# darrenburns/ward

Ward is a modern test framework for Python with a focus on productivity and readability.

Repository: https://github.com/darrenburns/ward
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/darrenburns-ward
Homepage: https://ward.readthedocs.io
Language: Python
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: python, testing, testing-framework, test-runner, unit-test, quality-assurance, contributors-welcome, ward, tester
Archived: true
Last push: 2024-08-26T22:58:48+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2794, "days_push": 737, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: archived
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1208, forks 55 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:59.657115+00:00)

## What it is
Ward is a modern Python testing framework focused on productivity and readability, featuring descriptive string-based test names, modular fixtures, asyncio support, and powerful test selection via search and tag expressions. It is a CLI test runner with zero-config defaults and a pluggy-based plugin system.

## Use cases
- run unit tests for a python project
- write tests with descriptive names instead of function names
- manage test setup and teardown with fixtures
- test async python code
- filter tests by tags or code content
- parameterise a test to run with multiple inputs

## When to choose
- starting a new python project wanting a clean, readable test framework
- you prefer plain assert statements and string test descriptions
- you need built-in asyncio test support and fast, zero-config test runs

## When to avoid
- the project is no longer actively maintained, so long-term support matters
- your team relies on a large pytest plugin ecosystem
- you need battle-tested tooling for large legacy codebases

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: testing, cli
- domain: testing, developer-tools
- platform: python, cli, cross-platform
- tags: test-framework, test-runner, fixtures, asyncio, pytest-alternative, unit-testing, command-line

## Member repositories
- darrenburns/ward (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:59.657115+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 2026-08-30T06:18:54.787107+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/darrenburns/ward (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:59.657115+00:00, sha 2d10111af550)
  - registry_pypi: https://pypi.org/pypi/ward/json (fetched 2026-08-29T12:27:05.038828+00:00, sha 1cde1f2bed63)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.