2.7Step 3 — Decide the initial harness boundaries

A good initial repo is not the whole universe. It is a clear starting slice.

Decide what the initial scaffold must include

Usually:

• smoke UI coverage for 1–3 critical journeys
• smoke API coverage for auth and one major domain
• one hybrid test showing API-assisted UI setup
• basic auth strategy
• basic fixtures
• page objects only for the earliest journeys
• component objects only where immediately useful
• reusable API clients for the earliest endpoint groups

Decide what is out of scope for the first scaffold

Usually:

• full regression suite
• complete page-object coverage of the entire app
• every API endpoint
• every role
• visual regression
• contract-testing sophistication beyond simple schema checks
• performance testing
• mobile emulation unless essential

Write these boundaries into your scaffolding expectations.