Generate Factory Skill

Purpose

Auto-generate test data factories from database schemas, TypeScript interfaces, or model definitions. Factories produce realistic test data using Faker.js patterns, reducing test setup time by 60%.

Research Foundation

| Pattern | Source | Reference | |---------|--------|-----------| | Factory Pattern | ThoughtBot | FactoryBot | | Faker.js | Open Source | fakerjs.dev | | Test Data Management | ISTQB | CT-TAS Test Automation Strategy | | Synthetic Data | Tonic.ai | Faker Best Practices |

When This Skill Applies

User needs to create test data factories
Setting up test infrastructure for new project
Existing tests use hard-coded data
Schema/model changes require test data updates
Need realistic but deterministic test data

Trigger Phrases

| Natural Language | Action | |------------------|--------| | "Generate factory for User model" | Create user factory | | "Create test data factories" | Generate factories for all models | | "Add faker to tests" | Integrate faker with existing tests | | "Make test data realistic" | Convert hard-coded to factory | | "Generate fixtures from schema" | Schema-aware factory generation |

Factory Concepts

Factory vs Fixture vs Mock

| Type | Purpose | When to Use | |------|---------|-------------| | Factory | Generate dynamic test data | When you need many variations | | Fixture | Static, predefined data | When exact values matter | | Mock | Fake external dependencies | When isolating units |

Factory Features

// Basic factory
const user = userFactory.build();
// { id: 'uuid-1', name: 'John Doe', email: 'john@example.com' }

// With overrides
const admin = userFactory.build({ role: 'admin' });
// { id: 'uuid-2', name: 'Jane Doe', email: 'jane@example.com', role: 'admin' }

// Build multiple
const users = userFactory.buildList(5);
// Array of 5 users

// With traits
const inactiveUser = userFactory.build({}, { trait: 'inactive' });
// { id: 'uuid-3', ..., status: 'inactive', deactivatedAt: Date }

// With relationships
const userWithOrders = userFactory.build({}, { with: ['orders'] });
// { id: 'uuid-4', ..., orders: [{ id: 'order-1', ... }] }

Generation Process

1. Analyze Source

Detect schema/type from:

TypeScript interfaces
Prisma schema
JSON Schema
Database migrations
OpenAPI specs

// Input: TypeScript interface
interface User {
  id: string;
  name: string;
  email: string;
  age: number;
  role: 'admin' | 'user' | 'guest';
  createdAt: Date;
  preferences?: UserPreferences;
}

2. Map Types to Faker

const TYPE_MAPPING = {
  // Primitives
  'string': 'faker.string.alphanumeric(10)',
  'number': 'faker.number.int({ min: 0, max: 100 })',
  'boolean': 'faker.datatype.boolean()',
  'Date': 'faker.date.past()',

  // Named fields (semantic mapping)
  'id': 'faker.string.uuid()',
  'name': 'faker.person.fullName()',
  'email': 'faker.internet.email()',
  'phone': 'faker.phone.number()',
  'address': 'faker.location.streetAddress()',
  'age': 'faker.number.int({ min: 18, max: 80 })',
  'createdAt': 'faker.date.past()',
  'updatedAt': 'faker.date.recent()',

  // Enums
  'role': 'faker.helpers.arrayElement(["admin", "user", "guest"])',
};

3. Generate Factory

// Generated: factories/user.factory.ts
import { faker } from '@faker-js/faker';
import type { User } from '../types';

export const userFactory = {
  /**
   * Build a single User with optional overrides
   */
  build: (overrides: Partial<User> = {}): User => ({
    id: faker.string.uuid(),
    name: faker.person.fullName(),
    email: faker.internet.email(),
    age: faker.number.int({ min: 18, max: 80 }),
    role: faker.helpers.arrayElement(['admin', 'user', 'guest']),
    createdAt: faker.date.past(),
    ...overrides,
  }),

  /**
   * Build multiple Users
   */
  buildList: (count: number, overrides: Partial<User> = {}): User[] =>
    Array.from({ length: count }, () => userFactory.build(overrides)),

  /**
   * Traits for common variations
   */
  traits: {
    admin: { role: 'admin' as const },
    inactive: {
      status: 'inactive',
      deactivatedAt: faker.date.past(),
    },
    newUser: {
      createdAt: faker.date.recent(),
    },
  },

