Ban conditional early returns in test bodies

[flyingrobots]

Migrated from Method backlog

GitHub Issues are now the live work tracker. Repository docs remain Method evidence.

Field	Value
Source backlog	docs/method/backlog/cool-ideas/DX_no-conditional-returns-in-tests.md
Archived source	docs/archive/backlog/github-issue-migration-2026-06-01/docs/method/backlog/cool-ideas/DX_no-conditional-returns-in-tests.md
Original lane	cool-ideas
Original id	DX_no-conditional-returns-in-tests
Original legend	DX
Original feature	testing-quality

Original backlog card

Ban conditional early returns in test bodies

Idea

The test quality audit found multiple tests using
if (!result) { return; } which makes them vacuous — they pass when
the code is broken because they exit before assertions. A simple lint
rule: flag return statements inside it() callbacks that aren't
inside helper functions. The rule: "every it() block must reach at
least one expect() on every code path."

This is the single most impactful test quality rule from the audit.
Could be implemented as a custom ESLint rule or a vitest plugin that
counts expect() calls and warns when a test exits with zero
assertions.