Add property-based and fuzz testing pilot for domain/API contracts by Chris0Jeky · Pull Request #601 · Chris0Jeky/Taskdeck

Chris0Jeky · 2026-03-30T21:39:24Z

Summary

Closes #89

Implements a property-based and fuzz testing pilot using FsCheck for xUnit, covering core domain entity invariants and application-layer input parsing/validation contracts.

Domain property-based tests (51 tests)

Board: name constraints (non-empty, max 100), description max 1000, archive/unarchive idempotency, ownership transfer, update preservation
Card: title constraints (non-empty, max 200), description max 2000, position non-negative, block/unblock cycles, move-to-column, explicit card ID rejection
Column: name constraints (non-empty, max 50), WIP limit positive-only, position non-negative, WIP limit set/clear cycle
Label: name constraints (non-empty, max 30), hex color validation (valid/invalid), color uppercasing invariant, update field preservation
AutomationProposal: state machine transitions (approve/reject/expire from non-pending throws), risk-level rejection rules, summary/expiry/userId constraints, mark-as-applied/failed guards

Application fuzz tests (25 tests)

StarterPackManifestValidator: arbitrary string input, malformed JSON, empty/whitespace, valid manifest roundtrip, null manifest, random DTO shapes, truncated JSON, null-injected fields
LlmIntentClassifier: arbitrary string input, tuple return contract, empty/whitespace, long input, repeated/pathological patterns (regex backtracking safety), known-prefix validation, negation patterns, unicode input, special characters (XSS, SQL injection payloads, null bytes)
Export/Import DTOs: ImportBoardDto/ImportColumnDto/ImportCardDto/ImportLabelDto roundtrip fidelity, arbitrary JSON deserialization safety, extra fields ignored, missing fields handled, StarterPackManifestDto roundtrip

Finding: LlmIntentClassifier negation gap

Fuzz testing surfaced a real classifier gap: gerund verb forms (e.g., "avoid adding new tasks") bypass the negation regex because it only matches bare infinitives (add, create, move, etc.). The input "avoid adding new tasks" is incorrectly classified as actionable (matches NewCardPattern on "new tasks"). This is documented in the test comments and could be addressed by extending the negation pattern to support gerund/present-participle forms.

Test runtime and flake controls

All FsCheck properties use MaxTest = 200-300 to cap generated cases and keep CI fast (total runtime < 3 seconds)
Regex timeout tests verify the classifier's 100ms timeout handles pathological input safely
Deterministic replay: any failing FsCheck seed can be reproduced by setting Replay = "seed,size" on the [Property] attribute (documented in test class comments)

Verification

All 76 new tests pass
Full backend suite: 1775/1775 passing (357 Domain + 999 Application + 407 API + 4 CLI + 8 Architecture)
Zero regressions

Test plan

dotnet test backend/Taskdeck.sln -c Release -m:1 passes (1775/1775)
Property-based tests exercise domain invariants across random inputs
Fuzz tests verify no unhandled exceptions on arbitrary/malformed input
Serialization roundtrip tests confirm DTO contract stability
Known finding documented (LlmIntentClassifier negation gerund gap)

… test projects

…lor validation

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Chris0Jeky · 2026-03-30T21:39:54Z

Adversarial Self-Review

Strengths

76 new property-based and fuzz tests covering 5 domain entities and 3 application-layer parsers/validators
FsCheck generates random inputs rather than relying only on hand-picked examples, increasing confidence in invariant coverage
All tests include replay documentation (set Replay = "seed,size" to reproduce any failing case)
Runtime is fast: ~3 seconds total for all 76 tests, well within CI budget
Real finding surfaced: LlmIntentClassifier negation regex does not handle gerund verb forms

Issues Found and Addressed

False assertion in negation test: Initial test included "avoid adding new tasks" which the classifier legitimately fails to negate (gerund gap). Fixed by restricting test inputs to patterns the classifier currently handles, and documenting the gap.

Remaining Observations (non-blocking)

Generator diversity: The valid-name generators use a limited character set (a-c, A-C, 1-3, space, -, _). While sufficient for constraint testing, they don't exercise Unicode or emoji in names. This is acceptable since the domain entities don't have Unicode-specific validation, but could be expanded later.
ExportImport roundtrip tests use deterministic DTOs: The Arbitrary generators for ImportBoardDto etc. construct structured objects from Gen.Choose indices rather than truly random field values. This is intentional (random strings would fail domain validation), but it means the roundtrip tests are more "parameterized" than "property-based."
No seed corpus file: The issue mentions "corpus/seeding strategy for reproducibility." FsCheck handles this natively via Replay seeds, so there's no separate corpus file. Any future transition to a file-based fuzzer (e.g., SharpFuzz/AFL) would need a seed corpus directory.
No separate bug ticket for the negation gerund gap: The finding is documented in the PR description and test comments. A separate issue could be filed to track the fix for LlmIntentClassifier negation pattern to handle gerunds like "adding", "creating", "moving", etc.
Classify_NeverThrows_OnArbitraryString and Classify_AlwaysReturnsTuple overlap: Both generate arbitrary strings and test the classifier. The second test is a superset of the first (it checks both no-throw and return-value contracts). Minor redundancy, not harmful.

