Background Test Runner

CC Gate can watch your project for changes and run your tests automatically in the background. When something breaks, you and Claude know immediately.

Hidden by default. This feature is only visible after you enable Developer Mode. See "Enabling it" below for instructions.

Enabling it

There are two steps. You only need to do this once.

Enable Developer Mode
Open CC Gate → Settings → About (the Info tab at the bottom). Find the version number and click it seven times quickly. After the seventh click, a "Developer Mode" label appears. That's it.
Turn on Test Watcher
A new "Developer" section appears in Settings. Find the Test Watcher toggle and turn it on. CC Gate immediately starts watching your project for file changes.

When tests run

Tests run automatically whenever a source file changes — whether you edited something yourself or Claude Code made a change. You can also click Run tests now in CC Gate to trigger a manual run without waiting for a file change.

Seeing results

A test results panel shows you a live summary after each run:

A count of tests that passed and failed
Which specific test failed and why
The full error output for any failures

There's also a Copy to Claude button that formats the failure and copies it so you can paste it directly into Claude Code. Claude will then know exactly what's wrong and can work on fixing it.

Tip: Use "Copy to Claude" when you want Claude to focus on a specific failure right now, without waiting for the next automatic update.

Tests and Claude Code

When the Test Watcher is on, CC Gate automatically shares test results with Claude Code. Claude sees whether tests are passing before it suggests its next change. This creates a tight feedback loop: Claude makes a change, tests run, Claude sees the result and adjusts — without you having to paste anything.

Claude can even say "the tests are currently failing with this error — let me fix that before moving on" on its own, because it already has the information.

New sessions required. If you turn the Test Watcher on or off, the change takes effect the next time you start a Claude Code session — not mid-session.

Supported frameworks

CC Gate detects your project type and picks the right test command automatically. You can override it with any custom command.

Language	Default command
Swift	Runs the built-in Swift test suite
Python	Runs pytest
JavaScript / TypeScript	Runs npm test
C#	Runs dotnet test
Custom	Enter any command you like in Settings → Developer

No tests found

If you open the test runner for a project that doesn't have any tests yet, CC Gate won't leave you stuck. Instead, it shows a helper screen designed to get you started quickly.

When the project language is detected

CC Gate scans your files and identifies the dominant language (JavaScript, Python, Swift, etc.). It shows you a stats banner with the number of source files and functions found — these are all the places that would benefit from tests.

Below the stats, you'll see a full list of those functions grouped by file. This is useful to quickly understand the scope of work.

At the bottom there's a Copy AI Prompt — Generate Tests button (purple). Clicking it copies a ready-made prompt to your clipboard that includes all the function names. Paste it into Claude Code and Claude will write tests for your entire project.

When no test framework is installed (JavaScript or Python)

For JavaScript and Python projects, CC Gate can go one step further: it offers a one-click Install Jest or Install pytest button. Click it and CC Gate installs the framework, sets up the config, and gets everything ready. After that, come back and run your first tests normally.

Tip: Use "Copy AI Prompt — Generate Tests" to bootstrap test coverage for an existing project. Paste the prompt into Claude Code and ask it to write the tests — Claude will have the full list of functions to cover.

Troubleshooting

Tests aren't running

Check that Developer Mode is active (you should see a "Developer Mode" label in Settings → About) and that the Test Watcher toggle is on. If both look right, make sure your project contains source files that CC Gate recognises.

Wrong tests are running

CC Gate guesses the test command from your project structure. If it guesses wrong, go to Settings → Developer → Test command and type in the exact command you'd normally run yourself.

Results aren't showing up in Claude Code

Start a new Claude Code session. The connection between CC Gate and Claude only applies to sessions that started after the Test Watcher was turned on.