audit-jcache-conformance

JSR-107 (JCache) spec-conformance audit

SKILL.md

GitHub

Audit: JSR-107 Conformance

This audit verifies the jcache/ adapter against the full JSR-107 1.1.1 specification — every normative domain, not just the corners the last bug touched. It walks the spec surface and allocates depth by where the TCK is blind.

Why the TCK is the floor, not the verification. The TCK frequently asserts only the observable end-state (containsKey/get), not the event stream (CREATED/UPDATED/EXPIRED/REMOVED) or the statistics (CachePuts, hits/misses, removals, evictions). Two implementations with different events and different counts both pass. Every real bug found in this adapter recently lived in exactly that TCK-blind gap (zero-creation-expiry phantom CREATED; zero-update-expiry put-family suppressing UPDATED). So the audit goes DEEP (full spec→RI→ecosystem→internal-parity differential) on the event/statistic/ expiry/write-through surface, and runs a COVERAGE pass (spec-text correctness + confirm a test pins it) over the rest of the spec — escalating any COVERAGE clause that turns out to hide a TCK-invisible event or statistic to the DEEP differential.

This is a focused, resource-heavy specialization of /audit-sibling-divergence Group G2. Read .claude/docs/jsr107-conformance.md first — it is the resource map (live-fetch recipes, RI/ecosystem class locations for every domain below), the differential methodology, the parity-test pattern, and the catalogue of already-resolved divergences (do not re-flag those).

For this skill, the reference and its standing rulings are read before analysis, overriding the auditor's Phase 1.5 reading order for that document. Verify applicable rulings against current contracts and source before using them to adjudicate a finding.

When to run

  • After any change to jcache/src/main touching CacheProxy, LoadingCacheProxy, EntryProcessorEntry/postProcess, EventDispatcher, expiry, statistics, the write-through (CacheWriter) path, or store-by-value copying.
  • Before a release, as a comprehensive 1.1.1 re-verification.
  • Once per quarter as a conformance baseline.
  • When a /audit-sibling-divergence run raises a Group G2 finding — use this to resolve the direction (the static audit cannot, and has guessed wrong before).
  • Not for adapter concurrency: this audit is a single-threaded spec differential. Concurrency windows (live-view vs snapshot races, obligation pairing on executor threads, close/destroy symmetry) belong to /audit-subsystem-safety, /audit-memory-retention, /audit-lifecycle, and /audit-contract-drift's obligation sweep.

Heavyweight (fetches the spec, clones/fetches the ecosystem, may spawn sub-auditors). Not for routine pre-commit review.

Step 0: Load the spec and the resource map

Read .claude/docs/jsr107-conformance.md. Fetch the live spec:

DOC=1ijduF_tmHvBaUS7VBBU2ZN8_eEBiFaXXg9OI0_ZxCrA
curl -fsSL "https://docs.google.com/document/d/$DOC/export?format=txt" -o /tmp/jsr107_spec.txt

Confirm it fetched the real spec (grep for getExpiryForUpdate), not an auth page. The export reflows; reference the spec by section name (the 1.1.1 section headings are listed per-domain in the matrix below). Locate the TCK sources (find ~/.gradle/caches -name 'cache-tests-1.1.1-test-sources.jar' and jcache/build/tck/).

Step 1: Build the spec-surface matrix

Walk the whole 1.1.1 spec. Map each normative domain to its spec section, its adapter code, and the depth it warrants. Do not stop at the write-path/expiry family — that is one DEEP domain among several, and the recent bugs there created a recency bias this matrix exists to correct.

Depth = DEEP — the TCK does not pin the event stream / statistic / expiry timing, so it can mask a real divergence. Run the full differential (Step 2) and add a parity-matrix test. Depth = COVERAGE — the spec text is unambiguous and the TCK's end-state assertion is sufficient. Confirm (a) the adapter matches the spec text and (b) a test pins it; cite the test. Escalate to DEEP the moment a hidden event/stat appears.

