Story Quality Gate
Two-pass Story review with 4-level Gate verdict, Quality Score calculation, and NFR validation (security, performance, reliability, maintainability).
Purpose & Scope
- Pass 1 (after impl tasks Done): run code-quality, lint, regression, and manual testing; if all pass, create/confirm test task; otherwise create targeted fix/refactor tasks and stop.
- Pass 2 (after test task Done): verify tests/coverage/priority limits, calculate Quality Score and NFR validation, close Story to Done or create fix tasks.
- Delegates work to ln-501/ln-502 workers and ln-510-test-planner.
4-Level Gate Model
| Level | Meaning | Action |
|---|
| PASS | All checks pass, no issues | Story → Done |
| CONCERNS | Minor issues, acceptable risk | Story → Done with comment noting concerns |
| FAIL | Blocking issues found | Create fix tasks, return to ln-400 |
| WAIVED | Issues acknowledged by user | Story → Done with waiver reason documented |
Verdict calculation: if any check fails.
if minor issues exist.
if all clean.
Quality Score
Formula:
Quality Score = 100 - (20 × FAIL_count) - (10 × CONCERN_count)
| Score Range | Status | Action |
|---|
| 90-100 | ✅ Excellent | PASS |
| 70-89 | ⚠️ Acceptable | CONCERNS (proceed with notes) |
| 50-69 | ❌ Below threshold | FAIL (create fix tasks) |
| <50 | 🚨 Critical | FAIL (urgent priority) |
NFR Validation
Evaluate 4 non-functional requirement dimensions:
| NFR | Checks | Issue Prefix |
|---|
| Security | Auth, input validation, secrets exposure | SEC- |
| Performance | N+1 queries, caching, response times | PERF- |
| Reliability | Error handling, retries, timeouts | REL- |
| Maintainability | DRY, SOLID, cyclomatic complexity | MNT- |
Additional prefixes:
(coverage gaps),
(architecture issues),
(documentation gaps),
(Story/Task dependencies),
(AC coverage quality),
(database schema),
(AC validation)
NFR verdict per dimension: PASS / CONCERNS / FAIL
When to Use
- Pass 1: all implementation tasks Done; test task missing or not Done.
- Pass 2: test task exists and is Done.
- Explicit parameter can force 1 or 2; otherwise auto-detect by test task status.
Workflow (concise)
- Phase 1 Discovery: Auto-discover team/config; select Story; load Story + task metadata (no descriptions), detect test task status.
- Pass 1 flow (fail fast):
- Invoke ln-501-code-quality-checker. If issues -> create refactor task (Backlog), stop.
1.5) Criteria Validation (Story-level checks) - see
references/criteria_validation.md
:
- Check #1: Story Dependencies (no forward deps within Epic) - if FAIL → create [DEP-] task, stop.
- Check #2: AC-Task Coverage Quality (STRONG/WEAK/MISSING scoring) - if FAIL/CONCERNS → create [BUG-]/[COV-] tasks, stop.
- Check #3: Database Creation Principle (schema scope matches Story) - if FAIL → create [DB-] task, stop.
- Run all linters from tech_stack.md. If fail -> create lint-fix task, stop.
- Invoke ln-502-regression-checker. If fail -> create regression-fix task, stop.
- Invoke ln-510-test-planner (orchestrates: ln-511-test-researcher → ln-512-manual-tester → ln-513-auto-test-planner). If manual testing fails -> create bug-fix task, stop. If all passed -> test task created/updated.
- If test task exists and Done, jump to Pass 2; if exists but not Done, report status and stop.
- Pass 2 flow (after test task Done):
- Load Story/test task; read test plan/results and manual testing comment from Pass 1.
- Verify limits and priority: Priority ≤15; E2E 2-5, Integration 0-8, Unit 0-15, total 10-28; tests focus on business logic (no framework/DB/library tests).
- Ensure Priority ≤15 scenarios and Story AC are covered by tests; infra/docs updates present.
- Calculate Quality Score and NFR validation (see formulas above):
- Run NFR checks per dimensions table
- Assign issue prefixes: SEC-, PERF-, REL-, MNT-, TEST-, ARCH-, DOC-
- Calculate Quality Score
- Determine Gate verdict per 4-Level Gate Model above
TodoWrite format (mandatory):
Add pass steps to todos before starting:
Pass 1:
- Invoke ln-501-code-quality-checker (in_progress)
- Pass 1.5: Criteria Validation (Story deps, AC coverage, DB schema) (pending)
- Run linters from tech_stack.md (pending)
- Invoke ln-502-regression-checker (pending)
- Invoke ln-510-test-planner (research + manual + auto tests) (pending)
Pass 2:
- Verify test task coverage (in_progress)
- Mark Story Done (pending)
Mark each as in_progress when starting, completed when done. On failure, mark remaining as skipped.
