ArcMutate vs Mutatest

ArcMutate has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.

Mutatest is a free command-line tool for Python projects that checks whether tests catch small changes to code. It creates valid mutations from Python’s Abstract Syntax Tree grammar and applies them to local __pycache__ files rather than changing source files. If coverage data is available, it can limit targets to lines marked as covered. Mutations are sampled randomly, with a seed available to make runs reproducible. Command-line controls include run modes, mutation categories, file exclusions, timeouts, reports, and thresholds for surviving mutants; an API supports custom controls. The documentation describes using test commands such as pytest and coverage data to filter targets. Mutatest can raise an exception when surviving mutants meet a configured threshold, including in automated runs such as CI. It supports Linux, macOS, and Windows, and is free under the MIT License. Installation requires Python 3.7 or 3.8; multiprocessing is available on 3.8, but not 3.7. Repeated test runs can be slow, so it is intended for diagnostics rather than every commit across an entire codebase.