stryker-mutation

Overview

Per stryker-intro (opens in new window):

"Stryker started as a pure JavaScript mutation testing framework" and now "supports most JavaScript projects, including TypeScript, React, Angular, VueJS, Svelte, and NodeJS."

Mutation testing introduces small bugs (mutants) into the production code; if tests still pass, the test suite is too weak. A green suite with high mutation-survival rate is the bug coverage hides.

When to use

• A JS/TS suite has ≥80% line/branch coverage and the team wants to verify assertions actually catch bugs.
• Code review keeps surfacing weak assertions in tests (.toBeTruthy() etc); mutation testing makes the cost visible.
• A critical module needs a higher quality bar than coverage alone proves.

Step 1 - Install

npm install --save-dev \
  @stryker-mutator/core \
  @stryker-mutator/jest-runner   # or mocha-runner / vitest-runner / etc.

Per stryker-intro (opens in new window), supported runners include Jest, Mocha, Karma, Vitest, Jasmine, Cucumber, Tap.

Step 2 - Initialize

npx stryker init

Generates stryker.conf.json:

{
  "$schema": "./node_modules/@stryker-mutator/core/schema/stryker-schema.json",
  "packageManager": "npm",
  "reporters": ["progress", "clear-text", "html"],
  "testRunner": "jest",
  "coverageAnalysis": "perTest",
  "mutate": ["src/**/*.ts", "!src/**/*.test.ts"],
  "thresholds": { "high": 80, "low": 60, "break": 50 }
}

Key fields:

Step 3 - Run

npx stryker run

Per-mutant output:

[Survived] Conditional Boundary
src/cart.ts:42:5
- if (item.qty < 0) throw new Error(...);
+ if (item.qty <= 0) throw new Error(...);
Tests run: 12 (all passed - mutant survived).

Survived mutant = tests passed despite the introduced bug = the tests don't actually catch this regression. Add a test for qty = 0.

Step 4 - Report + threshold

Ran 142 tests.
Mutants killed:    198
Mutants survived:   24
Mutants timed out:   3
Mutants no coverage: 12

Mutation score: 84.7%

Per stryker-intro (opens in new window): thresholds via the thresholds object gate the build:

• >= high (80) → green.
• >= low (60) → yellow.
• < break (50) → red, exit code != 0.

The HTML report shows per-file mutation breakdown - drill in to see which mutants survived and where to add tests.

Step 5 - Incremental mode for PR runs

Full mutation runs are slow (5-30 min on medium codebases). For PRs, incremental mode only mutates changed files:

npx stryker run --incremental

This stores state in .stryker-tmp/ (commit to git so subsequent runs benefit). Per-PR runs typically complete in <2 min.

Step 6 - CI integration

- name: Mutation testing (changed files only)
  if: github.event_name == 'pull_request'
  run: npx stryker run --incremental

- name: Full mutation run
  if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main' && github.event.schedule == '0 2 * * 0'
  run: npx stryker run

- uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
  if: always()
  with:
    name: stryker-report
    path: reports/mutation/

Pattern: incremental on PRs (fast feedback) + full weekly run on main (catches drift in unchanged code).

Anti-patterns

Limitations

• Slow for large codebases. Even with incremental + perTest, mutation testing scales worse than test execution.
• Surviving mutants don't always indicate weak tests - some are equivalent mutants (semantically identical to the original); flag and exclude these.
• TypeScript checking adds time. Disable type-check (tsconfig.tsbuildinfo) for mutation runs if not needed.
• Per-runner integration quality varies. Jest is the most mature; Vitest / Karma have known edges.

References

• si (opens in new window) - StrykerJS overview, supported test runners, supported frameworks (TS / React / Angular / Vue / Svelte / Node).
• stryker-net-mutation - .NET sibling.
• pitest-mutation - Java sibling.
• mutmut-mutation - Python sibling.
• mull-mutation - C/C++ sibling.