6.13 Testing and contributing

Describe the user behavior affected by your change, then select tests. Run these commands from the Teloa Community source root after preparing local development.

Select tests

Command	Coverage
pnpm test:repo	Repository entrypoints, fixed dependencies and configuration
pnpm test:contract	Shared contracts and readers
pnpm test:sdk	External employee SDK contract
pnpm test:references	Read-only MCP protocol and reference boundaries
pnpm test:bindings	Client bindings and interaction state
pnpm test:work	Backend business and database rules
pnpm test:native	DSH adaptation and execution authorization
pnpm test:extensions	IM and local retrieval extensions
pnpm --filter @teloa/cli test	Native installer and release resources
pnpm typecheck	Build first, then root type checks
pnpm check:client	Client build boundaries

Run affected tests first rather than the entire table for every change. Database tests need local Docker; some host tests need built assets, ports or platform capabilities. Read their prerequisites. If scripts change, use the checked-out package.json as the authority.

Validate a small change

For the read-only MCP service:

pnpm test:references

It starts a real stdio service and checks discovery, content, unknown identities, wrong versions and extra arguments. Then read through the complete client, and test employee denial without a grant and success after granting it. This separates protocol, authorization and model issues.

For a defect covered by a single file, run that file directly:

node --test packages/mcp-reference/tests/protocol.test.ts

Record evidence

Record the source commit, Node/platform version, command, actual exit result and relevant receipts. Preserve the initial reproduction and rerun affected cases after fixing it. List skipped tests, missing dependencies and untested platforms separately.

Evidence	What it proves
Reader passes	Input satisfies the current format
Scripted model or fixed fixture passes	State, permissions and persistence
Real model completes work	Actual behavior for that input and model
Browser completes an action	Interaction in that page and state
Real tarball installs in a clean environment	That platform's release installation path

No row substitutes for all the others. Real models require credentials and incur usage; keep those checks separate from ordinary unit tests.

Installer and runtime checks

Installer changes also require startup, survival after the launching terminal closes, stop/restart, port conflicts, non-ASCII and space-containing paths, backup, restore, upgrade and data-preserving uninstall. Install an actual npm tarball, then verify registry installation after release.

Use a native host with a Docker database for daily development; containers cover database and deployment regression. Linux-container success does not establish macOS or Windows native paths, programs or system permissions.

Contribute

Submit an Issue or PR to the Community repository with the problem, reproduction, resulting behavior, validation and limits. Follow CONTRIBUTING.md and DCO.md, including Signed-off-by. Exclude credentials, runtime data, private content and unrelated changes. Report security issues through the private route in SECURITY.md.