neon-sprawl/docs/manual-qa/NEO-34.md

NEO-34 — Manual QA checklist

Field	Value
Key	NEO-34
Title	E2.M1: Server loads SkillDef catalog at startup (fail-fast)
Linear	https://linear.app/neon-sprawl/issue/NEO-34/e2m1-server-loads-skilldef-catalog-at-startup-fail-fast
Plan	docs/plans/NEO-34-implementation-plan.md
Branch	NEO-34-e2m1-skill-catalog-startup

1) Happy path — discovery + health

• Repo has content/skills and content/schemas/skill-def.schema.json.
• From server/NeonSprawl.Server, run dotnet run with no Content__* overrides. Startup logs an Information line from category NeonSprawl.Server.Game.Skills.SkillCatalog with the absolute skills directory path and 3 skills (prototype catalog).
• GET /health (or Bruno core/Health) returns 200 and JSON includes service: "NeonSprawl.Server".

2) Fail-fast — invalid catalog

• Temporarily introduce a catalog error (e.g. duplicate an id in content/skills/prototype_skills.json). dotnet run exits before listening; stderr includes Skill catalog validation failed and a path/rule hint. Revert the edit after the check.

3) Optional — explicit config

• Set Content__SkillsDirectory to a temp directory with invalid or empty catalogs and confirm the same fail-fast behavior (see server README — Skill catalog).