stress-testinglisted

# Stress testing — load, spike, soak, breakpoint Load testing answers questions about a system under traffic. There is no single "stress test" — there are **six test types, each answering one question**, and the discipline is picking the right question, modeling realistic load, and judging by percentiles against a declared SLO. ## Hard rule: explicitly requested only **Never run, schedule, or "quickly check" a load test on your own initiative.** Load tests consume real resources and can degrade or take down the target — especially shared/staging environments. This skill activates only when the user asks for it, against a target the user names. Before any run, confirm: the target environment (never production unless the user explicitly says so and owns that decision), and that the user accepts the load about to be generated. ## Read first (always) List `learnings/` — the project's SLOs, tooling, environments, past baselines, and known bottlenecks live there and override defaults here. ## The six types (pick by the question — `references/test-types.md`) | Type | Question | When | |---|---|---| | **Smoke** | Does the script and system work at all? | Always first; <5 VUs, minutes | | **Average-load** | Does it handle **normal** production traffic? | The baseline; before any other heavy type | | **Stress** | Does it handle the **peak** (50–100%+ above normal)? | Before high-traffic events | | **Spike** | Does it survive a **sudden surge**? | Before launches/campaigns | | **