gherkin-from-stories

Overview

The shift-left flow:

Spec / User story → Acceptance Criteria → Gherkin Feature → Step definitions → Tests

This skill is the authoring umbrella for the left half of that flow: it turns requirements text into a .feature file. Four input shapes route to the same core transform:

Whatever the input, the same core discipline applies: one Scenario per behavior, Scenario Outline when only data varies, shared Background, step library reuse, and flag-and-ask on implicit preconditions.

When to use

• A PM hands over a story, spec, or AC list and the team's first test artifact is the .feature file.
• The team practices ATDD and gates stories on green acceptance tests.
• A team is migrating manual test scripts (or a whole TestRail / Qase library) to BDD.
• A migration from non-BDD to BDD wants to convert existing requirements into Gherkin in bulk.

Not this skill: reviewing existing Gherkin for style (use gherkin-style-reviewer); wiring step definitions to a runner end to end (use bdd-scenario-author, which invokes this skill first); non-functional requirements - perf / a11y / security thresholds have a different shape (thresholds, not Given/When/Then) - use non-functional-requirement-extractor in the qa-shift-left plugin.

From a user story

Step 1 - Extract the user-story triple

# Story: Apply promo code at checkout

**As a** logged-in customer
**I want** to apply a promotional code at checkout
**So that** I receive the advertised discount on my order

The triple maps to the Feature header:

Feature: Apply promo code at checkout

  As a logged-in customer
  I want to apply a promotional code at checkout
  So that I receive the advertised discount on my order

If the story doesn't have the triple, flag and ask - a story without explicit value is a signal the team should clarify before testing.

Step 2 - Map acceptance criteria to Scenarios

The story body usually has an AC list; each AC becomes a Scenario:

Background:
    Given I am a logged-in customer
    And my cart contains 1 item at $24.99

  Scenario: Apply valid promo
    Given promo code "WELCOME10" is active
    When I enter "WELCOME10" in the promo input
    And I click "Apply"
    Then the subtotal updates to $22.49
    And a confirmation toast appears: "Code applied"

  Scenario: Apply expired promo
    Given promo code "EXPIRED50" is inactive
    When I enter "EXPIRED50" in the promo input
    And I click "Apply"
    Then an error appears: "This code has expired"

Step 3 - Identify Scenario Outline opportunities

Multiple ACs that vary only in input data become a Scenario Outline - use one whenever the underlying logic is identical and only the data varies:

Scenario Outline: Promo validation rejects bad input
    When I enter "<code>" in the promo input
    And I click "Apply"
    Then an error appears: "<error>"

    Examples:
      | code         | error                 |
      | EXPIRED50    | This code has expired |
      | NOTREAL      | Code not found        |
      | (empty)      | Please enter a code   |
      | WELCOME10*2  | Already applied       |

From an acceptance-criteria list (ATDD)

When the input is a signed-off, numbered AC list and the team gates implementation on green acceptance tests (per ISTQB, ATDD is "a collaboration-based test-first approach that defines acceptance tests in the stakeholders' domain language"):

1. One Scenario per AC, tagged @AC-X.Y - the tag is the load-bearing traceability that maps failures back to the criterion.
2. Tests are written before implementation - the initial run fails on every scenario, and the failing tests are the work backlog.
3. Scaffold step stubs whose bodies raise NotImplementedError (or PendingException) so nothing passes silently.
4. Emit the AC-to-test traceability table - a 1:1 mapping of AC → test → status that answers "did we test what the customer asked for?"
5. Run via the team's incumbent BDD runner - never force a runner switch alongside test-first adoption.

The full worked feature, stub examples, traceability artifact, per-runner tag-filter commands, and ATDD-specific anti-patterns: references/atdd-traceability.md.

From manual test steps

When the input is an already-written manual step (table row, prose bullet, TestRail / Qase / Xray exported step), the job is a declarative rewrite, not a translation: strip UI mechanics ("clicks the button", "types in the field"), elevate user intent ("signs in", "adds the product"), and align vocabulary with the existing step library.

1. Classify each step: UI mechanic / state assertion / business action / setup / observation. Mechanics and assertions get rewritten; business actions pass through; setup becomes Given; observations drop into step-definition detail.
2. Apply the rewrite rules R1-R5: remove UI mechanics, collapse multi-step UI sequences into one business action, replace UI properties with observable outcomes, choose the right keyword, preserve existing vocabulary.
3. Emit a side-by-side table (manual step → Gherkin step → keyword → justification) so a reviewer can confirm semantic equivalence.
4. Validate: at most one When per scenario; lint; specificity preserved (cart count "1" stays "one item", never "non-empty").

