Burn down the frontend spec typecheck quarantine (40 files, ~391 errors — was 64/415)

[Chris0Jeky]

What

#1468 put the frontend spec tree under vue-tsc behind a quarantining project
(frontend/taskdeck-web/tsconfig.vitest.json). 222 of 286 spec files are gated from now on; the 64
that carried pre-existing type errors are listed in that file's exclude array. This issue tracks
burning that list down to empty.

The list may only shrink. Delete an entry once its file compiles; never add one to turn a red
build green. A new spec file is checked by default, because it is not in the list — that property is
the whole point of the quarantine and must not be eroded.

Current baseline (measured 2026-08-23, on main a43df082c)

40 files remain quarantined, holding ~391 errors — down from the 64 / 415 this issue was filed
against. frontend/taskdeck-web/tsconfig.vitest.json carries exactly 40 entries in exclude, all
spec files; gated spec files went 220 → 244.

Shrink-only confirmed. Comparing the 2026-08-07 per-file table below against the live exclude
array: 24 entries cleared, zero added. The 24 that cleared are precisely the 24 one-error files,
exactly as the suggested order predicted:

components/AppShell.paperVariant · components/AppShell · components/BoardCanvas.coverage ·
components/BoardSettingsModal · components/inbox/inboxUtils · components/paper/useInkBleed ·
composables/useEscapeToClose · composables/useShortcutContext · composables/useVirtualList ·
store/auditStore · store/board/boardStoreHelpers · store/captureStore.integration ·
store/savedViewStore · views/ActivityView · views/AutomationQueueView · views/BoardView ·
views/MetricsView.coverage · views/NotificationInboxView · views/ReviewView.coverage ·
views/ReviewView · views/paper/PaperBoardView · views/paper/inbox/PaperTriageTable ·
views/paper/review/PaperReviewView · views/paper/review/ReviewProvenance

Scope correction the body never absorbed (raised in the 2026-08-07 comment): emptying this
exclude array is not the same as "the frontend specs are type-checked". There is a second
unchecked spec tree — 18 frontend-root tests/ specs that no tsconfig includes at all. That tree
needs its own project, and it is out of scope for this issue's acceptance criteria as written.

Next chunks (per the 2026-08-12 note): the 7 heavy hitters, one PR each — starting with
ReviewKeymap.spec.ts (48), useStarterPackCatalog.spec.ts (42), useStarterPackImport.spec.ts (36).

Original measured baseline (2026-08-07, on 28b9fe8f) — superseded, kept for provenance

415 errors across 64 of 286 spec files. Reproduced exactly by the method recorded on #1468
(lifting only src/tests/** from tsconfig.app.json's exclude, repo types unchanged). Zero
errors outside src/tests/.

The distribution is far more favourable than the raw 415 suggests, which is why this is worth doing
incrementally rather than treating it as one grind:

• 7 files hold 227 errors (55%).
• 24 files have exactly one error each.
• 40 files have 4 or fewer.

Error classes

Code	Count	What it is
TS2345	124	argument not assignable — mostly under-specified mock payloads
TS2322	104	type not assignable — fixture literals that are not valid domain objects
TS2339	39	property does not exist
TS2352	26	unsafe as conversion
TS2741	23	missing required property in a fixture
TS2353	18	unknown property in an object literal
TS2349	17	expression not callable
TS2304	17	cannot find name
TS2739	14	missing multiple required properties
TS2591	13	process without node types
TS6133	4	declared but never read
TS2593	3	test-runner globals without vitest/globals
TS7006	2	implicit any parameter
TS2578	2	unused @ts-expect-error

Per-file counts — the 2026-08-07 quarantine list (historical)

Any file in this table that is not in the live exclude array has since cleared; see the 24
listed under "Current baseline" above. The error-class table and counts above are likewise the
2026-08-07 distribution.

