Gambit vs mutmut
Gambit
certora.commutmut
mutmut.readthedocs.ioSide by side
| Figure | Gambit | mutmut |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | — |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 0 |
| Spec score · Mutation Testing Tools | 7.8 (#8) | 7.2 (#16) |
| License | The Gambit GitHub repository identifies its license as MIT. | The package is distributed under the BSD-3-Clause license. |
| Purpose | Gambit is an open source Solidity mutation testing tool that evaluates and strengthens a testing suite. | mutmut is a mutation testing system for Python focused on ease of use. |
In their own words
Gambit
Gambit is a free, open-source mutation testing tool for Solidity projects. It generates altered contract versions, called mutants, to measure whether a test suite or formal verification specification detects faults. Gambit locates mutation points by traversing a program’s abstract syntax tree and applying predefined syntax transformations. A declarative configuration language lets users tailor mutations to specific parts of a program. Results can be viewed in a dashboard that summarizes mutant verification and calculates a specification score. Gambit can work with the Certora Prover to evaluate formal specifications; that workflow generates mutants and submits a verification job for each to Certora’s server. The command line includes `mutate` for generating mutants and `summary` for presenting them. A compatible `solc` binary is required for the project being mutated. Gambit supports Solidity and is listed for Linux, macOS, and Windows, though prebuilt binaries are available for Linux x86-64 and Mac; Windows and Linux ARM users must build from source. Function-call and swap-arguments-function mutation operators are disabled. The repository identifies the license as MIT. Certora directs product questions to its Help Desk channel on Discord.
mutmut
mutmut is a free, open-source mutation testing system for Python. It makes small code changes called mutants so developers can check whether tests detect them. Its listed operators increment integer literals by one, change < to <=, and swap break and continue. The project supports pytest and remembers completed work for incremental runs, selecting tests to run for each mutant. An interactive terminal interface lets users browse mutants, write one to disk, and rerun individual cases after adding tests. Runs are described as parallel; configured coverage.py can restrict mutations to covered lines. The documentation also supports filtering with mypy or pyrefly, but not pyright or ty. For CI/CD, mutmut can export statistics and generate mutation-score badge JSON for a Shields endpoint. Configuration in setup.cfg or pyproject.toml can specify source paths and pytest selection arguments. It requires Python 3.10 or later and a system with fork support, so Windows users need WSL. Version 3 and later mutate code inside functions; version 2 uses a different model for code outside functions. The package is licensed under BSD-3-Clause.