dashboard-cli-ux-contract-testing

When to use

• •You changed user-visible output or flags in src/agent_loom/dashboard/cli.py.
• •You added/changed dashboard CLI text that users will copy/paste or parse.

Goal

Lock dashboard CLI output as a stable contract.

Checklist

1. •

   Identify the UX contract

   • •What exact lines/sections must appear?
   • •What ordering must be stable?
   • •What must never appear (secrets, nondeterministic values, machine-specific absolute paths)?
2. •

   Make output deterministic

   • •Use explicit ordering for any lists/records.
   • •Avoid relying on dict/set iteration.
   • •Avoid embedding timestamps/random IDs unless explicitly required.
3. •

   Add/update a focused contract test

   • •Prefer a dedicated module like tests/test_dashboard_cli_ux.py (or the existing dashboard CLI test module if one already exists).
   • •Assert stable invariants (required blocks/lines), not full output, unless full output is intentionally the contract.
4. •

   Verification gate

   • •uv run basedpyright
   • •uv run ruff check .
   • •uv run pytest tests/test_dashboard_cli_ux.py (or the specific existing dashboard CLI test module)

Common failure modes

• •Output order changes due to nondeterministic iteration.
• •Tests assert full strings that include nondeterministic data.
• •CLI prints more environment data than intended (leaks absolute paths or sensitive fields).

Manual notes

This section is preserved when the skill is updated. Put human notes, caveats, and exceptions here.