Ferrous-Solitaire/docs/sync_test_runbook.md

Sync Subsystem Manual Test Runbook

Version: 1.0
Last Updated: 2026-04-28
Scope: Cross-machine sync, JWT refresh, conflict resolution, account deletion

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Prerequisites

Infrastructure

• Two machines (or VMs) referred to as Machine A and Machine B throughout this runbook. Both must be able to reach the sync server over the network.

• A running Ferrous Solitaire sync server reachable at a known URL, e.g. https://solitaire.example.com. See README_SERVER.md for setup.

• Verify the server is live before starting:

  curl -s https://solitaire.example.com/health
  # Expected: {"status":"ok","version":"..."}
  

Accounts

• You will register two separate accounts (alice and bob) during the tests. You do not need to create them in advance.

Tooling

• curl or a REST client (Insomnia/Postman) for manual API calls.

• sqlite3 CLI if you need to inspect the server database directly.

• The game binary built in release mode on both machines:

  cargo build -p solitaire_app --release
  

Baseline: Clear local data on both machines

Before starting, delete any existing local save files to ensure a clean state:

# Linux
rm -rf ~/.local/share/ferrous_solitaire/

# macOS
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/ferrous_solitaire/

# Windows
rmdir /s %APPDATA%\ferrous_solitaire\

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Test 1 — Full Sync Round-Trip (register, play, push, verify on second machine)

Goal: Confirm that stats played on Machine A appear on Machine B after sync.

Step 1 — Register on Machine A

1. Launch the game on Machine A.
2. Open Settings (key: O) and locate the Sync section.
3. Enter the server URL and choose a username: alice.
4. Choose a password (at least 12 characters).
5. Tap Register (or Login if the account already exists).
6. The Settings screen should show Status: syncing… briefly, then Status: last synced at HH:MM.
7. Close the game.

Verify the registration succeeded directly:

curl -s -X POST https://solitaire.example.com/api/auth/login \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"username":"alice","password":"<your-password>"}' | jq .
# Expected: {"access_token":"...","refresh_token":"..."}

Step 2 — Play games on Machine A

1. Launch the game on Machine A.
2. Win at least three games (Draw One or Draw Three — note which mode).
3. Check the Stats overlay (key: S) and note:
   • games_played
   • games_won
   • win_streak_current
   • fastest_win_seconds
4. Close the game normally (this triggers the push-on-exit path).

Step 3 — Verify the push reached the server

# Log in to get a fresh token
TOKEN=$(curl -s -X POST https://solitaire.example.com/api/auth/login \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"username":"alice","password":"<your-password>"}' | jq -r .access_token)

# Pull the server's stored state
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  https://solitaire.example.com/api/sync/pull | jq .merged.stats

Confirm games_won matches what you recorded in Step 2.

Step 4 — Pull on Machine B

1. Launch the game on Machine B (clean local data).
2. Open Settings, enter the same server URL, and log in as alice with the same password.
3. The plugin will pull on startup. Wait for Status: last synced at HH:MM.
4. Open the Stats overlay (key: S) and confirm the numbers from Step 2 are present.

Pass criterion: games_won, games_played, and fastest_win_seconds on Machine B match Machine A.

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Test 2 — JWT Refresh on 401

Goal: Confirm that an expired access token is refreshed transparently without user interaction.

Step 1 — Shorten the access token TTL on the server (test environment only)

Edit the server .env and set a short expiry, then restart:

JWT_ACCESS_EXPIRY_SECS=5

If you cannot modify the server config, skip to the manual token corruption method in Step 1b.

Step 1b (alternative) — Corrupt the stored access token directly

On the machine where you want to test (Linux example):

# List keychain entries (uses secret-tool on GNOME)
secret-tool search service ferrous_solitaire_server

# Overwrite alice's access token with a deliberately invalid value
secret-tool store --label="alice_access" service ferrous_solitaire_server account alice_access <<< "invalid.token.value"

Step 2 — Trigger a sync with the expired/invalid token

1. Launch the game.
2. Either wait for the startup pull (for the short-TTL method), or open Settings and tap Sync Now.
3. Observe the Status field.

Pass criterion (transparent refresh): Status briefly shows "syncing…" and then shows "last synced at HH:MM" — no auth error is displayed. The access token in the keychain has been silently replaced.

Verify the new token is valid:

# Extract the new token from the keychain
secret-tool lookup service ferrous_solitaire_server account alice_access | head -c 50
# Should look like a valid JWT (three base64 segments separated by dots)

Step 3 — Test failed refresh (both tokens expired)

1. Corrupt both the access token and the refresh token in the keychain:

   secret-tool store --label="alice_access" service ferrous_solitaire_server account alice_access <<< "bad"
   secret-tool store --label="alice_refresh" service ferrous_solitaire_server account alice_refresh <<< "bad"
   

2. Launch the game and trigger a sync.

Pass criterion: The Settings screen shows an error message matching: "Login expired — tap Sync Now after re-logging in". The game must not crash. No data must be lost (local files are untouched).

