Test Audit + Disable

Role: worker. Identifies tests that cannot fail and disables them so the next coverage run measures a true baseline, not a false positive inflated by tautologies. Tests are skipped + tagged, never deleted — Phase 4 repairs them.

You have been invoked with the /test-audit-disable command.

Parse Arguments

Arguments: $ARGUMENTS

• Positional: <repo-path> — the repo under modernization.
• --repo-slug <slug> — namespace under .claude/memory/<workflow>/. Defaults to the last path segment.
• --dry-run — print the cannot-fail list and exit without disabling.

Steps

1. Detect language + test framework

Probe the repo root for the test stack. Take the first match:

• package.json → JS/TS — jest, vitest, mocha, playwright. Skip helpers per framework: it.skip / test.skip / xit / xdescribe.
• pyproject.toml / setup.py / setup.cfg → Python — pytest, unittest. Skip helpers: @pytest.mark.skip(reason=...), @unittest.skip(...).
• pom.xml / build.gradle* → JVM — JUnit5, JUnit4, TestNG, Kotest. Skip helpers: @Disabled("..."), @Ignore("..."), @Test(enabled=false).
• *.csproj → .NET — xunit, nunit, mstest. Skip: [Fact(Skip="…")], [Test, Ignore("…")].
• Cargo.toml → Rust — #[ignore = "…"].
• go.mod → Go — t.Skip("…").

If multiple stacks are present, process each. If none, ask the operator which to use.

2. Detect cannot-fail tests

For each test file, search for the cannot-fail patterns. The set is language-agnostic conceptually but the regex differs per framework — use these signal patterns:

Pattern	Example	Reason
No assertion at all	it('does X', () => { service.doX(); })	nothing to fail on
Assertion on a literal	expect(1).toBe(1), assertEquals(true, true)	self-evaluating
Expect-truthy on a constant	expect(true).toBeTruthy()	tautology
Self-equality	expect(x).toBe(x), assertEquals(obj, obj)	always true
Swallowed exception with no assertion in the catch	try { … } catch { }	masks failures
Assertion only inside a never-entered branch	if (false) { assert … }	dead test
expect.anything() / expect.any(*) as the only assertion		matches anything
Negative assertion on a never-thrown error	expect(() => fn()).not.toThrow() with no throw path	tautology unless fn can throw

For Python add: assert True, self.assertTrue(True), self.assertIsNotNone(self). For JVM add: assertTrue(true), assertEquals(x, x). For Go add: if err != nil { t.Errorf(…) } blocks with no error-path coverage and t.Log as the only call.

A finding requires file path + line + snippet + reason. Use Grep (ripgrep) with file globs scoped to the framework's test conventions.

Graph-assisted lookup. Prefer CodeGraph/Repowise over raw Grep for locating
test files and confirming a suspect assertion has no real call path behind it
(e.g. a swallowed-exception catch block that never reaches production error
handling) — see `knowledge/codegraph-vs-graphify.md`
for tool selection and the fallback contract.

3. Build the cannot-fail list

Collect all findings into a JSON array:

[
  {
    "file": "src/widget/widget.test.ts",
    "line": 42,
    "test": "renders without crashing",
    "snippet": "it('renders without crashing', () => { render(<Widget/>) });",
    "reason": "no-assertion"
  },
  …
]

4. Preview + confirm

Print the count by reason and the first ~20 entries. Ask:

Disable these N cannot-fail tests? (yes / no / show all)

If --dry-run, print and exit zero without modifying anything.

5. Disable in place

For each finding, use Edit to insert the framework's skip helper at the matching test boundary, with the reason as the skip message:

• JS/TS: it(...) → it.skip(...) and add a leading comment // disabled by /test-audit-disable: <reason> — repair in Phase 4.
• Python: prepend @pytest.mark.skip(reason="cannot-fail: <reason> — repair in Phase 4").
• JVM: prepend @Disabled("cannot-fail: <reason> — repair in Phase 4").
• .NET: change [Fact] → [Fact(Skip="cannot-fail: <reason> — repair in Phase 4")].
• Rust: prepend #[ignore = "cannot-fail: <reason> — repair in Phase 4"].
• Go: insert t.Skip("cannot-fail: <reason> — repair in Phase 4") at the top of the test body.

Never delete the test body. Phase 4 needs the original implementation to repair against the public-interface Gherkin.

6. Persist phase-3 progress + the disabled-tests log

Write:

• .claude/memory/<workflow>/<slug>/disabled-tests.json — the array from Step 3, augmented with the disabling tag inserted at each site.
• .claude/memory/<workflow>/<slug>/phase-3-audit.md — counts by reason, framework, file. Lists any test files the worker could not parse (call out as "needs hand-audit").

The orchestrator's Phase-3 progress file is owned by /coverage-baseline, which runs immediately after this worker.

7. Report

Print:

• Total tests disabled, broken down by reason.
• The first ~10 disabled tests (file + line) for sanity-check.
• Any files flagged for hand-audit.
• The log path.

Notes

• The disabled tag carries the reason and the "repair in Phase 4" hint so the operator can see the audit history in source control, not only in .claude/memory/.
• Test-file detection follows framework conventions; configurable extensions / patterns can be added later, but the defaults cover the matrix above.
• Tests that pass for the wrong reason but DO assert (e.g. brittle snapshot tests, over-mocked tests with no real-behavior assertion) are out of scope here — those land in Phase 5 [Re-scope] Stories, not the cannot-fail audit.