iftest

One line = one test. A minimalist, multi-language testing format.

No framework. No classes. No setup. Each line of a .iftest file is evaluated as the condition of an if: truthy → PASS, falsy → FAIL.

4 === 2 + 2
'hello' === 'hello'
'200' === shell_exec('curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" https://example.com/')

Open format — SPEC.md — with single-file, zero-dependency runners:

30 seconds

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JavierGonzalez/iftest/main/iftest.php
echo "4 === 2 + 2" > hello.php.iftest
php iftest.php hello.php.iftest

▸ hello.php.iftest
   1 PASS    0.01 ms 4 === 2 + 2  → 4
  ✔ ALL PASS — 1 test in 0.01 ms

✔ ALL PASS — 1 test, 1 file, 0.35 ms

Give it a directory and it runs every *.iftest file recursively (hidden dotfiles are skipped — they are disabled tests):

php iftest.php          # discover from current directory
php iftest.php iftest.php.iftest    # run the PHP conformance suite

The format

<? // files may start with <? for IDE coloring

# A title
true                                // truthy → PASS
false #pass_fail                    // inverted → shown as PASS FAIL
$dest = 'localhost'                 // assignments are tests, state persists
'200' === shell('curl -s ...'.$dest)// EXPECTED <op> CODE
sleep(1) #limit_ms=50               // FAIL if slower than 50 ms
garbage #skip                       // never executed
'a' === 'b' #todo                   // failure tolerated, reported as TODO

• Operators: === !== == != <> >= <= > < (leftmost wins, both sides are expressions)
• Lines starting with // or # are comments; # (with space) prints a title
• All lines of a file share one scope, top to bottom
• Full details: SPEC.md

AI-friendly by design 🤖

--json emits NDJSON: one JSON object per event with a stable schema (file_start, title, test, file_end, summary). Errors are always reported with their message, never silently:

php iftest.php --json iftest.php.iftest

{"type":"test","file":"iftest.php.iftest","line":29,"code":"1","expected":"1","operator":"===","pass_fail":false,"verdict":"pass","ms":0.01,"result":1,"error":null,"warnings":[]}
{"type":"summary","files":1,"files_fail":0,"tests":63,"pass":63,"fail":0,"skip":0,"todo":0,"ms":1.2,"exit":0}

An AI agent can generate tests (one line each, no framework API to learn), run them, and parse verdicts deterministically — with exit codes 0 pass, 1 failures, 2 usage error.

--tap emits TAP version 13 for standard CI harnesses.

--bootstrap FILE requires a PHP file inside the test scope before each file, to inject framework context (database connections, app globals…).

Options

--json             NDJSON output, one JSON object per event (AI-friendly)
--tap              TAP version 13 output
-q, --quiet        Show failures, skips and todos; one summary line when all pass
--stop-on-fail     Stop after the first failing file
--bootstrap FILE   Require FILE inside the test scope before each file
--no-color         Disable ANSI colors
-h, --help         Show help
-v, --version      Show version

Web UI

web/ is a small streaming UI for development. Localhost only by default (IFTEST_WEB_ALLOW env to override). On MAXSIM.cloud containers, authenticated network devs are also allowed via the x-maxsim-auth-dev internal header. Never deploy it publicly: iftest files are code and run with the runner's privileges.

Security

.iftest files are code. Running them executes them. Never run files you do not trust. See SPEC.md §11.

Philosophy

Simplicity is the Maximum Sophistication.

iftest is also a living specification of a system: a .iftest file can be a unit test, an HTTP smoke test, a security audit or a performance check — all in the same one-line-per-test format.

License

MIT — Copyright (c) 2026 Javier González González javier.gonzalez@maxsim.cloud