These tests simulated a fictional environment that doesn't exist in
production. Real Conductor sessions launch claude with
`--disallowedTools AskUserQuestion` AND register
`mcp__conductor__AskUserQuestion` — the model has the MCP variant. But
the tests passed `--disallowedTools` without standing up any MCP server,
so they tested "model behavior with NO AUQ available," which no real
user state produces.
Combined with bare `/plan-ceo-review` invocation (no follow-up content),
this forced the model into a 5+ minute deliberation loop trying to
prose-render a question with options it had to first invent. The result
was persistent flakes that consumed nine paid E2E runs trying to fix
"the model takes too long" — but the actual problem was the test
configuration, not the model.
Removals:
- test/skill-e2e-autoplan-auto-mode.test.ts (deleted; the entire file
was a single AUQ-blocked test)
- test/skill-e2e-plan-ceo-plan-mode.test.ts test 2 (the migrated
--disallowedTools test); test 1 (baseline plan-mode smoke) stays
- test/skill-e2e-plan-design-plan-mode.test.ts test 2 (same shape);
test 1 stays
- test/skill-e2e-plan-eng-plan-mode.test.ts test 2 (same shape); test 1
(baseline) and test 3 (STOP-gate with seeded plan, different
contract) stay
- test/helpers/touchfiles.ts: autoplan-auto-mode entry removed
- test/touchfiles.test.ts: assertion count + commentary updated
Coverage retained: test 1 of each plan-mode file already verifies the
model fires AUQ; the periodic finding-count tests verify per-finding
AUQ cadence end-to-end. The harness improvements landed during this
debugging cycle (isProseAUQVisible regex, LLM judge, snapshot logging,
high-water-mark tracking, ENOENT-tolerant assertReportAtBottomIfPlanWritten)
all stay — they're useful for the remaining plan-mode tests that can
also encounter prose rendering and slow-thinking phases.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Garry Tan
558e195c46