# Flaky Test Normalization

> A defect in which intermittent test failures are accepted and rerun until they pass.

Record: `architecture:flaky-test-normalization`
Kind: anti-pattern
Layer: [Enforcement Core](https://banes-lab.com/records/layer/enforcement-core.md)
Severity: discouraged
Scope: semantic_consistency, correctness_verification
Canonical: https://banes-lab.com/ontology#architecture-flaky-test-normalization

Listed in [Architecture principles](https://banes-lab.com/api/records/architecture.md), after [Mock Mirage](https://banes-lab.com/records/architecture/mock-mirage.md) and before [Prompt Sprawl](https://banes-lab.com/records/architecture/prompt-sprawl.md).

## Repair

- Refactored by: isolate_state, control_time_randomness, fix_race, remove_external_dependency
- Detected by: rerun_to_pass, quarantined_tests_never_fixed, time_order_random_test_failures
- Violated by: Accept intermittent test failures as normal and rerun until green instead of fixing nondeterminism or isolation defects.
- Measured by: rerun rate, quarantined tests past their fix date
- Enforced by: a CI policy that fails on a retried test and tracks every quarantined one

## Severity

- [discouraged](https://banes-lab.com/records/vocabulary/severity-discouraged.md)

## Category

- [Anti-patterns](https://banes-lab.com/records/architecture-category/anti-patterns.md)

## Force

- [Correctness verification](https://banes-lab.com/records/force/correctness-verification.md)
- [Semantic consistency](https://banes-lab.com/records/force/semantic-consistency.md)

## Negated by

- [Reproducibility](https://banes-lab.com/records/architecture/reproducibility.md)

## Linked from

- [The gate holds the line](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/build/the-gate-holds-the-line.md)
- [A report, not a checkbox](https://banes-lab.com/disciplined-methodology/verify/a-report-not-a-checkbox.md)
- [Scale follows determinism](https://banes-lab.com/software-architecture/scale/scale-follows-determinism.md)
- [Anti-patterns](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/principles/architecture-category-anti-patterns.md)
- [Correctness / Determinism / Verification](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/principles/architecture-category-correctness-determinism-verification.md)
- [Correctness / Determinism / Verification](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/lexicon/lexicon-category-correctness-determinism-verification.md)
- [Failure shapes](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/reasoning/the-failure-shapes.md)
- [Severity levels](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/schema/the-vocabulary-severity.md)
- [The forces](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/schema/the-forces.md)