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:

FAIL

if any check fails.

CONCERNS

if minor issues exist.

PASS

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:

TEST-

(coverage gaps),

ARCH-

(architecture issues),

DOC-

(documentation gaps),

DEP-

(Story/Task dependencies),

COV-

(AC coverage quality),

DB-

(database schema),

AC-

(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

  pass

  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):
  1. 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.
  2. Run all linters from tech_stack.md. If fail -> create lint-fix task, stop.
  3. Invoke ln-502-regression-checker. If fail -> create regression-fix task, stop.
  4. 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.
  5. 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):
  1. Load Story/test task; read test plan/results and manual testing comment from Pass 1.
  2. 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).
  3. Ensure Priority ≤15 scenarios and Story AC are covered by tests; infra/docs updates present.
  4. 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
  5. 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

• quality_score: 0-100

• 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

  mypy

  ,

  ruff

  ,

  pytest

  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:

  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

• 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

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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