to fix in code

A flaky test sometimes means the code has a race, not the test. Don't "stabilize" the test into hiding a real concurrency bug — flag wave-3 cases for a real fix.

Fix & verify

  • Fix the cause. Then prove it: re-run the test many times (and shuffled / parallel / with -race) — green once is not deflaked; green across N randomized runs is.
  • Remove the retry/skip/flaky annotation that was masking it once the cause is fixed.
  • Never "fix" by adding retries, raising timeouts blindly, sleep, or skipping the test — that hides flakiness, doesn't remove it.
  • Re-run the full suite to confirm the fix didn't destabilize neighbors.

Gotchas

  1. Retry/skip as a fix. Masks the flake, ships the nondeterminism. Forbidden here.
  2. sleep to dodge a race. Slows the suite and still flakes under load. Await the condition.
  3. One green run = done. Flakes are probabilistic — verify with many randomized runs.
  4. Stabilizing a real product race. If the code races, fix the code, not just the assertion.
  5. Ignoring order/parallel dimension. Run isolated and in-suite; the bug hides in whichever you skip.

Companion commands

  • /absolute upgrade — a flaky suite makes upgrade verification unreliable; deflake first.
  • /absolute debt — flaky-test annotations are test debt; this clears them at the root.
  • /absolute work — when the flake is a genuine product-code race needing real design.

© maddhruv, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 2 other files (references) in skills/absolute-deflake of maddhruv/absolute.

  • SKILL.md
  • README.md
  • references/health-engine.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 2166274

Used in 1 other repository

We found 1 copy of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 1 other GitHub owner. This page covers the copy in maddhruv/absolute, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

Compare with similar skills

Absolute Deflake next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Absolute Deflake compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Absolute Deflake this skillmaddhruv/absolute2181 repos~1.2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Blue Teamgaasher/Agent-Loop-Skills174—~3.6kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Map Debugazalio/map-framework156—~4.6kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Map Debugazalio/map-framework156—~4.6kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Pester Failure AnalysisPowerShell/PowerShell56k—~5.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Diagnose Playwright Failure as Product Bugappsmithorg/appsmith41k—~1.5kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0

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Works with

Categories

Questions about Absolute Deflake

What does Absolute Deflake do?

Flaky test fixes: detect nondeterministic tests empirically (repeat/shuffle/parallel runs), diagnose the root cause, fix it — never retry/skip/sleep — and verify across many randomized runs. Absolute Deflake is an agent skill from maddhruv/absolute. Flaky test fixes: detect nondeterministic tests empirically (repeat/shuffle/parallel runs), diagnose the root cause, fix it — never retry/skip/sleep — and verify across many randomized runs.

When should I use Absolute Deflake?

Absolute Deflake fits situations like: absolute deflake; fix flaky tests; this test fails randomly/intermittently.

How do I install Absolute Deflake in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add maddhruv/absolute --skill absolute-deflake -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/absolute-deflake in maddhruv/absolute) into .claude/skills/absolute-deflake in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Absolute Deflake in Codex?

Run `npx skills add maddhruv/absolute --skill absolute-deflake -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/absolute-deflake in maddhruv/absolute) into .agents/skills/absolute-deflake in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Absolute Deflake in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add maddhruv/absolute --skill absolute-deflake -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/absolute-deflake, .gemini/skills/absolute-deflake, .github/skills/absolute-deflake and .opencode/skills/absolute-deflake in your project.

What does Absolute Deflake need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Absolute Deflake needs the command-line tools its instructions call (pytest and go).

Does Absolute Deflake access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Absolute Deflake safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Absolute Deflake use?

Absolute Deflake is published under the MIT licence (declared in SKILL.md). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Absolute Deflake use?

About 1.2k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 5k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 1.4k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to Absolute Deflake?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Absolute Deflake: Blue Team (gaasher/Agent-Loop-Skills, 174 stars), Map Debug (azalio/map-framework, 156 stars), Map Debug (azalio/map-framework, 156 stars) and Pester Failure Analysis (PowerShell/PowerShell, 56k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Absolute Deflake?

maddhruv (a GitHub user) maintains it in maddhruv/absolute, which has 218 GitHub stars. The repository holds 10 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on July 6, 2026.

Source: maddhruv/absolute on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.