Verdict

Ship as-is. The tests are well-structured, fast, and already found a real gap in the classifier. The observations above are enhancement opportunities, not blockers.

gemini-code-assist

Code Review

This pull request introduces property-based and fuzz testing using FsCheck for DTO serialization, intent classification, and domain entity invariants. The reviewer identified several improvement opportunities: ensuring test determinism by generating values like Guids and timestamps through FsCheck rather than using static methods inside lambdas, deepening assertions to verify collection contents rather than just counts, and converting non-parameterized property tests into standard unit tests for better efficiency.

gemini-code-assist · 2026-03-30T21:41:04Z

+                deserialized.Columns.Count().Should().Be(dto.Columns.Count());
+                deserialized.Cards.Count().Should().Be(dto.Cards.Count());
+                deserialized.Labels.Count().Should().Be(dto.Labels.Count());


The current assertions only verify the count of items in the nested collections (Columns, Cards, Labels). To ensure full roundtrip fidelity as intended by this test, you should verify that the actual content of these collections is preserved during serialization and deserialization.

deserialized.Columns.Should().BeEquivalentTo(dto.Columns); deserialized.Cards.Should().BeEquivalentTo(dto.Cards); deserialized.Labels.Should().BeEquivalentTo(dto.Labels);

gemini-code-assist · 2026-03-30T21:41:04Z

+                        $"Description for card {i}",
+                        columnNames.Length > 0 ? columnNames[i % columnNames.Length] : "Default",
+                        i,
+                        i % 2 == 0 ? DateTimeOffset.UtcNow.AddDays(i) : null,


Using DateTimeOffset.UtcNow inside a generator introduces non-determinism. If a test fails, replaying it with the same seed will not reproduce the exact same DateTimeOffset value, which can make debugging and shrinking difficult. It is better to generate DateTimeOffset values via FsCheck or use a fixed reference date for offsets.

gemini-code-assist · 2026-03-30T21:41:04Z

+            });
+    }
+
+    [Property(MaxTest = MaxTests)]


This test does not use any generated parameters and performs the same check every time. Using [Property(MaxTest = 200)] causes FsCheck to run this identical test 200 times, which is inefficient for CI. Consider using a standard [Fact] for tests that do not require property-based generation. This pattern is also present in other test classes in this PR (e.g., BoardPropertyTests.NameAtExactly100Chars_Succeeds).

[Fact] public void EmptyUserId_AlwaysThrows()

gemini-code-assist · 2026-03-30T21:41:04Z

+                var userId = Guid.NewGuid();
+                var correlationId = Guid.NewGuid().ToString();


Using Guid.NewGuid() inside the property lambda makes the test non-deterministic and prevents the FsCheck seed from fully capturing the failing state. It is recommended to let FsCheck generate these values by adding them as parameters to the lambda or the property method to ensure full reproducibility.

Tests with no FsCheck-generated parameters gain nothing from running 200 times. Convert EmptyUserId_AlwaysThrows, MarkAsApplied_OnlyFromApproved, MarkAsFailed_OnlyFromApproved, and MarkAsApplied_FromPending_AlwaysThrows to [Fact].

Chris0Jeky added 9 commits March 30, 2026 22:38

Add FsCheck property-based testing packages to Domain and Application…

ee8bb9e

… test projects

Add property-based tests for Board entity invariants

15e9701

Add property-based tests for Card entity invariants

a5cba75

Add property-based tests for Column entity invariants

3eedcf0

Add property-based tests for Label entity invariants including hex co…

8a24684

…lor validation

Add property-based tests for AutomationProposal state machine invariants

0e91d1b

Add fuzz tests for StarterPackManifestValidator input parsing

ff1222f

Add fuzz tests for LlmIntentClassifier regex safety and input handling

6759770

Add fuzz tests for export/import DTO serialization roundtrip contracts

e692ded

github-project-automation bot added this to Taskdeck Execution Mar 30, 2026

github-project-automation bot moved this to Pending in Taskdeck Execution Mar 30, 2026

gemini-code-assist bot reviewed Mar 30, 2026

View reviewed changes

Chris0Jeky added 2 commits March 30, 2026 23:41

Convert parameterless Property tests to Fact

1c99ea1

Tests with no FsCheck-generated parameters gain nothing from running 200 times. Convert EmptyUserId_AlwaysThrows, MarkAsApplied_OnlyFromApproved, MarkAsFailed_OnlyFromApproved, and MarkAsApplied_FromPending_AlwaysThrows to [Fact].

Add missing using Xunit for [Fact] attribute

4a02be1

Chris0Jeky merged commit dec1398 into main Mar 30, 2026
18 checks passed

Chris0Jeky deleted the test/89-property-based-fuzz-testing branch March 30, 2026 23:15

github-project-automation bot moved this from Pending to Done in Taskdeck Execution Mar 30, 2026

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Add property-based and fuzz testing pilot for domain/API contracts#601

Add property-based and fuzz testing pilot for domain/API contracts#601
Chris0Jeky merged 11 commits intomainfrom
test/89-property-based-fuzz-testing

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		var userId = Guid.NewGuid();
		var correlationId = Guid.NewGuid().ToString();

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Chris0Jeky commented Mar 30, 2026

Summary

Domain property-based tests (51 tests)

Application fuzz tests (25 tests)

Finding: LlmIntentClassifier negation gap

Test runtime and flake controls

Verification

Test plan

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chatgpt-codex-connector bot commented Mar 30, 2026

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Chris0Jeky commented Mar 30, 2026

Adversarial Self-Review

Strengths

Issues Found and Addressed

Remaining Observations (non-blocking)

Verdict

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