---
name: nextest-default-fail-fast-hides-not-run-cells
description: nextest stops at max-fail=1 by default; a gate that reads the partial run as coverage misses every NOT RUN cell, including a new int binary that never compiled
metadata:
  type: feedback
---

todlando's #276 gate 2026-09-06: first nextest run stopped at max-fail=1 with 165 TESTS NOT RUN,
among them his NEW int binary — which had not compiled at all (an int test called a private fn).
The summary line looked like a normal red; the not-run tail was the real finding.

**Why:** "use nextest" is only half the rule. Default fail-fast turns a suite into a prefix of a
suite, and a prefix cannot prove a cell exists, compiled, or passed. The uncompiled-int-binary
case is the worst face: the evidence for the requirement is absent and nothing says so.

**How to apply:** `--no-fail-fast` in every driver template and every gate leg; read the
NOT RUN / skipped counts as findings, not as noise; a new test binary must appear in the
started-binaries line before its cells count. Kin: [[open-the-subindex-before-running-a-gate]],
[[the-run-is-the-census-a-grep-is-a-guess]].