/gate-tests

name: gate-tests
description: >-
  Audits test quality — assertion strength, boundary coverage, mock
  discipline, error path testing. Delegates to the tester agent for
  adversarial analysis. Internal gate — invoked by verify.
allowed-tools:
  - Read
  - Bash
  - Glob
  - Grep
  - Write
  - Task

Gate: Test Quality

Goal

Ensure tests are actually worth having. Passing tests that don't catch bugs are worse than no tests — they create false confidence. This gate audits test quality, not just pass/fail.

Inputs

• `{projectArtifactsRoot}/config.json` -- test commands, project language
• `{projectArtifactsRoot}/TESTING.md` -- testing strategy with boundary classifications (optional)
• `{repoStateRoot}/work/{selectedWork.id}/workflow.json` -- selected work unit
• Test files in the codebase

Outputs

• Evidence file at `{workDir}/evidence/test-quality.md`
• Gate status in the selected work's `workflow.json`
• Findings organized by category with specific file:line references

Constraints

**Scope (MEDIUM freedom):**

• Focus on test files related to the current work unit.
• Identify test files via convention (test/, __tests__/, *.test.*, *.spec.*).

**Analysis (HIGH freedom):**

• Delegate to `specwright-tester` agent for adversarial test quality review.
• The tester evaluates against these quality dimensions:
• **Assertion strength**: Are assertions specific? (`toBe(42)` vs `toBeDefined()`)
• **Boundary coverage**: Are edge cases tested? (empty, null, max, negative)
• **Mock discipline**: Are mocks justified? Are integration boundaries real?
• **Error paths**: Are failure scenarios tested? (network down, invalid input)
• **Behavior focus**: Do tests verify behavior or implementation details?
• **Mutation resistance**: Tiered analysis (T1/T2/T3) stays inside this gate; missing tools route to T2/T3, never a silent skip.
• **T1**: configured tool-backed mutation run. Report concrete file:line evidence plus mutation score or restricted survivor details when available: operator, location, before/after, defect category, and action.
• **T2**: LLM-generated mutation check when zero applicable mutants make T1 uninformative or when the configured LLM fallback is the active path. Report concrete file:line evidence plus the same restricted survivor details: operator, location, before/after, defect category, and action.
• **T3**: qualitative floor when T1 errors, T2 errors, or fallback unavailable would otherwise leave the gate blind. Audit the three bypass classes: hardcoded returns, partial implementations, boundary skips.
• Honor accepted-mutant lineage through the shared approval record and config contract instead of silently waiving survivors.
• **Boundary test approach**: Validate mock-vs-integration decisions against TESTING.md boundary classifications per `protocols/testing-strategy.md`. WARN if internal boundary is mocked. INFO if TESTING.md absent.
• **Tier distribution**: For each AC tagged with `[tier: integration]`, `[tier: contract]`, or `[tier: e2e]`, check whether corresponding tests exist at that tier. Use heuristics: integration tests touch multiple modules and use real infrastructure (Testcontainers, real DB, httptest with real handler); contract tests validate schema or shape at a boundary; E2E tests exercise a full flow. Verdicts: non-unit ACs with matching tier tests that pass → PASS. Non-unit ACs with tier-appropriate tests that fail → BLOCK (forces user decision at gate). Non-unit ACs with only unit-tier tests → BLOCK. Zero non-unit ACs in spec → PASS (nothing to check). When no tier-tagged ACs exist and TESTING.md is absent → INFO (no data to validate, no false positives).
• Each weakness is a finding with severity and file:line reference.

**Verdict (LOW freedom):**

• Follow `protocols/evidence.md#verdict-rendering`.
• BLOCK findings: tests that verify nothing (e.g., `expect(result).toBeDefined()` only).
• WARN findings: missing edge cases, over-mocking, weak assertions.
• INFO findings: style suggestions, naming improvements.

Protocol References

• `protocols/evidence.md#verdict-rendering` -- verdict rendering
• `protocols/evidence.md` -- evidence storage
• `protocols/state.md` -- gate status updates
• `protocols/delegation.md` -- tester agent delegation
• `protocols/testing-strategy.md` -- boundary classifications for mock-vs-integration validation

Failure Modes

| Condition | Action | |-----------|--------| | No test files found | Gate FAIL: "No tests found for this work unit" | | Tester agent unavailable | Fall back to inline analysis (less thorough) | | Project has no test framework | Gate SKIP with note |