Quell reads your docstrings, Pydantic models, and type annotations, extracts every testable requirement, finds which ones have no test, generates pytest tests via a rule engine, verifies each test through a 5-gate pipeline, and writes only proven tests to disk.

Does Quell require an LLM API key?

The rule engine runs entirely in-process — no source code is ever transmitted. ~75% of edge cases are handled with no network call and no API key. LLM fallback is opt-in and only sends the function signature, never the full body.

What is the 5-gate pipeline?

Every generated test must pass: Gate 1 (AST valid Python), Gate 2 (not already in a test file), Gate 3 (no shell calls or file writes), Gate 4 (passes against original code), Gate 5 (fails when the requirement is violated). Only gate-5-verified tests are written to disk.

What is the Production Readiness Score (PRS)?

PRS = (WRITTEN × 1.0 + SCAFFOLDED × 0.5) / total_requirements × 100. Tiers: 80-100 Production Ready, 60-79 Review Needed, 0-59 Needs Work.

How is Quell different from GitHub Copilot or Qodo for test generation?

Quell reads specifications that already exist in your code — it does not generate tests from scratch. It finds requirements already documented in your docstrings, Pydantic models, and type annotations that have no test. The 5-gate pipeline, especially Gate 5 (violation injection), verifies each test actually catches the bug it claims to catch. This verification step is not present in Copilot, Qodo, or Hypothesis.

Can Quell be used in CI pipelines?

Yes. Run quell ci src/ --threshold 80 to fail CI if PRS falls below 80. Set prs_threshold in pyproject.toml under [tool.quell]. Works with GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and any system that checks exit codes.

pyproject.toml Configuration

All Quell settings live under [tool.quell] in pyproject.toml.

Full reference

[tool.quell]
# Paths to scan. Accepts files and directories.
# Default: current directory
paths = ["src/"]

# Paths to exclude from scanning
exclude = ["src/legacy/", "src/migrations/"]

# Directory where generated tests are written
# Default: auto-detect from existing test structure
test_dir = "tests/"

# CI failure threshold (0–100). Used by `quell ci`.
# Default: 70
threshold = 75

# Enable LLM fallback for complex cases.
# Default: false (rule engine only)
enable_llm = false

# LLM provider. Options: "groq", "openai"
# Default: "groq"
llm_provider = "groq"

# Enable mutmut 3.x integration for mutation-aware scoring
# Default: false (Windows users: leave false)
enable_mutations = false

# Confidence minimum for writing a test (0.0–1.0)
# Tests below this confidence become SCAFFOLDED instead of WRITTEN
# Default: 0.85
min_confidence = 0.85

Minimal config

[tool.quell]
paths = ["src/"]
threshold = 75

Running with config

Once configured, most flags become optional:

quell find      # scans paths from config
quell ci        # uses threshold from config
quell score     # scores paths from config