Act Testing Skill

Act Testing Skill

Use this skill when a workflow change needs local validation with act.

Mandatory Validation Checkpoint

After creating or editing a workflow:

1. Assess if the workflow is Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3 (see references/workflow-tiers.md).
   • Re-assess tier after every major scope change during iteration (e.g., removed jobs/branches/options).
2. If Tier 1 or Tier 2, create a temporary test-<workflow>.yml harness and run drift guard:
   • bash .claude/skills/act-testing/scripts/check-drift.sh <production-workflow> <test-workflow>
3. Assess whether act execution is possible in the current environment.
4. Provide the user with concrete test cases and suggested act commands to run manually.
5. If Tier 3, explicitly document why act testing is not applicable.

Never silently skip the testability decision. Never run act directly against production *.yml files — always use a test-*.yml harness. The agent prepares harnesses and validation guidance; the user runs act.

Tier Decision Rubric (use before preparing act guidance)

Use this quick rubric per changed workflow:

• Tier 1 (fully testable): core behavior is internal control flow, expressions, and bash logic that can be validated locally.
• Tier 2 (partially testable): workflow combines meaningful internal logic with external integrations; test internal logic with harness + mocks.
• Tier 3 (not act-testable): workflow value is predominantly external orchestration/side effects (e.g., Vault-dependent auth, remote API mutation, deployment state), and local mocks would provide low confidence.

Decision rule:

• If internal logic is a primary risk, prepare harness + scenario matrix (Tier 1/2).
• If external orchestration is the primary risk and internal logic is minimal, Tier 3 rationale is acceptable.
• For multi-workflow changes, classify each workflow explicitly; do not infer one workflow's tier from another.

Mocked-Signal Gate (mandatory)

Before committing to Tier 1/2 harnessing, estimate how much critical behavior is mocked in the harness:

• If >=70% of critical path steps are mocked, do not default to Tier 1/2.
• In that case, either:
  • classify as Tier 3, or