Testing & QA
Balance: ~40% Backend/API, ~40% Frontend/E2E (Playwright), ~20% Cross-cutting (CI, Security, TDD, Coverage) -- directional guidance, not a hard ratio.
Scope: test harnesses, fixtures, mock policy, runners, Playwright, CI gates, coverage. Root-cause analysis and debugging playbooks → dev-debugging.
- This skill owns test adequacy;
dev-code-reviewerowns finding severity and review process. - CI pipeline ownership and deployment verification: see
dev-devops. - Data pipeline testing and ETL validation: see
dev-data. - Design direction context for rendered verification: see
dev-uiux-design. This skill activates by change-surface when work needs verification depth, regression coverage, or a reproducible test harness.
Class, fast path, rule authority, proof, and safety: dev. Current/public evidence: dev routing.
1.3 Risk-First Priorities
- auth / session / permission boundaries
- money movement, quota, credits
- data mutation and irreversible actions
- file upload / parsing / external webhooks
- shared API contracts used by frontend clients
- error paths, retries, rollback behavior
1.4 Harness Selector
| Problem | Primary Harness | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| pure business rule | unit / service test | browser test |
| route + middleware + serialization | API integration test | mocking the route itself |
| DB query / migration / transaction | real DB integration test | fake repository for SQL correctness |
| frontend consuming backend JSON | contract test | manual-only verification |
| rendered critical flow | Playwright smoke | asserting internal React state |
Test-oracle rules apply before accepting green: oracle integrity.
Modular References
| Condition | Reference |
|---|---|
| Choose verification depth or test a CRUD slice | core/crud-test-matrix.md |
| Choose model, distribution, fixture policy, or general test rules | test-strategy.md |
| New feature unit/service/integration tests (not regression/contract) | edge-first-testing.md |
| Property/invariant-heavy or mutation testing | property-and-mutation-testing.md |
| Backend/API, database, or contract verification | api-test-patterns.md; backend-testing.md |
| Rendered browser tests or exploratory browser QA | browser-testing.md |
| CI test stages, failures, or flakes | ci-integration.md; ci-pipeline.md |
| ENFORCE_TDD, AI regressions, or test-induced production guards | tdd-and-regressions.md |
| Accessibility, trace/log verification, security, coverage, or pre-flight | acceptance-gates.md |
| Write acceptance criteria | acceptance-row-reachability.md |
| Test expectations, prose seams, override/default/fallback fixtures | test-oracle-integrity.md |
| Implementation completion with test/config changes | patch-integrity.md |
| Scarce, paid, rate-limited, or opaque evaluators | limited-oracle-evaluation.md |
| Performance/load or C3+ production readiness | load-testing.md |
| ML/LLM evaluation or quality gates | ml-evaluation.md |
| Desktop suites and CI matrix | Native desktop acceptance |