File	Errors
src/tests/views/paper/review/ReviewKeymap.spec.ts	48
src/tests/composables/useStarterPackCatalog.spec.ts	42
src/tests/composables/useStarterPackImport.spec.ts	36
src/tests/composables/useReviewActions.spec.ts	33
src/tests/config/PaperBranding.spec.ts	25
src/tests/utils/scenarioSchema.spec.ts	24
src/tests/store/boardStore.spec.ts	19
src/tests/store/boardStore.columnReorder.spec.ts	12
src/tests/views/AutomationChatView.spec.ts	9
src/tests/store/board/cardFilterStore.spec.ts	9
src/tests/public/shareTargetHandler.spec.ts	9
src/tests/composables/useCaptureQueueSync.spec.ts	9
src/tests/utils/traceReplay.spec.ts	8
src/tests/components/BoardCanvas.spec.ts	8
src/tests/store/workspaceStore.spec.ts	7
src/tests/api/http.spec.ts	7
src/tests/store/queueStore.spec.ts	6
src/tests/store/queueStore.integration.spec.ts	6
src/tests/store/captureStore.spec.ts	6
src/tests/components/CaptureModal.spec.ts	6
src/tests/utils/chat.spec.ts	5
src/tests/views/ShareTargetView.spec.ts	4
src/tests/store/queueStore.polling.spec.ts	4
src/tests/composables/useVoiceCapture.spec.ts	4
src/tests/composables/useReviewProposals.spec.ts	4
src/tests/components/review/CohortDashboard.spec.ts	4
src/tests/components/LabelManagerModal.spec.ts	4
src/tests/components/CardItem.coverage.spec.ts	4
src/tests/components/BoardDialogHost.spec.ts	4
src/tests/theme/paperEmberContrast.spec.ts	3
src/tests/theme/authFocusRing.spec.ts	3
src/tests/store/agentStore.spec.ts	3
src/tests/views/InboxView.spec.ts	2
src/tests/store/boardStore.integration.spec.ts	2
src/tests/property/storeResilience.spec.ts	2
src/tests/composables/useStarterPackResult.spec.ts	2
src/tests/composables/useBoardRealtime.spec.ts	2
src/tests/composables/useAnalyticsScript.spec.ts	2
src/tests/components/FilterPanel.spec.ts	2
src/tests/components/CardModal.spec.ts	2
src/tests/views/paper/review/ReviewProvenance.spec.ts	1
src/tests/views/paper/review/PaperReviewView.spec.ts	1
src/tests/views/paper/inbox/PaperTriageTable.spec.ts	1
src/tests/views/paper/PaperBoardView.spec.ts	1
src/tests/views/ReviewView.spec.ts	1
src/tests/views/ReviewView.coverage.spec.ts	1
src/tests/views/NotificationInboxView.spec.ts	1
src/tests/views/MetricsView.coverage.spec.ts	1
src/tests/views/BoardView.spec.ts	1
src/tests/views/AutomationQueueView.spec.ts	1
src/tests/views/ActivityView.spec.ts	1
src/tests/store/savedViewStore.spec.ts	1
src/tests/store/captureStore.integration.spec.ts	1
src/tests/store/board/boardStoreHelpers.spec.ts	1
src/tests/store/auditStore.spec.ts	1
src/tests/composables/useVirtualList.spec.ts	1
src/tests/composables/useShortcutContext.spec.ts	1
src/tests/composables/useEscapeToClose.spec.ts	1
src/tests/components/paper/useInkBleed.spec.ts	1
src/tests/components/inbox/inboxUtils.spec.ts	1
src/tests/components/BoardSettingsModal.spec.ts	1
src/tests/components/BoardCanvas.coverage.spec.ts	1
src/tests/components/AppShell.spec.ts	1
src/tests/components/AppShell.paperVariant.spec.ts	1

How to work it

Take a batch of files, not the whole list. Suggested order: the 24 one-error files first (cheap,
proves the workflow), then the 7 heavy hitters one PR at a time. (2026-08-23: the 24 one-error
files are done — the heavy hitters are what is left.)

Per file:

1. Remove its line from tsconfig.vitest.json's exclude.
2. cd frontend/taskdeck-web; npm run typecheck — read the errors for that file only.
3. Fix them in the spec, not by loosening tsconfig.vitest.json. Widening a compiler option to
   clear a batch defeats the gate for all 286 files, not just the one being fixed.
4. npx vitest --run --maxWorkers=2 path/to/the.spec.ts — the runtime behaviour must not change.
   A fixed-up fixture that silently changes what the test asserts is a regression, not a fix.

Constraints that are not negotiable, and why

• Do not add "node" to tsconfig.vitest.json's types. It clears the 13 TS2591 and part of
  the TS2304 count, and it breaks production source pulled in as a dependency — PaperHomeView.vue
  starts failing because setTimeout returns NodeJS.Timeout instead of number. Measured, not
  theorised. For process in a spec, narrow the fix to that spec.
• Do not add "vitest/globals". 284 of 285 spec files import their vitest symbols explicitly;
  the 3 TS2593 errors are one file that should be brought in line with the other 284 instead.
• Do not relax noUnusedLocals / noUnusedParameters / erasableSyntaxOnly. They account for
  6 errors total across the whole list. The value of tsconfig.vitest.json mirroring
  tsconfig.app.json exactly is that there is one strictness bar to reason about.

