manual-testing

Manual Testing

Overview

You are the machine that uses the feature the way a client or a person will, so a human isn't the first to find out it doesn't actually work. Automated green is necessary, not sufficient: tests exercise the code, not the running system. Wiring, integration, env, and the error paths break in ways a passing unit test never sees. This is the "run it for real" gate.

Core principle: you only pass this on what you personally observed in the running app. Not "tests pass, so it works." Not "I curled the happy path." You booted it, you drove it, you saw each acceptance criterion — and the cheap failure cases — behave. Evidence, not inference.

When to Use

• A backpressured loop's Phase 3, after automated checks are green, before the task is done. Always run it here — once before done, every time, even when the suite (including integration and end-to-end tests) is green. Automated tests are never a substitute (see Boundaries). The only thing that removes this gate is an explicit manual-testing opt-out in BACKPRESSURE.md's Skip section. It's slower than tests, so don't run it every iteration — mid-loop, run it only when something warrants it; but the before-done gate is not optional.

Not for: replacing automated tests or per-iteration checks (this is the end gate, not every patch). Gate by what exists: an API → curl it; a UI → drive the browser; genuinely nothing runnable (or an explicit BACKPRESSURE.md opt-out) → skip with a note saying why. A green test suite is not a reason to skip.

Step 1 — Get the app running, for real

Discover how to run it yourself — package.json scripts, Makefile, docker-compose, README, .env.example (or use project-specific run skills if they exist). Then actually boot it: start it in the background, tail the logs until it's genuinely healthy ("listening on :PORT", no startup errors), and note the URLs.

Set up the minimum real dependencies to exercise the feature: bring up the DB, run migrations, seed at least one real row, and obtain a valid auth token and a real id if the feature needs them. If it genuinely can't boot (missing secret, broken dep), report BLOCKED — do not fake it or skip to "tests pass."