Three mutation metrics are reported and two of them mostly restate line coverage.
MSI over ALL mutants, including the
ones no test reaches. this is
coverage wearing a costume.
Mutation Code Coverage the share of mutants any test
reaches. also coverage.
Covered Code MSI of the mutants tests DO reach,
how many are killed. ← this one.
85% covered MSI against 94% line coverage is the gap.
Setting a threshold on covered MSI and none on the others is what stops the metric being gamed by writing tests that execute code without asserting on it — which is the exact behaviour a coverage target encourages. The gap between line coverage and covered MSI is a useful single number to track: a large one means the tests run the code and do not check it.