Testing AICR

July 14, 2026 · View on GitHub

AICR's test pyramid has five layers. Unit tests are the broad base — table-driven, hermetic, --no-cluster. Above them sit integration tests against a real Kubernetes API (Kind), Chainsaw post-deploy health checks, KWOK matrix tests that exercise scheduling shape and deployer output without GPU hardware, and a thin top of E2E tests against real cloud accounts.

What to use when. If the code path can be exercised without the Kubernetes API, write a unit test. If it cannot, prefer KWOK or Chainsaw over Kind, and Kind over an E2E.

The pre-push gate is make qualify. It runs tests with the race detector and coverage threshold, lints (golangci-lint + yamllint), e2e, vulnerability scan, and license check. CI runs the equivalent — if make qualify passes locally, CI will pass.

Test Surfaces

Surface	When to use	Lives in	Run locally	Gated by
Unit tests (Go)	Logic exercisable without K8s API	`*_test.go` next to source	`make test`	`make qualify`, push CI
Integration tests (Go)	Logic touching the K8s API	`*_test.go` with envtest / fake client	`make test` (Kind for live cases)	`make qualify`, push CI
Chainsaw health checks	Component-level post-deploy health	`recipes/checks/<name>/health-check.yaml`	`make check-health COMPONENT=<name>`	Bundle-validate workflow
KWOK matrix tests	Recipe scheduling shape + deployer output without GPUs	`kwok/scripts/`, `recipes/overlays/`	`make kwok-test-deployer RECIPE=… DEPLOYER=…`	`kwok-recipes.yaml` workflow
E2E tests	Full pipeline against real cloud accounts	`tools/e2e`	`unset GITLAB_TOKEN && ./tools/e2e`	`make qualify`, e2e workflow

The rest of this page covers each surface in the order a typical change touches them — unit, integration, chainsaw, KWOK, E2E — plus the make qualify gate and common gotchas.

Unit Tests

Unit tests are the default. Required patterns from CLAUDE.md: table-driven cases, race detector enabled, no live cluster access.

Table-driven (mandatory for multiple cases):

func TestParseCriteria(t *testing.T) {
    tests := []struct {
        name    string
        input   string
        want    string
        wantErr bool
    }{
        {"valid h100", "h100", "h100", false},
        {"empty rejected", "", "", true},
    }
    for _, tt := range tests {
        t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
            got, err := Parse(tt.input)
            if (err != nil) != tt.wantErr {
                t.Fatalf("err=%v wantErr=%v", err, tt.wantErr)
            }
            if got != tt.want {
                t.Errorf("got=%q want=%q", got, tt.want)
            }
        })
    }
}

Race detector is always on:

go test -race ./...                          # full module
go test -race -v ./pkg/recipe/...            # single package
go test -race -v ./pkg/recipe -run TestX     # single test

CLI tests capture cmd.Writer, not stdout. CLI commands write through cmd.Root().Writer so tests can intercept output:

buf := &bytes.Buffer{}
cmd := recipeCmd()
cmd.Writer = buf
args := []string{"recipe", "--service", "eks", "--accelerator", "h100"}
if err := cmd.Run(context.Background(), args); err != nil {
    t.Fatalf("run: %v", err)
}

(The CLI is built on urfave/cli/v3: a command exposes a Writer field and is invoked with cmd.Run(ctx, args) where args[0] is the command name — there is no Cobra-style SetOut/SetArgs/Execute.)

Direct fmt.Println / fmt.Printf to stdout in pkg/cli breaks this pattern and is a review-blocker.

Coverage floor: 75% (project-wide, from .settings.yaml quality.coverage_threshold). make test-coverage enforces it. Per-package decreases > 0.5% are flagged for justification.

Test Isolation (`--no-cluster`)

Any test that touches the validator or a collector must run with --no-cluster set. Two reasons:

Hermeticity. A test that happens to have a kubeconfig pointed at a real cluster will connect to it and create resources. CI runners and laptops both fail this way silently otherwise.
Speed. No RBAC creation, no Job deployment, no waiting on pods.

