Pre Release Validation

Pre-Release Validation

Run comprehensive local checks before pushing code to catch issues early.

When to Use This Skill

Automatically invoke:

• Before creating a release (stable or beta)
• Before pushing significant changes
• After completing a feature implementation

Manual invocation when:

• User asks to "run checks" or "validate"
• Debugging CI failures locally
• Auditing code quality

Validation Tiers

Timing reality: a cold :app:compileDebugKotlin runs ~12 min with the Compose stability config (per the comment at app/build.gradle.kts:140; >42 min without it); a warm compile is ~4.5 min. Tier estimates assume a warm daemon and stretch accordingly when cold. Build in the background and wait for completion; do not kill slow builds mid-flight.

Tier 1: Quick Check (warm ~5 min)

Fast validation for small changes.

# Lint check
./gradlew lintDebug 2>&1 | head -50

# Compile check
./gradlew compileDebugKotlin 2>&1

Tier 2: Standard Check (warm ~10 min)

Full validation before commits.

# Lint
./gradlew lintDebug

# Unit tests
./gradlew testDebugUnitTest

# Compile release
./gradlew compileReleaseKotlin

Tier 3: Full Check (warm 15+ min; much longer cold)

Complete validation before releases.

# Full lint (both debug and release)
./gradlew lint

# All unit tests
./gradlew testDebugUnitTest testReleaseUnitTest

# Full release build
./gradlew assembleRelease

Coupling Sweep (release backstop)

The git-commit hook (scripts/ci/coupling-guard.py, via PreToolUse) gates each agent commit against Argosy's coupling map. This sweep is the release-time backstop: it re-runs the same rules over the WHOLE changeset since the last tag, catching coupling gaps that slipped across many commits.

# Sweep every change since the last release tag
LAST_TAG=$(git describe --tags --abbrev=0 2>/dev/null || echo "")
python3 scripts/ci/coupling-guard.py --sweep "${LAST_TAG:+$LAST_TAG..}HEAD"

The sweep is advisory (never blocks the release on its own), but its output is a release blocker for judgment:

• WALKTHROUGH-FORCED axes (save-sync, RomM) flagged -> confirm the live-data proof obligations were actually met for this release (GET /api/saves, negotiate returns no_op twice). Never ship these on code-reading alone.
• platform / settings / UI flags -> confirm the lockstep set and consumption sites.

Rules live in scripts/ci/coupling-hotspots.json (machine mirror of coupling-map.md). Update both when the architecture moves. The guard and its rules are tracked, not maintainer-local: CI runs the same sweep on every PR, so a rule added here takes effect for every contributor rather than only on this machine.

Validation Checklist

Code Quality

[ ] No lint errors (warnings acceptable)
[ ] No compiler warnings in changed files
[ ] Unit tests pass
[ ] No TODO/FIXME in committed code (unless intentional)

Build Validation

[ ] Debug build succeeds
[ ] Release build succeeds
[ ] APK size reasonable (check for bloat)

Git Hygiene

[ ] No untracked files that should be committed
[ ] No secrets/credentials in staged files
[ ] Commit message follows conventions

Compose Stability Guard

The stability config (app/compose_stability_config.conf) asserts covered packages are immutable; the compiler does not check it. Before release, verify no mutable constructor/body properties crept into covered state classes:

grep -rEn --include="*.kt" "^ {4}var [a-zA-Z]+:" \
  app/src/main/kotlin/com/nendo/argosy/data/model \
  app/src/main/kotlin/com/nendo/argosy/data/local/entity \
  app/src/main/kotlin/com/nendo/argosy/ui/screens \
  app/src/main/kotlin/com/nendo/argosy/ui/components \
  app/src/main/kotlin/com/nendo/argosy/ui/dualscreen

Triage hits: a var property on a data class used as UI state or a composable param is a BLOCKER (fix to val + copy-on-change, or move the class out of covered packages). private var internals of ViewModels/delegates are exempt, but confirm nothing reads them directly inside composition.

