coyote/docs/testing/notes/ITERATION-10-NOTES.md

Iteration 10 — Test Implementation Notes

Plan files addressed

• docs/testing/plans/09-repl-commands.md (completed in same session)
• docs/testing/plans/10-cli-flags.md

Tests created

src/config/mod.rs (8 new tests — iteration 9)

AssertState::assert tests for all 4 variants + pass/bare.

src/repl/mod.rs (31 new tests — iteration 9)

REPL_COMMANDS array validation, command state assertions for 13 specific commands, parse_command edge cases, split_first_arg, ReplCommand::is_valid, multiline regex.

src/cli/mod.rs (31 new tests — iteration 10)

Test name	What it verifies
parse_no_args_defaults	All flags default unset
parse_model_flag	--model value
parse_model_short_flag	-m value
parse_role_flag	--role value
parse_session_with_name	--session value
parse_agent_flag	--agent value
parse_agent_short_flag	-a value
parse_execute_flag	-e flag
parse_code_flag	-c flag
parse_no_stream_flag	-S flag
parse_dry_run_flag	--dry-run flag
parse_info_flag	--info flag
parse_list_flags	All 6 --list-* flags
parse_file_flag_single	Single -f
parse_file_flag_multiple	Multiple -f accumulate
parse_trailing_text	Trailing args as text vec
parse_prompt_flag	--prompt value
parse_empty_session_flag	--empty-session flag
parse_save_session_flag	--save-session flag
parse_build_tools_flag	--build-tools flag
parse_sync_models_flag	--sync-models flag
parse_model_with_role	-m + -r combined
parse_agent_with_file_and_text	-a + -f + text combined
parse_role_with_session	-r + -s combined
cli_text_returns_none_when_no_text_no_stdin	No input → None
cli_text_joins_trailing_args	Args joined with spaces
parse_add_secret_flag	--add-secret value
parse_get_secret_flag	--get-secret value
parse_list_secrets_flag	--list-secrets flag
parse_rag_flag	--rag value
parse_macro_flag	--macro value

Total: 70 new tests across iterations 9+10 (342 total in suite)

Bugs discovered

None.

Observations for future iterations

1. Clap parsing is fully testable: Using try_parse_from with synthetic arg arrays, all flag parsing and combinations can be verified without running the actual binary.

2. Cli::text() has stdin dependency: When stdin is not a terminal, it reads from stdin. This branch can't be easily unit-tested. The terminal-detection branch (no stdin) is tested.

3. Prelude is async + filesystem: apply_prelude needs real role and session files. Deferred to integration tests.

4. Mode selection is runtime behavior: The actual mode branching (REPL vs CMD) happens in main.rs based on parsed flags. Testing the flag parsing verifies the inputs to that branching logic.

5. Exclusive flags: Vault flags (--add-secret, --get-secret, etc.) are marked exclusive = true in clap, meaning they can't be combined with other args. This is enforced by clap.

Next iteration

Plan file 11: Sub-Agent Spawning — supervisor, child agents, escalation, messaging.