# AGENTS.md — cc-ci

Working notes for agents (and humans) modifying the cc-ci server. See `README.md` for what the server
does and `machine-docs/` for the build's living state (`DECISIONS.md`, `DEFERRED.md`, `STATUS-*.md`).

## File-location rule (mandatory)

ALL coordination / loop-state files live under **`machine-docs/`**, NEVER the repo root. That means
the phase-namespaced `STATUS-*.md`, `BACKLOG-*.md`, `REVIEW-*.md`, `JOURNAL-*.md`, the shared
`DECISIONS.md` / `DEFERRED.md`, and the `ADVERSARY-INBOX.md` / `BUILDER-INBOX.md` side-channels.
Create `machine-docs/` if missing; if you ever find one of these at the root, `git mv` it into
`machine-docs/`. (The repo root is for actual server code/config — `runner/`, `tests/`, `nix/`, etc.)

## Testing cadence

Two kinds of tests live here — run them on **different** cadences:

- **Per-recipe lifecycle tests** (`tests/<recipe>/`, triggered by `!testme` on a recipe PR): these test
  the *recipes*. Run them whenever a recipe changes — that's their normal per-PR trigger.

- **Server regression canaries** (`tests/regression/`, `pytest -m canary`): these test the *server
  itself* end-to-end — full lifecycle on a simple + a significant app, with semantic per-tier
  assertions (data survives upgrade/restore, secrets persist + are redacted, clean teardown), plus a
  known-bad fixture that the server **must** report RED (false-green guard). They are **slow and
  resource-heavy** (live Swarm, minutes per app).

  > **Do NOT run the canaries on every commit/PR.** Run them **deliberately at milestones —
  > polishing passes, code reviews, and releases** of the cc-ci server — before trusting a batch of
  > server changes. They are opt-in behind the `@pytest.mark.canary` marker; if ever wired to
  > `!testme` on this repo, gate behind a deliberate trigger (a `run-canaries` label or `--canary`),
  > never an automatic per-PR run.

  Spec: `plan-server-regression-canaries.md` (orchestrator `cc-ci-plan/`).

## Don't weaken tests to pass

A red test is information. Never skip, delete, or relax a test to make a run green — fix the root
cause or record it in `machine-docs/DEFERRED.md`. (This is a standing build guardrail.)

## Ship work as PRs, merge them yourself, operator reviews retrospectively

Work on this repo goes: **branch → PR → merge it yourself once verified → operator reviews
retrospectively.** Do not commit straight to `main`, and do not wait for review before merging — the
invocation is the authorization, and blocking would stall the CI this repo runs.

The PR is therefore not a gate; it is how the work stays legible after the fact. Write the
description to be read later: what changed, why, and the evidence it works (harness output, a
verified run, a before/after number). A PR that says "fix test" has failed at its only job.

The same policy covers `recipe-maintainers/cc-ci-orchestrator`. It does **NOT** cover recipe repos —
any `coop-cloud/<recipe>` or its mirror is created and verified but **never agent-merged**, because
those change what deploys on other people's infrastructure.

Before editing a test, read `tests/STYLE.md`.