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deepseek-harness/docs/rfc/proposed/testing/2026-06-11-mutation-testing.md
Tianyi Cui e6fad266a6 docs(rfc): define and enforce a uniform RFC format; adopt it across the corpus
Define the in-file RFC contract in docs/rfc/README.md § The file format:
the header block (`# RFC: <title>` plus a dateless Status enum
cross-checked against the lifecycle folder), the per-lifecycle body
skeleton (a Problem opener everywhere; Proposal/Alternatives considered/
Acceptance criteria/Risks in proposed/; present-tense Decision/
Consequences with proposal-era headings banned in implemented/; the
frozen proposal shape in rejected/), and a mandatory Alternatives
considered section with a date-fenced grandfather comment for pre-format
RFCs whose alternatives are not reconstructible from the record.

Enforce it with a new doc-sync gate, scripts/verify-rfc-format.ts, and
normalize all 112 RFCs to it: ~15 Status-line spellings collapse to the
enum, 29 Context openers become Problem, the 39 legacy-format XXX debt
markers are resolved and banned from reappearing, proposal-era sections
in implemented RFCs are rewritten to shipped reality (including the
web/fs/subagent seam RFCs' migration plans and test checklists, closing
the doc-tiers deferred-work item on the web seam), every RFC gains an
Alternatives considered section or the grandfather comment, and the
bilingual pair is re-mirrored and re-recorded.

Move the generated index tables out of README.md into a fully generated
docs/rfc/INDEX.md — gen-rfc-index now writes the whole file, and
verify-rfc-classification checks its freshness and rejects index-shaped
rows in the curated README — which makes room for the format contract to
live in the README front door instead of a separate FORMAT.md.

The decision record, and the first RFC written in the new format, is
docs/rfc/implemented/process/2026-07-05-uniform-rfc-format.md.
2026-07-05 22:58:25 +08:00

2.1 KiB

RFC: Mutation testing as the coverage counterweight

Status: proposed

Problem

The per-file 100% coverage gate (the quality-gates decision) proves every line executes under test — not that any assertion would notice if the line were wrong. Under agent-written tests, coverage pressure can produce execution-without-assertion. Mutation testing measures what coverage cannot: whether the suite kills deliberately injected bugs.

Proposal

Stryker (@stryker-mutator/vitest-runner) over packages/*/src:

  • PR-scoped incremental runs (changed files only) as a CI job — fast enough to gate merges once tuned.
  • Nightly full runs with a tracked mutation score; start by recording, then set the threshold at the observed baseline and ratchet upward (same policy as coverage: thresholds only ever tighten).
  • Surviving mutants are work items: an agent picks a survivor, writes the killing test, repeats — a well-shaped autonomous loop.
  • Equivalent mutants (provably behavior-preserving) get annotated exclusions with reasons, mirroring the /* v8 ignore */ policy.

Plan

  1. Add Stryker config scoped to one package (llm — smallest, most algorithmic) and measure runtime.
  2. Expand to all packages; record baseline scores in the config.
  3. Wire the nightly job; add the incremental PR job once runtime is acceptable.

Acceptance criteria

  • A Stryker config runs over packages/*/src with the vitest runner; a nightly job records the mutation score, and a ratcheting threshold fails the run when the score drops below the recorded baseline.
  • PR-scoped incremental runs gate merges once runtime is acceptable — or are explicitly kept nightly-only, with that outcome recorded here.
  • Equivalent mutants carry annotated exclusions with reasons, mirroring the /* v8 ignore */ policy.

Risks

Runtime: mutation testing is expensive; per-file 100% coverage helps (every mutant is at least reached). If PR-scoped runs stay too slow, keep them nightly-only and rely on the score ratchet.