Establish self-contained integration test suite for registry-loader

[jordanpadams]

Summary

As registry operators and developers, we want a self-contained integration test suite for the registry-loader tools (harvest and manager) that does not require a live OpenSearch or registry-api stack, so that we can run meaningful tests in CI on every PR and write regression tests for specific metadata-processing bugs without full infrastructure setup.

The current test suite (tt/ packages) requires a live OpenSearch/registry-api instance, which makes CI fragile and prevents regression tests for bugs that involve specific OpenSearch response behaviors (throttling, 409 conflicts, partial bulk failures, etc.). This theme covers selecting and building an HTTP-mock-based test harness using Cucumber BDD, consistent with other PDS software repositories.

Sub-Tasks

• Evaluate and select HTTP mock and Cucumber BDD framework for registry-loader integration tests
• Build Cucumber + HTTP mock test harness for registry-loader with initial test coverage

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For Internal Dev Team To Complete

⚙️ Engineering Details

🎉 Integration & Test

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[jordanpadams]

📆 07/2026 status: in work on schedule