Prova

Prova is a high-performance, MTP-native testing framework for .NET 10. It uses the xUnit syntax you already know, but with zero runtime reflection and full Native AOT compatibility. Theories are "unrolled" at compile-time into parameterless test methods -- no boxing, no reflection, instant startup.

Read the full documentation

Why Prova?

1. Zero Migration Cost

Your tests remain exactly the same. Prova supports standard xUnit attributes ([Fact], [Theory], [InlineData], Assert). You only change the runner.

2. MTP-Native Execution

Prova implements the Microsoft Testing Platform (MTP) natively. This means full dotnet test support, TRX reporting, crash/hang dump collection, and code coverage -- all without a legacy VSTest bridge.

3. Theory Unrolling (Zero Reflection)

Each [InlineData] row is statically compiled into its own parameterless test method by the Source Generator. There is zero boxing, zero object[] allocation, and zero reflection at runtime. This makes [Theory] tests fully Native AOT compatible.

4. Self-Executing Test Projects

Prova auto-generates a Program.cs entry point with UTF-8 output. Your test project is a self-executing console app from dotnet new. No boilerplate needed.

5. Safe Parallelism

Tests run in parallel by default (Task.WhenAll), utilizing all available cores. Use [Parallel(max: N)] to bound concurrency.

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Quick Start

1. Create a Test Project

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>net10.0</TargetFramework>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Prova" Version="0.5.0" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

Note: <OutputType>Exe</OutputType> and <TargetFramework>net10.0</TargetFramework> are required. Prova auto-generates the entry point -- you do not need a Program.cs.

2. Write Tests (Standard xUnit Syntax)

using Prova;

public class CalculatorTests
{
    [Fact]
    public void Add_ReturnsSum()
    {
        Assert.Equal(4, 2 + 2);
    }

    [Theory]
    [InlineData(10, 2, 5)]
    [InlineData(20, 4, 5)]
    public void Divide_ReturnsQuotient(int a, int b, int expected)
    {
        Assert.Equal(expected, a / b);
    }
}

3. Run

# Run as a self-executing console app (fastest)
dotnet run

# Run via the Microsoft Testing Platform (supports --coverage, --report-trx, etc.)
dotnet test

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Microsoft Testing Platform (MTP) CLI

Prova natively supports MTP CLI arguments. No adapters or bridges needed.

# List all discovered tests (0ms discovery from static registry)
dotnet run -- --list-tests

# Filter tests by name
dotnet run -- --treenode-filter="*Calculator*"

# Generate TRX report
dotnet test --report-trx

# Collect code coverage
dotnet test --coverage

# Crash dump on failure
dotnet test --crashdump

# Hang dump with timeout
dotnet test --hangdump --hangdump-timeout 30000

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Integration Packages

Package	Description	NuGet
Prova	Core framework
Prova.AspNetCore	ASP.NET Core integration
Prova.Playwright	Playwright browser testing
Prova.Testcontainers	Docker container testing
Prova.FsCheck	Property-based testing (FsCheck)

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Advanced Features

While Prova is a drop-in replacement, it adds enterprise-grade features for strictly governed codebases.

Explicit Concurrency

Prevent thread pool starvation in massive test suites by bounding parallelism.

[Parallel(max: 4)] // Limits concurrency for this class
public class DatabaseTests { ... }

Allocation Governance

Enforce zero-allocation policies or strict memory budgets for critical paths.

[Fact]
[MaxAlloc(0)] // Fails if the test allocates any memory on the heap
public void HotPath_ShouldNotAllocate() { ... }

Flakiness Management

[Fact]
[Retry(3)] // Automatically retry flaky network tests
public void IntegrationTest() { ... }

Focused Execution

Run only the specific test you are debugging (similar to .only in Jest).

[Fact]
[Focus] // Prova will ONLY generate and run this test
public void DebuggingThisRightNow() { ... }

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Contributing

We welcome issues and pull requests. Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

See it in Action

Prova produces clean, hierarchical output that is easy to parse visually.

License

MIT