What is acceptance-pipeline-specification?

This repository defines a specification, a detailed blueprint, for building an automated acceptance-testing pipeline. An acceptance test checks whether a software application actually does what it promises from the user's perspective, as opposed to just checking that individual code pieces work in isolation. The pipeline starts from a Gherkin feature file, which is a structured plain-English way of describing how a system should behave using "Given/When/Then" sentences. The specification defines how to parse that file into a standardized JSON data structure, then how to automatically generate real executable tests from that data, run those tests, and report results. A second operating mode, called mutation testing, deliberately changes the example values in the feature file to check whether the generated tests are sensitive enough to actually catch problems, a way of testing your tests. The spec is intentionally language-agnostic and project-neutral, meaning it can be implemented in Python, Java, TypeScript, or any other language. It defines the required components (a Gherkin parser, a JSON intermediary, a test generator, a mutator, and convenience scripts), the expected directory layout, command-line interfaces, exit codes, and the exact JSON format for the intermediate representation. This would be used by teams or AI coding agents who want to install a reproducible, portable acceptance-testing workflow in any new project without reinventing the architecture each time. The author is unclebob, known in the industry for writing about software craftsmanship.