xfi-consistency-testing

name: xfi-consistency-testing description: Guide for ensuring CLI and VSCode extension produce identical analysis results. Use when verifying CLI-Extension parity, debugging output differences, or setting up consistency checks.

CLI-Extension Consistency Testing

This skill guides you through ensuring X-Fidelity CLI and VSCode extension produce identical results.

Why Consistency Matters

The CLI and VSCode extension should always produce identical analysis results:

• Same archetype used for analysis
• Same rules evaluated
• Same issues detected with identical locations
• Same severity levels for all issues

Inconsistency indicates a bug that must be fixed before release.

Quick Consistency Check

Consistency Verification:
- [ ] Build all packages
- [ ] Run CLI analysis
- [ ] Run VSCode extension analysis
- [ ] Compare issue counts
- [ ] Compare issue locations
- [ ] Verify severity levels match

Manual Consistency Testing

1. Ensure Clean Build

# Build everything from workspace root
yarn build

# Or clean build
yarn build:clean

2. Run CLI Analysis

# Navigate to test workspace
cd packages/x-fidelity-fixtures/node-fullstack

# Run CLI with vscode mode (clean JSON output)
npx xfi --mode vscode --archetype node-fullstack > cli-results.json

# Or with human-readable output
npx xfi --mode cli --archetype node-fullstack

3. Run VSCode Extension Analysis

1. Open packages/x-fidelity-fixtures/node-fullstack in VSCode
2. Wait for extension to activate and analyze
3. Check issues in tree view (lightning icon)
4. View Output panel > "X-Fidelity Analysis" for details

4. Compare Results

What to Compare:

Expected Outcome:

• Identical issue counts
• Identical file paths
• Identical line numbers (column may vary slightly)
• Matching severity levels

Integration Test Approach

Test File Structure

Integration tests for consistency live in:

packages/x-fidelity-vscode/src/test/integration/
├── analysis-completion.test.ts   # Verifies analysis runs
├── diagnostics.test.ts           # Verifies diagnostics match
└── rule-validation.test.ts       # Verifies rules evaluate correctly

Running Integration Tests

# Run VSCode extension integration tests
yarn workspace x-fidelity-vscode test:integration

# Run all VSCode tests
yarn workspace x-fidelity-vscode test:all

Writing Consistency Tests

import * as vscode from 'vscode';
import { execSync } from 'child_process';

test('CLI and extension should produce matching results', async function() {
    // Run CLI analysis
    const cliOutput = execSync(
        'npx xfi --mode vscode --archetype node-fullstack',
        { cwd: workspacePath, encoding: 'utf8' }
    );
    const cliResults = JSON.parse(cliOutput);

    // Get extension results
    await vscode.commands.executeCommand('xfidelity.runAnalysis');
    const extensionResults = await vscode.commands.executeCommand(
        'xfidelity.getTestResults'
    );

    // Compare
    expect(extensionResults.summary.totalIssues)
        .toBe(cliResults.summary.totalIssues);
});

Common Inconsistencies

1. Different Issue Counts

Symptoms: CLI finds more/fewer issues than extension

Causes:

• Different working directory
• Different archetype detected
• File system caching

Debug:

# Check CLI working directory
pwd

# Verify archetype in both
xfi --debug 2>&1 | grep archetype
# Check VSCode Output panel for archetype detection

2. Different File Paths

Symptoms: Same issues but different paths

Causes:

• Absolute vs relative paths
• Path separator differences (Windows)
• Symlink resolution

Solution: Normalize paths before comparison:

const normalize = (p: string) => path.resolve(p).toLowerCase();

3. Different Line Numbers

Symptoms: Issues on different lines

Causes:

• Source map differences
• AST parsing differences
• Cached file content

Debug:

# Ensure both use same file content
git status  # No uncommitted changes
yarn build  # Fresh build

4. Missing Diagnostics in VSCode

Symptoms: CLI finds issues, VSCode shows none

Causes:

• Extension not activated
• Diagnostics not registered
• File not in workspace

Check:

// Verify diagnostics collection
const diagnostics = vscode.languages.getDiagnostics();
for (const [uri, diags] of diagnostics) {
    console.log(`${uri.path}: ${diags.length} issues`);
}

Test Workspace

The standard test workspace is:

packages/x-fidelity-fixtures/node-fullstack/

This workspace contains:

• Known issues for testing
• Multiple file types
• Various patterns to detect

CI Integration

GitHub Actions

Consistency is checked in CI:

• .github/workflows/vscode-extension-ci.yml
• Runs on PRs and merges
• Fails build on inconsistency

Artifacts

Consistency test reports are saved as artifacts:

• 30-day retention
• Contains both CLI and extension output
• Useful for debugging failures

Debugging Consistency Failures

1. Get Detailed Output

# CLI with full debug
xfi --debug --mode vscode 2>&1 | tee cli-debug.log

# VSCode: Enable debug logging
# Output panel > X-Fidelity Debug

2. Compare JSON Output

# Save both outputs
xfi --mode vscode > cli.json
# Export extension results via command

# Diff the outputs
diff cli.json extension.json

3. Check Specific Issue

# Find issue in CLI output
grep "specificRule" cli.json

# Find in VSCode
# Tree view > expand issue > check details

Best Practices

1. Always test with fixtures workspace - Known baseline
2. Build before testing - Ensure latest code
3. Use same archetype - Explicit in both contexts
4. Compare normalized output - Handle path differences
5. Check after any core changes - Engine, rules, plugins

Files Reference