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FabledScribe/tests/test_create_tools_disambiguate.py
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bvandeusenandClaude Opus 5 16805ca22c
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docs(mcp): every create_* tool says what it is NOT for (#3123)
Scribe's record kinds get reached for interchangeably, and the moment of
choice is the only moment a correction is cheap. Rule 119 puts product
guidance in the instruction surfaces, so the docstring is where this
belongs — but a docstring that only documents parameters answers "how do I
call this" and leaves "should I be calling this at all" unasked.

The gap was lopsided. create_rule and start_planning already carried real
disambiguators; create_note — far and away the highest-volume surface —
carried none at all. The guidance sat in the rarest tool and was missing
from the most common one.

Each surface now opens with ONE deciding question in its own terms rather
than a pasted block:

  create_note     WHAT ELSE COULD HOLD THIS?      note is right when nothing
                                                  is owed and nothing enforces
  create_task     IS ANYTHING ACTUALLY OWED?      nothing owed -> note;
                                                  an arc -> start_planning
  create_snippet  SHAPE, OR ADVICE?               a snippet is code with a
                                                  LOCATION
  create_process  FOLLOWED, OR READ?              applies uninvoked -> rule

create_project_rule now points at the entity check too; it had only ever
covered rule-vs-rule scope.

The guard asserts STRUCTURE, never wording: each surface must name at least
two siblings. Pinning phrasing would make every improvement a test failure,
and a test that punishes editing is a test that gets deleted. Its second
half asserts the Args: block survives — the first check is satisfiable by
turning a docstring into an essay about the other tools, which would be a
worse contract than the one being fixed.

The guard caught two gaps on its first run, one of them its own: "design
system" is hard-wrapped across a line break in create_rule, so matching the
raw docstring reported it absent. _doc() now flattens whitespace. It also
caught start_planning naming only one alternative, which was true and is
now fixed.

Deliberately NOT built: an intent-router tool. It has a bootstrapping
problem — it is itself a tool that must be reached for — and MCP clients
already list every tool's description. Recorded in #3123; build it only if
wrong-surface reaches survive this.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-27 18:18:42 -04:00

96 lines
4.0 KiB
Python

"""Every create_* tool says what it is NOT for (#3123).
WHY THIS EXISTS
Scribe's record kinds are reached for interchangeably — a note written where
a task was owed, a rule written where a snippet belonged — and the moment of
choice is the only moment a correction is cheap. The tool docstring IS the
agent-facing contract (rule 119 puts product guidance there and nowhere
else), so a docstring that only documents parameters answers "how do I call
this" while leaving "should I be calling this at all" unasked.
The gap was lopsided before this: `create_rule` and `start_planning` both
carried a real disambiguator, and `create_note` — far and away the
highest-volume surface — carried none. Guidance sat in the rarest tool and
was missing from the most common one.
WHAT THIS PINS, AND WHAT IT DOES NOT
It asserts STRUCTURE, never wording: each create surface must name at least
two sibling surfaces, so a caller who reached for the wrong one is told
where the right one is. Prose stays free to be rewritten — pinning phrasing
would make every improvement a test failure, and a test that punishes
editing is a test that gets deleted.
It cannot tell whether the guidance is any GOOD. It only catches the
regression that actually happens: a docstring rewritten down to its
parameters, with the "is this even the right tool" paragraph quietly gone.
"""
import re
import pytest
# The create surfaces and where they live. `start_planning` is here because
# it is a create in everything but name — it is how a plan comes into being.
_SURFACES = [
("scribe.mcp.tools.notes", "create_note"),
("scribe.mcp.tools.tasks", "create_task"),
("scribe.mcp.tools.tasks", "start_planning"),
("scribe.mcp.tools.snippets", "create_snippet"),
("scribe.mcp.tools.processes", "create_process"),
("scribe.mcp.tools.rulebooks", "create_rule"),
("scribe.mcp.tools.rulebooks", "create_project_rule"),
]
# What a caller could have wanted instead. A surface naming two of these has
# pointed somewhere; naming none has left them where they were.
_ALTERNATIVES = [
"create_note", "create_task", "create_rule", "create_project_rule",
"create_snippet", "create_process", "start_planning", "design system",
]
def _doc(module: str, name: str) -> str:
"""The docstring with its whitespace flattened.
Flattened because a docstring is hard-wrapped: "design system" spans a
line break in at least one of these, and matching the raw text would
report it absent. The first draft of this check did exactly that, and
caught it on itself.
"""
import importlib
fn = getattr(importlib.import_module(module), name)
assert fn.__doc__, f"{name} has no docstring at all"
return re.sub(r"\s+", " ", fn.__doc__)
@pytest.mark.parametrize(("module", "name"), _SURFACES)
def test_a_create_surface_names_at_least_two_alternatives(module, name):
"""Reaching for the wrong tool must still put the right one in view."""
doc = _doc(module, name)
named = {
alt for alt in _ALTERNATIVES
if alt != name and re.search(re.escape(alt), doc, re.IGNORECASE)
}
assert len(named) >= 2, (
f"{name}'s docstring names {sorted(named) or 'no'} alternative "
f"surface(s). A caller who reached for it by mistake gets no "
f"correction. Say what belongs elsewhere and why — see create_rule "
f"or create_note for the shape."
)
@pytest.mark.parametrize(("module", "name"), _SURFACES)
def test_a_create_surface_still_documents_its_arguments(module, name):
"""The guard above must not be satisfiable by deleting the parameter docs.
Both halves matter and they pull in opposite directions: a docstring can
be made to pass the disambiguator check by becoming an essay about the
other tools, which would be a worse contract than the one being fixed.
"""
assert "Args:" in _doc(module, name), (
f"{name}'s docstring lost its Args: block — the parameter contract is "
f"what a caller reads to make the call at all."
)