mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

VibeCheck: Assessing the Quality of LLM-Generated Unit Tests: A Multi-agent Empirical Study across Heterogeneous Repositories

arXiv 2609.05978 ↗First posted 5 Sep 2026cs.SEcited by 0

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Software engineering coding agents

Abstract (arXiv)

LLM-based IDE agents are increasingly used to generate repository-grounded unit tests, yet common evaluations often rely on execution success or coverage. These metrics can miss deeper quality issues such as weak assertions, missing edge cases, poor isolation, and limited maintainability. This paper presents VibeCheck, an empirical study of unit test generation across 15 student-developed Python and JavaScript/TypeScript repositories. We evaluate Kiro, Antigravity, and Cursor with Claude Sonnet 4.5 as the underlying agent, under repository-only, zero-shot conditions using a five-dimensional rubric covering runnability, assertion strength, logic and edge-case coverage, isolation/determinism, and maintainability. We also apply leave-one-out cross-agent peer evaluation to compare tools and identify failure patterns. Results show a clear execution-adequacy gap: generated tests are often runnable but frequently lack strong assertions and meaningful behavioral coverage. Weak assertions and missing edge cases occur more often than blocking failures, showing that runnable tests can still be shallow. VibeCheck provides a reliability-oriented framework for evaluating LLM-generated tests beyond pass/fail outcomes.

Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Software engineering coding agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 18 of its 31 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 5 Sep 2026.

Builds on

18 of 31 references.

Closest ancestors · 2

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025TestForge: Feedback-Driven, Agentic Test Suite Generation18 Mar
  2. 2024SWT-Bench: Testing and Validating Real-World Bug-Fixes with Code Agents18 Jun

Other references · 16

  1. 2023Judging LLM-as-a-Judge with MT-Bench and Chatbot Arenacited by 8,393
  2. 2023An Empirical Evaluation of Using Large Language Models for Automated Unit Test Generationcited by 193
  3. 2023ChatUniTest: A Framework for LLM-Based Test Generationcited by 94
  4. 2023No More Manual Tests? Evaluating and Improving ChatGPT for Unit Test Generationcited by 82
  5. 2021TOGA: A Neural Method for Test Oracle Generationcited by 57
  6. 2023Using Large Language Models to Generate JUnit Tests: An Empirical Studycited by 53
  7. 2024TestGenEval: A Real World Unit Test Generation and Test Completion Benchmarkcited by 49
  8. 2024On the Evaluation of Large Language Models in Unit Test Generationcited by 33
  9. 2023ChatGPT vs SBST: A Comparative Assessment of Unit Test Suite Generationcited by 32
  10. 2025Mutation-Guided LLM-based Test Generation at Metacited by 23
  11. 2023Unit Test Generation using Generative AI : A Comparative Performance Analysis of Autogeneration Toolscited by 13
  12. 2023Neural-Based Test Oracle Generation: A Large-scale Evaluation and Lessons Learnedcited by 9
4 more
  1. 2025LLM-ProS: Analyzing Large Language Models' Performance in Competitive Problem Solvingcited by 6
  2. 2026DePro: Understanding the Role of LLMs in Debugging Competitive Programming Codecited by 2
  3. 2025A Systematic Approach for Assessing Large Language Models' Test Case Generation Capabilitycited by 1
  4. 2026A-ProS: Towards Reliable Autonomous Programming Through Multi-Model Feedbackcited by 1

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  1. 2026Agent-Based Test Assertion Generation via Diverse Perspective Aggregation
  2. 2026Beyond Test Presence: Assessing the Quality and Robustness of Agent-Generated Tests in Open-Source Projects
  3. 2026Automated structural testing of LLM-based agents: methods, framework, and case studies
  4. 2026Complex Agents, Shallow Tests: Demystifying and Enhancing Test Adequacy of Agent Harness in the Wild
  5. 2026Grounding AI Agents in Contracts: An Empirical Evaluation of Spec-Driven Test Generation
  6. 2026TAM-Eval: Evaluating LLMs for Automated Unit Test Maintenance
  7. 2026BackendForge: Benchmarking Agentic End-to-End Code Generation with Backend Services
  8. 2026RepoZero: Can LLMs Generate a Code Repository from Scratch?