shouldjs/should.js

Health v2 · maintenance only

Flags: archived

Adoption not part of the score

1889 stars · 119 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded

should.js is an expressive, readable BDD-style assertion library for Node.js and browsers that is test framework agnostic. It extends Object.prototype with a `.should` getter (or offers a function-style import) to write fluent, chainable assertions with helpful error messages.

Use cases

• assert values in node.js tests with readable bdd syntax
• write framework-agnostic assertions for mocha or any test runner
• test async results with should.exist and should.not.exist
• use assertion library without polluting Object.prototype
• run assertions in the browser
• deep equality checks on objects and arrays in tests

When to choose

• you want expressive, chainable BDD-style assertions independent of your test framework
• you prefer readable test code with helpful failure messages
• you need both getter-style and function-style assertion APIs

When to avoid

• you need a library under active development - the latest release is from 2019
• you dislike Object.prototype extension and don't want the function-style alternative
• your test framework already bundles a preferred assertion library like chai

Facets

library · maturity maintenance

testing testing developer-tools browser bdd assertions tdd test-framework-agnostic nodejs javascript

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