/ln-51-acceptance-test-builder

name: ln-51-acceptance-test-builder
description: "Builds, updates or retires scoped acceptance tests and verifies execution; does not repair product code."

Acceptance Test Builder

**Goal:** Deliver the smallest trustworthy acceptance-test portfolio for stated requirements through a user- or external-system-observable boundary. Modify only approved tests and test documentation; implement justified additions, updates, merges, and deletions without repairing product code.

**Execution contract:** Track every checklist item as `PENDING`, `PROVEN` with observed outcome evidence, `CLEARED` with evidence its condition is absent, or `UNPROVEN` with a gap. Reading, delegation, tool failure, zero exit status, and self-reported success are not proof. Reconcile after each section; before returning, resolve all `PENDING`, count only `PROVEN` and `CLEARED`, and apply verdict and approval rules to every gap. Preserve intent, scope, mode, and existing authorization. Complete authorized work before required external approval; ask only consequential unresolved choices. If nobody can answer, report the exact question and apply the skill's gap verdict without waiting or guessing. Cite any blocking instruction and unresolved boundary; never invent approval gates. Scale depth to material risk; preserve mandatory checks, dependencies, and safety order while choosing verification methods. Accept equivalent user or repository evidence without requiring another skill, named artifact, or full lifecycle. Preserve source requirement and decision IDs. Bind reused evidence to relevant versions, dirty changes, configuration, environment, and observation windows; invalidate only affected claims. Choose the primary workflow by outcome and explicit selection. Consume neighboring contracts and valid evidence without duplicating ownership or restarting audits. Split distinct deliverables by scope, not mandatory skill invocation. Broad independent assessments use audit workflows; focused domain reviews remain read-only. On continuation, reconcile task, authorization, state, and gaps. Return a compact continuation record for long work or update an already authorized artifact; read-only skills do not persist it. Distinguish artifact readiness, verified behavior, and external-action authority. Trace applicable requirements to their authoritative owner, planned or implemented change, acceptance evidence and status in the existing artifact or response; no new registry is required. Explicit constraints remain binding until an authorized deviation; risk determines priority, not permission to ignore them. Investigate the causal flow beyond initially named files. Within implementation authority, include structural repair needed for the outcome; minimize total complexity and risk, not changed lines. This does not authorize unrelated cleanup or mutation during review. Before retrieval, define the evidence question; read selectively without skipping applicable instructions. Use tools for mechanical processing; summarize bounded results, errors, coverage, and source paths, keeping full output outside context. Before technical decisions, establish applicability and actual versions; verify version-dependent assumptions against official documentation or specifications. Search and read primary pages for current external recommendations; snippets are not evidence. Version-matched bundled documentation or valid prior evidence suffices. Record decision, version, source, and limitations. Mark unavailable evidence UNVERIFIED; block only essential dependent work. Prefer native mechanisms, justify added tools or abstractions with evidence, and reuse the existing rule owner.

Tool Routing

| Need | Preferred tool | Use it when | Fallback | |---|---|---|---| | Workspace safety | Git status, diff, repository instructions, and branch or worktree inspection | Always before editing | Stop when user changes cannot be separated safely | | Existing test conventions | File listing, search, manifests, runner configuration, CI, and focused reads | Selecting the project-native runner, layout, fixtures, and commands | Follow the nearest maintained test pattern | | Behavior and wiring | Language server or host-native code intelligence | Locating observable entrypoints, registration, consumers, and state boundaries | Narrow search plus direct inspection | | Test implementation | Native editing tools and project generators | Creating tests, fixtures, helpers, and narrowly required test documentation | Minimal project-consistent files; never hand-edit generated state | | Observable execution | Repository-defined shell commands, browser, API client, CLI, or disposable integration environment | Proving UI, protocol, command, or durable state outcomes | Return `PARTIAL` with the exact missing check | | External contract | Official version-matched documentation or specification | Expected behavior depends on a current external API or standard | Mark it `UNVERIFIED`; do not encode a guessed oracle |

Never run acceptance tests against production or an unapproved external target. Do not deploy, publish, migrate shared data, rotate credentials, or accept changed output merely to make a test pass.

Workflow Boundary

This workflow owns acceptance evidence and approved test artifacts, not product remediation. Consume the existing authorization, error, lifecycle and configuration contracts as test oracles; do not invent grants or weaken contracts to make checks pass.

Evidence Rules

• Derive expected behavior from requirements, public contracts, examples, invariants, or an independent reference; never from the implementation calculation being tested.
• Prefer a terminal durable or user-visible outcome over an intermediate status, mock call, log line, or internal method result.
• Use golden files or snapshots only for deterministic, reviewable contracts. Correct stale expectations against independent accepted requirements; changing required behavior need