QA tooling recommendation

Use this skill when qa, qa-init, or qa-strategy needs to select tools for a specific surface. It recommends; it does not install, configure, or pretend to run tools. Read the Tooling catalog before producing a recommendation.

Inputs

• Observed stack and the surface or objective to test.
• Runtime and operating system, including the mobile target platform when applicable.
• A probe inventory keyed by executable or prerequisite. Every supplied probe has state (positive, negative, or not_run), result, and evidence containing the exact command/check and its observed output.
• CI environment, available devices/browsers, budget, data restrictions, and explicit authorization boundaries.

An absent probe means unverified; it is never rewritten as a negative result.

Procedure

1. Match the requested surface and platform against Recommendation rules in the catalog. Do not return platform-incompatible mobile entries.
2. Prefer an existing tool. Recommend migration only when a concrete coverage, reliability, or evidence benefit outweighs its adoption cost.
3. Assign available only when the tool probe and every required probe in the catalog are positive. Assign missing only when the tool's own supplied probe is negative. Assign unverified when a probe is absent, not_run, or when a required prerequisite is negative. Preserve every supplied result and evidence; never synthesize a command result from an absent key.
4. For Web/UI exploration, distinguish playwright-cli from Playwright Test: playwright-cli operates an isolated interactive session using observed refs, snapshots, actions, and screenshots; Playwright Test owns repeatable suites and CI. Interactive CLI work does not replace a deterministic test suite.
5. Before stating a current version, compatibility, cost, or license, consult the official publisher documentation and record its URL and the verification date. Otherwise label that claim unverified; do not infer it from memory.
6. Return all candidates, including useful missing candidates, with a usable alternative and a context-specific reason. State limitations rather than widening scope or authorization.

The documented detection probes for the Web/UI CLI are playwright-cli --version and, for a project-local package, npx --no-install playwright --version; the documented local entry is npx playwright cli. These commands were reconciled with the official publisher documentation on 2026-09-12. If an already available CLI is explicitly authorized for exploration, the supported isolated-session sequence is playwright-cli -s=qa-report open, playwright-cli -s=qa-report snapshot, playwright-cli -s=qa-report screenshot --filename=report.png, and playwright-cli -s=qa-report close.

Output

Return one Markdown table with exactly these keys, in this order:

tool	purpose	availability	evidence	prerequisites	alternative	reason
tool name	bounded use	available, missing, or unverified	exact detection result or not probed	platform, runtime, access, and verified cost/license facts	feasible fallback	why it fits this context

Do not add hidden recommendation fields. Put official source URLs and verification dates next to any verified current claim inside prerequisites or evidence.

Failure modes

• Missing stack, surface, platform, or constraints: return candidates as unverified and identify the missing input in evidence and reason.
• Positive tool probe without a positive required device, browser, driver, SDK, service, credential, or authorization probe: preserve the supplied evidence but report the full tool as unverified.
• Unsupported platform: do not recommend the incompatible tool; return the compatible alternative or explain why none was verified.
• No suitable tool: return a row with tool set to none verified, availability unverified, and the next safe manual or built-in alternative.

Safety

• Never install any tool automatically, never emit an installation command as an action, and never change personal or repository configuration.
• Require explicit authorization for load, penetration testing, production access, or external effects. Tool availability does not grant that authorization.
• For playwright-cli, use a task-owned named session. Never reuse personal profiles, export cookies or storage, or close sessions belonging to someone else.
• Review screenshots before attaching them. Treat snapshots as normalized text. Traces and videos are outside the v1 evidence attachment whitelist.
• Preserve data restrictions and do not send sensitive inputs to external services.

Related skills

• qa routes an explicit tooling request here only when this installed skill is a regular local file.
• qa-init inventories observed tools and limitations before planning execution.
• qa-strategy consumes recommendations when selecting coverage and environments.
• qa-specialist-web, qa-specialist-mobile, and qa-specialist-automation apply the chosen tool within their narrower surface contracts.