# Domain 1.1.1 section Depth Verify
A Write ops × expiry Expiry Policies; Statistics Effects DEEP put/putAll/putIfAbsent/getAndPut/replace(K,V)/replace(K,V,V)/getAndReplace — creation-vs-update ZERO/ETERNAL/null expiry; CREATED/UPDATED emission; CachePuts count. Internal parity across all siblings.
B Read & access Expiry Policies; Integration; Statistics Effects DEEP get/getAll/containsKey/iterator — getExpiryForAccess ZERO/null/finite; CacheHits/CacheMisses (containsKey must not count); read-through load as get-miss-not-put
C Remove ops Cache Entry Listeners; Integration; Statistics Effects DEEP remove(K)/remove(K,V)/getAndRemove/removeAll(keys)/removeAll()/clear() — REMOVED event + oldValue; removeAll() counts removals, clear() does not; removal-stat gating on an already-expired entry; CacheWriter.delete
D Entry processors Entry Processors; Statistics Effects DEEP invoke/invokeAll — EntryProcessorEntry.Action machine (NONE→READ/CREATED/UPDATED/LOADED/DELETED) vs RI MutableEntryOperation; per-op events + stats; read-through getValue() ending in LOADED counts a miss, not a put (catalogued — confirm, don't re-flag)
E Events Cache Entry Listeners DEEP CREATED/UPDATED/REMOVED/EXPIRED payload (isOldValueAvailable/getOldValue); synchronous vs asynchronous dispatch; CacheEntryEventFilter; per-key ordering (EventDispatcher CompletableFuture chains); runtime register/deregister
F Statistics Statistics Effects of Cache Operations DEEP The full CacheStatisticsMXBean matrix: CacheHits/Misses/Gets/Puts/Removals/Evictions × every op. Failed putIfAbsent/replace accounting; CacheEvictions (the Caffeine-native-eviction→JCache-stat bridge — no sibling resolves this identically); CacheStatisticsMXBean.clear() resets every counter and timer; averages (the RI divides all three by CacheGets, so its put and remove means read 0 until a get)
G Integration — writer Integration DEEP Write-through: CacheWriter.write/delete ordering vs store and vs event/stat; a writer exception must suppress the event and the CachePuts increment; writeAll/deleteAll partial-failure collection mutation; CacheWriterException wrapping
H Integration — loader Integration DEEP Read-through get/getAll/invoke; loadAll replaceExistingValues + completion listener; CacheLoaderException wrapping (still required by the 1.1.1 CacheLoaderException javadoc, and asserted by the TCK for get and loadAll)
I Store-by-value Store-By-Value and Store-By-Reference COVERAGE Copy points (put/get/iterator/event payloads); caller-mutation isolation; RISerializingInternalConverter vs RIReferenceInternalConverter. Escalate if a copy is skipped on an event/stat path
J Types Configuration COVERAGE getKeyType/getValueType metadata; exact type matching in getCache(name, K, V) (ClassCastException on mismatch); optional runtime type checking on put/get
K Configuration Configuration COVERAGE MutableConfiguration snapshot-on-create; Factory<CacheLoader/CacheWriter/ExpiryPolicy>; read-through/write-through/store-by-value/stats/mgmt flags
L Lifecycle Caching Providers COVERAGE close/isClosed → IllegalStateException on every op; CacheManager create(dup→CacheException)/get/destroy; getCacheNames immutable iterator; provider URI/classloader/properties
M Management Caching Providers (MXBeans) COVERAGE CacheMXBean attributes; JMX ObjectName sanitize (catalogued); enable/disable statistics & management at runtime
N Null / adversarial inputs method javadocs COVERAGE NullPointerException contract on null key/value/map/filter/processor args across the full API

(Annotations — CDI/Spring @CacheResult etc. — is a separate spec section the adapter does not implement; out of scope.)

