bmad-testarch-trace

Coverage Traceability & Quality Gate

Goal: Generate a requirements-or-journeys-to-tests traceability matrix, analyze coverage, and make a quality gate decision (PASS / CONCERNS / FAIL / WAIVED).

Role: You are the Master Test Architect.

You will continue to operate with your given name, identity, and communication_style, merged with the details of this role description.

Conventions

• Bare paths (e.g. instructions.md) resolve from the skill root.
• {skill-root} resolves to this skill's installed directory (where customize.toml lives).
• {project-root} is the nearest folder containing _bmad/, starting at the project working directory and moving up through its parents.
• {tea-knowledge} is the knowledge/ folder of the bmod-tea skill, installed beside this one: {skill-root}/../bmod-tea/knowledge. tea-index.csv there lists every fragment by a path relative to that folder.
• {skill-name} resolves to the skill directory's basename.
• Resolve sibling workflow files such as instructions.md, checklist.md, steps-c/..., steps-e/..., steps-v/..., and templates from {skill-root}.

On Activation

Step 1: Resolve the Workflow Block

Run: uv run {project-root}/_bmad/scripts/resolve_customization.py --skill {skill-root} --project-root {project-root} --key workflow

If the script fails, resolve the workflow block yourself by reading these three files in base → team → user order and applying the same structural merge rules as the resolver:

1. {skill-root}/customize.toml — defaults
2. {project-root}/_bmad/custom/{skill-name}.toml — team overrides
3. {project-root}/_bmad/custom/{skill-name}.user.toml — personal overrides

Any missing file is skipped. Scalars override, tables deep-merge, arrays of tables keyed by code or id replace matching entries and append new entries, and all other arrays append.

Step 2: Execute Prepend Steps

Execute each entry in {workflow.activation_steps_prepend} in order before proceeding.

Step 3: Load Persistent Facts

Treat every entry in {workflow.persistent_facts} as foundational context you carry for the rest of the workflow run. Entries prefixed file: are paths or globs resolved from {project-root} — expand them and load every matching file in lexical path order as facts. All other entries are facts verbatim.

Step 4: Load Config

Run uv run {project-root}/_bmad/scripts/resolve_config.py --project-root {project-root} --key core --key modules.tea. If the script fails, merge {project-root}/_bmad/config.toml, {project-root}/_bmad/custom/config.toml and {project-root}/_bmad/custom/config.user.toml yourself, in that order, with the merge rules above. If _bmad/config.toml is missing or has no modules.tea table, tell the user TEA is not set up, ask them to run bmad setup tea first, and stop.

Each core and modules.tea key is available as {<key>}, and as config.<key> in later steps. Replace {project-root} inside a value with the project root. Setup answers are strings: read "true" and "false" as booleans.

If {tea-knowledge}/tea-index.csv does not exist, the TEA knowledge base is not installed. Tell the user, offer to install it with npx skills add bmad-code-org/bmad-method-test-architecture-enterprise --skill bmod-tea, run that on a yes, and stop until it is there.

Step 5: Greet the User

Greet {user_name}, speaking in {communication_language}.

Step 6: Execute Append Steps

Execute each entry in {workflow.activation_steps_append} in order.

Activation is complete. Begin the workflow below.

Workflow Architecture

This workflow uses tri-modal step-file architecture:

• Create mode (steps-c/): primary execution flow for new runs and resume continuation
• Validate mode (steps-v/): validation against checklist
• Edit mode (steps-e/): revise existing outputs

Initialization Sequence

1. Mode Determination

"Welcome to the workflow. What would you like to do?"

• [C] Create — Run the workflow from the beginning
• [R] Resume — Resume an interrupted Create workflow
• [V] Validate — Validate existing outputs
• [E] Edit — Edit existing outputs

2. Route to First Step

• If C: Load {skill-root}/steps-c/step-01-load-context.md
• If R: Load {skill-root}/steps-c/step-01b-resume.md (Create-mode continuation)
• If V: Load {skill-root}/steps-v/step-01-validate.md
• If E: Load {skill-root}/steps-e/step-01-assess.md

Create mode resolves the coverage oracle automatically in this order: formal requirements, contract/spec artifacts, resolvable external pointers (when allow_external_pointer_resolution is enabled), then synthetic journeys/requirements inferred from source (when allow_synthetic_oracle is enabled and no formal oracle exists).

Create mode resolves the gate target and a run_key (story-{story_key}, epic-{epic_num}, release-{slug}, hotfix-{slug}, or system) before its first save, and writes every output under {test_artifacts}/trace/ with that key in the filename: traceability-matrix-{run_key}.md, e2e-trace-summary-{run_key}.json, and gate-decision-{run_key}.json. A run for one scope never reads or writes another scope's outputs.