  /**
   * Build with trait
   */
  buildWithTrait: (trait: keyof typeof userFactory.traits, overrides: Partial<User> = {}): User =>
    userFactory.build({ ...userFactory.traits[trait], ...overrides }),
};

4. Generate Related Factories

For entities with relationships:

// factories/order.factory.ts
import { faker } from '@faker-js/faker';
import { userFactory } from './user.factory';

export const orderFactory = {
  build: (overrides = {}) => ({
    id: faker.string.uuid(),
    userId: faker.string.uuid(),
    items: [],
    total: faker.number.float({ min: 10, max: 500, fractionDigits: 2 }),
    status: faker.helpers.arrayElement(['pending', 'shipped', 'delivered']),
    createdAt: faker.date.past(),
    ...overrides,
  }),

  /**
   * Build with related user
   */
  buildWithUser: (overrides = {}) => {
    const user = userFactory.build();
    return {
      ...orderFactory.build({ userId: user.id, ...overrides }),
      user,
    };
  },
};

Output Format

## Factory Generation Report

**Source**: `src/types/user.ts`
**Output**: `test/factories/user.factory.ts`

### Generated Factory

```typescript
import { faker } from '@faker-js/faker';
import type { User } from '../../src/types';

export const userFactory = {
  build: (overrides: Partial<User> = {}): User => ({
    id: faker.string.uuid(),
    name: faker.person.fullName(),
    email: faker.internet.email(),
    age: faker.number.int({ min: 18, max: 80 }),
    role: faker.helpers.arrayElement(['admin', 'user', 'guest']),
    createdAt: faker.date.past(),
    preferences: null,
    ...overrides,
  }),

  buildList: (count: number, overrides: Partial<User> = {}): User[] =>
    Array.from({ length: count }, () => userFactory.build(overrides)),

  traits: {
    admin: { role: 'admin' as const },
    inactive: { status: 'inactive' },
  },
};

Field Mappings

| Field | Type | Faker Method | |-------|------|--------------| | id | string | faker.string.uuid() | | name | string | faker.person.fullName() | | email | string | faker.internet.email() | | age | number | faker.number.int({ min: 18, max: 80 }) | | role | enum | faker.helpers.arrayElement([...]) | | createdAt | Date | faker.date.past() |

Usage Examples

// Basic usage
const user = userFactory.build();

// With override
const admin = userFactory.build({ role: 'admin' });

// Multiple users
const users = userFactory.buildList(10);

// With trait
const inactive = userFactory.build(userFactory.traits.inactive);

Dependencies Added

{
  "devDependencies": {
    "@faker-js/faker": "^8.0.0"
  }
}


## Deterministic Mode

For tests requiring reproducible data:

```typescript
// Set seed for reproducible data
import { faker } from '@faker-js/faker';

beforeEach(() => {
  faker.seed(12345);  // Same data every run
});

// Or per-factory
export const userFactory = {
  buildDeterministic: (seed: number, overrides = {}) => {
    faker.seed(seed);
    return userFactory.build(overrides);
  },
};

Batch Generation

Generate factories for all models:

# From Prisma schema
npx generate-factory --source prisma/schema.prisma --output test/factories/

# From TypeScript types
npx generate-factory --source src/types/ --output test/factories/

Integration Points

Works with tdd-enforce for test data requirements
Used by Test Engineer for test creation
Feeds into integration test setup
Compatible with database seeders

Script Reference

factory_generator.py

Generate factory from schema:

python scripts/factory_generator.py --source src/types/user.ts

batch_generate.py

Generate all factories:

python scripts/batch_generate.py --source src/types/ --output test/factories/

References

@$AIWG_ROOT/agentic/code/addons/testing-quality/README.md — Testing quality addon overview
@$AIWG_ROOT/agentic/code/frameworks/sdlc-complete/README.md — SDLC framework context for test infrastructure
@$AIWG_ROOT/agentic/code/addons/aiwg-utils/rules/research-before-decision.md — Research-first for schema and type analysis
@$AIWG_ROOT/docs/cli-reference.md — CLI reference