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