Skip to content

P5.3: the backend conformance suite, specced and planned #89

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Merged
richardkiene merged 3 commits into from
Aug 20, 2026
Merged

P5.3: the backend conformance suite, specced and planned #89

Show file tree
Hide file tree
Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
3 commits
Select commit Hold shift + click to select a range
1f40853
docs: P5.3's design, and the suite it says to write already exists
richardkiene Aug 20, 2026
4a935fd
docs: P5.3's implementation plan, in eight tasks
richardkiene Aug 20, 2026
8c0bec5
docs: the assignment is P5.3, and the cold-start block says so
richardkiene Aug 20, 2026
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
41 changes: 34 additions & 7 deletions docs/status/START-HERE.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -6,9 +6,9 @@ addressed to you, the agent. Follow it as instructions — there is nothing to p
Rewritten 2026-08-18 after **MILESTONE 4 MERGED**, and updated the same day after the daemon
instance record's publish race was fixed and merged (PR #80, #81). Updated again 2026-08-19,
from branch `fix/daemon-reader-retryable-verdict`, after open item 1's residual — the reader's
retryable verdict — was implemented there and opened as PR #87. **Updated 2026-08-20: PR #87 IS
MERGED, open item 1 is closed entire, and the queue in the block below is now the whole
assignment.** Everything above the `Where the work is` heading is current; everything below it is
retryable verdict — was implemented there and opened as PR #87. **Updated 2026-08-20: PR #87 is
merged, open item 1 is closed entire, and the assignment is now P5.3 — the backend conformance
suite, specced and planned in the block below and not started.** Everything above the `Where the work is` heading is current; everything below it is
history, **with seven exceptions that are current**: the sections headed `THE FOURTH MECHANISM`
through `THE TENTH MECHANISM`, which describe live CI flakes — the ninth is about the *local*
suite, so read it before trusting a green local run, and the tenth (added 2026-08-20) is why
Expand All @@ -18,8 +18,35 @@ suite, so read it before trusting a green local run, and the tenth (added 2026-0

## IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE, READ THIS BLOCK

**PR #87 IS MERGED. OPEN ITEM 1 IS CLOSED ENTIRE, PRODUCER AND READER. THE QUEUE BELOW IS THE
WHOLE ASSIGNMENT — there is nothing left to decide about the reader half.** Merged 2026-08-20 as
**THE ASSIGNMENT IS P5.3, THE BACKEND CONFORMANCE SUITE. IT IS SPECCED, PLANNED, AND NOT STARTED.**
Chosen by the maintainer on 2026-08-20 after PR #87 merged, on the instruction to follow roadmap
order. Read these two, in this order, and nothing else is needed to begin:

| | |
|---|---|
| Design | `docs/superpowers/specs/2026-08-20-backend-conformance-suite-design.md` |
| Plan | `docs/superpowers/plans/2026-08-20-backend-conformance-suite.md` — eight tasks, execute with `superpowers:subagent-driven-development` |

**The one thing that will mislead you if you skip the design.** The roadmap says *"extract the
conformance suite from `fake_runtime.rs`"*, which reads as though a suite must be written. It must
not. `crates/gascan-core/tests/backend_contract.rs:149` is **already**
`pub async fn backend_contract(backend: &dyn RuntimeBackend)`. It cannot be reached from
`gascan-apple` or `gascan-arca` because it lives in a `tests/` target, which is not a library —
which is why `crates/gascan-apple/tests/live/backend_contract.rs` hand-rolls 65 lines over the same
ground. The task is relocation and instantiation, not authorship.

**The measurement the whole task exists for is Task 5 step 6: run the contract against arca for the
first time.** The plan deliberately writes no expected result for it. If arca fails, the deliverable
is the failing test committed with the failure quoted — **not** a weakened assertion. That is
acceptance criterion 8 in the design, and it is the one that will be under pressure.

**What is NOT in it, so nobody widens it mid-flight:** the product-level `gascan-e2e`-on-arca work
(P5's *second* exit clause), P5.4/U5, and anything about offline. Each is named under the design's
"Out of scope" with a reason.

---

**PR #87 IS MERGED. OPEN ITEM 1 IS CLOSED ENTIRE, PRODUCER AND READER.** Merged 2026-08-20 as
a true merge commit, not a squash: `7e84646`, parents `61f1b3c` (main) + `be19551` (branch),
per `git log origin/main -2 --format='%h %p %s'`. All 35 commits survive
(`git rev-list --count 61f1b3c..7e84646` → 35), and `git merge-base --is-ancestor` confirms
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -83,8 +110,8 @@ eleven of its last twelve runs, since before this branch existed.
insertions, markdown**. There is no code in it. A red `rust` there is a flake, exonerated by diff
alone. Run `git diff --name-only` before you spend an hour on a red run.

**THE QUEUE BELOW IS THE ASSIGNMENT.** It is a queue, not a menu,
and the maintainer chooses from it:
**THE QUEUE BELOW IS WHAT COMES AFTER P5.3, NOT INSTEAD OF IT.** It is a queue, not a menu, and
the maintainer chooses from it once the conformance suite is done:

1. **The seven unfixed flake mechanisms this file names** — the empty pid-file read, the
`reconcile` phase matrix that is red on `main` itself, the `lifecycle` ephemeral-port
Expand Down
Loading
Loading