Skip to content

E2E smoke tests

R-E2E-1 - Deployable apps have built-artifact smoke tests

Rule. A deployable app must have at least one E2E smoke test that runs against the built artifact or production-like preview, not only the development server.

Why. Dev servers hide build, asset, routing, environment, and bundling failures. Smoke tests should prove the shape users actually load.

vcqa. Flag app repos with build/deploy workflows but no Playwright or equivalent smoke test that serves the built artifact or preview deployment.

References.

R-SMOKE-1 - Critical flow smoke tests are minimal and stable

Rule. E2E smoke tests must cover the smallest set of critical user or operator flows needed to detect a broken deploy.

Why. A smoke suite that tries to test everything becomes slow and flaky. A smoke suite that tests nothing important cannot protect production.

vcqa. Flag E2E suites that have no critical flow assertions, rely only on homepage load, or contain broad fragile journeys better suited to lower-level tests.

References.

R-E2E-2 - Routing and direct entry are covered where relevant

Rule. Browser apps with routing must include direct-entry or refresh tests for at least one non-root route.

Why. Click-through tests can pass while direct links and browser refreshes 404 after deployment.

vcqa. Flag routed browser apps whose E2E tests never call page.goto on a non-root route or reload a deep route.

References.