test-reliability

// Multi-attribute locator: tries combinations from most specific to least
const submitBtn = await multiAttributeLocator(page, {
  testId: 'checkout-submit',              // most stable signal
  role: 'button',                          // semantic signal
  name: /place order/i,                    // accessible name
  nearText: 'Order Summary',              // visual context
});
// Internally: tries testId+role+name first, then testId alone, then role+name,
// then text, then nearText+role. Returns first visible match.
// Unlike fallback chains, it combines signals for higher confidence.

Test is flaky
│
├── Does it pass when run alone?
│   ├── YES → ORDER DEPENDENCY or DATA DEPENDENCY
│   │   ├── Does another test create/modify data it needs? → ORDER DEPENDENCY
│   │   └── Does it share a database/file/cache? → DATA DEPENDENCY
│   │
│   └── NO → Not order/data dependent. Continue below.
│
├── Does it fail more often in CI than locally?
│   ├── YES → TIMING or ENVIRONMENT
│   │   ├── Timeout errors? → TIMING (CI is slower)
│   │   ├── Connection errors? → ENVIRONMENT (network latency / service)
│   │   └── Resource errors (OOM, disk)? → ENVIRONMENT (resource contention)
│   │
│   └── NO → Same rate locally and CI. Continue below.
│
├── Does it fail at specific times?
│   ├── YES → TIME SENSITIVITY
│   │   ├── Near midnight? → Date boundary issue
│   │   ├── Near month/year end? → Calendar calculation
│   │   └── Specific hour? → Timezone issue
│   │
│   └── NO → Continue below.
│
├── Does it involve screenshots or visual comparison?
│   ├── YES → VISUAL RENDERING
│   │
│   └── NO → Continue below.
│
├── Does it call external HTTP APIs?
│   ├── YES → EXTERNAL SERVICE
│   │
│   └── NO → TIMING (most likely — default classification)
│       └── Investigate: what async operation is not being awaited?

// Pattern: verify → heal → use → cleanup
testUser: async ({ request }, use, testInfo) => {
  // 1. Try to find existing test user by deterministic email
  // 2. Verify auth token is still valid (GET /api/me)
  // 3. If token expired → refresh it (POST /refresh-token), mark as healed
  // 4. If user missing → create new one, mark as healed
  // 5. If healed → annotate testInfo for observability
  // 6. use(user) → run the test
  // 7. Cleanup: delete test user (guaranteed by fixture, even on failure)
}

Failure Detected
  │
  ▼
Candidate Repair Generated
  │
  ▼
Confidence Score Computed (0.0 - 1.0)
  │
  ▼
Evidence Diff Produced (what changed, what was tried)
  │
  ▼
Approval Policy Applied
  │ ├── Score >= 0.9   → Auto-apply, log for batch review
  │ ├── Score 0.7-0.89 → Apply in quarantine, flag for individual review
  │ ├── Score 0.5-0.69 → Do NOT apply, open PR with evidence for review
  │ └── Score < 0.5    → Discard, manual investigation required
  │
  ▼
Intent Fidelity Check (does repaired test still test the same thing?)
  │
  ▼
Rollback if intent fidelity drops

// Tag the flaky test
test('intermittent WebSocket reconnect', {
  tag: ['@quarantine'],
  annotation: {
    type: 'quarantine',
    description: 'Flaky since 2026-03-15. Race condition in WebSocket handler. Ticket: BUG-1234.',
  },
}, async ({ page }) => { /* ... */ });

// playwright.config.ts — separate projects
projects: [
  { name: 'stable', testMatch: /.*\.spec\.ts/, grep: /^(?!.*@quarantine)/ },  // exclude quarantine
  { name: 'quarantine', grep: /@quarantine/, retries: 3 },
],

1. DETECT    — Test identified as flaky (CI reporter or manual triage)
2. TAG       — Add @quarantine annotation with ticket link and date
3. ISOLATE   — Quarantine project runs separately, does not block
4. DIAGNOSE  — Follow the flaky test runbook (references/flaky-test-runbook.md)
5. FIX       — Apply the fix pattern for the classified category
6. VERIFY    — Run 50x with --repeat-each, zero failures required
7. RELEASE   — Remove @quarantine tag, add annotation documenting the fix

// NEVER the right fix
await page.waitForTimeout(5000);

// Wait for the actual condition
await expect(page.getByRole('table')).toBeVisible();
await page.waitForResponse(resp => resp.url().includes('/api/data') && resp.status() === 200);