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90 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
90 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
# Pressure / RED phase testing in drill
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## What "RED phase" means
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The bash test family in superpowers/tests/ used three implicit phases
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when stress-testing skill content:
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* **GREEN** — current skill text. Baseline behavior under normal user
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prompts. This is what most drill scenarios exercise.
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* **PRESSURE** — current skill text, but the user prompt creates
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conditions that make the skill's recommended path inconvenient
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(urgency, an "easier" alternative already on disk, etc.). Lifted
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as `worktree-creation-under-pressure.yaml`.
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* **RED** — *modified* skill text where the section under test has
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been removed or weakened. Used to confirm a passing GREEN/PRESSURE
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result actually depended on the skill text and isn't just baseline
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model behavior.
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GREEN and PRESSURE both run against the current `SUPERPOWERS_ROOT`.
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RED needs a *different* superpowers checkout — one with the section
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under test stripped out — and runs the same scenario against that.
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## The drill primitive: vary `SUPERPOWERS_ROOT`
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Every backend YAML interpolates `${SUPERPOWERS_ROOT}` into its
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`--plugin-dir` arg (claude.yaml line 6, gemini.yaml line 5, etc.).
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That env var is the only knob you need: point drill at a different
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plugin checkout and the agent under test loads a different version
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of the skill.
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```bash
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# GREEN: current skill text
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drill run worktree-creation-from-main -b claude
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# RED: same scenario, against a checkout where Step 1a is deleted
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SUPERPOWERS_ROOT=/path/to/superpowers-without-step-1a \
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drill run worktree-creation-from-main -b claude
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```
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Compare verdicts. If GREEN passes and RED fails, the skill text is
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load-bearing. If both pass, the model produces the right behavior
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without the skill — meaning either the skill is redundant or the
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test isn't probing what it claims to probe.
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## Recommended workflow
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1. Make a git worktree of superpowers at the commit/branch you want
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to test. For RED variants, edit the skill in that worktree to
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remove the section under test.
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```bash
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cd ~/Documents/GitHub/superpowers/superpowers
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git worktree add ../superpowers-red-no-step-1a HEAD
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# edit skills/using-git-worktrees/SKILL.md in the worktree
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```
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2. Run the same drill scenario against each variant. Use
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`--n N` to get statistical signal — single runs are noisy,
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especially under pressure conditions.
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```bash
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for variant in main red-no-step-1a; do
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SUPERPOWERS_ROOT=~/Documents/GitHub/superpowers/superpowers-${variant#main}superpowers \
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drill run worktree-creation-from-main -b claude --n 10
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done
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```
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3. Compare with `drill compare`. Look for the RED variant's pass
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rate dropping (skill is load-bearing) or holding (skill is
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redundant or scenario isn't probing what it claims).
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## When to add a new pressure scenario vs. add a turn variation
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* **New scenario** when the *filesystem* setup is different (e.g.,
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pre-existing `.worktrees/` for the worktree-pressure case).
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Setup helpers are scenario-scoped.
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* **New `--n` sweep with different prompts** when only the
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*user prompt* shape varies (e.g., urgency, framing).
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Drill doesn't yet have a way to vary turn intents within a single
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scenario YAML — multi-prompt sweeps require multiple scenario files
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or running the same scenario with different intents externally.
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## Open follow-ups
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* `--plugins=A,B,C` sweep dimension (parallel to `--models`) so a
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single drill invocation can run RED + GREEN + PRESSURE variants
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in one batch and `drill compare` shows them side-by-side. Not yet
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implemented; tracked as drill-internal future work.
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