Test Planning Orchestrator

Paths: File paths (shared/, references/, ../​ln-*) are relative to skills repo root. If not found at CWD, locate this SKILL.md directory and go up one level for repo root. If shared/ is missing, fetch files via WebFetch from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/​levnikolaevich/​claude-code-skills/​master/​skills/​{path}.

Test Planning Orchestrator

Type: L2 Coordinator Category: 5XX Quality

Runtime-backed test-planning coordinator. The runtime owns skip/​reuse gates, worker summary tracking, and deterministic resume.

Inputs

Resolution: Story Resolution Chain. Status filter: To Review

Purpose & Scope

• Orchestrate test planning: research → manual testing → automated test planning
• Delegate to workers: ln-521-test-researcher, ln-522-manual-tester, ln-523-auto-test-planner
• No direct work — only coordination and delegation via Skill tool

Runtime Contract

MANDATORY READ: Load shared/​references/​coordinator_runtime_contract.md, shared/​references/​test_planning_runtime_contract.md, shared/​references/​test_planning_summary_contract.md, shared/​references/​test_planning_worker_runtime_contract.md, shared/​references/​task_plan_worker_runtime_contract.md

Runtime family: test-planning-runtime

Identifier:

• Story ID

Phases:

1. PHASE_0_CONFIG
2. PHASE_1_DISCOVERY
3. PHASE_2_RESEARCH
4. PHASE_3_MANUAL_TESTING
5. PHASE_4_AUTO_TEST_PLANNING
6. PHASE_5_FINALIZE
7. PHASE_6_SELF_CHECK

Worker summary contract:

• ln-521, ln-522, ln-523 receive deterministic child runId plus exact summaryArtifactPath
• checkpoint child runtime metadata before waiting for the artifact
• each worker writes a test-planning-worker summary envelope before terminal outcome
• ln-520 consumes worker summaries, not free-text worker prose

When to Use

This skill should be used when:

• Story passed implementation and regression work and needs full test planning
• 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-513)
• Code quality checked (ln-511)

Pipeline Overview

ln-520-test-planner (Orchestrator)
    │
    ├─→ ln-521-test-researcher
    │     └─→ Posts "## Test Research: {Feature}" comment
    │
    ├─→ ln-522-manual-tester
    │     └─→ Creates tests/​manual/ scripts + "## Manual Testing Results" comment
    │
    └─→ ln-523-auto-test-planner
          └─→ Creates test task in Linear via ln-301/​ln-302

Workflow

Phase 0: Resolve Inputs

MANDATORY READ: Load shared/​references/​input_resolution_pattern.md

1. Resolve storyId: Run Story Resolution Chain per guide (status filter: [To Review]).

Phase 1: Discovery

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

Phase 2: Research Delegation

Simplified mode gate:

• IF --simplified flag AND research comment already exists on Story: Skip Phase 2 (research). Proceed to Phase 4.
• IF --simplified flag AND no research comment: Skip Phase 2. Proceed to Phase 4 (ln-523 will generate minimal inline research).

1. Check if research exists:

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

2. If no research:

   • Compute deterministic child run inputs for ln-521
   • Start test-planning-worker-runtime and checkpoint child_run before delegation
   • Invoke ln-521-test-researcher via managed worker run
   • Pass: Story ID
   • Wait for completion
   • Read only the resulting test-planning-worker artifact
   • Verify research comment created

Phase 3: Manual Testing Delegation

Simplified mode gate:

• IF --simplified flag: Skip Phase 3 (manual testing). Proceed to Phase 4.

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:

   • Compute deterministic child run inputs for ln-522
   • Start test-planning-worker-runtime and checkpoint child_run before delegation
   • Invoke ln-522-manual-tester via managed worker run
   • Pass: Story ID
   • Wait for completion
   • Read only the resulting test-planning-worker artifact
   • 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:

   • Compute deterministic child run inputs for ln-523
   • Start test-planning-worker-runtime and checkpoint child_run before delegation
   • Invoke ln-523-auto-test-planner via managed worker run
   • Pass: Story ID
   • Wait for completion
   • Read only the resulting test-planning-worker artifact

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

Runtime Summary Artifact

MANDATORY READ: Load shared/​references/​coordinator_summary_contract.md

Write .hex-skills/​runtime-artifacts/​runs/​{run_id}/​story-tests/​{story_id}.json before finishing.