Acceptance criteria

• The exclude array in frontend/taskdeck-web/tsconfig.vitest.json contains no spec files.
• npm run typecheck exits 0 with the list empty.
• npx vitest --run --maxWorkers=2 still passes at the same counts — no test's assertions were
  weakened to make a type check happy.
• No compiler option in tsconfig.vitest.json was loosened relative to tsconfig.app.json.
• docs/TESTING_GUIDE.md's "Frontend spec type-checking" note is updated when the list empties.

References

#1468 (the gate that created this list) · ADR-0049 · #1462 (the regression that exposed the gap)
· frontend/taskdeck-web/tsconfig.vitest.json

[Chris0Jeky]

Scope correction: there is a second unchecked spec tree, and it needs its own project

Found while verifying #1608's own numbers, before merge. Recording it here because this is where
someone finishing the burn-down will look, and because "empty the exclude array" is not the
same as "the frontend specs are type-checked".

A full Vitest run executes 302 spec files, not 284. src/tests/ holds 284 *.spec.ts; the
other 18 live in the frontend-root tests/ directory and no tsconfig includes any of them:

tests/client-onboarding-scenario.spec.ts   tests/demo-run.spec.ts
tests/content-calendar-scenario.spec.ts    tests/demo-scenario-defaults.spec.ts
tests/demo-director-presets.spec.ts        tests/demo-seed.spec.ts
tests/demo-director.spec.ts                tests/demo-shared.spec.ts
tests/demo-lib.spec.ts                     tests/demo-soak.spec.ts
tests/demo-live-llm.spec.ts                tests/demo-trace-assertions.spec.ts
tests/demo-preset-integration.spec.ts      tests/legacy-demo-scenarios.spec.ts
tests/demo-report-html.spec.ts             tests/playwright.port-resolution.spec.ts
                                           tests/playwright.server-reuse.spec.ts
                                           tests/scenario-json-runner.spec.ts

(tests/e2e/** and tests/visual/** are Playwright and are excluded by vitest.config.ts, so they
are correctly out of scope for any of this.)

tsconfig.app.json includes only src/**, tsconfig.node.json only vite.config.ts, and the new
tsconfig.vitest.json only src/tests/**. 284 + 18 = 302, which is exactly the file count a full
run reports — that arithmetic is how the gap surfaced.

They cannot simply be added to tsconfig.vitest.json

Measured 2026-08-07 with a throwaway project mirroring tsconfig.vitest.json's options over
tests/*.spec.ts: 54 errors across 15 of the 18 files.

Code	Count	What it is
TS7016	23	implicit any from importing the untyped .mjs files under scripts/
TS7006	15	implicit any parameter
TS2503	8	cannot find namespace (NodeJS)
TS2591	6	process without node types
TS7031	2	implicitly-any binding element

The error profile is the point: this is a Node-side tree. It needs types: ["node"], and
types: ["node"] is the one setting proven to break production source inside
tsconfig.vitest.json (PaperHomeView.vue — setTimeout starts returning NodeJS.Timeout instead
of number). Putting these files in the same project would force exactly the change that project
exists to avoid.

So this is a separate work item, not a 19th line in the quarantine

Covering them means a fourth project — call it tsconfig.scripts-tests.json — with:

• types: ["node"] and a Node lib, not the DOM one;
• some answer for the untyped .mjs imports (allowJs + checkJs: false, hand-written .d.ts
  alongside each script, or migrating those scripts to TypeScript). That choice is the real design
  question here and is worth its own decision;
• its own reference from the root tsconfig.json, which is again all the CI wiring needed.

It is genuinely lower value than the src/tests/ burn-down — these specs cover demo/seed tooling
rather than product code — so it should be done after the quarantine empties, not instead of it.
But it should be done, because until it is, "npm run typecheck checks the frontend specs" is only
true of 222 of 302 files.

Also corrected

The "284 of 285 spec files import their vitest symbols explicitly" figure quoted in the first
revision of #1608 was wrong by one on both sides: the real count is 283 of 284, and the
denominator I had used silently included setup.ts. The single file that relies on globals is
src/tests/config/PaperBranding.spec.ts, which is quarantined anyway (it carries the 3 TS2593).
The "286" used elsewhere is all .ts under src/tests/ — 284 specs plus setup.ts and
__mocks__/virtual-pwa-register.ts — and is the correct denominator for "64 quarantined, 222
gated". Fixed in the config comment, ADR-0049, STATUS and the testing guide in 61214efe.