3. Restore: log in again via Settings to get fresh tokens.

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Test 3 — Conflict Scenario (offline play on both machines, then sync)

Goal: Confirm that progress made on both devices offline is merged correctly, with no data silently discarded.

Step 1 — Take both machines offline

Disable network on both Machine A and Machine B (e.g. airplane mode, or block the server URL in /etc/hosts).

Step 2 — Play on Machine A (offline)

1. Win 5 games. Note the resulting streak and games_won.
2. Close the game.

Step 3 — Play on Machine B (offline)

1. Win 3 different games. Note the resulting streak and games_won.
2. Close the game.

At this point Machine A and Machine B have divergent state.

Step 4 — Re-enable network, sync Machine A first

1. Restore network.

2. Launch the game on Machine A. The push-on-exit from Step 2 did not reach the server, so:

   • Open Settings, tap Sync Now to force a pull.
   • Close the game (triggers push-on-exit).

3. Verify the server has Machine A's state:

   curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
     https://solitaire.example.com/api/sync/pull | jq '.merged.stats.games_won'
   

Step 5 — Sync Machine B

1. Launch the game on Machine B.
2. The startup pull fetches the server's merged state (which now contains Machine A's wins).
3. Open Settings — wait for Status: last synced at HH:MM.
4. Open the Stats overlay.

Pass criteria:

• games_won = max(Machine A wins, Machine B wins) — at minimum the higher of the two counts.

• No games are lost — both machines' win counts contribute.

• If the two machines had different win_streak_current values, a conflict should be recorded (visible if you inspect the server response directly):

  curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
    https://solitaire.example.com/api/sync/pull | jq '.conflicts'
  

• The win_streak_current conflict entry will show local_value and remote_value. The higher value is used as the best-effort resolution.

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Test 4 — Account Deletion

Goal: Confirm that DELETE /api/account removes all server-side data and that a subsequent authenticated request is rejected.

Step 1 — Confirm data exists before deletion

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  https://solitaire.example.com/api/sync/pull | jq '.merged.stats.games_played'
# Expected: a non-zero number

Step 2 — Delete the account via the API

curl -s -X DELETE \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  https://solitaire.example.com/api/account | jq .
# Expected: {"ok":true}

Step 3 — Verify all data is gone from the server

# Try to pull with the (now-invalid) token
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  https://solitaire.example.com/api/sync/pull
# Expected: HTTP 401 Unauthorized

# Try to log in again with the same credentials
curl -s -X POST https://solitaire.example.com/api/auth/login \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"username":"alice","password":"<your-password>"}' | jq .
# Expected: HTTP 401 or error body indicating invalid credentials

Step 4 — Verify local data is NOT deleted

1. Open the game. The local files (stats.json, progress.json, etc.) must still be present and intact — account deletion only affects the server.
2. Check the Stats overlay and confirm local game history is visible.
3. The Settings screen may show an auth error on next sync attempt, which is expected.

Step 5 — Re-register with the same username (optional)

curl -s -X POST https://solitaire.example.com/api/auth/register \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"username":"alice","password":"<new-password>"}' | jq .
# Expected: {"access_token":"...","refresh_token":"..."} — fresh empty account

Pass criterion: Re-registration succeeds, and a subsequent pull returns a payload with all-zero stats (completely fresh account, no residual data from the deleted account).

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Test 5 — Server Errors Do Not Show "Login Expired"

Goal: Verify that a 500 Internal Server Error or 429 Too Many Requests shows a network error, not an auth error, to the user.

Step 1 — Simulate a 500 with a reverse proxy rule

Add a temporary nginx/Caddy rule to return 500 for /api/sync/*:

location /api/sync/ {
    return 500;
}

Or use a local proxy like mitmproxy to intercept and rewrite responses.

Step 2 — Trigger a sync

Open Settings and tap Sync Now.

Pass criterion: The Status field shows "Can't reach server — check your connection" (network error message), NOT "Login expired — tap Sync Now after re-logging in" (auth error message).

Remove the nginx rule after this test.

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Regression Checklist

After running all tests above, confirm:

• No crash occurred during any test on either machine.
• Local save files (stats.json, progress.json, achievements.json) are present and valid JSON after all tests.
• The game launches and plays normally after all sync operations (sync is additive — never blocks gameplay).
• The Stats overlay shows correct numbers on both machines after a successful sync round-trip.
• An expired token is refreshed transparently without the user having to log in again.
• A doubly-expired token surfaces a clear error message to the user.
• Account deletion removes all server data; local data is preserved.
• HTTP 5xx and 429 responses show a network error, not an auth error.