qa-standards

name	qa-standards
description	Standards for automated testing, CI/CD, and the use of Mocks.
trigger	when writing or executing tests, designing testing strategies, or managing testing infrastructure.

QA and Automation Standards

Ensures code stability through a controlled execution environment, simulation strategies (Mocks), and CI/CD practices.

When to use this skill

• When creating new unit or integration test cases.
• When debugging failures in the CI/CD pipeline.
• When configuring or modifying the testing environment.

Degree of Freedom

• Guided: Follow the testing strategies defined for the project, aiming for high coverage and isolation.

Workflow

1. Design: Apply "Test-Driven Development (TDD)" or "Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD)" strategies as appropriate for the project.
2. Implementation: Create tests using the project's primary framework (e.g., pytest, unittest, jest, etc.). Isolate external dependencies using Mocks.
3. Execution: Validate locally using the Local Test Runner and then in the CI/CD environment.
4. Coverage: Verify that the minimum required coverage is achieved (> 80%).

Instructions and Rules

Testing Strategy

• Isolation: Unit tests must run quickly and without external dependencies (databases, network, UI).
• Mocks: Simulate (mock) external services and complex third-party libraries. Rigorously clean up mocks after each test.
• Integration: Integration tests must validate the complete flow in an environment as close as possible to production (e.g., Docker containers).

Testing Environment

• Consistency: The main test command ({{TEST_COMMAND}}) must be the definitive health check. If it passes locally, it must pass in CI/CD.
• Cleanup: Avoid leaving residual state in the environment from tests.

Quality Checklist

• Is the coverage of new services satisfactory (> 80%)?
• Are patches/Mocks cleaned up after each test?
• Can unit tests be executed in isolation without starting heavy services?
• Does the testing environment report zero failures?