dough-test-optimization

# Speed up local test feedback Reduce the time a developer waits for trustworthy local test results. Pursue substantial savings through fewer redundant cases, less setup and support code, and cleaner design together. These are ways to improve feedback time, not substitutes for a measured speedup. Preserve behavioral coverage and confidence. ## Establish context and mode Use the task's project. Resolve the selected local test command and scope, test locations, runtime/service setup, applicable test and architectural rules, and plan conventions from that project. Name genuinely missing context and stop only its dependent step; do not invent paths, commands, or a test taxonomy. Default mode profiles, plans, experiments, and re-profiles. A profile-only request ends with findings. For `--resolve`, follow only [candidate resolution](references/resolving-candidates.md). An independently requested pass in any mode is an accepted mission: [admit it](../dough-execute-plan/references/admit-accepted-work.md) before profiling or triage, with its story in a relevant existing seed when one fits and approach `unselected`. A pass explicitly selected as [one-shot work](../dough-execute-plan/references/one-shot.md) follows that instead. A pass requested as a step of an active story continues under that story. Findings with no worthwhile change, in profiling or resolve-only triage, [finish the mission](../dough-execute-plan/references/admit-accepted-work.md#finish-the-mission), or under one-shot its [no-change finish](../dough-execute-plan/references/one-shot.md#finish-with-no-change). Before assessing tests, read the shared [behavioral test guidance](../dough-post-change-refactor/references/refactor-checks.md#tests-as-behavioral-documentation). Apply it across the authorized optimization scope, not just the current diff. ## Establish the baseline Run the selected local scope. Record revision, literal command, runner mode, workers, filters, relevant environment/cache conditions, wall time, executed case count, and available test/setup timings. Keep raw profiles out of commits. Use only approved profile exclusions; candidate proposals remain eligible and normal verification coverage stays intact. Report the limits of filtered runs. Measure the ordinary local test mode even if profiling needs a different mode. A failed or incomplete run supplies diagnostics, not a successful baseline. Do not blindly trust timings: startup, caches, and machine load can dominate. Compare like conditions; repeat doubtful comparisons or report them inconclusive. Summed test durations are neither wall time nor measured CPU time. ## Investigate a useful test family Use slow tests and aggregate setup costs to seed a hypothesis about wasted time. Prioritize work that shortens the selected local feedback path. Look across files and test layers for related behavior, variants, fixtures, and consumers, including fast siblings; neither a percentile nor a file limits investigation. Keep edits within authorized scope. Group by a behavioral responsibility or evidenced shared cost, never by timing rank or fixed batch size. Assign shared helper changes once with their consumers and dependencies; do not merge unrelated behavior scenarios or count savings twice. Stop expanding discovery when further inspection no longer changes the proposed experiment or its proof obligations. Reopen it when results expose a missing cause or variant. Carry the family analysis into smaller execution slices so local edits retain the broader opportunities and surviving proof. ## Record the optimization plan Use one plan in the project's established location and the shared [executable plan format](../dough-story-refinement/references/planning.md#write-an-executable-plan). Record the request and profiling evidence, developer outcome, scope, preserved promises, baseline, family analysis, hypotheses, and proof. For each experiment, name the expected saving, smallest meaningful change, surviving proof for any removed cases, and focused verification/timing command. Include final re-profiling. In resolve-only mode, reuse recorded evidence and plan any missing baseline as a prerequisite for later execution; do not run it now. For an admitted pass, this plan attaches to the same story: record and publish its preparation and continue that claim as [continue into implementation](../dough-execute-plan/references/admit-accepted-work.md#continue-into-implementation) describes. This changes neither this skill's measurement rules nor whether a created plan continues into execution. ## Experiment, learn, and reassess Execute through [dough-execute-plan](../dough-execute-plan/SKILL.md), keeping its implementation/refactor ownership, delivery, and normal retrospective. That delivery publishes through [increment and repair publication](../dough-execute-plan/references/trunk-publication.md#publish-an-execution-increment-or-repair). Make the following loop explicit in the plan and each experiment slice: 1. **Hypothesize:** read [optimization tactics](references/optimization-tactics.md) and choose a promising way to remove cost across the family. Challenge the current test design; do not stop at the first convenient micro-fix. 2. **Try and measure:** capture a comparable focused baseline, make the smallest meaningful change, verify behavioral proof, and measure again before delivery. 3. **Decide:** retain a supported improvement; revise or undo this experiment's ineffective/regressing edits while preserving others' work. Record the finding rather than deliver a change merely because its tests pass. 4. **Reassess:** use the result to reconsider the family's bottleneck and strategy. When a time target is supplied, compare the remaining gap with realistically removable cost. A checkpoint whose recorded remaining experiments still offer a plausible route to the target continues to the next experiment without an extra record; do not invent a stop merely because a target exists. A decisive checkpoint — one whose recorded remaining experiments cannot plausibly close the remaining gap — is an explicit decision obligation: before another dependent experiment is dispatched, record in the plan's Current decisions (the [executable plan format](../dough-story-refinement/references/planning.md#write-an-executable-plan)) the checkpoint's measurement, the remaining-gap comparison, the invalidated strategy assumption, the consequence for the remaining experiments, and the selected authorized decision — a supported different strategy within existing authority, explicitly retained independently valuable work, or a stop for the developer when continuing would change the target, outcome, or scope. Update the same plan and keep the obligation mapped to its owning slice under [own executable proof](../dough-story-refinement/references/planning.md#own-executable-proof), so [execution decisions](../dough-execute-plan/references/execution-decisions.md#reassess-before-extending-work) must honor it before selecting another dependent experiment slice. Stop experimenting when no credible further saving remains within scope; record what was tried and the remaining cost as a candidate. An unresolved product, architectural, or confidence trade-off stops that path for a human decision. ## Verify and close Establish replacement proof before removing or narrowing its predecessor. Verify the changed family in normal test mode, widening to affected consumers for shared changes. Fix flakiness at its cause; do not mask it with retries, sleeps, or skips. For changed asynchronous/E2E synchronization, require three consecutive focused passes or stronger project-required evidence; repetition alone proves no fix. Commit no focus/only markers. Re-run the selected local command under comparable conditions after the experiments. Include replacement tests' cost when proof moved across boundaries. If the local run did not improve, revisit the cost hypothesis before declaring success; a faster isolated test is insufficient. A failed re-profile leaves measurement incomplete; focused timings or CI cannot replace it. Report local wall time and executed cases before/after, retained behavioral proof, test/support-code simplifications, experiments rejected, delivered commits, and remaining candidates. Distinguish measured improvement, no demonstrated gain, and incomplete work. Do not claim speedup from fewer cases or lines alone. Keep candidates with locations, cost, unique protection, attempted alternatives, evidence, date, and needed decisions in the existing record or active plan. Retain that plan and evidence for retrospective and [story wrap-up](../dough-story-wrap-up/SKILL.md); unresolved candidates must be resolved or transferred to the established follow-up location before cleanup. Emit `## TEST OPTIMIZATION COMPLETE` only when the pass's planned work, verification, measurement, and delivery are complete, stating its actual outcome.