[Chris0Jeky]

Corrections to this issue's own numbers, plus a booby-trap removed before it could bite

An adversarial review round on #1608 audited every figure I published here. Four did not survive
re-measurement. Correcting them on the record rather than leaving them to be cited.

1. The error-class table above is incomplete and sums to 406, not 415

I generated it with head -14 and did not check the sum. There are 20 distinct error codes, not
14. The complete table, verified to total 415:

Code	Count		Code	Count
TS2345	124		TS6133	4
TS2322	104		TS2593	3
TS2339	39		TS7006	2
TS2352	26		TS2578	2
TS2741	23		TS2554	2
TS2353	18		TS2348	2
TS2349	17		TS18048	2
TS2304	17		TS7024	1
TS2739	14		TS7022	1
TS2591	13		TS2556	1

Total: 415. The per-file table is unaffected — it was generated whole and its 64 rows still sum
to 415.

2. "They account for 6 errors total" — the real number is 4

Under Constraints that are not negotiable, I wrote that noUnusedLocals /
noUnusedParameters / erasableSyntaxOnly account for 6 errors. Measured: 4, all TS6133.
erasableSyntaxOnly contributes zero. The other two I had attributed to them are the TS2578
"Unused @ts-expect-error directive" pair in useVoiceCapture.spec.ts, which none of those three
options governs — they survive with all three switched off. The constraint stands (4 of 415 is still
not worth splitting the strictness bar); the justification was inflated by half.

3. The types: ["node"] mechanism was wrong

I wrote that adding "node" breaks PaperHomeView.vue because "setTimeout starts returning
NodeJS.Timeout instead of number". PaperHomeView.vue contains no setTimeout. The
conclusion is right — adding "node" does break exactly that file — but measured against the
shipped tsconfig.vitest.json it produces exactly one error, and it runs the other way round:

src/views/paper/PaperHomeView.vue(238,5): error TS2322: Type 'number' is not assignable to type 'Timeout'.

greetingTimer is annotated ReturnType<typeof window.setInterval> (:225). With node types in
scope that annotation resolves to node's Timeout, while the call still returns the DOM number.
So the constraint is real and unchanged; the reason I gave for it was not. Fixed in 49ca6674
across the config comment, ADR-0049, STATUS and the testing guide.

4. A fourth constraint was missing, and it was a live trap for this very issue

tsconfig.vitest.json originally included only src/tests/**. src/types/web-speech.d.ts is an
ambient declaration file — global scope, imported by nothing — so tsconfig.app.json picks it up
only because it globs src/**/*.ts. The narrower include dropped it, and production source pulled
in as a dependency compiled without those globals.

That was invisible on main only because the one spec that reaches that production file is
quarantined. Removing src/tests/composables/useVoiceCapture.spec.ts from the quarantine — step 1
of the workflow this issue prescribes — would have turned npm run typecheck red with three errors
inside untouched production source:

src/composables/useVoiceCapture.ts(17,20): error TS2304: Cannot find name 'SpeechRecognition'.
src/composables/useVoiceCapture.ts(18,28): error TS2304: Cannot find name 'SpeechRecognition'.
src/composables/useVoiceCapture.ts(58,44): error TS2551: Property 'SpeechRecognition' does not exist on type 'Window & typeof globalThis'.

Worse, it masked two of that spec's own diagnostics: the phantom errors made two
@ts-expect-error directives spuriously "used", hiding two TS2578s.

Fixed in 49ca6674 by adding "src/**/*.d.ts" to the project's include. Verified both ways: the
shipped quarantine still exits 0 with the line added, and un-quarantining useVoiceCapture.spec.ts
now reports only that spec's own four errors (2 × TS2348, 2 × TS2578) with nothing from
production source.

New constraint for the burn-down: keep "src/**/*.d.ts" in include, and put any new ambient
declaration under src/ so it is covered. If a burn-down step ever produces errors in a
src/ file you did not touch, suspect a missing ambient declaration before suspecting the spec.

5. A quarantine entry whose file is renamed or deleted rots silently

TypeScript never warns about an exclude path that matches nothing. If a burn-down PR renames or
deletes a quarantined spec without removing its line, the stale entry sits there looking like
protection. Not worth a guard script today, but worth knowing when reading the list.

