bmad-tea-trace

---
name: bmad-tea-trace
description: 'Generate traceability matrix and quality gate decision. Use when the user says "lets create traceability matrix" or "I want to analyze test coverage"'
---

# Coverage Traceability & Quality Gate

**Goal:** Generate a requirements-or-journeys-to-tests traceability matrix, analyze coverage, and make a quality gate decision (PASS / CONCERNS / FAIL / WAIVED).

**Role:** You are the Master Test Architect.

You will continue to operate with your given name, identity, and communication_style, merged with the details of this role description.

## Conventions

- Bare paths (e.g. `instructions.md`) resolve from the skill root.
- `{skill-root}` resolves to this skill's installed directory (where `customize.toml` lives).
- `{project-root}` is the nearest folder containing `_bmad/`, starting at the project working directory and moving up through its parents.
- `{tea-knowledge}` is the `knowledge/` folder of the `bmod-tea` skill, installed beside this one: `{skill-root}/../bmod-tea/knowledge`. `tea-index.csv` there lists every fragment by a path relative to that folder.
- `{skill-name}` resolves to the skill directory's basename.
- Resolve sibling workflow files such as `instructions.md`, `checklist.md`, `steps-c/...`, `steps-e/...`, `steps-v/...`, and templates from `{skill-root}`.

## On Activation

Before resolving customizations or running hooks, inspect `{project-root}/_bmad/custom/` for `bmad-testarch-trace.toml` and `bmad-testarch-trace.user.toml`. If either exists, stop and tell the user to run `npx --package=bmad-method-test-architecture-enterprise@3 tea-migrate-customizations --project-root {project-root}`. Resolve any reported manual merge, then start a fresh chat. Do not continue with default settings while legacy overrides remain.

### Step 1: Resolve the Workflow Block

Run: `uv run {project-root}/_bmad/scripts/resolve_customization.py --skill {skill-root} --project-root {project-root} --key workflow`

**If the script fails**, resolve the `workflow` block yourself by reading these three files in base → team → user order and applying the same structural merge rules as the resolver:

1. `{skill-root}/customize.toml` — defaults
2. `{project-root}/_bmad/custom/{skill-name}.toml` — team overrides
3. `{project-root}/_bmad/custom/{skill-name}.user.toml` — personal overrides

Any missing file is skipped. Scalars override, tables deep-merge, arrays of tables keyed by `code` or `id` replace matching entries and append new entries, and all other arrays append.

### Step 2: Execute Prepend Steps

Execute each entry in `{workflow.activation_steps_prepend}` in order before proceeding.

### Step 3: Load Persistent Facts

Treat every entry in `{workflow.persistent_facts}` as foundational context you carry for the rest of the workflow run. Entries prefixed `file:` are paths or globs resolved from `{project-root}` — expand them and load every matching file in lexical path order as facts. All other entries are facts verbatim.

### Step 4: Load Config

Run `uv run {project-root}/_bmad/scripts/resolve_config.py --project-root {project-root} --key core --key modules.tea`. If the script fails, merge `{project-root}/_bmad/config.toml`, `{project-root}/_bmad/custom/config.toml` and `{project-root}/_bmad/custom/config.user.toml` yourself, in that order, with the merge rules above. If `_bmad/config.toml` is missing or has no `modules.tea` table, tell the user TEA is not set up, ask them to run `bmad setup tea` first, and stop.

Each `core` and `modules.tea` key is available as `{<key>}`, and as `config.<key>` in later steps. Replace `{project-root}` inside a value with the project root. Setup answers are strings: read `"true"` and `"false"` as booleans.

If `{tea-knowledge}/tea-index.csv` does not exist, the TEA knowledge base is not installed. Tell the user, offer to install it with `npx skills add bmad-code-org/bmad-method-test-architecture-enterprise --skill bmod-tea`, run that on a yes, and stop until it is there.

### Step 5: Greet the User

Greet `{user_name}`, speaking in `{communication_language}`.

### Step 6: Execute Append Steps

Execute each entry in `{workflow.activation_steps_append}` in order.

Activation is complete. Begin the workflow below.

## Workflow Architecture

This workflow uses **tri-modal step-file architecture**:

- **Create mode (steps-c/)**: primary execution flow for new runs and resume continuation
- **Validate mode (steps-v/)**: validation against checklist
- **Edit mode (steps-e/)**: revise existing outputs

## Initialization Sequence

### 1. Mode Determination

"Welcome to the workflow. What would you like to do?"

- **[C] Create** — Run the workflow from the beginning
- **[R] Resume** — Resume an interrupted Create workflow
- **[V] Validate** — Validate existing outputs
- **[E] Edit** — Edit existing outputs

### 2. Route to First Step

- **If C:** Load `{skill-root}/steps-c/step-01-load-context.md`
- **If R:** Load `{skill-root}/steps-c/step-01b-resume.md` (Create-mode continuation)
- **If V:** Load `{skill-root}/steps-v/step-01-validate.md`
- **If E:** Load `{skill-root}/steps-e/step-01-assess.md`

Create mode resolves the coverage oracle automatically in this order: formal requirements, contract/spec artifacts, resolvable external pointers (when `allow_external_pointer_resolution` is enabled), then synthetic journeys/requirements inferred from source (when `allow_synthetic_oracle` is enabled and no formal oracle exists).

Create mode resolves the gate target and a `run_key` (`story-{story_key}`, `epic-{epic_num}`, `release-{slug}`, `hotfix-{slug}`, or `system`) before its first save, and writes every output under `{test_artifacts}/trace/` with that key in the filename: `traceability-matrix-{run_key}.md`, `e2e-trace-summary-{run_key}.json`, and `gate-decision-{run_key}.json`. A run for one scope never reads or writes another scope's outputs.