Files
msd-core/gsd-core/references/api-coverage.md
Tom Boucher 03b7125293 enhance(#3909): a probe that could not run no longer asserts a verdict (#3944)
* test(#3909): failing-first suite for the fabricated probe fallbacks

Binds the four fabrication sites found by executing the surfaces (ADR-3889
failure class (c)), each with a positive control so an over-firing fix goes red:

- the blocking api-coverage.verify-pre gate certifying "no external-API
  integration" from a zero-byte phase scope
- the assumption-delta query route scanning an unresolvable phase section as
  the empty string and reporting it as an examined negative
- both capability fragments' probe fallbacks, which append a fabricated
  verdict rather than replacing, and fire on the legitimate exit-1 negative

Verification runs on the remote runner.

Refs #3909

* enhance(#3909): a probe that could not run no longer asserts a verdict

ADR-3889 Phase 5. Four sites turned a failed or unexamined probe into a
confident negative; each now reports what it could not establish.

- check api-coverage.verify-pre: a phase with no plan body and no roadmap
  section ran detection over zero bytes and PASSED the blocking seal gate,
  certifying "no external-API integration" from input it never read. It now
  holds with scope_unavailable. The discriminator is bytes examined, never
  signals found, so a phase whose plans are real and simply carry no API
  vocabulary passes exactly as before.
- query assumption-delta scan: an unresolvable phase section was scanned as
  the empty string and reported as an examined negative. It now returns
  {skipped, reason: phase_unresolved}, still at exit 0 — an ADR-2980 degraded
  result in the payload, leaving the gsd-tools exit projection to P8.
- both capability fragments: `|| echo '{"detected":false}'` appended rather
  than replaced, and fired on the legitimate exit-1 negative, so a correct
  answer and an honest skip both arrived as two concatenated objects. They now
  keep the probe's own payload and manufacture only an explicit
  probe_unavailable skip when the probe produced nothing at all.

Every registered outcome is more restrictive on a blocking gate, so this can
turn a false green red and never a red green.

Docs: FEATURES 156, CONFIGURATION (both keys), references/api-coverage.md
seal-time outcome table, and a new how-to for the reason-code vocabulary.

Verification runs on the remote runner.

Closes #3909

* test(#3909): correct the stale unknown-phase assertion

`unknown phase → detected:false, no throw (graceful)` scanned phase 999
against a two-phase roadmap and asserted `detected === false`. That pinned
the fabrication as intended behavior: the phase does not exist, so the
detector was handed the empty string and its "no core assumption changed"
answer described nothing that was ever read.

It now asserts the skipped-with-reason shape. The graceful-degradation
contract the test was actually protecting — the query succeeds and does not
throw on an unknown phase — is unchanged.

Found by code review, not by the author.

Refs #3909

* docs(#3909): author the FEATURES entry in its generator source

`docs/FEATURES.md` is generated by `scripts/gen-features.cjs` from the
per-feature fragments in `docs/features/`. The API-coverage entry was edited
in the generated file, so the next regeneration silently dropped it.

The text now lives in `docs/features/api-coverage-gate.md` and
`docs/FEATURES.md` is regenerated from it, leaving the shipped file
byte-identical and its content actually derivable.

Caught by `lint:generated-sync`.

Refs #3909

* test(#3909): bind the skip to "not found", and pin the discriminator

The first verification run went red on one case, and the case was wrong
rather than the code.

`getRoadmapPhaseWithFallback` returns `null` for an unknown phase and for a
missing ROADMAP.md, but for a section whose body is whitespace-only it returns
the heading line alone — which is not empty. So a body-less section WAS found,
and reporting `detected:false` over its heading is a real negative, not a
fabrication. The test had assumed the resolver yielded `''` there.

Correcting the test rather than the resolver keeps `skipped` bound to the
distinction the issue asks for — found versus not found — and avoids diverging
`assumption-delta scan` from `roadmap.get-phase`, which the fragment documents
as sharing one resolver.

Also adds the seeded property the test matrix had promised: for any plan body,
the scope read back is whitespace-only exactly when the body was. That pins the
gate's discriminator to bytes examined, so it cannot quietly become "no signals
found", across unicode whitespace and CRLF.

`docs/INVENTORY.md` picks up the reference doc's new seal-time outcome table —
surfaced by the co-change gate, not by a lint failure.

Refs #3909

* chore(#3909): backfill the changeset PR number

Refs #3909

---------

Co-authored-by: sim <sim@local>
2026-08-27 15:50:12 -04:00

7.3 KiB

API Coverage Gate (Full Coverage by Default — Opt Out, Never Opt In)

Reference for the api-coverage gate on the ai-integration capability (#1562). Config key: workflow.api_coverage_gate (default true). Gate point: verify:pre.

The problem this closes

"We integrated the API" too often silently means "we integrated whatever the first use case exercised." Every un-built capability is then an invisible hole, discovered later by a user who reasonably expected it to work. The phase sealed green because its tasks completed — nobody decided the gaps were acceptable, because nobody enumerated them.

This gate makes the API surface visible and decided before the phase can seal. Full coverage is the default starting position; the coverage matrix is the subtraction record. Every gap is an explicit, reasoned opt-out rather than a surprise.