Denominator, stated once so it is not re-derived wrong

• A full Vitest run executes 302 spec files: 284 under src/tests/, 18 under the
  frontend-root tests/ directory.
• The gate covers 220 of them (284 − 64 quarantined).
• 82 are not covered: the 64 here plus those 18.
• 222 is a different unit — the count of files the project resolves under src/tests/,
  including setup.ts and a mock that are not specs. Do not subtract it from 302; an earlier
  revision of Type-check the frontend spec tree behind a quarantining project #1608 did and produced "80".

[Chris0Jeky]

Third residue: src/stories/** (17 files), also unchecked

Recording it here so this issue is the complete inventory of what npm run typecheck still does not
see. docs/STATUS.md and ADR-0049 both point at this issue for "the residues"; without this comment
that pointer was only two-thirds true.

frontend/taskdeck-web/tsconfig.app.json excludes src/stories/** on the same line as
src/tests/**:

"exclude": ["src/tests/**", "src/stories/**"]

#1468 lifted the first half. The second half is untouched: 17 *.stories.ts files that no tsconfig
includes.

Not measured. I deliberately did not run a count for these, because unlike the other two
residues the number would not be actionable yet — the interesting question is which project they
belong to, and that depends on the Storybook type environment (ADR-0030), not on how many errors
they currently carry. Someone picking this up should measure it after deciding the project shape,
by the documented method, and record the method alongside the number.

The full residue inventory, for whoever finishes this

Surface	Files	Status	Notes
src/tests/** quarantine	64	measured — 415 errors	the main body of this issue
frontend-root tests/**	18	measured — 54 errors in the run (42 across 15 of the 18 specs, 12 in three playwright.*.ts helpers)	needs a Node type environment; separate project
src/stories/**	17	not measured	needs an ADR-0030 decision first

Total gated today: 220 of the 302 spec files a full Vitest run executes. The 17 stories are not
in that 302 — Vitest does not run them — so they are a third, independent surface rather than part
of the 82.

[Chris0Jeky]

Chunk 1 of the burn-down: the 24 single-error files — PR #1634

Took the batch this issue suggests starting with ("the 24 one-error files first (cheap, proves the
workflow)"). All 24 fixed and un-quarantined, and un-quarantined only after both gates were green.

The per-file table reproduces exactly. Removing precisely those 24 lines from exclude produced
precisely 24 errors, one per file, on 78be65c6. No drift in the baseline.

Counts

	Before	After
Quarantined files	64	40
Errors in quarantine	415	391
Gated spec files (of the 302 Vitest runs)	220	244
Not covered	82 (64 + 18)	58 (40 + 18)

Error-class table, updated

The 24 cleared errors, mapped back to the 20-row class table:

Code	Was	Cleared	Now
TS2339	39	7	32
TS2322	104	5	99
TS6133	4	3	1
TS2345	124	2	122
TS2591	13	1	12
TS2349	17	1	16
TS2353	18	1	17
TS2739	14	1	13
TS2304	17	1	16
others	—	0	unchanged

Total 415 -> 391. TS6133 is nearly gone (1 left); every other class still has a tail in the
7 heavy hitters.

Two things worth recording for whoever takes the next chunk

1. .exists() on get()/getComponent() is a real class, not a one-off. vue-test-utils types
   those as Omit<Wrapper, "exists"> deliberately — they already throw on no match. find /
   findComponent keep the assertion; deleting the assertion instead would be a silent coverage
   loss. Three files here; expect more in the heavy hitters.
2. Narrowing does not survive into a closure. Four view specs share a byte-identical
   useVirtualList count-mock block where typeof options.count === 'function' is narrowed and then
   options.count.value is read inside an arrow. Binding to a local first fixes all four. If a later
   chunk hits the same block, it is the same fix.

Also: AppShell.paperVariant.spec.ts carried the only node:fs import in this batch (TS2591). Vite's
?raw loader resolves it inside the constraint — vite/client is already in types, so no node
types are needed. That may be the general answer for the remaining 12 TS2591 in src/tests/, though
not for the frontend-root tests/ tree, which imports .mjs scripts and genuinely needs the
separate project described above.

Verification

npm run typecheck exits 0 (and again under vue-tsc -b --force, so incremental build-info could
not mask a stale result). The 24 specs: 409 tests passing. Behaviour-identical proven by re-running
the same 24 against restored base content — same 409 tests, same 24 files. No compiler option,
types entry or include entry changed, so all four constraints hold.

Acceptance criteria are not met yet — 40 files remain, so docs/TESTING_GUIDE.md's note stays as
is. Next natural chunks: the 7 heavy hitters, one PR each.