How to set it:

// Go unit/integration tests
v := validator.New(
    validator.WithNoCluster(true),
    validator.WithVersion(version),
)

# CLI invocations in tests, scripts, and chainsaw
aicr validate --recipe recipe.yaml --snapshot snapshot.yaml --no-cluster

# Chainsaw scripts: always include --no-cluster on aicr invocations
- script:
    content: |
      ${AICR_BIN} validate -r recipe.yaml -s snapshot.yaml --no-cluster

Behavior with NoCluster=true: the validator skips ServiceAccount / Role / ClusterRole creation, skips Job deployment for container-per-validator checks, and reports each check as "skipped — no-cluster mode (test mode)". Constraints are still evaluated inline, because constraint evaluation reads the snapshot rather than the API server. A test that asserts on validator output must therefore assert on the constraint results, not on check results.

The option lives in pkg/validator/options.go (WithNoCluster). Adding a new validator entry point that talks to the API must respect this flag — the anti-patterns table treats live cluster access in tests as a review-blocker.

Coverage Gate Workflow

Before pushing a Go change, verify the per-package coverage delta on the narrowest directory root your change touches. $pkg/... includes descendants — pick the narrowest root that covers the diff.

# 1. Profile the working tree (changes must be committed first).
GOFLAGS="-mod=vendor" go test -coverprofile=cover.out ./pkg/recipe/...

# 2. Profile origin/main from a clean worktree, outside the source tree.
git worktree add $TMPDIR/baseline origin/main \
  && (cd $TMPDIR/baseline && GOFLAGS="-mod=vendor" go test \
        -coverprofile=$TMPDIR/base.out ./pkg/recipe/...); \
  rc=$?; git worktree remove --force $TMPDIR/baseline; \
  (exit $rc)

# 3. Compare totals.
go tool cover -func=$TMPDIR/base.out | tail -1
go tool cover -func=cover.out          | tail -1

Writing the baseline profile to $TMPDIR/base.out is deliberate: a profile inside the worktree disappears with worktree remove --force.

Gates:

Block if make test-coverage fails (project-wide 75% floor).
Block if any new exported function or method has 0% coverage in the diff — add tests before pushing.
Flag any per-package decrease > 0.5% and explain in the PR.

Report the delta in the PR Testing section, e.g., pkg/recipe: 90.4% → 90.3% (-0.1%). CI also posts per-package deltas via go-coverage-report after push, but the local gate catches regressions before push.

Integration Tests (Kind)

When a test needs a real Kubernetes API — controller logic, RBAC behavior, watch semantics — use Kind. make dev-env spins up a Kind cluster and starts Tilt; make dev-env-clean tears it down. Prefer controller-runtime's envtest (local apiserver/etcd, no Kind) for unit-scope controller tests; reserve Kind for cross-package or deployer-output flows that need a full cluster.

make dev-env                    # Kind + Tilt running
make dev-env-clean              # delete cluster, stop Tilt

Live-cluster tests still set --no-cluster when the call path includes the validator — the flag suppresses validator RBAC and Job deployment; cluster-touching code under test is unaffected.

Chainsaw Health Checks

Each component in the registry can carry an optional Chainsaw assert YAML that runs after the bundle deploys to confirm the component is healthy: pods Ready, services resolve, CRDs Established, custom resources reach a known phase. The asserts live alongside the component:

recipes/checks/<component>/health-check.yaml

Discover them and run locally against a Kind cluster:

make check-health COMPONENT=gpu-operator       # single component
make check-health-all                           # all components
make validate-local RECIPE=recipe.yaml          # full pipeline

When to add one: the contributor wants to verify, after deploy, that the component's pods reach Ready, its CRDs are Established, its operator deploys its custom resources, or its services resolve. Anything subtler than "is it alive" belongs in a container-per-validator check (see validator.md) so the assertion runs as part of a tracked validation phase rather than a one-shot Chainsaw step.

