| name | backend-qa |
| version | 0.2.0 |
| description | Use when the operator wants to confirm a backend change is adequately tested before it ships — triggers include "QA this branch", "QA this PR", "is this tested enough", "do we have enough tests", "verify test coverage", "confirm the tests pass", "/backend-qa", or any request to audit/gate the unit + integration coverage of a backend change. Verifies an existing test suite; to author missing tests, use [backend-testing](../backend-testing/SKILL.md).
|
| argument-hint | <branch | PR | module | what-to-verify> |
Backend QA
Confirm that a backend change — a branch, a PR, a module — carries enough unit and integration
tests, that those tests pass, and report what is covered and why it matters. This is a
verification gate, not an authoring task: backend-qa reads the change and its tests, runs them, and
produces a coverage verdict. It does not write code or drive a running service.
The bar you verify against
"Enough" is not a coverage percentage. It is the testing standard defined in
backend-testing/process.md and
generic-testing/process.md. Hold the suite to it:
- Integration is a hard gate, not a preference. If a changed behaviour can be proven with an
integration test, it must be — datasources, queries, HTTP clients, caches, and queues are
exercised against real dependencies in containers. A test that asserts on a generated SQL string,
on the operator dict passed to a mocked DB, or on a mocked cache/boundary proves nothing — it
cannot catch a query that fails to parse, a serialization that drops a field, a missing TTL, or a
wrong miss→hit interaction. A unit test that mocks a boundary to cover behaviour that belongs in
an integration test is itself a high-severity gap — fail the QA even when it is green.
- A boundary the change adds needs its own integration test. A new cache layer, serialization
round-trip, or wrapper is untested even if the datasource it wraps is integration-tested elsewhere.
"Covered downstream" never covers the new boundary's round-trip and wiring.
- Unit tests only for isolated pure logic (no I/O).
- External third-party services are faked with a spec-driven fake (e.g. WireMock) plus a
schema-drift guard — not hand-mocked.
- No zero-value tests. A test that re-asserts a stub, a library feature, or a trivial invariant
is not coverage. Don't count it; call it out.
The flow
- Scope the change — follow references/coverage-audit.md. Resolve
exactly what is under QA (branch diff vs base, PR files, named module) and enumerate the
behaviours that changed.
- Inventory the tests — map each changed behaviour to the test(s) that exercise it. Classify
each as unit / integration / contract, and judge whether it meets the bar above.
- Find the gaps — behaviours with no test, behaviours covered only by a mock/string-assertion
where an integration test is required, and any zero-value tests inflating the count.
- Run the suites — follow references/running-tests.md. Run the
fast suite and the heavy integration suite (real containers). Confirm green; investigate every
failure or skip — a skipped integration test is not a pass.
- Report — follow references/reporting.md. Lead with the verdict,
then per-area "what's tested / why it matters / gaps", then the run evidence.
Rules
- Read-only on code and deployment. Backend-qa runs the test suite; it does not modify
production code or tests, and it never drives or mutates a running service. If tests are missing,
report the gap and hand off to backend-testing — do not write them here.
- Green is necessary, not sufficient. A passing suite that mocks the database, skips the
integration tests, or pins library behaviour is a failing QA. Coverage adequacy and test honesty
are part of the verdict, not just the exit code.
- Run the integration tests for real. They are often excluded from the default/CI run by design
(references/running-tests.md). If Docker is unavailable, that is a
blocker to surface — not a reason to pass on the fast suite alone.
- "Why it matters" is mandatory in the report. For each covered area, state the failure it
guards against. Coverage with no articulated risk is noise.
Reference files
