# lunarmodules/busted

Elegant Lua unit testing.

Repository: https://github.com/lunarmodules/busted
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/busted
Homepage: https://lunarmodules.github.io/busted/
Language: Lua
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: lua, testing
Last push: 2026-08-25T14:38:05+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 76/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:39:23.370411+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 33, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5139, "days_push": 8, "days_rel": 238, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1629, forks 207 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:13.757487+00:00)

## What it is
busted is an elegant, easy-to-use unit testing framework for Lua (5.1+, LuaJIT, Moonscript, Terra) with a natural, readable spec style. It offers extensible chained asserts, spies/stubs/mocks, nested describe blocks with tags, async tests, and modular output formats including TAP and JSON for CI integration.

## Use cases
- write unit tests for lua code
- test lua modules with describe/it specs
- mock and spy on lua functions
- run lua tests in CI with TAP output
- extend assertion library with custom matchers
- test moonscript projects

## When to choose
- you need a mature, widely adopted Lua testing framework
- you want readable BDD-style specs with chained assertions
- you need built-in spies, stubs, and mocks
- you need CI-friendly output formats like TAP or JSON

## When to avoid
- you are testing non-Lua languages
- you need property-based or fuzz testing
- you want a zero-dependency test runner without LuaRocks

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: testing, mocking, cli
- domain: testing, developer-tools, programming-languages
- platform: lua, cli, cross-platform
- tags: unit-testing, tdd, bdd, spies, stubs, moonscript, luajit, tap-output, luarocks

## Member repositories
- lunarmodules/busted (main) score 76

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:13.757487+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:48:17.441629+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/lunarmodules/busted (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:13.757487+00:00, sha 470e567bf144)
  - homepage: https://lunarmodules.github.io/busted/ (fetched 2026-08-29T11:20:45.407454+00:00, sha 83ab6dad7ca5)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.