aiq-release-qa

name	aiq-release-qa
description	Use when validating an AI-Q change before opening or merging a PR — choosing and running the right Python, frontend, docs, or eval checks for the surfaces you touched instead of one fixed command list.
license	Apache-2.0
compatibility	Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, and Agent Skills-compatible tools.
metadata	{"version":"0.1.0","source-repo":"NVIDIA-AI-Blueprints/aiq","tags":"aiq nemo-agent-toolkit validation testing release-qa"}
allowed-tools	Read Bash

AI-Q Release QA

Use this skill to validate a change in the AI-Q repository before opening or merging a pull request. The goal is to run the narrowest set of checks that covers what you touched, then broaden only when a change crosses shared boundaries — not to run every command every time.

Start Here

• Identify which surfaces the change touches: backend Python (src/, sources/, tests/), web UI (frontends/ui/), docs (docs/), or evals (frontends/benchmarks/).
• Run the scoped checks for those surfaces first (see the matrix below).
• Broaden to the full suite only when the change crosses shared boundaries (for example editing src/aiq_agent/common/ or a config many agents load).
• Capture the exact commands and their output — aiq-prepare-pr requires this as validation evidence.
• Never paste secrets or deploy/.env values into command output you share.

Authoritative References

• AGENTS.md: the "Build, test, and validation commands" section is the source of truth for every command below.
• CONTRIBUTING.md: "Local Validation" — the exact commands to run and the requirement to include their output in the PR.
• pyproject.toml and uv.lock: root Ruff config (line length 120, rule sets E,F,W,I,PL,UP) and the root dev environment.
• mcp/pyproject.toml and mcp/uv.lock: the independent MCP runtime and dev environment. MCP is not a root dependency group.
• frontends/ui/package.json: the real scripts (lint, type-check, test:ci, build) — use these names, do not invent npm scripts.

For the full per-surface command list and expected results:

• references/validation-matrix.md

Workflow

1. List the changed paths (git status, git diff --name-only) and map them to surfaces.
2. Run the scoped Python, UI, docs, or eval checks for those surfaces.
3. If the change touches shared code or config, broaden to the full suite for that surface.
4. Re-run until lint, format, type, and tests all pass; fix failures rather than skipping checks.
5. Record the exact commands and their output for the PR description.

Validation

Pick the block that matches the change. Run the narrowest first.

Backend Python (run from the repo root; the project uses uv):

uv run ruff check <changed paths>          # lint
uv run ruff format --check <changed paths> # format check
uv run pytest <scoped test paths>          # tests

MCP server (run from the repo root):

uv sync --project mcp --extra dev
uv run ruff check mcp
uv run ruff format --check mcp
uv run --project mcp --extra dev pytest mcp/tests

Broaden to the whole tree when the change crosses shared boundaries:

uv run ruff check .
uv run ruff format --check .
uv run pytest
uv run --project mcp --extra dev pytest mcp/tests

Frontend (from frontends/ui/):

npm run lint
npm run type-check
npm run test:ci

Expected: Ruff reports no lint or format failures, tests pass, and the frontend lint/type-check/test commands exit cleanly. For docs and eval changes, see the matrix reference.

Common Mistakes

• Running both complete root and MCP test suites for a one-package change instead of scoping to the touched paths first — slow, and it buries the relevant signal.
• Running MCP tests in the root environment; use uv run --project mcp so the check consumes the isolated MCP lock and dev extra.
• Skipping ruff format --check and pushing unformatted code that fails CI.
• Hand-reformatting unrelated code; only the changed code should move.
• Forgetting that nat eval needs deploy/.env; run evals via dotenv -f deploy/.env run nat eval ... (see the matrix reference).
• Inventing npm scripts; stick to the canonical checks lint, type-check, test:ci, and build defined in frontends/ui/package.json.

Related Skills

• aiq-prepare-pr
• aiq-add-tool
• aiq-add-data-source