bmad-template/.codebuddy/skills/bmad-testarch-test-review/steps-c/step-03a-subagent-determinism.md

---

name: ‘step-03a-subagent-determinism’ description: ‘Subagent: Check test determinism (no random/time dependencies)’ subagent: true

outputFile: ‘/tmp/tea-test-review-determinism-{{timestamp}}.json’

Subagent 3A: Determinism Quality Check

SUBAGENT CONTEXT

This is an isolated subagent running in parallel with other quality dimension checks.

What you have from parent workflow:

• Test files discovered in Step 2
• Knowledge fragment: test-quality (determinism criteria)
• Config: test framework

Your task: Analyze test files for DETERMINISM violations only.

---

MANDATORY EXECUTION RULES

• 📖 Read this entire subagent file before acting
• ✅ Check DETERMINISM only (not other quality dimensions)
• ✅ Output structured JSON to temp file
• ❌ Do NOT check isolation, maintainability, coverage, or performance (other subagents)
• ❌ Do NOT modify test files (read-only analysis)
• ❌ Do NOT run tests (just analyze code)

---

SUBAGENT TASK

1. Identify Determinism Violations

Scan test files for non-deterministic patterns:

HIGH SEVERITY Violations:

• Math.random() - Random number generation
• Date.now() or new Date() without mocking
• setTimeout / setInterval without proper waits
• External API calls without mocking
• File system operations on random paths
• Database queries with non-deterministic ordering
• PactV4 consumer tests: multiple pact.addInteraction() in a single it() block — the Rust FFI non-deterministically drops interactions (see pactjs-utils-consumer-helpers.md Example 6). Flag any .pacttest.ts file where a single it()/test() contains more than one addInteraction() chain.
• PactV4 consumer Vitest config missing fileParallelism: false in vitest.config.pact.ts — parallel workers race on the shared pact JSON file (see pact-consumer-framework-setup.md Example 2). HIGH regardless of file count.
• PactV4 consumer Vitest config missing pool: 'forks' + poolOptions.forks.singleFork: true in vitest.config.pact.ts — best current understanding is that the @pact-foundation/pact napi-rs binding is not robust across Vitest worker threads sharing a process; once a consumer+provider pair has ≥2 .pacttest.ts files, default threads pool produces reproducible “request was expected but not received” flakes on Linux CI. Severity: HIGH if the repo has ≥2 .pacttest.ts files for the same consumer+provider pair; LOW (future-proof advisory) for single-file suites. See pact-consumer-framework-setup.md Example 2.
• Pact provider Vitest config missing pool: 'forks' + poolOptions.forks.singleFork: true in vitest.config.contract.ts for multi-file provider suites (especially message providers) — same pool rule as the consumer side (see pactjs-utils-provider-verifier.md Example 7).
• Consumer or provider Vitest config sets any of: sequence.concurrent: true, maxConcurrency > 1, maxWorkers > 1, isolate: false in vitest.config.pact.ts / vitest.config.contract.ts — each defeats the serialization the forks-singleFork rule relies on. HIGH.
• Consumer repo lacks a determinism gate — if tea_use_pactjs_utils is enabled, flag any package.json whose test:pact:consumer script does not run scripts/check-pact-determinism.sh (see pact-consumer-framework-setup.md Example 10).

MEDIUM SEVERITY Violations:

• page.waitForTimeout(N) - Hard waits instead of conditions
• Flaky selectors (CSS classes that may change)
• Race conditions (missing proper synchronization)
• Test order dependencies (test A must run before test B)

LOW SEVERITY Violations:

• Missing test isolation (shared state between tests)
• Console timestamps without fixed timezone

2. Analyze Each Test File

For each test file from Step 2:

const violations = [];

// Check for Math.random()
if (testFileContent.includes('Math.random()')) {
  violations.push({
    file: testFile,
    line: findLineNumber('Math.random()'),
    severity: 'HIGH',
    category: 'random-generation',
    description: 'Test uses Math.random() - non-deterministic',
    suggestion: 'Use faker.seed(12345) for deterministic random data',
  });
}

// Check for Date.now()
if (testFileContent.includes('Date.now()') || testFileContent.includes('new Date()')) {
  violations.push({
    file: testFile,
    line: findLineNumber('Date.now()'),
    severity: 'HIGH',
    category: 'time-dependency',
    description: 'Test uses Date.now() or new Date() without mocking',
    suggestion: 'Mock system time with test.useFakeTimers() or use fixed timestamps',
  });
}

// Check for hard waits
if (testFileContent.includes('waitForTimeout')) {
  violations.push({
    file: testFile,
    line: findLineNumber('waitForTimeout'),
    severity: 'MEDIUM',
    category: 'hard-wait',
    description: 'Test uses waitForTimeout - creates flakiness',
    suggestion: 'Replace with expect(locator).toBeVisible() or interceptNetworkCall-based network waits',
  });
}

// ... check other patterns

Detecting Pact Vitest config violations (vitest.config.pact.ts / vitest.config.contract.ts)

Vitest configs vary widely — defineConfig({ test: { ... } }), mergeConfig(base, overrides), satisfies UserConfig, imported constants, TS spreads. A full AST parse is out of scope; use this fallback heuristic and accept false-negatives only for the mergeConfig case, which the subagent must flag separately:

