Product Journey QA

Use this skill when the task is to evaluate Kitsoki as a product through repeatable persona journeys, not when merely editing one unrelated story room. The durable surfaces are:

• Runner: tools/product-journey/run.py
• Story wrapper: stories/product-journey-qa/app.yaml
• Driver agent: .agents/agents/product-journey-qa-driver.md
• Catalogs: tools/product-journey/personas.json, tools/product-journey/scenarios.json, tools/product-journey/github-targets.json
• Review output: .artifacts/product-journey/**/deck.slidey.json, review.json, media-manifest.json, scenario-outcomes.md, driver-journal.md, driver-handoff.md

Operating Rules

• Automated tests and repeatable gates must not call a real LLM. Use flow fixtures, cassettes, demo evidence, or replay artifacts.
• Live/model work is only for explicitly authorized exploratory runs. If a scenario needs live authorization and none was given, record a blocker instead of faking evidence.
• Proof evidence sources are local, retained, external, and cassette. demo evidence exercises aggregation only; it is not product proof.
• Preserve the persona lens. A core maintainer, dependency debugger, docs-minded contributor, IDE-first engineer, and hobbyist contributor should start from different surfaces, ask different first questions, and weigh evidence differently.
• Every scenario attempt needs a driver journal event, even when it ends in a blocker.
• A bundle is not discussion-ready until --review-run and --validate-run have run and the deck has playback media or an explicit playback blocker.

No-LLM Gates

Start with the cheap gates before live capture:

python3 tools/product-journey/run.py --validate-corpus --json-output
python3 tools/product-journey/run.py --driver-replay-sweep --seed demo --json-output
GOCACHE=/private/tmp/kitsoki-gocache go run ./cmd/kitsoki test flows stories/product-journey-qa/app.yaml

Use --driver-replay-smoke --smoke-scenario <scenario-id> when narrowing a single scenario. Use --dogfood-smoke when checking matrix-to-rollup artifact composition.

Matrix Workflow

For the 10 popular GitHub repositories with at least 100 open bugs:

python3 tools/product-journey/run.py --refresh-github-targets --seed <seed>
python3 tools/product-journey/run.py --emit-matrix --seed <seed> \
  --target-proof-file .artifacts/product-journey/target-proofs/<proof-id>
python3 tools/product-journey/run.py --validate-matrix \
  --matrix-dir .artifacts/product-journey/matrices/<matrix-id> \
  --strict-target-proof

Use --matrix-personas all when each target should be paired with every persona. Use normal --validate-matrix for draft matrices; use --strict-target-proof before a live scored sweep so missing refreshed GitHub bug/star/license proof is an error. The matrix is an assignment plan, not evidence that Kitsoki worked.

Run Bundle Workflow

Create one bundle from a matrix assignment or direct target:

python3 tools/product-journey/run.py --emit-run \
  --project <target-id> --persona <persona-id> --seed <seed>

Then hand it to the reusable driver:

1. Read agent-brief.md, driver-plan.md, and driver-handoff.md.
2. Use .agents/agents/product-journey-qa-driver.md for live/cassette MCP capture.
3. Attach evidence with --attach-evidence or the story attach intent; loaded runs also expose last_result.next_driver_attach_command.
4. Record findings with --record-finding; record honest blockers with --record-blocker or last_result.next_driver_blocker_command.
5. Record each attempt with --record-driver-event or the story driver_event intent.
6. Run:

python3 tools/product-journey/run.py --review-run --run-dir <run-dir>
python3 tools/product-journey/run.py --validate-run --run-dir <run-dir>

Review deck.slidey.json for the narrative, Playback evidence scenes, Proof gates, Persona lens, and Driver contract scenes.

Story Surface

When driving through Kitsoki itself, open stories/product-journey-qa/app.yaml. Useful intents:

• validate_corpus
• matrix seed=... matrix_personas=primary|all
• driver_replay_smoke scenario=... persona=... seed=...
• driver_replay_sweep persona=... seed=...
• start project=... persona=... seed=...
• load run_dir=...
• handoff
• attach
• record
• blocker
• driver_event
• validate_matrix_strict
• review
• validate

Prefer the story as the write surface when an operator session is attached. Use CLI fallback when the story session is unavailable.

Improvement Loop

When refining the pipeline:

1. Identify the missing proof from review.json, validation output, driver-handoff.md, or a failed flow.
2. Patch the smallest durable surface: catalog, runner, story, driver agent, or this skill.
3. Add or update a deterministic flow/cassette/replay check.
4. Re-run --validate-corpus, --driver-replay-sweep, and product-journey story flows.
5. Commit only the product-journey slice, leaving unrelated workspace dirt untouched.