Always include --no-cluster on aicr invocations inside the chainsaw script. A chainsaw test that runs aicr validate without the flag will attempt to install RBAC into the test cluster, which diverges from the assertion's intent (the validator job is the unit under test elsewhere).

Components with an assert file today include gpu-operator, network-operator, nfd, cert-manager, nvsentinel, kueue, kubeflow-trainer, slinky-slurm, and more — browse recipes/checks/ for the full list.

KWOK Matrix Testing

KWOK (Kubernetes WithOut Kubelet) simulates a GPU cluster without real hardware. CI uses it to validate two things per recipe:

Scheduling shape. Node selectors, tolerations, and resource requests render correctly and land pods on the simulated nodes the overlay expects.
Deployer output correctness. The same recipe is re-rendered through every output adapter — helm, argocd-oci, argocd-helm-oci, argocd-git, flux-oci, flux-git — and each renders to a working bundle the GitOps controllers can reconcile.

KWOK nodes have no kubelet, so pods never actually run. KWOK testing does not exercise runtime validators (NCCL, inference-perf) or component health — for those, see validator.md. If a recipe's constraints reference dimensions the KWOK node profiles do not provide (e.g., a GPU model no profile registers), the bundle renders but pods stay Pending or land on the wrong nodes. Extend kwok/profiles/ rather than relax the recipe — KWOK is the simulated reflection of production shape, not a relaxed substitute.

For the design rationale and the spike findings that justify the chart pin and Repository-secret shape, see ADR-008; for the Git-source lanes (in-cluster Gitea, flux-git and argocd-git), see ADR-010. For cluster-level KWOK setup (node profiles, recipe auto-discovery), see kwok/README.md.

Deployer Coverage Matrix

Tier	Trigger	Deployers exercised
Tier 1 — generic overlays	every PR + push	`helm`, `argocd-oci`, `argocd-helm-oci`, `argocd-git`, `flux-oci`, `flux-git`
Tier 2 — diff-aware accelerator overlays	PR only, conditional on changed files	`helm` only
Tier 3 — full overlay set	push to `main` + nightly schedule	`helm`, `argocd-oci`, `argocd-helm-oci`, `argocd-git`, `flux-oci`, `flux-git`

Lane	Pull artifact	Apply manifests	Reconcile to Ready
`helm`	n/a (filesystem)	`helm install`	pods scheduled
`argocd-oci`	repo-server OCI pull	Argo CD sync	`Synced+Healthy`
`argocd-helm-oci`	`helm pull` OCI	wrapper chart install	`Synced+Healthy`
`argocd-git`	repo-server Git clone (in-cluster Gitea)	Argo CD sync	root App Git `repoURL` + `Synced+Healthy`
`flux-oci`	source-controller OCI pull	kustomize-controller apply	all HelmReleases `Ready=True` + ArtifactGenerators Ready
`flux-git`	source-controller Git clone (in-cluster Gitea)	kustomize-controller apply	GitRepositories Ready + all HelmReleases `Ready=True`

Tier 2 stays helm-only because its job is to verify accelerator-specific overlays still render correctly when their inputs change. The deployer shape is orthogonal — re-running through Argo CD would only re-exercise template rendering, which Tier 1 and Tier 3 already cover on the generic overlays. The flux-git and argocd-git lanes cover the filesystem (Git-source) round-trip of #963 for both GitOps controllers, sharing the same in-cluster Gitea infrastructure.

Running KWOK Locally

unset GITLAB_TOKEN
make build
make kwok-cluster

# Single recipe + single deployer
make kwok-test-deployer RECIPE=eks-training DEPLOYER=argocd-oci

Valid DEPLOYER values: helm, argocd-oci, argocd-helm-oci, argocd-git, flux-oci, flux-git. The target invokes kwok/scripts/run-all-recipes.sh --deployer <name> <recipe>, which calls install-infra.sh once with DEPLOYER exported (in-cluster registry:2 always; Argo CD for argocd-*; Flux 2 controllers for flux-*; Gitea additionally for the Git-source lanes flux-git and argocd-git), then runs validate-scheduling.sh for the recipe.

