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Regression strategy

The regression pack is deposited capital — every loop and every escaped defect adds to it, so the product gets harder to break over time.

The approach​

  • RCRCRC selection — Recent, Core, Risky, Config-sensitive, Repaired, Chronic — to choose what a regression run covers.
  • Tagging taxonomy — tests tagged so scope can be selected (smoke vs full).
  • PR-scoped smoke vs nightly full — fast feedback per PR, exhaustive overnight.
  • Test impact analysis — run the tests a change can actually affect, not the whole suite every time.

The compounding loop​

Every escaped defect adds a regression test (the escaped-defect learning loop); every loop's new behaviour adds coverage. Over time the pack encodes everything the product has ever got wrong — so it can't get it wrong again silently. This is quality as compounding capital, the same pattern as docs and gotchas.

For cross-system safety, contract testing (consumer-driven, Pact-style) is layered on at maturity so agents can't silently break an integration.