The classification table, the full R1-R5 rule catalog with examples, and migration-specific anti-patterns: references/manual-step-rules.md.

Extracting acceptance criteria from a raw spec

When the input is a PRD section or feature spec with no AC structure yet, extract the criteria first, then feed them through the sections above. Emits two interchangeable shapes: Gherkin (for Cucumber / Behave / Reqnroll / pytest-bdd projects) or a plain numbered list (AC-1, AC-2, … - consumable by the ATDD section and usable as commit-message references, e.g. feat: AC-3 - show toast on save).

1. Tag each sentence as Given (steady state / actor context), When (action verbs: "clicks", "submits", "navigates"), or Then (asserted outcomes), per the Gherkin reference.
2. Choose Scenario vs Scenario Outline - Outline + Examples: for boundary checks, role variants, status-code matrices.
3. Factor out Background for truly shared state (auth, seed data, navigation) - only one Background per Feature; don't over-extract scenario-specific setup.
4. Validate observability of every Then. Reject "Then the user feels confident" / "Then the system is secure"; replace with concrete targets: a visible data-testid, a response status, a header present.
5. Flag implicit Givens (below) rather than fabricating.

Three worked examples (simple story, PRD with implicit preconditions, Scenario Outline opportunity): references/spec-extraction-examples.md.

Shared discipline (all input shapes)

Use existing steps from the library

Per bdd-step-library-curator, the team has a curated step library. Use existing steps where possible:

# Use existing step:
Given I am a logged-in customer

# vs (avoid):
Given I have authenticated to the system   # NEW STEP - duplicates "I am a logged-in customer"

Before authoring a new step, search the library README.

Flag implicit Givens

Requirements often imply preconditions. Flag instead of guess:

## ⚠ Implicit Given flags (3)

1. Where does the user enter the promo? `/checkout`? `/cart`?
2. What's the cart state? Empty? Multi-item?
3. Authentication required? Guest checkout supported?

The Gherkin Feature can't be authored without these answers.

Flag-and-ask is the load-bearing pattern: silently picking one reading produces a test suite that misses the paths the author never confirmed.

Validate Gherkin style

• Declarative steps ("I apply a promo") not imperative ("I click the button with id #apply-promo-btn").
• Every Then has an observable outcome.
• No technical leakage (DB names, internal API endpoints, CSS selectors).

Output

## Gherkin scenarios for `<source>`

**Source:** `LIN-1234` (story) | AC list | manual script | PRD section
**Implicit-precondition flags:** N
**Scenarios produced:** M
**Step library reuse:** K of M scenarios use existing steps only.

### Generated Feature
### Implicit-precondition flags
### New steps required

| Step                                          | Why new |
|-----------------------------------------------|---------|
| `Given promo code {code} is active`           | New domain (admin promo state) |

### Recommended next step

After the PM clarifies flagged Givens, author the new step definitions per
`bdd-step-library-curator` conventions and pair with the team's runner
(`cucumber-testing` / `behave-testing` / `reqnroll-testing`), or hand the
whole flow to `bdd-scenario-author`.

Anti-patterns

Limitations

• Input quality drives output quality. Vague stories and specs produce vague Gherkin (or many flags).
• Step library dependency. Without one, every step is "new" and the proliferation problem manifests.
• Doesn't run the tests. This skill emits Gherkin (plus stubs in ATDD mode); pair with the runner skills or bdd-scenario-author for the runnable artifact.
• ATDD mode requires the team to write ACs first and doesn't replace lower-layer tests - unit / integration coverage is still needed for non-AC logic.

References

• references/atdd-traceability.md - the full ATDD workflow: tagged scenarios, red-first, stubs, traceability.
• references/manual-step-rules.md - the manual-step classification + R1-R5 declarative-rewrite rules.
• references/spec-extraction-examples.md - worked spec-extraction examples.
• Cucumber Gherkin reference (keywords, Outline + Examples, Background rules): https://cucumber.io/docs/gherkin/reference
• Cucumber Better Gherkin (declarative vs imperative): https://cucumber.io/docs/bdd/better-gherkin/
• ISTQB Glossary V4.7.1 - acceptance criteria (https://glossary.istqb.org/en_US/term/acceptance-criteria) and ATDD (https://glossary.istqb.org/en_US/term/acceptance-test-driven-development).
• bdd-step-library-curator - the step library this skill draws from.
• bdd-scenario-author - downstream agent that wires the Feature to a detected runner.