Registry host port. The Kind cluster exposes the in-cluster registry:2 Service on host port 5500 (kwok/kind-config.yaml's extraPortMappings). 5500 avoids Apple ControlCenter (AirPlay / Handoff) which listens on host port 5000 by default on macOS. Linux runners have 5500 free too. The in-cluster NodePort (30500) and Service containerPort (5000) are hardcoded and independent — Argo CD's repo-server reaches the registry via Service DNS (registry.aicr-registry.svc.cluster.local:5000) regardless.

Gitea host port (flux-git / argocd-git). The same pattern exposes the in-cluster Gitea on host port 3300 (NodePort 30300) so the runner can git push the filesystem bundle; 3300 avoids Gitea's default 3000, commonly held by Grafana / local dev servers. The GitOps controller (Flux's source-controller or Argo CD's repo-server) clones via Service DNS (gitea.aicr-registry.svc.cluster.local:3000). Clusters created before the 3300 mapping existed must be recreated (kind delete cluster --name aicr-kwok-test) — install-infra.sh exit code 71 is the telltale.

Sweeping all deployers locally. make kwok-test-all defaults to helm; there is no matrix-aware make target. Loop in shell:

for d in helm argocd-oci argocd-helm-oci argocd-git flux-oci flux-git; do
  make kwok-test-deployer RECIPE=eks-training DEPLOYER="$d" || break
done

# Full recipe set under a single deployer:
bash kwok/scripts/run-all-recipes.sh --deployer argocd-oci

Failure Modes and Exit Codes

The three scripts emit distinct exit codes so CI, the Make target, and local loops can branch on failure mode without parsing logs.

Script	Code	Meaning
`install-infra.sh`	10	`yq` missing or `.settings.yaml` field absent
`install-infra.sh`	20	Registry Deployment not Ready within 120 s
`install-infra.sh`	21	Registry not reachable on host port within 60 s
`install-infra.sh`	30	Argo CD Helm install failed
`install-infra.sh`	31	`applications.argoproj.io` CRD not Established within 120 s
`install-infra.sh`	40	Repository secret apply failed
`install-infra.sh`	60	Flux install manifest apply failed
`install-infra.sh`	61	Flux controller not Ready within 180 s
`install-infra.sh`	62	Flux CRDs not Established within 60 s
`install-infra.sh`	70	Gitea Deployment not Ready within 120 s
`install-infra.sh`	71	Gitea not reachable on host port within 60 s (cluster likely predates the 3300 port mapping)
`install-infra.sh`	72	Gitea admin user bootstrap failed
`validate-scheduling.sh`	50	GitOps sync deadline hit
`run-all-recipes.sh`	50	Three consecutive GitOps sync timeouts; ADR-008 3-strike rule tripped

Exit code 50 is distinct so the 3-strike rule in run-all-recipes.sh counts only sync-deadline strikes, not bundle-render or scheduling-shape failures.

Tuning the Sync Deadline

Five environment variables shape how long the GitOps lanes wait before declaring a sync timeout. Argo CD and Flux pairs are independent.

Variable	Default	Purpose
`KWOK_ARGOCD_SYNC_TIMEOUT`	`480` s	Deadline for all child Argo CD Applications to reach `Synced+Healthy`
`KWOK_ARGOCD_ROOT_GRACE`	`30` s	Grace period for the root Application before deadline counting starts
`KWOK_FLUX_SYNC_TIMEOUT`	`500` s	Deadline for source fetch (OCIRepository or GitRepository) + Kustomization apply + HelmReleases `Ready=True` + ArtifactGenerators Ready
`KWOK_FLUX_ROOT_GRACE`	`30` s	Grace period for the outer Kustomization before deadline counting starts
`KWOK_SYNC_DEADLINE_EPOCH`	unset	Absolute epoch deadline for sync-gate work (CI only). When set, each gate budget becomes min(default, deadline − now); below a 120 s floor the gate fails fast with exit 50 so chainsaw's catch-block diagnostics always print before GitHub's job timeout