Worker Invocation (MANDATORY)
| Step | Worker | Context | Rationale |
|---|
| Code Quality | ln-501-code-quality-checker | Separate (Task tool) | Independent analysis, focused on DRY/KISS/YAGNI |
| Regression | ln-502-regression-checker | Shared (direct Skill tool) | Needs Story context and previous check results |
| Test Planning | ln-510-test-planner | Shared (direct Skill tool) | Needs full Gate context for test planning |
ln-501 invocation (Separate Context):
Task(description: "Code quality check via ln-501",
prompt: "Execute ln-501-code-quality-checker. Read skill from ln-501-code-quality-checker/SKILL.md. Story: {storyId}",
subagent_type: "general-purpose")
ln-501 result contract (Task tool return):
Task tool returns worker's final message. Parse for YAML block:
verdict: PASS | CONCERNS | ISSUES_FOUND
issues: [{id, severity, finding, action}]
- If verdict = ISSUES_FOUND → create refactor task (Backlog), stop Pass 1.
ln-502 and ln-510: Invoke via direct Skill tool — workers see Gate context.
Note: ln-510 orchestrates the full test pipeline (ln-511 research → ln-512 manual → ln-513 auto tests).
❌ FORBIDDEN SHORTCUTS (Anti-Patterns):
- Running , , directly instead of invoking ln-501/ln-502
- Doing "minimal quality check" (just linters) and skipping ln-510 test planning
- Asking user "Want me to run the full skill?" after doing partial checks
- Marking steps as "completed" in todo without invoking the actual skill
- Any command execution that should be delegated to a worker skill
✅ CORRECT BEHAVIOR:
- Use
Skill(skill: "ln-50X-...")
for EVERY step — NO EXCEPTIONS
- Wait for each skill to complete before proceeding
- If skill fails → create fix task → STOP (fail fast)
- Never bypass skills with "I'll just run the command myself"
ZERO TOLERANCE: If you find yourself running quality commands directly (mypy, ruff, pytest, curl) instead of invoking the appropriate skill, STOP and use Skill tool instead.
Critical Rules
- Early-exit: any failure creates a specific task and stops Pass 1/2.
- Single source of truth: rely on Linear metadata for tasks; kanban is updated by workers/ln-400.
- Task creation via skills only (ln-510/ln-301); this skill never edits tasks directly.
- Pass 2 only runs when test task is Done; otherwise return error/status.
- Language preservation in comments (EN/RU).
Definition of Done
- Pass 1: ln-501 pass OR refactor task created; linters pass OR lint-fix task created; ln-502 pass OR regression-fix task created; ln-510 pipeline pass (research + manual + auto tests) OR bug-fix task created; test task created/updated; exits.
- Pass 2: test task verified (priority/limits/coverage/infra/docs); Quality Score calculated; NFR validation completed; Gate verdict determined (PASS/CONCERNS/FAIL/WAIVED).
- Gate output format:
yaml
gate: PASS | CONCERNS | FAIL | WAIVED
quality_score: {0-100}
nfr_validation:
security: PASS | CONCERNS | FAIL
performance: PASS | CONCERNS | FAIL
reliability: PASS | CONCERNS | FAIL
maintainability: PASS | CONCERNS | FAIL
issues: [{id: "SEC-001", severity: high|medium|low, finding: "...", action: "..."}]
- Story set to Done (PASS/CONCERNS/WAIVED) or fix tasks created (FAIL); comment with gate verdict posted.
Reference Files
- Orchestrator lifecycle:
shared/references/orchestrator_pattern.md
- Task delegation pattern:
shared/references/task_delegation_pattern.md
- AC validation rules:
shared/references/ac_validation_rules.md
- Criteria Validation:
references/criteria_validation.md
(Story deps, AC coverage quality, DB schema checks from ln-310)
- Gate levels:
references/gate_levels.md
(detailed scoring rules and thresholds)
- Workers:
../ln-501-code-quality-checker/SKILL.md
, ../ln-502-regression-checker/SKILL.md
- Test planning orchestrator:
../ln-510-test-planner/SKILL.md
(coordinates ln-511/512/513)
- Tech stack/linters:
docs/project/tech_stack.md
Version: 6.0.0 (BREAKING: Added Pass 1.5 Criteria Validation with 3 checks from ln-310 - Story dependencies, AC-Task Coverage Quality (STRONG/WEAK/MISSING), Database Creation Principle. New issue prefixes: DEP-, COV-, DB-, AC-. Closes validation-execution gap at Story level per BMAD Method best practices.)
Last Updated: 2026-02-03