Hat	Stage	Upstream gate	Output	Unblocks
QA	QA	PRD + BDDs + test cases approved	qa/outputs/test-spec/TSD-NNN-<slug>.md + qa/outputs/test-erd/TERD-NNN-<slug>.md	/ralph-workspace-plan

When to Use

Approved PRD + approved BDDs + approved test cases. User wants QA engg spec before kicking automation into ralph.

Prerequisites

• PRD, BDDs, test-case set — all at approved.
• project.conf REPOS has at least one role=automation-tests entry.

Protocol

1. Read inputs — PRD, all approved PRD-{NNN}-*.feature, PRD-{NNN}-cases.md, qa/context-library/ conventions.
2. Identify automation repo from project.conf REPOS + stack hint.
3. Write qa/outputs/test-spec/TSD-{NNN}-{slug}.md with 11 sections: Scope, Coverage matrix (Unit / Integration / E2E / Contract / Perf / Security), Automation entry points, Test data strategy (PII synthetic-only), Environment matrix, Quality gates (P0 blocks merge), Parallelism plan (isolation strategy), Flaky-test isolation (@flaky, retry policy), Observability, Dependencies, Open questions.
4. Write qa/outputs/test-erd/TERD-{NNN}-{slug}.md — Mermaid graph LR linking PRD → Features → TCs → automation files, plus Coverage gaps section.
5. Update EPIC-PIPELINE.md — set Test Spec column.

Output Frontmatter

id: TSD-{NNN}
title: {title}
status: draft
created: {today}
owner: {gh-user}
epic: {EPIC_ID}
prd: PRD-{NNN}
bdd_sources:
  - PRD-{NNN}-{cap-1}.feature
test_case_sources:
  - PRD-{NNN}-cases.md
automation_repo: {name}
automation_stack: {stack hint}

Do Not

• Duplicate engineering-spec content — reference it.
• Cover unit tests here — those live with service code.

Source

skills/test-spec/SKILL.md