In CI, the kwok-test action derives KWOK_SYNC_DEADLINE_EPOCH in its first step — before toolchain setup and the aicr build, so the anchor sits within ~60 s of job start — from its job_timeout_minutes input (required, no default — every caller must wire its own value, which must equal that caller's timeout-minutes; currently 18 for the KWOK jobs) minus a 240 s margin reserved for chainsaw catch-block diagnostics, pod verification, and debug-artifact upload. The input must be a positive integer with no leading zeros, and must leave at least 120 s of usable budget after the 240 s margin (i.e. >= 6); the step fails fast otherwise. Local runs leave it unset and keep the fixed defaults above.

The Git-source lanes (flux-git, argocd-git) additionally honor KWOK_GITEA_HOST_PORT (default 3300), KWOK_GITEA_USER (default aicr), and KWOK_GITEA_PASSWORD (default aicr-kwok-ci) — shared between install-infra.sh (Gitea install + admin bootstrap) and validate-scheduling.sh (git push). The password is a CI-only credential for the ephemeral in-cluster Gitea, not a secret. argocd-git reuses the KWOK_ARGOCD_SYNC_TIMEOUT budget.

On a clean local Kind cluster Synced+Healthy lands in ~30 s; the 480-second default exists to absorb CI variance (the all-semantics gate waits for every Application, not just the first one, so it needs more budget than the old exists-semantics check did). If a local run trips code 50 but the cluster is otherwise healthy, raise the relevant timeout before assuming the recipe is broken — cold-cluster image pulls are the most common cause.

Debugging CI Failures

When kwok-test fails, it uploads an artifact named kwok-debug-<recipe>-<deployer>-<run_id> containing:

<cluster>-resources.txt, <cluster>-nodes.txt, <cluster>-pods.txt, <cluster>-events.txt
<cluster>-argo-apps.yaml plus the repo-server and application-controller logs (argocd lanes)
<cluster>-flux-resources.yaml (OCIRepositories, GitRepositories, Kustomizations, HelmReleases, ArtifactGenerators, ExternalArtifacts) plus source-, kustomize-, and helm-controller logs (flux-* lanes)
<cluster>-registry.log — last 200 lines of the in-cluster registry:2
<cluster>-gitea.log — last 200 lines of the in-cluster Gitea (Git-source lanes: flux-git, argocd-git)

Start with the repo-server log (Argo CD) or source-controller log (Flux) for OCI-pull failures. Application-controller / kustomize-controller logs show reconciliation decisions and prune behavior; helm-controller logs surface per-HelmRelease install outcomes.

Adding a New Deployer Value

The deployer set is finite and matches what pkg/bundler emits. To add a new value:

Add a case branch in kwok/scripts/validate-scheduling.sh's resolve_argocd_root_app() (or resolve_flux_root_names() for Flux-reconciled lanes), plus branches in generate_bundle and deploy_bundle. Reuse the existing argocd-oci / argocd-git / flux-oci / flux-git branches as templates. For a Git-source lane, argocd-git and flux-git are the closest models — they share the compute_gitea_urls() / push_bundle_to_gitea() helpers (Gitea dual-view URLs, push-to-create, branch main).
Extend the DEPLOYER allowlist in kwok/scripts/run-all-recipes.sh (case "$DEPLOYER" in in main()).
Extend the case "${DEPLOYER}" branches in install-infra.sh's main() so the right controller stack is installed (a Git-source lane composes its GitOps controller install with install_gitea, as argocd-git and flux-git do).
Extend the deployer: input description in .github/actions/kwok-test/action.yml.
Add the value to the deployer: matrix in Tier 1 and Tier 3 of .github/workflows/kwok-recipes.yaml. Leave Tier 2 alone — the orthogonality rationale above still applies.
Add a row to the Deployer Coverage Matrix above so contributors can discover the new lane.

