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sdlc

T-5AMB-lease-tests-plant-literal-namespace-ref

Status: closed/superseded · Impact: low · Complexity: small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

Section titled “Goal”

Expose a plant_literal_namespace_ref(authority, sha) helper on the lease library’s local-bare-repo test fixture so that tests simulating operator-induced ref damage (e.g. a leaf refs/sdlc shadowing the namespace) don’t each re-derive the “git push is rejected by the funny-refname guard, so go through git update-ref inside the bare repo” workaround. See T-K3RR-add-lease-namespace-conflict-guard for the live incident where this cost ~10 minutes of investigation while writing AC-1 for the namespace-conflict guard.

Today

Section titled “Today”
LocationRole today
plugin/lib/lease/tests/conftest.pyDefines the local-bare-repo fixture (bare authority + worker checkout) added by T-S0PK-add-lease-protocol-library-and-schemas. Does not expose any helper for planting a literal refs/<namespace> ref.
plugin/lib/lease/tests/test_guard.pyThe namespace-conflict guard’s AC-1 test currently hand-rolls the git update-ref refs/sdlc <sha> invocation inline.

Proposed

Section titled “Proposed”

A plant_literal_namespace_ref(authority, sha, *, namespace="refs/sdlc") helper on the fixture’s returned object (or sibling pytest fixture) that:

  • Takes the authority path and a SHA (any reachable commit).
  • Invokes git -C <authority> update-ref <namespace> <sha> (NOT via git push from a worker — the funny-refname guard rejects that).
  • Returns nothing on success; raises on subprocess failure.
  • Carries a docstring explaining why this looks weird (the funny- refname rejection on push, the local-write carveout in bare repos) so future readers don’t re-investigate.

test_guard.py’s AC-1 test (and any future test simulating the same conflict shape) calls the helper instead of inlining the update-ref call.

Approach

Section titled “Approach”
  1. Add plant_literal_namespace_ref to the local-bare-repo fixture in plugin/lib/lease/tests/conftest.py. Decision deferred: method on the returned object vs sibling fixture — depends on the fixture’s existing return shape.
  2. Retrofit test_guard.py’s AC-1 test to call the helper.
  3. Cross-link from the helper’s docstring to the Namespace conflict guard section of the ADR so the “why” is one click away.

Files to touch

Section titled “Files to touch”
LocationKindChange
plugin/lib/lease/tests/conftest.pymodifyAdd plant_literal_namespace_ref(authority, sha, *, namespace="refs/sdlc") helper with docstring explaining the funny-refname workaround.
plugin/lib/lease/tests/test_guard.pymodifyReplace the inline git update-ref invocation in AC-1’s test with a call to the helper.

Acceptance criteria

Section titled “Acceptance criteria”
  • AC-1: The local-bare-repo fixture exposes a plant_literal_namespace_ref(authority, sha) helper callable from any test consuming the fixture.
  • AC-2: test_guard.py’s AC-1 test calls the helper instead of inlining git update-ref; the test still passes.
  • AC-3: The helper’s docstring names the git push funny-refname rejection by name and explains why git update-ref inside the bare repo is the workaround, so future readers don’t re-derive it.

Out of scope

Section titled “Out of scope”
  • Generalising the helper to plant arbitrary “operator-induced ref damage” beyond literal namespace shadowing. If other ref-damage shapes emerge as test concerns, they get their own helpers.
  • Reconcile-side detection of the same conflict (the ADR’s reconcile checklist already calls this out and a future reconcile task will own that surface).

Dependencies

Section titled “Dependencies”

Discovery context

Section titled “Discovery context”

Spawned by /sdlc:task-work post-mortem of T-K3RR-add-lease-namespace-conflict-guard on 2026-05-24.

Dedup search (spawn-from-post-mortem)

Section titled “Dedup search (spawn-from-post-mortem)”

Bullet: Planting a literal refs/sdlc via git push is rejected by git’s funny-refname guard. Worked around by pushing the SHA via a normal branch first, then git update-ref refs/sdlc inside the bare repo (which has no funny-ref guard for local writes). Cost ~10 min of investigation. Suggests: a small fixture helper in plugin/lib/lease/tests/conftest.py (e.g. plant_literal_namespace_ref(authority, sha)) so future tests simulating operator-induced ref damage don’t re-derive the workaround. Keywords searched: plant_literal_namespace_ref, operator-induced, funny-refname, investigation, update-ref, simulating, workaround, funny-ref Excluded: 2026-05-23-add-lease-namespace-conflict-guard Top candidates (score / status / headline):

  • 2 / open/ready / 2026-05-21-investigate-skill-prompt-freshness — Investigate whether sub-skill prompts re-read SKILL.md each call or cache stale prose
  • 2 / planning/draft / 2026-05-21-post-mortem-evidence-reproducibility — spawn-from-post-mortem: capture reproducibility tier (reliable vs intermittent) per bullet
  • 1 / closed/done / 2026-05-19-document-commit-message-pattern — Document robust commit-message pattern (mktemp + git commit -F) for SDLC skills
  • 1 / closed/done / 2026-05-19-document-grep-alias-bypass — Document /usr/bin/grep pattern for SDLC skills to bypass shell aliases
  • 1 / closed/done / 2026-05-19-extract-ensure-ready-mutate-script — Extract ensure-ready frontmatter mutation into a shared script Decision: SPAWNED

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