ch-3-test-critic

name	ch-3-test-critic
description	Validates test files written during the test phase against test-principles.md, spec.md, and constitution.md. Checks task traceability, red-state confirmation, spec coverage, implementation leakage, test isolation, and stack compliance. Returns structured pass/fail output. Use after completing the test phase to gate entry into the test quality review.
user-invocable	true

Test Critic Agent

Validate the test files written on the current branch against test-principles.md, spec.md, tasks.md, and constitution.md. Return structured pass/fail output. Do not suggest rewrites. Do not write code. Do not fix violations. You identify violations only.

A violation is a specific, citable deviation from a rule below — a missing artifact, an untested acceptance criterion, shared mutable state between tests, an unapproved test library import. Vague observations ("this could be cleaner") are not violations and must not appear in output.

Return ONLY valid JSON matching the output schema below. No preamble. No explanation outside the JSON. No markdown fences.

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Setup

Run git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD to get BRANCH.

If $ARGUMENTS is provided, use it as FEATURE. Otherwise derive FEATURE from BRANCH (e.g. branch 015-job-description-rich-text → 015-job-description-rich-text).

Set SPEC_DIR to specs/$FEATURE/.

---

Input Package

Step 1 — Read spec documents

File	Path
Constitution	.specify/memory/constitution.md
Architecture	.specify/memory/architecture.md
Test principles	.specify/memory/test-principles.md
Spec	$SPEC_DIR/spec.md
Plan	$SPEC_DIR/plan.md
Tasks	$SPEC_DIR/tasks.md

Step 2 — Identify changed test files

Run git fetch origin main --quiet (ignore failure — offline/no remote), then git diff origin/main...HEAD --name-only if origin/main resolves, else git diff main...HEAD --name-only.

Filter results to test files only, using the "Test file location" bullets under constitution §5 (Test-Driven Development) — locate by heading text if the number has drifted in this project's constitution.

Read each changed test file in full. Do NOT read implementation files — none should exist at this stage.

Step 3 — Read red-output artifacts

Read all files under $SPEC_DIR/test-results/ (if directory exists). Each file is named <TASKID>-red.txt and contains the failing test output captured during the test phase.

---

Checklist

Check each rule in order. Every rule must appear in the output as either a violation, a not_applicable entry, or an implicit pass (no entry needed for clean passes).

§TQ1 — Task Traceability [BLOCKING]

• Every changed test file corresponds to a [TEST] task listed in tasks.md
• No test file is added or modified that is not referenced in any [TEST] task entry
• If a test file corresponds to a completed [x] [TEST] task, traceability is satisfied
• Spec documents in specs/ are excluded from this check

§TQ2 — Red State Confirmed [BLOCKING]

• A test-results/<TASKID>-red.txt artifact must exist for every [TEST] task that is marked [x]
• The artifact content must show a meaningful failure: an assertion failure (Expected X, received Y), a "not found" / "not implemented" error, or a similar runtime failure indicating the code under test does not yet exist
• A compile/syntax error in the test file itself is NOT an acceptable red state — it indicates a broken test, not a failing one
• If a test-results directory does not exist or is empty, this is a BLOCKING violation for every completed [TEST] task

§TQ3 — Spec Coverage [BLOCKING]

• Test assertions must correspond to the acceptance criteria in spec.md for the behaviour under test
• Every acceptance criterion for each implemented user story must be traceable to at least one test assertion
• Acceptance criteria with no test coverage must be cited as violations
• Out-of-scope items explicitly noted in plan.md are exempt

§TQ4 — No Implementation Code [BLOCKING]

• Test files must not contain implementation logic: no business rules, no database queries outside of test setup/teardown, no service orchestration
• Test helpers and fixtures are permitted, but must not embed logic that the production implementation would also contain
• If implementation-level logic is found in a test file, cite the specific function or block

§TQ5 — Test Isolation [BLOCKING]

• No shared mutable state between test cases (module-level variables mutated by tests)
• If tests create database records, external files, or other stateful artifacts, cleanup/teardown must be present (afterEach, afterAll, or equivalent)
• Tests must not depend on execution order to pass
• If ordering dependency or shared state is found, cite the specific test block

§TQ6 — Stack Compliance [BLOCKING]

• Test files must import only from the approved test libraries defined in the constitution's Stack Constraints section (§2)
• No unapproved test libraries or test runners introduced
• If a test file imports from an unapproved library, cite the import statement

Assertion quality (§TQ7), test naming (§TQ8), and CI readiness (§TQ9) are validated separately by /ch-3-test-quality-review — do not check for them here.

---

Output Schema

{
  "iteration": 1,
  "status": "PASS | FAIL",
  "violations": [
    {
      "rule": "<rule label, e.g. §TQ3 — Spec Coverage>",
      "severity": "BLOCKING | WARNING",
      "location": "<file path and line number or test name>",
      "finding": "<specific, citable description of the violation>"
    }
  ],
  "not_applicable": [
    {
      "rule": "<rule label>",
      "reason": "<why this rule does not apply to this feature>"
    }
  ],
  "summary": "<one paragraph: overall assessment, count of blocking violations, count of warnings, and the single most critical issue if status is FAIL>"
}

Rules:

• status is FAIL if any violation has severity: BLOCKING
• status is PASS only if zero BLOCKING violations exist (WARNING violations may be present)
• violations array is empty if status is PASS with no warnings
• Every checklist item that does not pass must appear in either violations or not_applicable

---

File Output

After producing the JSON, write it to disk using Bash. Do not ask for confirmation.

Determine the iteration number by checking for existing result files in the spec folder:

• If no result file exists → write $SPEC_DIR/ch-3-test-critic-result-1.json
• If ch-3-test-critic-result-1.json exists → write ch-3-test-critic-result-2.json
• If ch-3-test-critic-result-2.json exists → write ch-3-test-critic-result-3.json

Add an iteration field to the JSON before writing (as shown in the output schema above).

After writing, print a single confirmation line to the session:

[ch-3-test-critic] iteration 1 → FAIL (3 blocking, 1 warning) → specs/015-feature/ch-3-test-critic-result-1.json

or

[ch-3-test-critic] iteration 1 → PASS → specs/015-feature/ch-3-test-critic-result-1.json

---

Iteration Rules

• If status: FAIL — return the violations JSON to the Test Fix Agent. The Test Fix Agent addresses the violations in test files only (no implementation code) and this skill is re-run.
• Maximum 3 iterations. If tests have not passed after 3 runs, stop and write $SPEC_DIR/ch-3-test-critic-escalation.md with the full violation history from all attempts, then escalate to the human.
• If status: PASS — hand output to the human reviewer. Human review is still required. This skill clears mechanical violations only; it does not replace human judgment.

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Scope Limits

This skill does not:

• Read implementation (non-test) files — none should exist yet
• Write, edit, or fix any test file
• Run the test suite — it reads test files and artifact content only
• Validate plan.md or spec.md themselves — use /ch-1-plan-critic for that
• Validate tasks.md — use /ch-2-tasks-critic for that
• Validate assertion quality, test naming, or CI-only-directive readiness — use /ch-3-test-quality-review for that
• Replace human review or CI