About
TestWarden is the product. Alt Datum builds it.
TestWarden is an independent product of Alt Datum, built around a single principle: proof before progress. This page covers who builds it, how the work is approached and where the product stands today.
Why independent verification exists
Software got easy to produce. Proving it got harder.
For most of the industry's history, the people who changed software and the people who checked it were colleagues with shared accountability. Pipelines automated the checking, and a green status became the signal everyone trusted. Then the thing producing the change started to be a system too: CI that writes and runs its own fixtures, scanners that grade their own findings, and coding agents that implement a task, write the tests, run them and report success in one uninterrupted loop.
Every one of those systems is useful. None of them should certify its own work. That is not a judgment about their quality; it is a statement about structure. When the producer of a change also produces the evidence and also grades it, nothing independent has looked at the change.
TestWarden exists to put the independent look back. It is an independent quality-governance layer with Jira-native test management included: keep the tools and verifiers you already use, and The Warden, a deterministic authority none of the producers control, decides whether their combined proof is enough and explains why. Teams that want one system can use TestWarden's native test management as well, and teams that keep their current tools can add The Warden above them.
Product philosophy
Six commitments the product is built around.
- 01
Proof before progress
A change earns the right to move forward by producing evidence that satisfies a written contract. Nothing moves on reputation, seniority or a confident summary.
- 02
Evidence is not authorization
Tests, CI, scanners, code reviewers and agents observe. A separate authority, The Warden, decides. No producer can clear its own work, because the conflict of interest is the thing we are removing.
- 03
Deterministic over clever
The decision layer is a pinned, versioned policy with fixed reason codes. Same evidence, same policy, same decision, replayable years later. Intelligence may explain; it may not decide or invent evidence.
- 04
Get out of the way
The happy path requires zero TestWarden clicks. People are interrupted only when evidence, policy or conflict genuinely requires judgment.
- 05
Never rewrite history
Receipts are immutable, decisions are append-only, executions pin the test version they ran. A successful repair never erases the failure that preceded it.
- 06
Test management must be good on its own
Teams that choose native test management deserve a complete one. The repository, cycles, execution, coverage, defects and migration are first-class, not a wrapper, and they are optional: The Warden works above your existing tools too.
Where it stands
Plain status, kept current on the Proof page.
Marketplace V1
TestWarden is publicly listed on Atlassian Marketplace for Jira Cloud. Marketplace V1 includes The Warden, native Jira test management and the Migration Center.
Next integrated release
Read-only provider connectors, Quality Memory retrieval and governed AI source are being integrated into one candidate. An earlier engineering candidate passed hosted CI on 2026-10-23. Neither is released or part of the submitted version.
Developer pilot lane
A Developer API, PowerShell client, MCP server and GitHub action that put the same decision in front of developers and coding agents. It is in a scoped development pilot and is not part of the V1 listing.
How we work
Small team, direct support, and claims that match what has been tested. What is proven and what is not is listed openly on the Proof page.
Ready to get started? Get TestWarden on Marketplace. For pricing, see Pricing.
Jira Cloud, Atlassian Forge, and independence from Atlassian
TestWarden is a Jira Cloud app built on Atlassian Forge: Atlassian-hosted compute and storage, Jira authentication and least-privilege Jira scopes. The Marketplace V1 release declares no external egress. It is publicly listed on Atlassian Marketplace for Jira Cloud.
TestWarden is an independent product of Alt Datum. It is not made, endorsed or certified by Atlassian. Atlassian, Jira and Forge are trademarks of Atlassian Pty Ltd. Building on Forge does not confer any Atlassian badge or certification, and TestWarden claims none.
Architecture and securityThe provider
TestWarden is provided by Ryan Gilford, sole proprietor doing business as Alt Datum. Alt Datum designs, builds, operates and supports TestWarden and publishes testwarden.me. Articles on this site are written by the Alt Datum team and published under the organization's name.
1522 Buena Vista, Apt B, San Clemente, CA 92672, United States
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