ai-workflow-skill/docs/tests/council-review-skill/council-reviewer-output-invalid-json-fails-tally-through-bundled-cli.md

Case: council-reviewer-output-invalid-json-fails-tally-through-bundled-cli

Test Type

This is a forward-test and a malformed-reviewer-output validation.

The goal is to verify that a leader using the packaged council-review skill reaches the stable tally-time invalid_input contract when one reviewer completes its inbox task with malformed council JSON.

Purpose

Validate that all of the following can be true at the same time:

• the leader can start a real council run through the bundled council-review skill
• all three reviewer tasks can still reach terminal done state through the packaged inbox skill
• one reviewer can return malformed JSON in the result body
• the leader sees council tally fail with the expected invalid-input error instead of a silent partial tally
• malformed JSON is exercised as the most realistic representative of the same reviewer-output validation layer that also rejects missing reviewer_role and role mismatches

Preconditions

• council-review skill path exists: COUNCIL_SKILL_PATH=skills/council-review
• inbox skill path exists: INBOX_SKILL_PATH=skills/inbox
• bundled CLI executables exist at COUNCIL_SKILL_PATH/assets/orch and INBOX_SKILL_PATH/assets/inbox
• use an empty temporary directory TMPDIR
• initialize TMPDIR/coord.db before launching role agents through INBOX_SKILL_PATH/assets/inbox --db TMPDIR/coord.db --json init

Agent Topology

• leader
• architecture-reviewer
• implementation-reviewer
• risk-reviewer

Inputs

Leader Prompt

Use $council-review at COUNCIL_SKILL_PATH to act as leader on the already initialized SQLite DB TMPDIR/coord.db. Only coordinate through the bundled orch CLI from the skill. Workflow: 1) start council run council_skill_008 with a short architecture review prompt, 2) wait until all three reviewers complete, 3) attempt council tally with normal similarity, 4) stop after reporting RUN_ID, exit code, and the error payload you observed. Do not use ordinary chat to coordinate with the reviewers.

Architecture Reviewer Prompt

Use $inbox at INBOX_SKILL_PATH to act as architecture-reviewer on SQLite DB TMPDIR/coord.db. Only coordinate through the bundled inbox CLI from the skill.

Workflow:
1) fetch and claim your assigned council task
2) write TMPDIR/architecture-invalid.json containing exactly this invalid JSON body:
{"reviewer_role":"architecture-reviewer","findings":[{"title":"Split contracts","summary":"Transport contracts are mixed into UI code.","proposal":"Move API contract definitions into a dedicated module."}
3) complete the task with done using summary "Review complete" and --body-file TMPDIR/architecture-invalid.json
4) stop after reporting THREAD_ID and the body file path

Do not use ordinary chat to coordinate with the leader.

Implementation Reviewer Prompt

Use $inbox at INBOX_SKILL_PATH to act as implementation-reviewer on SQLite DB TMPDIR/coord.db. Only coordinate through the bundled inbox CLI from the skill. Workflow: 1) fetch and claim your assigned council task, 2) complete it with done using this exact JSON body: {"reviewer_role":"implementation-reviewer","findings":[{"title":"Extract API contracts","summary":"Shared transport shapes are duplicated.","proposal":"Move API contract definitions into dedicated module","rationale":"This reduces duplication.","confidence":"medium","tags":["maintainability"],"target_refs":{"repo_path":"."}}]}, 3) stop after reporting THREAD_ID. Do not use ordinary chat to coordinate with the leader.

Risk Reviewer Prompt

Use $inbox at INBOX_SKILL_PATH to act as risk-reviewer on SQLite DB TMPDIR/coord.db. Only coordinate through the bundled inbox CLI from the skill. Workflow: 1) fetch and claim your assigned council task, 2) complete it with done using this exact JSON body: {"reviewer_role":"risk-reviewer","findings":[{"title":"Add auth integration tests","summary":"Login regressions are hard to catch.","proposal":"Add integration tests for auth flows.","rationale":"This catches regressions earlier.","confidence":"high","tags":["risk"],"target_refs":{"repo_path":"."}}]}, 3) stop after reporting THREAD_ID. Do not use ordinary chat to coordinate with the leader.

Execution Parameters

• use the shared execution contract from README.md
• use the shared timeout defaults from README.md
• do not override the default cleanup policy

Execution Steps

1. Initialize TMPDIR/coord.db once through the bundled inbox CLI before launching agents
2. Inject skills/council-review/ into leader
3. Inject skills/inbox/ into the three reviewer agents
4. Point all agents at the same database path TMPDIR/coord.db
5. Launch leader, architecture-reviewer, implementation-reviewer, and risk-reviewer in parallel
6. Wait for all agents to finish
7. Independently run the validation commands from the main thread

Validation Commands

COUNCIL_SKILL_PATH/assets/orch --db TMPDIR/coord.db --json council wait --run council_skill_008 --timeout-seconds 2
COUNCIL_SKILL_PATH/assets/orch --db TMPDIR/coord.db --json council tally --run council_skill_008 --similarity normal

Expected Outcomes

• all three reviewer tasks still reach terminal done
• council wait returns all_complete == true
• council tally exits with the stable invalid-input contract
• the error message indicates that reviewer output must be valid JSON

Assertions

• wait.data.all_complete == true
• command exit code for council tally is 30
• error code is invalid_input
• the error message mentions reviewer output must be valid JSON

Cleanup

• use the default cleanup policy from README.md
• if the run fails, retain TMPDIR and coord.db for replay and manual inspection