[ ] Stability guard grep is clean (or all hits triaged exempt)

Workflow

Before Commit

# Quick validation
./gradlew lintDebug compileDebugKotlin testDebugUnitTest

Before Push

# Standard validation
./gradlew lint testDebugUnitTest compileReleaseKotlin

Before Release

# Full validation (run these in sequence)
./gradlew lint
./gradlew testDebugUnitTest testReleaseUnitTest
./gradlew assembleRelease

Common Issues & Fixes

Lint Errors

Unused imports/variables:

// Remove or use the import/variable
// Android Studio: Optimize Imports (Cmd+Opt+O)

Hardcoded strings:

// Move to strings.xml or suppress if intentional
@Suppress("HardcodedText")

Missing nullability:

// Add explicit null handling
val value = nullable ?: default

Test Failures

Flaky tests:

# Run specific test multiple times
./gradlew testDebugUnitTest --tests "TestClass.testMethod" --rerun-tasks

Missing mocks:

// Ensure all dependencies are mocked in test setup
every { dependency.method() } returns expected

Build Failures

Dependency conflicts:

# Check dependency tree
./gradlew dependencies --configuration releaseRuntimeClasspath

ProGuard issues:

# Check proguard-rules.pro for missing keep rules
-keep class com.nendo.argosy.** { *; }

Single Invocation, Never Parallel

NEVER run concurrent gradle invocations against this project (no separate terminals, no &). Concurrent invocations corrupted the KSP caches here in a prior incident, and recovery meant scoped cache invalidation. Pass multiple tasks to ONE invocation and let Gradle schedule them:

./gradlew lintDebug testDebugUnitTest

Output Interpretation

Lint Output

> Task :app:lintDebug
Wrote HTML report to file:///path/app/build/reports/lint-results-debug.html

0 errors, 3 warnings  # ACCEPTABLE - proceed
5 errors, 3 warnings  # BLOCKING - fix errors first

app/lint-baseline.xml snapshots the warnings that existed at 2.6.1, so anything lint reports now is NEW and worth reading. Regenerate it only as a deliberate act after clearing real findings (delete the file and re-run lintDebug), never to silence a warning that just appeared.

What the baseline is holding, so it is not mistaken for a backlog of bugs: the Recycle entries are false positives (cursors already closed via ?.use, animators driven by a started AnimatorSet); HardwareIds is the device identity RomM device-sync and request signing depend on; SdCardPath entries are the upstream-exact emulator data paths the save resolvers need verbatim; GetInstance is AES-XTS, which is built from ECB primitives by definition; and the network config permits cleartext and user certificates because the server is self-hosted, frequently on a LAN with a self-signed cert. Genuinely worth doing later: ApplySharedPref outside SessionStateStore (where the synchronous write is deliberate), and the ObsoleteSdkInt dead branches.

Test Output

> Task :app:testDebugUnitTest
85 tests completed, 0 failed  # PASS
85 tests completed, 2 failed  # BLOCKING - check failures

Build Output

BUILD SUCCESSFUL in 54s  # PASS
BUILD FAILED             # BLOCKING - check error

Integration with Release Skill

The release skill should invoke pre-release validation automatically:

## Release Workflow (Updated)

1. Ask release type (stable/beta/rc)
2. **RUN PRE-RELEASE VALIDATION (Tier 3)**
   - ./gradlew lint
   - ./gradlew testDebugUnitTest testReleaseUnitTest
   - ./gradlew assembleRelease
3. **RUN COUPLING SWEEP** over changes since last tag (see Coupling Sweep above)
   - Resolve flagged axes; for save-sync/RomM confirm live-data proofs were met
4. If validation or sweep blockers remain, STOP and fix issues
5. If clean, proceed with version bump
6. ... (rest of release process)

CI/CD Parity

CI (.github/workflows/build.yml) runs DEBUG variants only:

PRs additionally run the rules job (blocking agentic smell check + advisory coupling sweep; skippable via the maintainer-applied rules-exempt PR label). CI never builds, tests, or lints the RELEASE variant -- the release-variant checks in Tier 2/3 are local-only and still required before a release. Running the debug set locally first prevents CI failures.

Quick Reference Commands

# One-liner: Full pre-release validation
./gradlew lint testDebugUnitTest assembleRelease

# Check specific area after changes
./gradlew testDebugUnitTest --tests "*DownloadManager*"
./gradlew testDebugUnitTest --tests "*Platform*"
./gradlew testDebugUnitTest --tests "*Emulator*"

# Just build, skip tests (quick sanity check)
./gradlew assembleRelease -x test -x lint

Do NOT reach for ./gradlew clean when a build misbehaves -- house rule. Invalidate the specific stale cache (scoped) instead; a clean forces the full cold-compile cost for no diagnostic gain.

Validation Report Template

After running checks, report:

## Pre-Release Validation Report

### Lint
- Status: PASS/FAIL
- Errors: 0
- Warnings: 3 (acceptable)

### Tests
- Status: PASS/FAIL
- Passed: 85
- Failed: 0
- Skipped: 2

### Build
- Status: PASS/FAIL
- APK Size: 12.3 MB
- Build Time: 54s

### Verdict
Ready for release: YES/NO
Blockers: [list if any]