Exploratory Testing Advanced

What it does

When your agent uses it

• Planning exploration sessions
• Investigating bugs
• Discovering unknown quality risks

Example prompts

• “/exploratory-testing-advanced”

Workflow steps

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

1. 1CREATE charter with mission, scope, and time-box (45-90 min)
2. 2APPLY heuristics: SFDIPOT (quality criteria), FEW HICCUPPS (consistency oracles)
3. 3EXPLORE systematically using test tours (Business District, Bad Neighborhood, Historical)
4. 4DOCUMENT findings in real-time with notes, screenshots, evidence
5. 5DEBRIEF: What learned? What's next? Share via agent memory

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 829d030. 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

  No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are typescript and markdown).

  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

Exploratory Testing Advanced loads about 1.9k tokens when it runs, and up to ~2.4k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 60 tokens; SKILL.md has 536 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~60

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~1.9k

With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them

~2.4k

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

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 proffesor-for-testing/agentic-qe at commit 829d030, republished under its MIT licence (© proffesor-for-testing). 536 words, ~1,870 tokens.

name

exploratory-testing-advanced

description

Advanced exploratory testing techniques with Session-Based Test Management (SBTM), RST heuristics, and test tours. Use when planning exploration sessions, investigating bugs, or discovering unknown quality risks.

category

testing-methodologies

priority

high

tokenEstimate

1000

agents

qe-flaky-test-hunter, qe-visual-tester, qe-quality-analyzer

implementation_status

optimized

optimization_version

1

last_optimized

2025-12-02

quick_reference_card

true

tags

exploratory, sbtm, rst, heuristics, test-tours, session-based

trust_tier

0

**Charter:** Explore [area] to discover [what] focusing on [heuristic]
**Time-box:** 60 min | **Tester:** [name] | **Date:** [date]

## Session Notes
- [timestamp] Observation/finding
- [timestamp] Bug: [description] - [severity]
- [timestamp] Question: [unclear behavior]

## Findings Summary
- Bugs: X (Critical: Y, Major: Z)
- Questions: X
- Ideas: X

## Coverage
- Areas explored: [list]
- Heuristics used: [SFDIPOT areas]
- % Time on: Bug investigation 30%, Exploration 50%, Setup 20%

## Next Steps
- [ ] Deep dive on [area]
- [ ] Follow up on question about [topic]

// Collaborative exploration session
await Task("Exploratory Session", {
  charter: 'Explore checkout flow for payment edge cases',
  duration: '60min',
  heuristics: ['SFDIPOT', 'FEW_HICCUPPS'],
  tour: 'money',
  collaboration: 'human-navigator-agent-driver'
}, "qe-flaky-test-hunter");

// Agent generates test variations while human observes
await Task("Edge Case Generation", {
  area: 'payment-form',
  variations: ['boundary-values', 'invalid-inputs', 'concurrent-submits']
}, "qe-test-generator");

// Visual exploration
await Task("Visual Exploration", {
  tour: 'landmark',
  focus: 'responsive-breakpoints',
  compare: 'baseline-screenshots'
}, "qe-visual-tester");

aqe/exploratory/
├── sessions/*           - Session notes and findings
├── charters/*           - Reusable charter templates
├── bug-clusters/*       - Historical bug patterns
└── heuristic-results/*  - What heuristics revealed

const exploratoryFleet = await FleetManager.coordinate({
  strategy: 'exploratory-testing',
  agents: [
    'qe-flaky-test-hunter',   // Pattern recognition
    'qe-visual-tester',       // Visual anomalies
    'qe-quality-analyzer'     // Risk assessment
  ],
  topology: 'mesh'
});

© proffesor-for-testing, 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 1 other file (references) in assets/skills/exploratory-testing-advanced of proffesor-for-testing/agentic-qe.

• SKILL.md
• references/heuristic-cheatsheet.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 829d030