clawfort/openspec/changes/archive/2026-02-13-p15-complete-test-suite/design.md

Context

The codebase has grown across frontend UX, backend ingestion, translations, analytics, and admin tooling. Quality checks are currently ad hoc and mostly manual, creating regression risk. A single cross-layer test and observability program is needed to enforce predictable release quality.

Goals / Non-Goals

Goals:

• Establish CI quality gates covering unit, integration, E2E, accessibility, security, and performance.
• Provide deterministic test fixtures for UI/API/DB workflows.
• Define explicit coverage targets for critical paths and edge cases.
• Add production monitoring and alerting for latency, failures, and freshness.

Non-Goals:

• Migrating the app to a different framework.
• Building a full SRE platform from scratch.
• Replacing existing business logic outside remediation findings.

Decisions

Decision 1: Layered test pyramid with release gates

Adopt unit + integration + E2E layering; block release when any gate fails.

Decision 2: Deterministic test data contracts

Use seeded fixtures and mockable provider boundaries for repeatable results.

Decision 3: Accessibility and speed as first-class CI checks

Treat WCAG and page-speed regressions as gate failures with explicit thresholds.

Decision 4: Security checks split by class

Run dependency audit, static security lint, and API abuse smoke tests separately for clearer ownership.

Decision 5: Monitoring linked to user-impacting SLOs

Alert on API error rate, response latency, scheduler freshness, and failed fetch cycles.

Risks / Trade-offs

• [Risk] Longer CI times -> Mitigation: split fast/slow suites, parallelize jobs.
• [Risk] Flaky E2E tests -> Mitigation: stable fixtures, retry policy only for known transient failures.
• [Risk] Alert fatigue -> Mitigation: tune thresholds with burn-in period and severity levels.

Migration Plan

1. Baseline current test/tooling and add missing framework dependencies.
2. Implement layered suites and CI workflow stages.
3. Add WCAG, speed, and security checks with thresholds.
4. Add monitoring dashboards and alert routes.
5. Run remediation sprint for failing gates.

Rollback:

• Keep non-blocking mode for new gates until stability criteria are met.

Open Questions

• Which minimum coverage threshold should be required for merge (line/branch)?
• Which environments should execute full E2E and speed checks (PR vs nightly)?