# Testing Strategy Models and Lanes (2026)

Source advisory: `docs/product/advisories/22-Dec-2026 - Better testing strategy.md`  
Supersedes/extends: `docs/product/advisories/archived/2025-12-21-testing-strategy/20-Dec-2025 - Testing strategy.md`

## Purpose
- Define a single testing taxonomy for all StellaOps project types.
- Make determinism, offline readiness, and evidence integrity testable by default.
- Align CI lanes with a shared catalog so coverage is visible and enforceable.

## Strategy in brief
- Use test models (L0, S1, C1, W1, WK1, T1, AN1, CLI1, PERF) to encode required test types.
- Map every module to one or more models in `docs/technical/testing/TEST_CATALOG.yml`.
- Run tests through standardized CI lanes (Unit, Contract, Integration, Security, Performance, Live).

## Test models (requirements)
- L0 (Library/Core): unit + property + snapshot + determinism.
- S1 (Storage/Postgres): migrations + idempotency + concurrency + query ordering.
- T1 (Transport/Queue): protocol roundtrip + fuzz invalid + delivery semantics.
- C1 (Connector/External): fixtures + snapshot + resilience + security; optional Live smoke.
- W1 (WebService/API): contract + authz + OTel trace assertions + negative cases.
- WK1 (Worker/Indexer): end-to-end job flow + retries + idempotency + telemetry.
- AN1 (Analyzer/SourceGen): Roslyn harness + diagnostics + golden generated output.
- CLI1 (Tool/CLI): exit codes + golden output + deterministic formatting.
- PERF (Benchmark): perf smoke subset + regression thresholds (relative).

## Repository foundations
- TestKit primitives: deterministic time/random, canonical JSON asserts, snapshot helpers, Postgres/Valkey fixtures, OTel capture.
- Determinism gate: canonical bytes and stable hashes for SBOM/VEX/verdict artifacts.
- Hybrid reachability posture: graph DSSE mandatory; edge-bundle DSSE optional/targeted with deterministic ordering.
- Architecture guards: enforce cross-module dependency boundaries (no lattice in Concelier/Excititor).
- Offline defaults: no network access unless explicitly tagged `Live`.

## CI lanes (standard filters)
- Unit: fast, offline; includes property and snapshot sub-traits.
- Contract: schema/OpenAPI stability and response envelopes.
- Integration: Testcontainers-backed service and storage tests.
- Security: authz/negative tests and security regressions.
- Performance: perf smoke and benchmark guards.
- Live: opt-in upstream connector checks (never PR gating by default).

## Documentation moments (when to update)
- New model or required test type: update `docs/technical/testing/TEST_CATALOG.yml`.
- New lane or gate: update `docs/technical/testing/TEST_SUITE_OVERVIEW.md` and `docs/technical/testing/ci-quality-gates.md`.
- Module-specific test policy change: update the module dossier under `docs/modules/<module>/`.
- New fixtures or runnable harnesses: place under `docs/benchmarks/**` or `tests/**` and link here.

## Related artifacts
- Test catalog (source of truth): `docs/technical/testing/TEST_CATALOG.yml`
- Test suite overview: `docs/technical/testing/TEST_SUITE_OVERVIEW.md`
- Quality guardrails: `docs/technical/testing/testing-quality-guardrails-implementation.md`
- Code samples from the advisory: `docs/benchmarks/testing/better-testing-strategy-samples.md`

---

## Turn #6 Enhancements (2026-01-27)

Source advisory: Testing Enhancements (Automation Turn #6)
Sprint: `docs/implplan/SPRINT_0127_002_DOCS_testing_enhancements_turn6.md`

### New test intent categories

Every non-trivial test must declare intent. Intent clarifies *why* the behavior exists.

```csharp
public static class TestIntents
{
    public const string Regulatory = "Regulatory";   // Compliance, audit, legal
    public const string Safety = "Safety";           // Security, fail-secure, crypto
    public const string Performance = "Performance"; // Latency, throughput, resources
    public const string Competitive = "Competitive"; // Parity with competitor tools
    public const string Operational = "Operational"; // Observability, operability
}

// Usage
[Trait("Intent", TestIntents.Safety)]
[Trait("Category", "Unit")]
public void Signer_RejectsExpiredCertificate() { /* ... */ }
```

### New test trait categories

| Category | Purpose | Example Usage |
|----------|---------|---------------|
| `Intent` | Test intent classification | `[Trait("Intent", "Safety")]` |
| `Evidence` | Evidence chain validation | `[Trait("Category", "Evidence")]` |
| `Observability` | OTel/log/metrics contracts | `[Trait("Category", "Observability")]` |
| `Longevity` | Time-extended stability tests | `[Trait("Category", "Longevity")]` |
| `Interop` | Cross-version/environment skew | `[Trait("Category", "Interop")]` |
| `PostIncident` | Tests from production incidents | `[Trait("Category", "PostIncident")]` |

### Updated test model requirements

| Model | Turn #6 Additions |
|-------|-------------------|
| L0 (Library/Core) | + Intent trait required for non-trivial tests |
| S1 (Storage/Postgres) | + Interop tests for schema version migrations |
| W1 (WebService/API) | + Observability contract tests (OTel spans, log fields, metrics) |
| WK1 (Worker/Indexer) | + Longevity tests for memory/connection stability |
| CLI1 (Tool/CLI) | + PostIncident regression tests |

### New CI lanes

| Lane | Purpose | Cadence | Gating |
|------|---------|---------|--------|
| Evidence | Evidence chain validation, traceability | Per PR | PR-gating for regulatory modules |
| Longevity | Time-extended stability tests | Nightly | Release-gating |
| Interop | Cross-version compatibility | Weekly + pre-release | Release-gating |

### Observability contract requirements (W1 model)

WebService tests must validate:
- **OTel spans**: required spans exist, attributes present, cardinality bounded.
- **Structured logs**: required fields present, no PII, appropriate log levels.
- **Metrics**: required metrics exist, label cardinality bounded, counters monotonic.

```csharp
[Trait("Category", "Observability")]
[Trait("Intent", "Operational")]
public async Task Scanner_EmitsRequiredTelemetry()
{
    using var otel = new OtelCapture();
    await sut.ScanAsync(request);

    OTelContractAssert.HasRequiredSpans(otel, "ScanImage", "ExtractLayers", "AnalyzeSBOM");
    OTelContractAssert.NoHighCardinalityAttributes(otel, threshold: 100);
}
```

### Evidence traceability requirements

Regulatory tests must link to requirements:
```csharp
[Requirement("REQ-EVIDENCE-001")]
[Trait("Intent", "Regulatory")]
public void EvidenceBundle_IsImmutableAfterSigning() { /* ... */ }
```

CI generates traceability matrix: requirement -> test -> artifact.

### Cross-version testing requirements (Interop)

For modules with schema or API versioning:
- Test N-1 compatibility (current server, previous client).
- Test N+1 compatibility (previous server, current client).
- Document compatibility matrix.

### Time-extended testing requirements (Longevity)

For worker modules (WK1 model):
- Memory stability: verify no growth under sustained load.
- Connection pool stability: verify no leaks.
- Counter drift: verify values remain bounded.

Run duration: 1+ hours for nightly, 4+ hours for release validation.

### Post-incident testing requirements

For P1/P2 production incidents:
1. Capture event sequence via replay infrastructure.
2. Generate test scaffold from replay manifest.
3. Include incident metadata (ID, root cause, severity).
4. Tag with `[Trait("Category", "PostIncident")]`.
5. Test failures block releases.