When it fires

The gate runs at verify:pre (before /gsd:verify-work begins UAT). A phase is treated as an external-API integration when either:

  1. a COVERAGE.md matrix is present in the phase directory (the planner produced one at plan:pre), or
  2. the phase scope shows a strong external-API-integration signal (an integration verb and an external-API noun in the same clause, or an explicit <Service> API|SDK|REST|GraphQL surface naming a real service) and no matrix yet exists.

The detector is deliberately fail-closed: it leans toward firing, because a false positive is dismissed by a one-line COVERAGE.md "no external API integration" declaration, whereas a false negative silently lets a real external-API phase past this blocking gate — strictly worse. So it suppresses only prose that is unambiguously not external integration. A bare word like "api" in "the public API of UserController" is ignored (no integration verb + named service); the clause boundary is the whole relationship test, so an integration verb and an API noun in different clauses do not pair. Since #2365 the detector also excludes non-prose spans before matching: fenced code blocks, inline `code` spans, and path-shaped tokens (a first-party src/app/api/profile/route.ts route is a file path, not an external API, while an external host like api.stripe.com/v1 still counts). In the <Service> API surface position it rejects capitalized sentence starters ("The API"), locality/protocol descriptors ("Internal API", "REST API"), compound modifiers ("Resolver-only API"), and first-party-qualified services ("internal Payments API") — a real vendor name is none of these.

The two touch points

  1. Plan time (plan:pre). A contribution to the planner prompts it to run the deterministic detector over the phase scope and, when an integration is detected, produce COVERAGE.md. See capabilities/ai-integration/fragments/api-coverage-plan-pre.md.
  2. Seal time (verify:pre). The blocking api-coverage.verify-pre gate runs check api-coverage.verify-pre <phase-dir> and blocks unless a valid matrix exists (or no integration is detected in a scope it could actually read).

Seal-time outcomes

Condition Verdict
Valid COVERAGE.md matrix pass
No external API integration: <reason> declaration pass (the reasoned human overrule)
Malformed / partial matrix block
No matrix, integration signal found block
No matrix, no signal, scope was read pass
No matrix, scope could not be established block — scope_unavailable: true (#3909)
Phase token unresolvable block
Plan file exists but unreadable block
No .planning/phases tree at all pass — not a GSD project layout

The last four are the fail-closed arms: the gate refuses to certify "no external-API integration" from scope it did not read. A phase with real plans and no API vocabulary is the fifth row, and is unaffected.

The coverage matrix format

Canonical form — a markdown table (human-editable, diff-friendly):

# API Coverage — <service>

> Full coverage by default. Opt-outs are explicit, reasoned decisions.

| capability | decision | reason |
|---|---|---|
| search | INTEGRATE | |
| playlists | INTEGRATE | |
| skip | OPT-OUT | not needed yet — tracked for follow-up phase |
  • INTEGRATE is the default. Every capability starts as INTEGRATE.
  • Every OPT-OUT MUST carry a one-line reason (not needed, not needed yet, explicitly out of scope, …). An opt-out without a reason is an un-decided hole — the exact failure mode this gate exists to close.
  • A fenced ```coverage JSON block ([{"capability":…,"decision":…,"reason":…}]) is also accepted for machine-generated matrices.

Rules enforced at seal time: the matrix must be non-empty; every capability name must be non-empty and unique; every decision must be INTEGRATE or OPT-OUT; every OPT-OUT must have a reason. Violations block the seal with a precise error.

Declaring "no external API integration" (#2365)

A phase that integrates no external API/SDK/service — but was still asked for a matrix (e.g. the detector over-fired, or a team wants the decision on record) — declares it instead of fabricating a row:

No external API integration: UI-only phase, no third-party surface.

The reason is required, exactly like an OPT-OUT reason — the declaration is a reasoned decision, not a bypass. A COVERAGE.md containing both the declaration and coverage rows is contradictory and blocks the seal. When the detector still finds integration signals in the phase scope, the declaration wins (it is the human overrule for a fallible detector) but the gate output surfaces the overridden signals so the contradiction is visible, not silent.

A second integration against the same need

A second platform for an existing capability (e.g. adding YouTube alongside Spotify for media playback) starts from the same full-coverage baseline as the first. Do not carry over the first integration's opt-outs silently — re-decide each capability for the new surface, so a first-class/fallback asymmetry cannot accumulate into a later user-facing bug.

The matrix persists

COVERAGE.md is a phase artifact. A future phase that extends the same integration starts from the recorded surface and decisions rather than from zero — the matrix is the durable subtraction record.

Tuning

  • Disable entirely: set workflow.api_coverage_gate: false in .planning/config.json (the gate unregisters from verify:pre).
  • Widen the trigger vocabulary: the detector accepts --verbs / --nouns overrides (see capabilities/ai-integration/fragments/api-coverage-plan-pre.md). The default vocabulary is additive-only.

Detector CLI

echo "$PHASE_SCOPE" | node gsd-core/bin/lib/api-coverage.cjs --json
# exit 0 = integration detected, 1 = none (real input, examined, no signal)
# NO_INPUT = stdin was empty or whitespace-only (registry code — ADR-3889 Phase 3, #3907)
# UNAVAILABLE = stdin read failed (registry code)
# NO_INPUT/UNAVAILABLE emit {"skipped":true,"reason":"no_input"|"stdin_error"} — no `detected` key

The detector is a pure function (detectApiIntegration → { detected, signals, terms }) shared by the plan-time prompt and the seal-time gate, so the low-false-positive guarantee is testable rather than a judgment call.