tests-guard-intentional-workarounds

Tests Guard Intentional Workarounds

Problem

You observe a production log line that looks clearly wrong — a function being called when its precondition already appears satisfied, a retry firing when the first attempt seemed to work, state being set to the value it already holds. Instinct says "this is a redundant no-op, I'll remove it." You remove it, run local tests (which may even pass if coverage is thin), push to CI, and a test fails with a title that describes exactly the behavior you just removed. The comment on that test explains a subtle platform bug or race condition that required the "redundant" call as a workaround.

The log line you reacted to wasn't evidence of a bug. It was evidence of the workaround executing correctly for the exact scenario it was designed for.

Context / Trigger Conditions

Apply this skill's caution when ANY of these hold:

1. Redundant-looking call: You're about to wrap a call in if (!already_X) or delete it outright because logs show it firing when X is already true.
2. Impossible state in logs: Logs show a state combination that seems logically impossible or contradictory (playing=true + positionMs=0 for seconds, isLoading=false + data still empty, etc.).
3. "Why would anyone write this?": Reading code and you can't imagine a reason for a defensive check, extra await, or secondary call.
4. Simplifying a conditional: A branch looks dead because you believe the condition can't be reached, or both branches look identical to you.
5. Receiving a failing test: CI returns a failure with a test title that names exactly the behavior your change removed or modified.

Solution

Before touching the "redundant" code, run this five-step check:

Step 1: Grep for tests that assert the exact behavior

Search the test suite for the function name, the state you think is redundant, and any synonyms:

# Example: considering removing player.play() on rebuffer complete
grep -rn "player.play" test/ | grep -iE "already|even when|still|twice|redundant"
grep -rn "rebuffer.*play\|playing.*true.*play" test/