Channel Smoke Validation

This playbook defines reproducible, real-world smoke checks for channel integrations. Use it to produce concrete pass/fail evidence before upgrading channel claims in docs/feature-status.yaml and docs/feature-evidence.yaml.

Scope

Priority for current validation wave:

• Signal
• Slack

The smoke report template also supports Telegram and Discord; use the same evidence format.

Preflight

1. Record version and OS:
   • cara version
   • platform details (uname -a or Windows equivalent)
2. Start Carapace with target channel configured.
3. Keep logs open:

cara logs -n 200

cara logs prints a recent tail (not a live follow stream). Re-run it at key steps and after failures to capture relevant evidence.

Pass Criteria

A channel smoke run is considered pass when all are true:

1. Carapace health is good (cara status healthy).
2. Channel registration succeeds at startup (no repeated auth/signature errors).
3. One inbound message is received and produces an agent run.
4. One outbound reply is delivered back to the same channel.

If any step fails, capture the first failing step and logs.

Signal Smoke

Assumes signal-cli-rest-api is running and configured in carapace.json5 (see Signal Channel Setup).

1. Start services and verify health:
   • cara status --port 18789
2. Send one test message from another Signal device/account to the configured Signal number.
3. Confirm logs show inbound parsing + agent run dispatch from signal_receive.
4. Confirm reply is delivered in Signal.

Common failure indicators:

• repeated HTTP errors polling /v1/receive/{number}
• missing/incorrect signal.phoneNumber
• signal-cli service not reachable from Carapace host

Slack Smoke

Assumes Slack bot token and signing secret are configured and Events API request URL points to /channels/slack/events (see Slack Channel Setup).

1. Verify Slack Events URL challenge succeeds.
2. Send one message in a subscribed Slack channel.
3. Confirm logs show inbound event parsing and agent run.
4. Confirm outbound reply appears in Slack.

Common failure indicators:

• X-Slack-Signature validation errors
• stale timestamp rejection
• missing bot scopes or channel permissions

Evidence Capture

Open a smoke report with:

• channel name
• pass/fail result
• exact failing step (if fail)
• relevant logs (redacted)

Template:

Open a smoke report