Good Start

Test whether a project’s getting-started documentation is accurate and easy to follow, using an AI agent.

Good Start reads your project’s setup instructions, attempts to follow them step by step, and reports back with a pass/fail result and actionable feedback.

Installation

Requires Python 3.12+.

pip install good-start

Or with uv:

uv add good-start

Prerequisites

Good Start uses the Anthropic API under the hood. Set your API key before running:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your-key-here

CLI Usage

Check a project’s documentation by running good-start check from the project root:

# Let the agent find the getting-started docs automatically
good-start check .

# Point it at a specific file
good-start check README.md
good-start check docs/GETTING_STARTED.md

The output is a color-coded pass/fail panel with the agent’s findings. The exit code is 0 on success and 1 on failure, so it works in CI scripts.

Save the output to a file:

good-start check . > report.txt

Pytest Plugin

Good Start ships as a pytest plugin that is automatically available once installed. No configuration or conftest imports needed.

Basic usage

def test_getting_started(good_start):
    result = good_start()
    assert result.passed, result.details

The good_start fixture is a callable that runs the agent and returns a Result object with:

• result.passed — boolean indicating whether the agent completed the instructions successfully
• result.details — summary of findings, with constructive feedback on failure

Checking a specific file

def test_quickstart(good_start):
    result = good_start("docs/QUICKSTART.md")
    assert result.passed, result.details

Configuration

Configuration resolves in this order (highest priority first):

1. Direct call arguments: good_start("SETUP.md")
2. Marker keyword arguments: @pytest.mark.good_start(target="SETUP.md")
3. CLI options: pytest --good-start-target=SETUP.md
4. ini options in pyproject.toml
5. Default: "."

Marker-based configuration

import pytest

@pytest.mark.good_start(target="INSTALL.md")
def test_install_docs(good_start):
    result = good_start()
    assert result.passed, result.details

Project-wide defaults in pyproject.toml

[tool.pytest.ini_options]
good_start_target = "docs/GETTING_STARTED.md"
good_start_prompt = "tests/prompts/custom.md"

Custom prompt templates

Supply your own prompt file to tailor the agent’s behavior:

def test_with_custom_prompt(good_start):
    result = good_start(prompt_path="tests/prompts/strict.md")
    assert result.passed, result.details

Skipping agent tests

Tests using the good_start fixture are automatically marked with @pytest.mark.good_start. Skip them during fast iteration:

pytest -m "not good_start"

Or run only the documentation tests:

pytest -m good_start -v

Failure output

When a test fails, the agent’s detailed findings are appended to the pytest failure report, so you get actionable feedback directly in your CI output.