| name | qa-lead |
| description | Use this skill when a user says "run qa", "quality gates", "final checks before merge", "is the branch ready to merge", or when tech-lead has completed implementation and code review phases. Orchestrates final quality gates by invoking automated-tests (always), ui-tests (if UI changes detected), and optionally spec-refinement (if spec drift found), then reminds to run /memory-refresh. Invoke at the end of every implementation session. |
| version | 0.1.0 |
QA Lead: Final Quality Gates Orchestrator
Purpose
This skill runs after all implementation tasks complete and code review passes. It ensures the branch is genuinely ready to merge by running a structured sequence of quality checks, detecting test failures, and optionally updating the spec if implementation drifted from it.
Prerequisites
Before invoking this skill:
- All implementation tasks complete (
superpowers:subagent-driven-development finished)
- Code review passed (
superpowers:requesting-code-review + superpowers:receiving-code-review done)
- Working inside an isolated worktree (branch is not main/master)
Quality Gate Flow
Step 1: Detect UI Changes
↓
Step 2: Invoke automated-tests
↓
PASS → Step 3 (conditional) FAIL → diagnose + fix, re-run
↓
Step 3 (if ui_changes=true): Invoke ui-tests
↓
PASS → Step 4 FAIL → diagnose + fix, re-run
↓
Step 4 (if spec_drift=true): Invoke spec-refinement
↓
Step 5: /memory-refresh reminder
↓
Report gate result
Step 1: Detect UI Changes
Check git diff against main to determine if UI tests are needed:
git diff origin/main --name-only | grep -E "\.(tsx|jsx|css|html|vue|svelte)$|src/ui/|src/frontend/|src/components/" | head -20
- If matches found → UI tests required (flag
ui_changes=true)
- If no matches → skip UI tests
Step 2: Invoke automated-tests
Invoke Skill: automated-tests
Provide: branch name, current worktree path
automated-tests runs: lint (npm run lint) → build (npm run build) → unit tests (npm test)
If automated-tests FAILS:
- Read the failure output
- Assess: is this a code bug or spec drift?
- Code bug (test assertions fail, unexpected runtime error) → ask implementer to fix; re-run automated-tests after fix
- Spec drift (implementation changed public contracts, types, or behavior) → set
flag: spec_drift=true; continue after tests pass
- Do not proceed past Step 2 until automated-tests passes
Step 3: Invoke ui-tests (conditional)
Only invoke if ui_changes=true from Step 1:
Invoke Skill: ui-tests
Provide: branch name, list of changed UI files
If ui-tests FAILS:
- Read the failure output
- Determine if it's a regression or expected change
- Regression → ask implementer to fix; re-run ui-tests
- Expected visual change (intentional UI update) → document the change, proceed
Step 4: spec-refinement (conditional)
Invoke spec-refinement if spec_drift=true (set in Step 2 during failure triage):
- Implementation diverged from the spec in a meaningful way (new public interfaces, changed contracts, added/removed features)
- Spec references outdated types, method names, or file paths after refactoring
Invoke Skill: spec-refinement
Provide: spec file path, list of changes that diverged from spec
spec-refinement updates the spec to match the implemented reality so it remains accurate for future reference.
Step 5: /memory-refresh reminder
After all gates pass (including spec-refinement if invoked), remind the user:
Quality gates passed. Run /memory-refresh (or /codemie:memory-refresh) to update
your session memory with any architectural decisions made during this implementation
before closing the session.
Gate Report
After all checks complete, report the result:
If all gates passed:
## QA Gate Report: PASSED ✅
**Branch**: <branch-name>
**Automated Tests**: ✅ lint + build + unit tests
**UI Tests**: ✅ (if applicable) or ⏭️ skipped (no UI changes)
**Spec**: ✅ aligned (or updated via spec-refinement)
Branch is ready for merge. Use `codemie-pr` to create the pull request.
If a gate failed:
## QA Gate Report: BLOCKED ⛔
**Branch**: <branch-name>
**Failed Gate**: <automated-tests | ui-tests>
**Failure**: <brief description>
Fix the issues above, then re-invoke qa-lead to re-run the failing gate.
Key Principles
Do's
✅ Always run automated-tests before ui-tests
✅ Fix test failures before proceeding to the next gate
✅ Remind about /memory-refresh after tests pass
✅ Invoke spec-refinement only when spec drift is real (changed contracts, not minor wording)
✅ Report a clear pass/fail gate result
Don'ts
❌ Don't skip automated-tests — it's the primary gate
❌ Don't invoke ui-tests for backend-only changes
❌ Don't invoke spec-refinement for every implementation — only when spec is materially inaccurate
❌ Don't mark branch as merge-ready if any gate is blocked
❌ Don't run quality gates on main/master
Integration with Other Skills
automated-tests
- Runs lint + build + unit tests
- Primary quality gate — must pass before anything else
ui-tests
- Conditional on UI file changes
- Runs browser/component tests
spec-refinement
- Updates spec when implementation diverged
- Optional — only when spec is materially wrong
tech-lead
- Invokes qa-lead as Phase 5 after subagent-driven-development + code review
- qa-lead reports back PASSED/BLOCKED
codemie-pr
- Invoked by user after qa-lead reports PASSED
- Creates the pull request for the branch