Step 2: Run the differential

For each DEEP domain corner, in order, until the reference behavior is unambiguous:

  1. Spec text — read the governing javadoc/table in /tmp/jsr107_spec.txt. Note deliberately-different wording between sibling operations (create-vs-update is the canonical trap).
  2. TCK — find the test and read what it asserts. End-state only → it cannot settle the event/stat question; proceed. (When TCK and spec javadoc disagree, TCK wins — see .claude/rules/jcache-adapter.md.)
  3. RI — read the oracle class for that domain (the doc's resource map names one per domain: RICache write/remove paths, RICacheStatisticsMXBean, RICacheEventDispatcher, RICache.writeCacheEntry/deleteCacheEntry, etc.).
  4. ≥3 ecosystem impls — fetch the adapter files named in the doc. Classify each; record any split.
  5. Caffeine internal parity — verify every sibling path agrees with the reference and with each other. Internal disagreement = the highest-signal finding (one side is provably wrong).

For each COVERAGE domain: confirm the adapter's behavior matches the spec text, and that a TCK or unit test pins it — cite the test by name. If the only test asserts end-state and the clause hides an event/stat (e.g. does clear() fire REMOVED? does a store-by-value copy happen on the event payload?), escalate that corner to DEEP and run the ladder above. A COVERAGE domain with a correct-but- untested clause is a coverage finding, not a pass.

Spawn one sub-auditor per domain-group — write/read/remove (A–C), entry processors (D), events (E), statistics (F), integration loader+writer (G–H), store-by-value/types/config/lifecycle/management (I–N) — each with the doc + the fetched spec as context, each required to return a concrete witness (operation sequence → divergent event/stat/end-state, or the test that pins the clause). Sub-agents cannot read session memory — paste the doc's divergence catalogue inline so they do not re-derive known false-positives. Direct each sub-auditor to write its report to a group-suffixed path (.local/audits/<model>/audit-jcache-conformance-<group>.md), never the canonical path: parallel groups writing audit-jcache-conformance.md overwrite each other (the 2026-07 run lost two group reports this way and had to recover them from agent transcripts).

Step 3: Resolve and pin

For each confirmed real divergence:

  • State the spec text, the RI behavior, the ecosystem tally, and the Caffeine internal-parity result. The fix direction follows the spec + RI; if the static finding assumed the opposite direction, say so (this has happened — the zero-update-expiry fix direction was inverted from what the static audit guessed).
  • Implement the fix as a minimal, surgical change, then add a parity-matrix test (writeOp_*/readOp_*/removeOp_* over every sibling op) asserting they all produce the same event count, statistic delta, and end-state. The TCK is not the regression guard — the parity test is.
  • Run :jcache:test and :jcache:tckTest (per .claude/rules/jcache-adapter.md; the TCK encodes interpretations unit tests miss).
  • Update .claude/docs/jsr107-conformance.md's catalogue and ecosystem matrix so the next run does not re-litigate it.

For a COVERAGE-tier clause that is correct but untested, record it as a coverage gap (which test to add), not a bug.

Output

The orchestrator (not the sub-auditors) writes .local/audits/<model>/audit-jcache-conformance.md — the consolidated adjudication across the group-suffixed reports — using the standard .claude/docs/finding-taxonomy.md schema (severity / category / confidence / classification).

Lead with the spec-surface coverage matrix: every domain A–N → depth → verdict (conformant / divergence / coverage-gap) → the witness or the pinning-test citation. A clean run must show every domain was reached, so "clean" means the full 1.1.1 surface was walked — not just the recent-bug corners.

Then, for each finding: the spec citation (by section name), the RI behavior, the ecosystem tally, the Caffeine internal-parity result, the witness (operation → divergent observable), and the resolution direction with its justification. A finding with no spec/RI/ecosystem backing for its direction is not ready — record it as escalated, not as a fix.