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[quality-improver] AOTSG0001–AOTSG0005 (AOT reflection source generator) diagnostics have no HelpLinkUri, unlike MSTEST0xxx rules

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Since Oct 14, 2026.

  • #11924 by @copilot-swe-agent — open

Assessment

Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Newbie friendliness
40/100
Issue type
Documentation
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
csharp, markdown
Domain
documentation, tooling

Research direction

Start in src/Analyzers/MSTest.SourceGeneration/Diagnostics/DiagnosticDescriptors.cs, where the five AOTSG new DiagnosticDescriptor(...) calls omit helpLinkUri, and compare with DiagnosticDescriptorHelper.Create in src/Analyzers/MSTest.Analyzers/Helpers/DiagnosticDescriptorHelper.cs. The docs destination must be decided first (Task 1), so ask maintainers before editing. Done means all five descriptors have a working helpLinkUri, a doc page exists for AOTSG0001–AOTSG0005, and docs/glossary.md has an entry.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

type/automation type/tech-debt
🎯 Repository Quality Improvement Report — AOT Source-Generator Diagnostic Documentation Parity

Analysis Date: 2026-10-13
Focus Area: aotsg-diagnostic-documentation-parity (custom)
Strategy Type: Custom

Executive Summary

MSTest.SourceGeneration ships five AOT-reflection diagnostics — AOTSG0001...AOTSG0005 — that fire when the source generator encounters a [TestClass] shape it cannot materialize (static class, open generic, inaccessible type, generic method, by-ref parameter). Unlike every MSTEST0xxx analyzer rule, which goes through DiagnosticDescriptorHelper.Create and automatically gets a helpLinkUri of (learn.microsoft.com/redacted), the five AOTSGdescriptors insrc/Analyzers/MSTest.SourceGeneration/Diagnostics/DiagnosticDescriptors.csare constructed directly vianew DiagnosticDescriptor(...)without ahelpLinkUriargument at all. EveryDiagnosticDescriptorin that file therefore hasHelpLinkUri == null`.

This means a developer who hits, say, AOTSG0003: InaccessibleTestClass in an IDE or build log has no click-through documentation link — the one discoverability affordance every other first-party MSTest/analyzer diagnostic in this repo provides. The gap is structural (no helper reused) rather than an oversight on a single rule, so all five IDs are affected identically.

Three concrete, independently fixable gaps were found:

  1. None of the five AOTSG descriptors set helpLinkUri.
  2. There is no docs/ page (or glossary entry) describing the AOTSG rule category at all, so even if a helpLinkUri were added it would 404 against the existing mstest-analyzers doc tree, which only covers MSTEST0xxx IDs.
  3. docs/glossary.md has no entry for "AOT reflection source generator" / AOTSG, even though the glossary tracks other MTP/MSTest-specific terms like AzureFoundry, AssemblyFixtureProviderAttribute, etc.
Full Analysis Report
Focus Area: AOT Source-Generator Diagnostic Documentation Parity
Current State Assessment

Metrics Collected:

Metric Value Status
AOTSG descriptors defined 5 (AOTSG0001–AOTSG0005) ⚠️
AOTSG descriptors with helpLinkUri 0 / 5 ❌
MSTEST0xxx descriptors with helpLinkUri effectively all (via DiagnosticDescriptorHelper.Create) ✅
Doc pages referencing AOTSG 0 ❌
Glossary entries for AOT reflection source generator 0 ❌
AnalyzerReleases.Shipped.md tracking for AOTSG0001–0005 present (Release 4.4.0) ✅
Unit test coverage exercising AOTSG ids yes (MSTestReflectionMetadataGeneratorTests.cs, 27 references) ✅
Findings
Strengths
  • All five AOTSG rule IDs are correctly registered in AnalyzerReleases.Shipped.md (Release 4.4.0) — no release-tracking gap here.
  • Each descriptor already carries a clear description string explaining the remediation (e.g. "Remove the 'static' modifier or use a non-static container."), so the raw information for a docs page already exists verbatim in source.
  • MSTestReflectionMetadataGeneratorTests.cs has solid coverage exercising these diagnostics (27 references to AOTSG ids).
Areas for Improvement
  • ❌ No helpLinkUri on any AOTSG descriptor. Source: src/Analyzers/MSTest.SourceGeneration/Diagnostics/DiagnosticDescriptors.cs, lines defining StaticTestClass, GenericTestClass, InaccessibleTestClass, GenericTestMethod, ByRefParameter — all five new DiagnosticDescriptor(...) calls omit the helpLinkUri positional/named argument, so it defaults to null.
  • ⚠️ No reusable helper, unlike MSTest.Analyzers' DiagnosticDescriptorHelper.Create, which centralizes helpLinkUri generation for every MSTEST0xxx rule (src/Analyzers/MSTest.Analyzers/Helpers/DiagnosticDescriptorHelper.cs). MSTest.SourceGeneration constructs descriptors ad hoc, so there is nowhere a future AOTSG0006 could inherit link generation from.
  • ⚠️ No documentation tree for AOTSG. The existing mstest-analyzers/{id} URL scheme is specific to MSTEST0xxx; a straight reuse of that helper for AOTSG IDs would point at nonexistent learn.microsoft.com pages. A distinct, owned URL scheme (or a dedicated section under docs/) is needed before wiring up links.
  • ⚠️ No glossary entry. docs/glossary.md documents dozens of MTP/MSTest-specific terms but has nothing for the AOT reflection source generator or the AOTSG diagnostic category, so a reader hitting these new 4.4.0-era warnings has no in-repo starting point either.
🤖 Suggested Improvement Tasks
Task 1: Decide the AOTSG documentation destination before adding links

