The help dialog carried its 13 shortcut labels, its getting-started paragraph and its version line as hardcoded English, while fully translated strings for exactly those labels sat unused in all 21 locale files. Every non-English user read English there. The translations did not need writing, only reading: t.help.keyboardShortcuts already had focusSearchBar, goToTools, processFile and the rest, in every locale. Labels now index into t.help.keyboardShortcuts by key rather than carrying text. Getting-started reads t.help.gettingStarted.description, which drops the inline Kbd chip the hardcoded copy had, matching what all 21 locales already say. The version line goes through t.help.versionLabel. Also adds the type-to-search row that #644 left out, keyed help.keyboardShortcuts.typeToSearch, translated into all 21 locales, and regenerates the two darwin help-dialog baselines for the extra row. Nothing caught the original bug because the i18n context defaults to en, so asserting on English text passes whether or not the component reads i18n at all. The new test mocks the context with sentinel values instead: putting the hardcoded labels back fails 15 of its 19 cases. Verified: 19 new unit tests, full unit suite 7576 passed, help-dialog visual 3/3 against regenerated baselines, help accessibility e2e 7/7, typecheck and lint clean, all 18 CI checks green.
SnapOtter Test Suite
Directory Structure
tests/
unit/ # Vitest unit tests (~185 files)
ai/ # AI sidecar bridge + bundle tests
api/ # API route/config/middleware tests
doc-engine/ # doc-engine package tests
features/ # Feature flag + enterprise tests
fixtures/ # Fixture guard tests (resolve/budget/manifest)
image-engine/ # image-engine operation tests
media-engine/ # media-engine FFmpeg wrapper tests
security/ # Security-focused unit tests
shared/ # Shared constants/i18n/permissions tests
web/ # React component tests (tsx)
integration/ # Full-API integration tests (~250 files)
fixtures/ # Fixture integrity tests (decode through Sharp/ffprobe/qpdf)
generated/ # Generated test matrices (format x tool, pairwise settings)
platform/ # Platform tests (jobs, pipelines, batch, auth, OIDC)
security/ # Security integration tests (SSRF, XXE, path traversal)
tools/ # Per-tool integration tests
e2e/ # Playwright specs (main app, Chromium primary)
e2e-analytics/ # Analytics flow e2e specs
e2e-docker/ # Docker container e2e specs
e2e-docs/ # VitePress docs site e2e specs
e2e-editor/ # Konva image editor e2e specs
e2e-landing/ # Astro landing site e2e specs
fixtures/ # Shared test fixtures (see below)
helpers/ # Test utilities (pairwise, zod-pict, tool defaults)
setup/ # Vitest setup (per-fork DB clone, BullMQ prefix isolation)
baseline/ # Phase 0 baseline snapshots for parity verification
benchmark/ # Performance benchmarks
qa/ # QA checklists and manual test plans
Fixtures
Fixtures live in tests/fixtures/ in a modality-first layout:
tests/fixtures/
index.ts # Typed registry -- import paths from here, not raw strings
manifest.json # sha256 + bytes + provenance for all valid/ assets
gen-manifest.mjs # Re-stamps manifest hashes from disk
gen-synthetic-content.mjs # Regenerates CC0 synthetic content (QR, barcode, OCR, etc.)
LICENSES.md # Provenance audit trail
image/
valid/ # Real images for depth tests (portraits, scenes, OCR, etc.)
formats/ # Tier-1 tiny format samples (sample.png, sample.arw, ...)
edge/ # Edge-case images (1x1, blank, extreme aspect)
hostile/ # Malformed/bomb/polyglot files for rejection tests
video/
valid/ # Real videos (Big Buck Bunny CC-BY heroes, TTS speech)
formats/ # Tier-1 tiny format samples (tiny.mp4, tiny.webm, ...)
hostile/ # Truncated/malformed video files
audio/
valid/ # Real audio (TTS speech in 6 formats, tagged MP3)
formats/ # Tier-1 tiny format samples (tiny.mp3, tiny.wav, ...)
hostile/ # Zero-byte/malformed audio files
document/
valid/ # PDFs (3-page, 6-page, encrypted, OCR-scanned)
formats/ # Tier-1 tiny doc samples (tiny.docx, tiny.epub, ...)
edge/ # Edge-case docs (remote-img.html for SSRF tests)
hostile/ # Truncated/garbage documents
data/
valid/ # Data files (CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, TSV, ZIP)
security/ # XXE/SSRF test vectors (SVG)
Two-Tier Fixture Strategy
Tier-1: Tiny Synthetics (in formats/, edge/, hostile/)
Small, project-generated files for format-compatibility matrices and fast unit tests.
These are always-regeneratable by the generator scripts and are used for breadth.
Tier-2: Real Heroes (in valid/)
Content-representative files for integration and fidelity tests. Includes:
- Big Buck Bunny video clips (CC-BY, Blender Foundation)
- macOS TTS speech in 6 audio formats (CC0)
- Project-generated synthetics (QR codes, barcodes, OCR text images, PDFs)
- Portrait/scene photos for AI tool tests (some UNVERIFIED-REVIEW, see manifest)
Every valid/ file is tracked in manifest.json with sha256 hash, byte count,
source URL, and license. The manifest guard test (fixture-manifest.test.ts)
verifies disk matches manifest on every run.
