neon-sprawl/docs/manual-qa/NEO-39.md

NEO-39 — Manual QA checklist

Field	Value
Key	NEO-39
Title	Data-driven skill level curve + CI validation
Linear	https://linear.app/neon-sprawl/issue/NEO-39/data-driven-skill-level-curve-ci-validation
Plan	docs/plans/NEO-39-implementation-plan.md
Branch	NEO-39-data-driven-skill-level-curve-ci-validation

1) Setup sanity

• From repo root, run python3 scripts/validate_content.py and confirm output reports both skill catalogs and level curve catalogs as valid.
• Confirm content/skills/prototype_level_curve.json exists and includes ascending thresholds (level and requiredXp increase row-to-row).
• Start server from server/NeonSprawl.Server with dotnet run and verify startup succeeds (no level-curve load errors).

2) Happy path (acceptance criteria coverage)

• GET /game/players/dev-local-1/skill-progression returns 200 and JSON with schemaVersion: 1, playerId: "dev-local-1", and skill rows.
• Post a grant that does not cross the next threshold and confirm level remains unchanged.

curl -sS -X POST "http://localhost:5253/game/players/dev-local-1/skill-progression" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"schemaVersion":1,"skillId":"salvage","amount":99,"sourceKind":"activity"}'

• Post an additional grant that crosses a threshold and confirm the response contains levelUps with expected previousLevel and newLevel.

curl -sS -X POST "http://localhost:5253/game/players/dev-local-1/skill-progression" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"schemaVersion":1,"skillId":"salvage","amount":1,"sourceKind":"activity"}'

• Read back progression and verify the skill xp/level matches the level-curve file thresholds (data-driven behavior, no code edits needed for tuning).

curl -sS "http://localhost:5253/game/players/dev-local-1/skill-progression"

3) Failure modes

• Temporarily break content/skills/prototype_level_curve.json (for example: set first row to { "level": 1, "requiredXp": 5 }) and re-run python3 scripts/validate_content.py; confirm non-zero exit with a curve validation error.
• With the same invalid curve file, start server and confirm boot fails fast with a level-curve validation/load error.
• Restore valid curve file content and confirm validator + server startup both return to green.

4) No regressions around skill catalogs

• Confirm skill catalog validation still works with *_skills.json naming (existing prototype skill catalog validates successfully).
• Confirm progression GET/POST endpoints still behave as before for deny paths (unknown_skill, source_kind_not_allowed, invalid_amount) while level computation follows curve content.