Worker Invocation (MANDATORY)

CRITICAL: All delegations use Agent tool with subagent_type: "general-purpose" for context isolation, but every managed worker run must be prepared through test-planning-worker-runtime first.

Prompt template:

Agent(description: "[Phase N] test planning via ln-52X",
     prompt: "Execute test planning worker.

Step 1: Start worker runtime:
  node shared/​scripts/​test-planning-worker-runtime/​cli.mjs start --skill {worker} --story {storyId} --manifest-file .hex-skills/​test-planning/​{worker}--{storyId}_manifest.json --run-id {childRunId} --summary-artifact-path .hex-skills/​runtime-artifacts/​runs/​{parent_run_id}/​test-planning-worker/​{worker}--{storyId}.json

Step 2: Checkpoint child metadata:
  node shared/​scripts/​test-planning-runtime/​cli.mjs checkpoint --story {storyId} --phase PHASE_N --payload '{\"child_run\":{\"worker\":\"{worker}\",\"run_id\":\"{childRunId}\",\"summary_artifact_path\":\".hex-skills/​runtime-artifacts/​runs/​{parent_run_id}/​test-planning-worker/​{worker}--{storyId}.json\"}}'

Step 3: Invoke worker:
  Skill(skill: \"ln-52X-{worker}\", args: \"{storyId} --run-id {childRunId} --summary-artifact-path .hex-skills/​runtime-artifacts/​runs/​{parent_run_id}/​test-planning-worker/​{worker}--{storyId}.json\")

CONTEXT:
Story: {storyId}",
     subagent_type: "general-purpose")

Anti-Patterns:

• ❌ Direct Agent invocation without child runtime start + child_run checkpoint
• ❌ Running web searches directly (delegate to ln-521)
• ❌ Creating bash test scripts directly (delegate to ln-522)
• ❌ Creating test tasks directly (delegate to ln-523)
• ❌ Skipping any phase without justification

TodoWrite format (mandatory)

- Resolve Story and prerequisites (pending)
- Check or reuse research state (pending)
- Start ln-521 child runtime, checkpoint metadata, or skip deterministically (pending)
- Check or reuse manual testing state (pending)
- Start ln-522 child runtime, checkpoint metadata, or skip deterministically (pending)
- Start ln-523 child runtime, checkpoint metadata, and verify test-task result (pending)
- Write story-tests summary artifact (pending)
- Report final planning outcome (pending)

Critical Rules

• No direct work: Orchestrator only delegates, never executes tasks itself
• Sequential execution: 521 → 522 → 523 (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
• Every managed worker run must start through test-planning-worker-runtime before the Agent wrapper invokes the worker.

Definition of Done

• Story ID validated
• Research phase: ln-521 invoked OR existing comment found
• Manual testing phase: ln-522 invoked OR existing results found
• Auto test planning phase: ln-523 invoked
• Child test-planning runtimes started and checkpointed before every managed worker invoke
• Test task created/​updated in Linear
• Summary prepared with phase results and test task URL
• Story-test summary artifact written to the shared location

Output: Summary with phase results + test task URL

Phase 6: Meta-Analysis

MANDATORY READ: Load shared/​references/​meta_analysis_protocol.md

Skill type: planning-coordinator. Run after all phases complete. Output to chat using the planning-coordinator format.

Reference Files

• Workers: ../​ln-521-test-researcher/​SKILL.md, ../​ln-522-manual-tester/​SKILL.md, ../​ln-523-auto-test-planner/​SKILL.md
• Risk-based testing: shared/​references/​risk_based_testing_guide.md

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Version: 4.0.0 Last Updated: 2026-01-15