Typed Fixture Registry
Always import fixture paths from tests/fixtures/index.ts:
import { fixtures, readFixture, fixtureDir } from "../../fixtures/index.js";
// Named paths (type-checked, IDE autocomplete)
const pngPath = fixtures.image.base.png200;
const heroMp4 = fixtures.video.hero.mp4;
// Read file bytes
const buffer = readFixture(fixtures.image.base.png200);
// Format accessor (for matrix iteration)
const arwPath = fixtures.image.formats("arw");
const mp4Path = fixtures.video.tiny("mp4");
// Directory paths (for glob/scan patterns)
const hostileDir = fixtureDir.image.hostile;
Guard Tests
Four guard tests protect fixture integrity:
| Guard | Location | What it checks |
|---|---|---|
| fixture-resolve | unit/fixtures/ |
Every registry path exists and is non-empty |
| fixture-budget | unit/fixtures/ |
Per-extension size caps prevent bloat |
| fixture-manifest | unit/fixtures/ |
sha256/bytes in manifest.json match disk |
| fixture-integrity | integration/fixtures/ |
Real heroes decode through Sharp/ffprobe/qpdf |
Additional parity guards:
| Guard | Location | What it checks |
|---|---|---|
| tool-registry-drift | unit/shared/ |
Frontend registry matches shared TOOLS catalog |
| tool-route-drift | integration/ |
API routes match shared TOOLS catalog |
| i18n-completeness | unit/shared/ |
All 21 locales have all required keys |
Adding a Fixture
- Add the file to the appropriate modality directory (
image/valid/,video/formats/, etc.) - Add a named key in
tests/fixtures/index.ts - Run
node tests/fixtures/gen-manifest.mjs(forvalid/files) - Fill in
sourceUrlandlicenseinmanifest.json - Update
LICENSES.mdif the file has third-party origin - Run guards:
pnpm vitest run tests/unit/fixtures/
Generator Scripts
Three generators produce deterministic synthetics. All are idempotent and skip
files that already exist (to avoid breaking manifest hashes from encoder-version
differences). Pass --force to gen-synthetic-content.mjs to overwrite.
| Script | Scope | Outputs |
|---|---|---|
scripts/generate-test-fixtures.mjs |
Tier-1 format samples | video/formats/tiny.mp4, audio/formats/tiny.{mp3,wav}, document/formats/tiny.{docx,xlsx,epub,html,md}, document/valid/encrypted.pdf |
scripts/generate-hostile-fixtures.mjs |
Hostile inputs | image/hostile/{truncated.jpg,zero-byte.png,garbage.jpg,png-bytes.jpg,bomb-50000x50000.png} |
tests/fixtures/gen-synthetic-content.mjs |
CC0 synthetics | QR codes, barcodes, OCR text images, PDFs, SVG logo, multi-face placeholder, animated GIF, tagged MP3, metadata MP4 |
The generators do NOT touch committed real heroes (BBB videos, TTS speech, UNVERIFIED-REVIEW photos).
Running Tests
# Full suite
pnpm test # All unit + integration tests
pnpm test:unit # Unit tests only
pnpm test:integration # Integration tests only
# Single file
pnpm vitest run tests/unit/my-test.test.ts
pnpm vitest run tests/integration/my-test.test.ts
# Fixture guards only
pnpm vitest run tests/unit/fixtures
# E2E (Playwright)
pnpm test:e2e # Main app (chromium + serial + visual projects)
pnpm test:e2e:landing # Landing site
pnpm test:e2e:docs # VitePress docs
pnpm test:e2e:analytics # Analytics flows
pnpm test:docker # Full Docker container test
# Editor e2e (no root alias)
pnpm playwright test --config playwright.editor.config.ts
# Single e2e spec
pnpm playwright test tests/e2e/my-test.spec.ts
Environment Requirements
Unit and integration tests need Postgres + Redis:
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d
export DATA_DIR=/tmp/so-test-data && mkdir -p "$DATA_DIR"
Each Vitest fork gets its own Postgres DB clone + workspace + isolated BULLMQ_PREFIX
via tests/setup/per-fork-env.ts (testcontainers for Postgres). 30s test timeouts.
E2E Projects
The main Playwright config defines three projects:
- chromium: Parallel-safe specs, 2 workers (override via
PW_WORKERS) - chromium-serial: Global-state specs, 1 worker
- chromium-visual: Screenshot comparison specs (platform-suffixed baselines)
Auth setup project logs in and saves storage state. The webServer block spins up
both dev servers with a fresh test DB.
Environment Switches
| Variable | Effect |
|---|---|
FULL_MATRIX=1 |
Run all format x tool combinations (nightly) |
FUZZ=1 + FUZZ_RUNS=N |
Property-based fuzz testing (nightly) |
PW_WORKERS=N |
Override Playwright worker count |
CI Pipeline
PRs run: lint, typecheck, unit, integration (4 shards), e2e smoke. Nightly: full e2e, cross-browser, docker suite, full matrix + fuzz, coverage.