/ln-55-test-suite-auditor

name: ln-55-test-suite-auditor
description: "Audits existing tests for risk coverage, reliable oracles and maintenance value; does not edit tests."

Test Suite Auditor

**Goal:** Audit the test portfolio as a read-only lifecycle and confidence system. Determine which important failures it detects, which evidence is untrustworthy or obsolete, and which additions, changes, consolidations, retirements, or explicit omissions produce the smallest sustainable portfolio.

**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 | |---|---|---|---| | Source and test inventory | Native file listing, search, manifests, and test configuration | Mapping domains, test types, runners, fixtures, and generated areas | Repository tree plus known test entrypoints | | Test-to-code relationships | Language server or host-native code intelligence | Mapping units, callers, implementations, routes, and test targets | Naming and path search verified by direct reads | | Execution and trust | Repository-defined test commands through the shell | Establishing pass/fail state, timing, order dependence, or reproducibility | Inspect CI results and configuration; mark execution unavailable | | Coverage and missed behavior | Existing coverage tools and reports | Coverage data is configured and comparable to source scope | Static behavior-to-test mapping; never invent percentages | | Flake and isolation evidence | Repeated, shuffled, parallel, or seed-controlled runs supported by the repository | A test is suspected of order, time, randomness, or shared-state dependence | History, CI logs, and code-path evidence | | Assertion strength | Test reads, failure output, and configured mutation testing | Determining whether tests fail for meaningful behavioral defects | Counterfactual reasoning tied to specific assertions | | Framework semantics | Official test-runner or framework documentation | A finding depends on lifecycle, fixtures, retries, isolation, or mocking behavior | Primary-source web research; otherwise mark `UNVERIFIED` |

Run only safe test and diagnostic commands. Do not rewrite snapshots, update golden files, regenerate fixtures, or accept changed output during the audit.

Evidence Rules

• Coverage indicates execution, not proof. Require an assertion or observable oracle for important behavior.
• A slow test is not low-value when it uniquely protects a critical journey; a fast test is not high-value when it proves framework behavior.
• A flaky failure must be separated from an intermittently failing product dependency or genuinely nondeterministic requirement.
• Deletion recommendations require proof that the test basis is obsolete or that other evidence covers every still-required behavior and failure mode with equal or better trust.
• Merge