testland/defect-escape-taxonomy
Classifies a defect that reached production into one of three root gap categories (test gap, process gap, tooling gap) and one of thirteen sub-patterns, applying the earliest-layer rule: the category is the earliest layer that should have caught the defect, expressed as a property of the system and never of a person. Each sub-pattern carries the typical prevention fix, so the finding names an actionable class of gap. Rejects blame language and generic prevention assets such as 'add more tests'. Does not triage or prioritize the defect, does not write the missing test, and does not run a full incident postmortem. Use when a defect has been confirmed in production and the team needs to name which class of gap let it through before deciding what to build.
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escape-defect-document-template.mdreferences/
Escape defect document template
Deep reference for defect-escape-taxonomy SKILL.md. Consult when writing up a classified escape - the full per-defect document shape.
One markdown document per escaped defect. Store them together under a
stable directory (for example docs/escape-defects/) with a
date-prefixed, slugified filename, so the set can be read as a trend.
# Escape defect: <one-line summary of the failure>
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Defect ID | #1234 |
| First production observation | 2026-05-02T09:14Z |
| Days in production before fix | 2 |
| Users affected (estimated) | ~340 |
| Fix commit | def5678 |
| Introducing commit | abc1234 |
| Escape category | test gap |
| Sub-pattern | edge case not exercised |
## What happened
Two or three paragraphs. Behavior of the system, in order. No attribution.
## Why it escaped
The checking activity that was supposed to catch this, and the standing
state of that activity. Systems as grammatical subjects throughout.
## Prevention asset
### Proposed test or gate
<actual code or config diff>
### Where it lives
<repository path>
### What it verifies
Names the introducing commit and states when this check would have failed
against it.
## Process changes
Process-gap findings only. Omit the section otherwise.
## Open questions
Anything the available evidence does not settle, stated as a question.The Prevention asset section is load-bearing. If it is empty or generic, the document is not finished.