When a test suite depends on runtime or deploy-time primitives, add a tiny fail-fast smoke before the expensive test work starts.
This keeps the error local and obvious. Instead of getting a confusing failure deep inside a build, unit runner, or end-to-end harness, the command stops immediately with a message that points back to bootstrap.
Good candidates for the smoke are:
- database client availability
- object-store client availability
- cryptographic runtime libraries
- system CLIs used by the harness
Keep the check short and explicit:
- verify the dependency can be loaded or executed;
- fail with a message that tells the user to try the bootstrap command;
- avoid duplicating the full build/test path.
The purpose is not to replace tests. It is to make missing prerequisites fail fast, in the right place, with the right hint.