frontend-patterns/research/plan/ValidationCases.md

Validation cases

Status: synthetic briefs · VC-01 and VC-02 have drafts/self-reviews; VC-03 and VC-06 have provisional exploratory drafts; other cases remain planned.

VC-01 draft and VC-02 draft are reasoning exercises, not runtime validation or M1 acceptance.

These briefs are inputs for reasoning tests, not claims about real systems. Keep inputs fixed when comparing approaches. Record all additional assumptions.

Case	Fixed starting constraints	Key challenge	Phase
VC-01 Transactional administration	Shared records; server validates writes; concurrent edits; deep links; keyboard operation; failed requests recoverable	Distinguish drafts, optimistic feedback, committed state and stale observations	M1
VC-02 Offline field notes	Create and edit without connectivity; restart without losing work; later multi-device sync; conflicting edits possible	Local authority, persistence, identity and explicit reconciliation	M1
VC-03 Content publication	Mostly read-only; shareable URLs; useful content before scripts; slow network	Avoid unnecessary client execution; preserve accessible navigation	M2
VC-04 Collaborative editor	Concurrent editing; presence; reconnect; undo; access changes	Distinguish durable document changes, ephemeral presence and authorization	M2
VC-05 Real-time dashboard	Frequent updates; disconnects; stale indicators; bounded client compute	Communication lifetime, freshness and overload	M2
VC-06 Microfrontend estate	Independent teams/releases; shared navigation; partial outages	Separate ownership, composition and deployment boundaries	M2
VC-07 Storefront	Crawlable catalog; price changes; cart; authoritative checkout	Cacheability versus transaction correctness	M2 coverage
VC-08 SaaS workspace	Dense interaction; multiple views; shared data; long sessions	Derived state, component boundaries and interaction continuity	M2 coverage
VC-09 Local-first personal tool	Private local data; optional sync; backup and restore	Separate local ownership from replication and recovery	M2 coverage
VC-10 Mobile web application	Intermittent network; constrained memory; interrupted sessions	Persistence, startup cost and recoverability	M2 coverage

M2 completes VC-03 through VC-06 and explicitly marks VC-07 through VC-10 covered, partially covered or unresolved with evidence. Coverage is not a completed walkthrough. M3 selects real repositories with accessible source/history and records exact revisions. Do not treat synthetic results as empirical confirmation.

Required result for each completed case

Use ArchitectureWalkthrough. Include:

• constraints and assumptions, including cross-cutting quality requirements;
• ordered decisions with pattern references, alternatives and rationale;
• at least one branch caused by a changed constraint;
• failure/recovery behavior and unresolved forces;
• evidence links and distinction between observation and inference;
• comparison with an architecture narrative without the pattern language.

Assess traceability, coherence, decision usefulness, quality coverage and handling of the changed constraint as pass/revise/unknown, with reasons. Do not combine these into an unsupported numerical confidence score.

Held-out retrieval evaluation (M3)

Freeze a corpus revision before preparing at least six new prompts derived from unseen variants. Include incompatible constraints, an underspecified brief and an out-of-scope problem. Record expected acceptable patterns, prohibited claims and when to ask for context or abstain. Compare retrieval with manual navigation; report unsupported recommendations, missed constraints and unresolved references. Keep development examples separate from the held-out set.

2026-09-26: provisional VC-03 explores navigation/rendering before M1 completion. It does not satisfy the M2 case gate.

2026-09-26: provisional VC-06 contrasts independent activation with one coordinated release cadence. Source inspection does not complete its runtime/independent-review obligations or the M2 gate.