Skill: Gate Definitions

Overview

This skill provides centralized quality gate definitions for all workflows. Instead of hardcoding thresholds like "80% coverage" or "100% test pass rate" throughout the codebase, agents and skills reference this single source of truth.

Purpose

• Single source of truth - Change thresholds in one place
• Consistency - All agents use the same standards
• Metrics foundation - Enables tracking gate pass/fail rates
• Audit compliance - Clear documentation of quality standards

Location

skills/quality/gate-definitions/gates.json

Structure

Thresholds

Global thresholds referenced by gates:

{
  "thresholds": {
    "test_pass_rate": { "value": 100, "unit": "%" },
    "code_coverage": { "value": 80, "unit": "%" },
    "max_review_iterations": { "value": 3, "unit": "iterations" }
  }
}

Gates

Each gate defines:

• id - Unique identifier
• name - Human-readable name
• workflow - Which workflow this gate belongs to
• step - Which step in the workflow
• enforced_by - Which agent enforces this gate
• requirements - List of checks/metrics that must pass
• on_failure - What happens if gate fails

Requirements

Each requirement can be:

Metric-based (has a numeric threshold):

{
  "id": "coverage_met",
  "metric": "code_coverage",
  "operator": "gte",
  "threshold": "{{thresholds.code_coverage.value}}",
  "unit": "%"
}

Check-based (boolean pass/fail):

{
  "id": "tdd_compliance",
  "check": "tdd_compliance",
  "required": true
}

Available Gates

Gate ID	Name	Workflow	Enforced By
code-review-gate	Code Review Gate	development	Senior Developer
qa-gate	QA Gate	development	QA Engineer
deployment-gate	Deployment Gate	development	DevOps Engineer
bug-fix-review-gate	Bug Fix Code Review Gate	bug-hotfix	Senior Developer
bug-fix-qa-gate	Bug Fix QA Gate	bug-hotfix	QA Engineer

How to Reference

In Agent Actions

When checking a gate, reference the definition:

**Gate:** `qa-gate` (from `skills/quality/gate-definitions/gates.json`)

**Requirements:**
- Unit tests: {{unit_test_pass_rate}}% (threshold: {{gates.qa-gate.requirements.unit_tests_pass.threshold}}%)
- Integration tests: {{integration_test_pass_rate}}% (threshold: {{gates.qa-gate.requirements.integration_tests_pass.threshold}}%)
- Coverage: {{code_coverage}}% (threshold: {{gates.qa-gate.requirements.coverage_met.threshold}}%)

In Verification Reports

Include gate reference in QA sign-off:

### Gate Evaluation

**Gate:** QA Gate (`qa-gate`)
**Thresholds from:** `skills/quality/gate-definitions/gates.json`

| Requirement | Threshold | Actual | Status |
|-------------|-----------|--------|--------|
| Unit Test Pass Rate | 100% | 100% | ✅ |
| Integration Test Pass Rate | 100% | 100% | ✅ |
| E2E Test Pass Rate | 100% | 100% | ✅ |
| Code Coverage | ≥80% | 84% | ✅ |
| Exploratory Testing | Required | Done | ✅ |
| No Critical Bugs | Required | None | ✅ |
| Acceptance Criteria | Required | Verified | ✅ |

**Result:** ✅ GATE PASSED

In Workflows

Workflows reference gates by ID:

### Step 5: QA Verification

**Gate:** `qa-gate`

QA Engineer evaluates requirements defined in `skills/quality/gate-definitions/gates.json`.
See gate definition for current thresholds.

Updating Thresholds

To change a threshold (e.g., increase coverage to 85%):

1. Edit gates.json:

   "code_coverage": { "value": 85, "unit": "%" }
   

2. All gates referencing this threshold automatically use the new value

3. Document the change in the commit message

Metrics Tracking

The gate definitions include metrics to track:

• gate_pass_rate - % of first-attempt passes per gate
• average_iterations - How many tries before passing
• common_failure_reasons - Which requirements fail most
• time_in_gate - How long stories spend at each gate

These feed into the Retrospective Gate Report (see workflows/retrospective.md).

Related Skills

• skills/testing/test-verification/ - Uses gate definitions for QA sign-off
• skills/observability/workflow-trace/ - Tracks gate outcomes

Related Agents

• QA Engineer - Enforces qa-gate, bug-fix-qa-gate
• Senior Developer - Enforces code-review-gate, bug-fix-review-gate
• DevOps Engineer - Enforces deployment-gate