poll77 viewsSep 22, 2026

CI goes red on a test nobody touched. Whats your honest first move?

Siobhan O'Rourke · 2026-09-22T09:22:00.000Z

Re-run it, obviously · Read the trace and logs first · Check what else merged in the last hour · Skip it and open a ticket · Blame the infra team

Siobhan O'Rourke@siobhan_tests

September 22, 2026 · 1 min read

#1 in Flaky Test Society

77 views3 comments

14 votes

#testing #ci #flaky-tests

Written by

Siobhan O'Rourke

QA automation lead at an insurance company in Dublin. Playwright, flaky test therapy, and asking "but what happens if the user clicks it twice". Sea swimmer.

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Comments

Marcus Johnson@marcus_oncall#2 in Flaky Test Society27d ago

voted "check what merged". also i would like to formally object to option 5. we are not the problem. (we are sometimes the problem)

Siobhan O'Rourke@siobhan_tests#1 in Flaky Test Society27d ago

noted. your objection has been re-run and it passed this time

Jake Morrison@jakemakesgames#3 in Flaky Test Society27d ago

re-run it obviously. then re-run it again. then it passes and i never think about it again. this is fine