// Resolve the config file(s). For consumer: scripts.test:pact:consumer:run in package.json
// usually points at `vitest run --config <path>`. For provider: `vitest run --config <path>`.
// If neither script exists but `.pacttest.ts` files exist, default to 'vitest.config.pact.ts'.
const configPath = resolveVitestConfigPath({ scriptName: 'test:pact:consumer:run', fallback: 'vitest.config.pact.ts' });
const src = fs.readFileSync(configPath, 'utf8');

// 1. Literal-match the two mandatory lines. Tolerate single or double quotes and whitespace.
const hasFileParallelismFalse = /\bfileParallelism\s*:\s*false\b/.test(src);
const hasPoolForks = /\bpool\s*:\s*['"]forks['"]/.test(src);
const hasSingleForkTrue = /\bsingleFork\s*:\s*true\b/.test(src);

// 2. Flag settings that would defeat the rule if a human added them.
const hasSequenceConcurrent = /\bsequence\s*:\s*\{[^}]*\bconcurrent\s*:\s*true/.test(src);
const hasHighMaxConcurrency = /\bmaxConcurrency\s*:\s*([2-9]|\d{2,})/.test(src);
const hasHighMaxWorkers = /\bmaxWorkers\s*:\s*([2-9]|\d{2,})/.test(src);
const hasIsolateFalse = /\bisolate\s*:\s*false\b/.test(src);

// 3. mergeConfig / extends fallback — we cannot reliably follow imports. Emit LOW advisory.
const usesMergeConfig = /\bmergeConfig\s*\(/.test(src) || /\bextends\s*:/.test(src);

// 4. File-count gating for the pool-forks rule.
const pactTestCount = glob.sync('tests/contract/**/*.pacttest.ts').length;

Violation emission rules (apply in order; exit on first match per check):

• Missing fileParallelism: false → HIGH (always)
• Missing pool: 'forks' OR missing singleFork: true, AND pactTestCount >= 2 → HIGH
• Missing pool: 'forks' OR missing singleFork: true, AND pactTestCount < 2 → LOW (future-proof advisory)
• Any of sequence.concurrent: true, maxConcurrency > 1, maxWorkers > 1, isolate: false present → HIGH
• usesMergeConfig AND any of the three mandatory matches missing → LOW + category: "pact-config-unverifiable" with a suggestion to inline the pool settings at the leaf config or provide a // tea:pact-ffi-safe marker comment the subagent can trust

3. Calculate Determinism Score

Scoring Logic:

const totalChecks = testFiles.length * checksPerFile;
const failedChecks = violations.length;
const passedChecks = totalChecks - failedChecks;

// Weight violations by severity
const severityWeights = { HIGH: 10, MEDIUM: 5, LOW: 2 };
const totalPenalty = violations.reduce((sum, v) => sum + severityWeights[v.severity], 0);

// Score: 100 - (penalty points)
const score = Math.max(0, 100 - totalPenalty);

---

OUTPUT FORMAT

Write JSON to temp file: /tmp/tea-test-review-determinism-{{timestamp}}.json

{
  "dimension": "determinism",
  "score": 85,
  "max_score": 100,
  "grade": "B",
  "violations": [
    {
      "file": "tests/api/user.spec.ts",
      "line": 42,
      "severity": "HIGH",
      "category": "random-generation",
      "description": "Test uses Math.random() - non-deterministic",
      "suggestion": "Use faker.seed(12345) for deterministic random data",
      "code_snippet": "const userId = Math.random() * 1000;"
    },
    {
      "file": "tests/e2e/checkout.spec.ts",
      "line": 78,
      "severity": "MEDIUM",
      "category": "hard-wait",
      "description": "Test uses waitForTimeout - creates flakiness",
      "suggestion": "Replace with expect(locator).toBeVisible()",
      "code_snippet": "await page.waitForTimeout(5000);"
    }
  ],
  "passed_checks": 12,
  "failed_checks": 3,
  "total_checks": 15,
  "violation_summary": {
    "HIGH": 1,
    "MEDIUM": 1,
    "LOW": 1
  },
  "recommendations": [
    "Use faker with fixed seed for all random data",
    "Replace all waitForTimeout with conditional waits",
    "Mock Date.now() in tests that use current time"
  ],
  "summary": "Tests are mostly deterministic with 3 violations (1 HIGH, 1 MEDIUM, 1 LOW)"
}

On Error:

{
  "dimension": "determinism",
  "success": false,
  "error": "Error message describing what went wrong"
}

---

EXIT CONDITION

Subagent completes when:

• ✅ All test files analyzed for determinism violations
• ✅ Score calculated (0-100)
• ✅ Violations categorized by severity
• ✅ Recommendations generated
• ✅ JSON output written to temp file

Subagent terminates here. Parent workflow will read output and aggregate with other quality dimensions.

---

🚨 SUBAGENT SUCCESS METRICS

✅ SUCCESS:

• All test files scanned for determinism violations
• Score calculated with proper severity weighting
• JSON output valid and complete
• Only determinism checked (not other dimensions)

❌ FAILURE:

• Checked quality dimensions other than determinism
• Invalid or missing JSON output
• Score calculation incorrect
• Modified test files (should be read-only)