Why not have those in a separate module and application so that that code lever goes live? 

I want to be able to use private actions from the module (for example inserting or deleting of a record in an entity) in my setup/teardown actions without making them public.

Same way like what is common in java:

I feel your pain.

For that, I would prefer to have some kind of protected level in the actions. I'm really not into having those kind of test actions in a module that goes live.

Maybe I am not explaining clear enough what I mean. 

The idea is that the actions in the test folder will not be build and deployed in production.

In the configuration in Lifetime you should be able to set on which environment the test folder should be build.

Oh, I see! That's a good one!

Great Idea, using UnitTestingFrameWork with separate Test Modules enforces you to make all your testable actions public, which is not what you want for actions that are not meant to be public.

With this Idea, one can define unit test for public actions from a test module, so truelly calling them as other consumer modules also do, and define unit test for private actions in the module of the private actions.

Why did I not come up with this Idea?