Test Planning Orchestrator

Test Planning Orchestrator

Coordinates the complete test planning pipeline for a Story by delegating to specialized workers.

Purpose & Scope

• Orchestrate test planning: research → manual testing → automated test planning
• Delegate to workers: ln-511-test-researcher, ln-512-manual-tester, ln-513-auto-test-planner
• No direct work — only coordination and delegation via Skill tool
• Called by ln-500-story-quality-gate after regression tests pass

When to Use

This skill should be used when:

• Invoked by ln-500-story-quality-gate Pass 1 after regression tests pass
• All implementation tasks in Story are Done
• Need complete test planning (research + manual + auto)

Prerequisites:

• All implementation Tasks in Story status = Done
• Regression tests passed (ln-503)
• Code quality checked (ln-501)

Pipeline Overview

ln-510-test-planner (Orchestrator)
    │
    ├─→ ln-511-test-researcher
    │     └─→ Posts "## Test Research: {Feature}" comment
    │
    ├─→ ln-512-manual-tester
    │     └─→ Creates tests/​manual/ scripts + "## Manual Testing Results" comment
    │
    └─→ ln-513-auto-test-planner
          └─→ Creates test task in Linear via ln-301/​ln-302

Workflow

Phase 1: Discovery

1. Auto-discover Team ID from docs/​tasks/​kanban_board.md
2. Validate Story ID provided by ln-500

Input: Story ID from ln-500-story-quality-gate

Phase 2: Research Delegation

1. Check if research exists:

   • Search Linear comments for "## Test Research:" header
   • If found → skip to Phase 3

2. If no research:

   • Use Skill tool to invoke ln-511-test-researcher
   • Pass: Story ID
   • Wait for completion
   • Verify research comment created

Phase 3: Manual Testing Delegation

1. Check if manual testing done:

   • Search Linear comments for "## Manual Testing Results" header
   • If found with all AC passed → skip to Phase 4

2. If manual testing needed:

   • Use Skill tool to invoke ln-512-manual-tester
   • Pass: Story ID
   • Wait for completion
   • Verify results comment created

3. If any AC failed:

   • Stop pipeline
   • Report to ln-500: "Manual testing failed, Story needs fixes"

Phase 4: Auto Test Planning Delegation

1. Invoke auto test planner:

   • Use Skill tool to invoke ln-513-auto-test-planner
   • Pass: Story ID
   • Wait for completion

2. Verify results:

   • Test task created in Linear (or updated if existed)
   • Return task URL to ln-500

Phase 5: Report to Caller

1. Return summary to ln-500:
   • Research: completed / skipped (existed)
   • Manual testing: passed / failed
   • Test task: created / updated + URL

Worker Invocation (MANDATORY)

CRITICAL: All delegations use Task tool with subagent_type: "general-purpose" for context isolation.

Prompt template:

Task(description: "[Phase N] test planning via ln-51X",
     prompt: "Execute ln-51X-{worker}. Read skill from ln-51X-{worker}/​SKILL.md. Story: {storyId}",
     subagent_type: "general-purpose")

Anti-Patterns:

• ❌ Direct Skill tool invocation without Task wrapper
• ❌ Running web searches directly (delegate to ln-511)
• ❌ Creating bash test scripts directly (delegate to ln-512)
• ❌ Creating test tasks directly (delegate to ln-513)
• ❌ Skipping any phase without justification

Critical Rules

• No direct work: Orchestrator only delegates, never executes tasks itself
• Sequential execution: 511 → 512 → 513 (each depends on previous)
• Fail-fast: If manual testing fails, stop pipeline and report
• Skip detection: Check for existing comments before invoking workers
• Single responsibility: Each worker does one thing well

Definition of Done

• Story ID validated
• Research phase: ln-511 invoked OR existing comment found
• Manual testing phase: ln-512 invoked OR existing results found
• Auto test planning phase: ln-513 invoked
• Test task created/​updated in Linear
• Summary returned to ln-500-story-quality-gate

Output: Summary with phase results + test task URL

Reference Files

• Workers: ../​ln-511-test-researcher/​SKILL.md, ../​ln-512-manual-tester/​SKILL.md, ../​ln-513-auto-test-planner/​SKILL.md
• Caller: ../​ln-500-story-quality-gate/​SKILL.md
• Risk-based testing: ../​ln-513-auto-test-planner/​references/​risk_based_testing_guide.md

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Version: 4.0.0 (Refactored to Orchestrator pattern - delegates to ln-511/​512/​513 workers) Last Updated: 2026-01-15