Exploratory QA Pass

What it does

/qa-pass is a Cursor slash command. Type it in chat to run a saved workflow: Exploratory QA Pass.

Human heuristic pass on a flow. Playwright only after findings exist.

Click like a new user. Rank what breaks. Unlike a skill, a command is something you invoke on purpose. The agent does not decide to run /qa-pass for you.

Why it exists

Founders retype the same multi-step prompt until it rots. /qa-pass exists so the pipeline, all 4 steps of it, is a file in .cursor/commands, versioned with the repo.

It ships in the Engineering Kit. It is wired to Exploratory QA Specialist (qa-explorer), Test Automation Engineer (test-automator), and Activation & First-Run Engineer (onboarding-engineer). Required skills: Exploratory QA Heuristic Pass; Playwright End-to-End Browser Testing.

When to use it

• Use before launch or after a risky PR. Not for writing a full suite first (/e2e-suite).
• Use /qa-pass when you want that pipeline, not a freeform chat. If you only need one step, use a narrower command or a single agent.
• Start a new chat. Do not run this command in a thread that just wrote marketing copy.

When not to use it

• Do not run /qa-pass as a substitute for reading the diff. The command produces files; you still gate them.
• Do not chain it into a 40-turn chat. Fresh context is part of the design.
• Do not run it if you have not filled CURSOR.md. The pipeline will invent a stack.

Example workflow

1. qa-explorer walks the flow with empty-state and error heuristics
2. Rank findings P0–P3 with repro
3. Optional Playwright for P0 only
4. Write docs/qa/pass-....

Example usage

Type this in Cursor chat: /qa-pass Click signup → first project → invite teammate on mobile

The command file tells the session which agents to adopt and which skills to read. You should see phase headers, not a single dump of code.

If a phase fails its gate, stop. Do not add 'just continue'.

Example output

• Expected artifact: docs/qa/pass-....md

Best practices

• Keep the prompt specific. /qa-pass Click signup → first project → invite teammate on mobile is the shape: object, constraint, and outcome.
• Let the listed agents work in order: qa-explorer → test-automator → onboarding-engineer.
• Save outputs in the repo. Chat-only answers evaporate.
• Engineering commands should leave tests or an audit note, not only implementation files.

Common mistakes

• Typing /qa-pass with no object ('do the thing'). The pipeline will guess.
• Re-running the command in the same chat after a failed gate instead of fixing the failing file.
• Editing the command file to skip review so it 'goes faster'.
• Skipping the Exploratory QA Heuristic Pass skill that the command depends on.