T-A5BL-lease-fixture-exposes-fetch-helper

Status: closed/superseded · Impact: low · Complexity: small

Auto-generated from a /sdlc:task-work post-mortem. Review and promote to open/ready before picking up.

Goal

The lease library’s local-bare-repo test fixture creates a worker repo + bare-remote authority, but the worker doesn’t auto-track the lease refs (refs under refs/sdlc/* aren’t in the worker’s default fetch refspec). The lease-CLI byte-equivalence test (test_inspect_json_is_byte_identical_to_git_show) flaked because it called git show <ref>:lease.json from the worker without first fetching the ref. The fix landed as an explicit git fetch inside the test, but every future test that wants to read a lease ref from the worker will have to reinvent the same call. Exposing a fetch_sdlc_refs(worker) helper on the fixture closes the gap once. Cite T-QC31-add-sdlc-lease-cli-commands for the live incident.

Today

Location	Role today
`plugin/lib/lease/tests/conftest.py` (best guess — path established by T-S0PK-add-lease-protocol-library-and-schemas)	Defines the local-bare-repo fixture: creates the bare authority, a worker checkout, sets the worker’s remote. Does NOT configure an `refs/sdlc/*` refspec, and does NOT expose a fetch helper.
`plugin/scripts/lease_cli/tests/test_inspect.py` (best guess)	Contains `test_inspect_json_is_byte_identical_to_git_show` which explicitly calls `subprocess.run(["git", "fetch", ...])` before `git show` — the workaround.

Proposed

Add a fetch_sdlc_refs(worker) helper to the fixture’s returned object (or a sibling pytest fixture) that runs git -C <worker> fetch <authority> 'refs/sdlc/*:refs/sdlc/*' and returns nothing on success.
Retrofit test_inspect_json_is_byte_identical_to_git_show to call the helper instead of inlining the fetch.
Document the helper in the fixture’s docstring as “use this before any test that reads a lease ref from the worker via git show.”

Optional v2 (out of scope here): make the worker’s default fetch refspec include refs/sdlc/* so reads are transparent — but that’s a behavior change to the fixture’s authority/worker contract and is worth its own discussion.

Approach

Locate the lease library’s conftest.py (path established by T-S0PK-add-lease-protocol-library-and-schemas).
Add fetch_sdlc_refs(worker) as a method on the fixture’s returned object, OR as a sibling fixture if the existing fixture returns a plain path.
Retrofit the inspect byte-equivalence test to call the helper.
Add a one-line note to the fixture’s docstring so future test authors find it.

Files to touch

Location	Kind	Change
`plugin/lib/lease/tests/conftest.py`	modify	Add `fetch_sdlc_refs(worker)` helper to the local-bare-repo fixture.
`plugin/scripts/lease_cli/tests/test_inspect.py`	modify	Replace the inline `git fetch` with a call to the new helper.

Acceptance criteria

AC-1: The local-bare-repo fixture exposes a fetch_sdlc_refs(worker) helper (callable from any test consuming the fixture).
AC-2: test_inspect_json_is_byte_identical_to_git_show is simplified to call the helper instead of inlining the fetch.
AC-3: Removing the helper call from the test reproduces the original flake (regression-test the helper’s necessity).

Out of scope

Auto-configuring the worker’s default fetch refspec to include refs/sdlc/*. Worth its own conversation; touches the authority/worker contract.
Generalizing the helper for non-test callers (the CLI runtime, for example). The library’s primitives already handle fetching for runtime calls — this helper is test-fixture-only.

Dependencies

T-S0PK-add-lease-protocol-library-and-schemas — the fixture this task extends.
T-QC31-add-sdlc-lease-cli-commands — the inspect test this task retrofits.

Discovery context

Spawned by /sdlc:task-work post-mortem of T-QC31-add-sdlc-lease-cli-commands on 2026-05-23.

Dedup search (spawn-from-post-mortem)

Bullet: Test fixture for git show byte-equivalence flake. test_inspect_json_is_byte_identical_to_git_show initially failed because the CLI runs against a worker repo’s bare-remote authority and the worker repo doesn’t auto-track the lease ref. Fixed by explicit git fetch in the test before git show. Suggests: the lease library’s local-bare-repo fixture should expose a ‘fetch all sdlc refs into worker’ helper so tests don’t reinvent this. Keywords searched: test_inspect_json_is_byte_identical_to_git_show, byte-equivalence, local-bare-repo, bare-remote, auto-track, initially, authority, explicit Excluded: 2026-05-23-add-sdlc-lease-cli-commands Top candidates (score / status / headline):

21 / planning/draft / 2026-05-23-add-lease-namespace-conflict-guard — Add lease-namespace conflict guard
19 / in-progress / 2026-05-23-add-lease-protocol-library-and-schemas — Add lease-protocol library and payload schemas
5 / closed/done / 2026-05-23-establish-plugin-lib-convention — Establish plugin/lib/ convention for Python libraries
4 / closed/done / 2026-05-19-co-locate-skill-specific-scripts — Co-locate skill-specific scripts under their skill dir; promote when shared
4 / closed/done / 2026-05-20-task-work-sub-agent-verdict-contract-clarity — Tighten task-work sub-agent verdict contract so ensure-ready’s READY marker isn’t mistaken for task-work’s final verdict Decision: LINKED-EXISTING 2026-05-23-add-lease-namespace-conflict-guard Rationale: Overridden to SPAWNED. The top candidate (lease-namespace-conflict-guard) is about a literal refs/sdlc ref shadowing the namespace — a totally different concern from test-fixture refspec ergonomics. Keyword overlap (lease/authority) inflated the score but the proposed fixes don’t intersect. The lease-library task is the foundation but doesn’t itself own this helper. Spawning as a sibling task.

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