Rethinking the Value of Agent-Generated Tests for LLM-Based Software Engineering Agents

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2602.07900v1
• Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2026 10:26:31 GMT
• Title: Rethinking the Value of Agent-Generated Tests for LLM-Based Software Engineering Agents
• Abstract summary: Large Language Model (LLM) code agents increasingly resolve repository-level issues by iteratively editing code, invoking tools, and validating candidate patches.<n>In these, agents often write tests on the fly, a paradigm adopted by many high-ranking agents on the SWE-bench leaderboard.<n>This raises the critical question: whether such tests meaningfully improve issue resolution or merely mimic human testing practices while consuming a substantial interaction budget.
• Score: 20.29427807019999
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Large Language Model (LLM) code agents increasingly resolve repository-level issues by iteratively editing code, invoking tools, and validating candidate patches. In these workflows, agents often write tests on the fly, a paradigm adopted by many high-ranking agents on the SWE-bench leaderboard. However, we observe that GPT-5.2, which writes almost no new tests, can even achieve performance comparable to top-ranking agents. This raises the critical question: whether such tests meaningfully improve issue resolution or merely mimic human testing practices while consuming a substantial interaction budget. To reveal the impact of agent-written tests, we present an empirical study that analyzes agent trajectories across six state-of-the-art LLMs on SWE-bench Verified. Our results show that while test writing is commonly adopted, but resolved and unresolved tasks within the same model exhibit similar test-writing frequencies Furthermore, these tests typically serve as observational feedback channels, where agents prefer value-revealing print statements significantly more than formal assertion-based checks. Based on these insights, we perform a controlled experiment by revising the prompts of four agents to either increase or reduce test writing. The results suggest that changes in the volume of agent-written tests do not significantly change final outcomes. Taken together, our study reveals that current test-writing practices may provide marginal utility in autonomous software engineering tasks.

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