Software Practices

Check Maintainer Commands in CI

TEST-CHECK-MAINTAINER-COMMANDS-IN-CI

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Summary

Put documented maintainer commands, or intentionally stronger equivalents, in CI. This keeps local instructions honest while leaving slow or credentialed checks to special jobs.

Rule

Check the same commands in CI that maintainers are expected to run locally.

Why

If the README or maintainer guide says to run cargo test, cargo doc, markdownlint-cli2, or a release check, CI should exercise the same command or an intentionally stronger equivalent. Otherwise local guidance and actual merge gates drift apart.

Helps

  • Keeps contributor instructions honest and prevents maintainers from relying on checks that CI never runs.

Limits

Some commands are too slow, platform-specific, or credential-dependent for every PR. Put those in scheduled, release, or manual workflows and document the difference.

Agent Instruction

If the README or maintainer guide says to run `cargo test`, `cargo doc`, `markdownlint-cli2`, or a
release check, CI should exercise the same command or an intentionally stronger equivalent, check
the same commands in CI that maintainers are expected to run locally.

Mechanisms

Supported by CI workflows, local script wrappers, just recipes, required checks, scheduled jobs, and README validation sections.

References