If the new value requires changes to in-cluster infra (different registry, different Argo CD chart, additional CRDs), update install-infra.sh and pin any new versions in .settings.yaml. The exit-code taxonomy in Failure Modes and Exit Codes is contiguous — pick the next free code if a new distinct failure mode appears.

E2E Tests

./tools/e2e is the end-to-end pipeline runner. It builds, snapshots, generates recipes, validates, bundles, and (when credentials are available) deploys against real cloud accounts.

unset GITLAB_TOKEN
./tools/e2e

make qualify invokes the e2e step as part of the pre-push gate. CI runs the same script in the push workflow. Cloud credentials are optional — without them, the e2e exercises the artifact-generation half of the pipeline and skips deploy-side assertions.

The `make qualify` Gate

make qualify is the canonical pre-push command. It runs:

test-coverage — go test -race ./... plus the 75% coverage floor.
lint — golangci-lint with .golangci.yaml plus yamllint.
e2e — the end-to-end pipeline runner.
scan — Grype vulnerability scan.
license-check — license header / dependency-license sweep.

CI runs the equivalent. If make qualify passes locally on the current branch, push CI will pass.

Branch lint gate for Go changes. If a PR changes any .go file, you must also run:

golangci-lint run -c .golangci.yaml ./pkg/<affected>/...
golangci-lint run -c .golangci.yaml ./...           # full sweep

This applies even to PRs labeled documentation when they include incidental Go changes. Do not rely on CI to surface lint failures — the pre-push gate is local.

Common Gotchas

goreleaser fails when both GITLAB_TOKEN and GITHUB_TOKEN are set. make build, make qualify, and ./tools/e2e all invoke goreleaser indirectly. Always unset GITLAB_TOKEN in the shell first. This is one of the most common local-only CI-passes-fine failure modes.
Forgetting make bom-docs after a recipes/registry.yaml, component values, or chart-pin change. The BOM's version column and component set are now gated: TestCommittedBOMVersionsMatchRegistry (run by make test → make qualify, and by the bom-freshness merge-gate job on docs-only PRs) fails CI if a pinned version drifts or a component row is missing/orphaned. What is not gated at PR time is rendered-image drift — a chart bumping an image inside its own templates with no pin change on our side; make bom-check (a full re-render comparison) is its opt-in blocking check, and the weekly BOM-refresh workflow auto-detects it and opens a PR. So run make bom-docs locally any time the change touches charts.
Forgetting make notices after a go.mod, go.sum, or vendor/ change. THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md is the union of every vendored dependency's license across the released OS/arch matrix (linux+darwin × amd64+arm64), so a dependency-graph change can add or drop entries. make tidy regenerates the file as its last step (right after go mod vendor), so the normal dependency-update flow keeps it fresh with nothing to remember — but if you edit go.mod/vendor by hand, run make notices yourself. The notices-freshness merge-gate job regenerates the file and fails CI if the committed copy is stale. The generator sets a fixed platform matrix and LC_ALL=C, so make notices produces byte-identical output on macOS and Linux.
Coverage decrease > 0.5% is flagged for justification (the project-wide 75% floor is what blocks). Add tests rather than reaching for // nolint or t.Skip — both are review-blockers under the no-skip-tests rule in CLAUDE.md.
Live-cluster connections from unit tests. A test that forgets --no-cluster will attach to whichever kubeconfig is current and create RBAC against it. Always pass WithNoCluster(true) (Go) or --no-cluster (CLI / chainsaw) on the validator path.
CLI tests asserting on stdout. pkg/cli writes through cmd.Root().Writer. A test that captures os.Stdout will see nothing. Use cmd.Writer = buf and assert on buf.String().