Gen-Eval Scenario

Interactively create gen-eval scenario YAML files. Reads the project's interface descriptor, suggests categories and interfaces, and produces validated scenario YAML.

Arguments

$ARGUMENTS - Optional:

• --descriptor <path> — Path to interface descriptor YAML (auto-detected if omitted)
• --category <name> — Target category (e.g., lock-lifecycle, auth-boundary)
• --interfaces <list> — Transports to exercise (e.g., http,mcp,db)
• --type success|failure|cross-interface — Scenario type
• --output <path> — Output file path (auto-generated if omitted)

Steps

1. Auto-Detect Descriptor

DESCRIPTOR=$(find . -path "*/evaluation/descriptors/*.yaml" -type f 2>/dev/null | head -1)

if [ -z "$DESCRIPTOR" ]; then
  echo "ERROR: No gen-eval descriptor found."
  echo "Create a descriptor first, or provide --descriptor <path>."
  # Show descriptor format reference and exit
fi

Read the descriptor to understand available services, endpoints, and transports.

2. Analyze Existing Scenarios

SCENARIO_DIR=$(dirname "$DESCRIPTOR")/../scenarios

Scan existing scenarios to understand:

• Which categories have scenarios and how many
• Which interfaces are under-tested (appear in descriptor but few scenarios exercise them)
• Common patterns used (cleanup steps, variable capture, cross-interface verification)

Present a coverage summary to the user:

Category            Scenarios  Coverage
lock-lifecycle      11         85%
auth-boundary       10         71%
cross-interface     17         65%
work-queue          12         80%
...

3. Gather Scenario Intent

If --category and --type were not provided, ask the user:

1. What are you testing? — Map to a category. Suggest under-tested categories from step 2.
2. Success or failure path? — Success scenarios verify happy paths. Failure scenarios verify error handling, edge cases, and security boundaries.
3. Which transports? — Suggest transports based on the category. Cross-interface scenarios should use 2+ transports.
4. What specific behavior? — A one-line description of the scenario's goal.

4. Select Relevant Endpoints

Based on the category and transports chosen, read the descriptor and list the relevant endpoints/tools/commands:

Available HTTP endpoints for 'locks':
  POST /locks/acquire    — Acquire an exclusive file lock
  POST /locks/release    — Release an existing file lock
  GET  /locks/status/{path} — Check lock status

Available MCP tools for 'locks':
  acquire_lock  — Acquire a file lock
  release_lock  — Release a file lock
  check_locks   — Check lock status

Available CLI commands for 'locks':
  lock status   — Show lock status
  lock release  — Release a lock

Let the user pick which endpoints to include in the scenario steps.

5. Generate Scenario YAML

Build the scenario YAML following the Scenario model schema. Key rules:

Schema reference (from gen_eval.models):

# Required fields
id: "<category>-<descriptive-slug>"        # unique, kebab-case
name: "<Human-readable scenario name>"
description: "<What this scenario tests and why>"
category: "<category-name>"                # must match a scenarios/ subdirectory
priority: 1|2|3                            # 1=critical, 2=important, 3=coverage
interfaces: ["http", "mcp", "cli", "db"]   # transports exercised

# Steps (ordered sequence)
steps:
  - id: <step_id>                          # unique within scenario
    transport: http|mcp|cli|db|wait
    # HTTP-specific
    method: GET|POST|PUT|DELETE
    endpoint: /path
    body: { key: value }
    headers: { X-Custom: value }
    # MCP-specific
    tool: tool_name
    params: { key: value }
    # CLI-specific
    command: "subcommand --flag value"
    # DB-specific (SELECT only, for state verification)
    sql: "SELECT ... FROM ..."
    # Wait-specific
    seconds: 1.0
    # Expectations (at least one per step)
    expect:
      status: 200                          # HTTP status code
      exit_code: 0                         # CLI exit code
      body: { key: expected_value }        # JSONPath assertions on response
      rows: 1                              # DB row count
      row: { column: value }               # DB row assertions
      error_contains: "message"            # Error substring match
      not_empty: true                      # Response must not be empty
    # Variable capture (for use in later steps)
    capture:
      var_name: "$.json.path"              # JSONPath → variable

# Cleanup (optional, always runs even on failure)
cleanup:
  - id: cleanup_step
    transport: http
    # ... same fields as steps

# Tags (for filtering)
tags: ["locks", "success", "basic"]

Best practices for scenario authoring:

1. Always include cleanup steps for scenarios that create state (locks, tasks, memories). Cleanup failures are warnings, not errors.
2. Use variable capture when a step produces an ID needed by later steps (e.g., capture: { task_id: "$.task_id" } then body: { task_id: "{{ task_id }}" }).
3. Verify state in DB after mutations — don't trust the API response alone.
4. Cross-interface scenarios should perform an action via one transport and verify via another (e.g., acquire lock via HTTP, check via MCP, verify in DB).
5. Failure scenarios should assert error conditions: status: 4xx, error_contains: "...", body: { success: false }.
6. Keep scenarios focused — test one behavior per scenario. A scenario with 10+ steps may be doing too much.
7. Use priority wisely: 1 = critical paths (auth, locks, data integrity), 2 = important features, 3 = coverage/edge cases.

6. Validate the Scenario

Before writing, validate the generated YAML against the Pydantic model:

cd <project-root>
.venv/bin/python -c "
import yaml
from gen_eval.models import Scenario

with open('/dev/stdin') as f:
    data = yaml.safe_load(f)
scenario = Scenario(**data)
print(f'Valid scenario: {scenario.id} ({len(scenario.steps)} steps, {len(scenario.interfaces)} transports)')
" <<< "$SCENARIO_YAML"

If validation fails, show the error and fix the YAML before writing.

7. Write and Confirm

Write the validated YAML to the appropriate location:

<scenarios-dir>/<category>/<scenario-id>.yaml

After writing:

1. Show the full YAML for review
2. Run a dry validation to confirm it loads
3. Suggest running /gen-eval --categories <category> to test the new scenario

Example Session

User: /gen-eval-scenario --category auth-boundary --type failure

Agent: Reading descriptor... 10 auth-related endpoints found.
       Existing auth-boundary scenarios: 10 (71% coverage).
       Under-tested: policy denial with Cedar, trust level escalation.

       I'll create a failure scenario for trust level escalation.

       Generated: auth-boundary/trust-level-escalation.yaml
       - 5 steps across http and db transports
       - Tests: low-trust agent attempts high-trust operation → blocked
       - Cleanup: removes test agent profile

       Run it: /gen-eval --categories auth-boundary

Output

• New scenario YAML file at <scenarios-dir>/<category>/<id>.yaml
• Validation confirmation
• Suggested next command to run the scenario