Priority: High
Estimated Effort: Small

Before wiring up helpLinkUri, decide where AOTSG rule documentation will live: a new docs/mstest-analyzers-style subsection, a dedicated docs/aot-source-generator-diagnostics.md, or inline repo documentation (since these are generator diagnostics, not Roslyn analyzer rules shipped to learn.microsoft.com the same way). Record the decision so Task 2 and 3 use a real, working URL scheme instead of guessing at the existing mstest-analyzers/{id} pattern.

Task 2: Add helpLinkUri to the five AOTSG descriptors

Priority: Medium
Estimated Effort: Small

In src/Analyzers/MSTest.SourceGeneration/Diagnostics/DiagnosticDescriptors.cs, add a helpLinkUri argument to each of the five new DiagnosticDescriptor(...) calls (StaticTestClass, GenericTestClass, InaccessibleTestClass, GenericTestMethod, ByRefParameter), pointing at the destination chosen in Task 1. Consider introducing a small local helper (mirroring DiagnosticDescriptorHelper.Create in MSTest.Analyzers) so a future AOTSG0006 inherits the link pattern automatically instead of needing another manual edit.

Task 3: Write the corresponding documentation page(s)

Priority: Medium
Estimated Effort: Medium

Author the doc content for AOTSG0001–AOTSG0005 at the destination from Task 1. Each descriptor's existing description string (e.g. "Open generic test classes ... have no closed type at generation time. Use a concrete subclass that closes every type parameter.") already contains the core remediation guidance and can be the starting point for each rule's page/section, minimizing new authoring effort.

Task 4: Add a glossary entry for the AOT reflection source generator

Priority: Low
Estimated Effort: Small

Add a short entry to docs/glossary.md (alphabetically under "A") describing the AOT reflection source generator and the AOTSG diagnostic category, with a pointer to the new documentation from Task 3 once it exists.

📊 Historical Context
Previous Focus Areas (last 5 runs)
Date Focus Area Type
2026-10-06 dependency-health-followup Standard (reused via follow-up)
2026-10-07 objectdisposedexception-throwif-polyfill-gap Custom
2026-10-08 experimental-api-diagnostic-url-consistency Custom
2026-10-09 central-package-management-dead-entries Custom
2026-10-12 mutation-testing-manifest-coverage-gap Custom

A related run on 2026-10-05 (analyzer-release-tracking-and-suppressor-resource-fidelity, filed as #11760) audited AnalyzerReleases.*.md tracking completeness and suppressor justification-resource correctness for MSTEST0xxx rules; it did not examine helpLinkUri coverage, and did not touch the MSTest.SourceGeneration project at all. This report is a distinct finding in a different project and dimension (link/documentation parity, not release tracking).

🎯 Recommendations
Immediate Actions (This Week)
  1. Decide the documentation destination for AOTSG rules (Task 1) — Priority: High
Short-term Actions (This Month)
  1. Wire up helpLinkUri and publish the documentation (Tasks 2–3) — Priority: Medium
  2. Add the glossary entry (Task 4) — Priority: Low

Next analysis: 2026-10-14 — Focus area selected based on diversity algorithm

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