TDD Enforcement Gate — Before Implementation

Skill origin: obra/superpowers test-driven-development Invocation: Mandatory pre-hook for speckit.implement. Cannot be skipped.

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Step 1 — Load the Authoritative TDD Skill

Locate and internalize the superpowers TDD skill using this priority chain:

1. Local plugin: Read skills/test-driven-development/SKILL.md from the workspace root (present when superpowers is installed as a plugin).
2. Remote fetch: If the local file does not exist, fetch from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/obra/superpowers/main/skills/test-driven-development/SKILL.md
3. Embedded fallback: If both fail, apply this minimal contract:

   NO PRODUCTION CODE WITHOUT A FAILING TEST FIRST. For every task: RED (write failing test) → GREEN (minimal code to pass) → REFACTOR (clean up, tests still green) → COMMIT. If you wrote code before seeing a test fail, delete that code and restart.

You must internalize the full SKILL.md content before proceeding. Its rules are non-negotiable for this implementation session.

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Step 2 — Bind Spec-Kit Task Context

1. Identify the task or context to work on:

   $ARGUMENTS
   

2. Read tasks.md in the current feature directory to understand the task plan.
3. Run the project's test suite now and record the baseline:

Baseline: [N] tests, [M] passing, [K] failing

If the baseline has unexpected failures, STOP and report them before proceeding.

4. For each task, note its test target (file, assertion, verification command) as declared in tasks.md. These are your RED-phase targets — do not invent new test locations unless the plan specifies a reason.

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Step 3 — Execute

Apply the loaded TDD skill to every task in tasks.md:

• Follow the RED → GREEN → REFACTOR → COMMIT cycle exactly as the skill defines.
• Paste evidence of each RED failure and each GREEN pass inline.
• If any task starts with production code before a failing test, delete the code and restart from RED. No exceptions without explicit user permission.

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Escalation — When TDD Gets Stuck

If you have attempted 2 or more fixes for the same failing test without success, STOP the TDD cycle and escalate:

Invoke /speckit.superb.debug to switch to the systematic debugging protocol. It will enforce root-cause investigation before any further fix attempts. Return to this TDD gate after the root cause is resolved.

Do not attempt fix #3 without completing the debugging protocol first.

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Enforcement Checklist (per task)

Before starting:

• No production code written yet for this task
• Test target identified from tasks.md

After completing:

• Saw the test FAIL before writing production code
• Wrote the MINIMUM code to pass
• Full test suite passes (no regressions)
• Committed the green state

Cannot check all boxes? Stop. Restart the task from RED.