Paths: File paths (shared/, references/, ../ln-*) are relative to skills repo root. If not found at CWD, locate this SKILL.md directory and go up one level for repo root.

Test Planning Orchestrator

Coordinates the complete test planning pipeline for a Story by delegating to specialized workers.

Purpose & Scope

• Orchestrate test planning: research → manual testing → automated test planning
• Delegate to workers: ln-521-test-researcher, ln-522-manual-tester, ln-523-auto-test-planner
• No direct work — only coordination and delegation via Skill tool
• Called by ln-500-story-quality-gate after regression tests pass

When to Use

This skill should be used when:

• Invoked by ln-500-story-quality-gate after quality checks pass
• All implementation tasks in Story are Done
• Need complete test planning (research + manual + auto)

Prerequisites:

• All implementation Tasks in Story status = Done
• Regression tests passed (ln-514)
• Code quality checked (ln-511)

Pipeline Overview

ln-520-test-planner (Orchestrator)
    │
    ├─→ ln-521-test-researcher
    │     └─→ Posts "## Test Research: {Feature}" comment
    │
    ├─→ ln-522-manual-tester
    │     └─→ Creates tests/manual/ scripts + "## Manual Testing Results" comment
    │
    └─→ ln-523-auto-test-planner
          └─→ Creates test task in Linear via ln-301/ln-302

Workflow

Phase 1: Discovery

1. Auto-discover Team ID from docs/tasks/kanban_board.md
2. Validate Story ID provided by ln-500

Input: Story ID from ln-500-story-quality-gate

Phase 2: Research Delegation

1. Check if research exists:

   • Search Linear comments for "## Test Research:" header
   • If found → skip to Phase 3

2. If no research:

   • Use Skill tool to invoke ln-521-test-researcher
   • Pass: Story ID
   • Wait for completion
   • Verify research comment created

Phase 3: Manual Testing Delegation

1. Check if manual testing done:

   • Search Linear comments for "## Manual Testing Results" header
   • If found with all AC passed → skip to Phase 4

2. If manual testing needed:

   • Use Skill tool to invoke ln-522-manual-tester
   • Pass: Story ID
   • Wait for completion
   • Verify results comment created

3. If any AC failed:

   • Stop pipeline
   • Report to ln-500: "Manual testing failed, Story needs fixes"

Phase 4: Auto Test Planning Delegation

1. Invoke auto test planner:

   • Use Skill tool to invoke ln-523-auto-test-planner
   • Pass: Story ID
   • Wait for completion

2. Verify results:

   • Test task created in Linear (or updated if existed)
   • Return task URL to ln-500

Phase 5: Report to Caller

1. Return summary to ln-500:
   • Research: completed / skipped (existed)
   • Manual testing: passed / failed
   • Test task: created / updated + URL

Worker Invocation (MANDATORY)

CRITICAL: All delegations use Task tool with subagent_type: "general-purpose" for context isolation.

Phase	Worker	Purpose
2	ln-521-test-researcher	Research real-world problems
3	ln-522-manual-tester	Manual AC testing via bash scripts
4	ln-523-auto-test-planner	Plan E2E/Integration/Unit tests

Prompt template:

Task(description: "[Phase N] test planning via ln-52X",
     prompt: "Execute ln-52X-{worker}. Read skill from ln-52X-{worker}/SKILL.md. Story: {storyId}",
     subagent_type: "general-purpose")

Anti-Patterns:

• ❌ Direct Skill tool invocation without Task wrapper
• ❌ Running web searches directly (delegate to ln-521)
• ❌ Creating bash test scripts directly (delegate to ln-522)
• ❌ Creating test tasks directly (delegate to ln-523)
• ❌ Skipping any phase without justification

Critical Rules

• No direct work: Orchestrator only delegates, never executes tasks itself
• Sequential execution: 521 → 522 → 523 (each depends on previous)
• Fail-fast: If manual testing fails, stop pipeline and report
• Skip detection: Check for existing comments before invoking workers
• Single responsibility: Each worker does one thing well

Definition of Done

• Story ID validated
• Research phase: ln-521 invoked OR existing comment found
• Manual testing phase: ln-522 invoked OR existing results found
• Auto test planning phase: ln-523 invoked
• Test task created/updated in Linear
• Summary returned to ln-500-story-quality-gate

Output: Summary with phase results + test task URL

Reference Files

• Workers: ../ln-521-test-researcher/SKILL.md, ../ln-522-manual-tester/SKILL.md, ../ln-523-auto-test-planner/SKILL.md
• Caller: ../ln-500-story-quality-gate/SKILL.md
• Risk-based testing: ../shared/references/risk_based_testing_guide.md

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Version: 4.0.0 Last Updated: 2026-01-15