Interactive test_notify — Design

Problem

test_notify requires users to remember CLI flags (--webhook-url, --smtp-host, etc.), offers no way to discover existing channels, and provides no retry/adjust loop after sending. Users must re-run the command from scratch to test again with different parameters.

Decision

Approach A: Wizard overlay on existing command. Add an interactive wizard layer on top of the existing test_notify command. Current flag-based logic stays untouched — the wizard collects the same parameters interactively and delegates to the existing send flow.

• Default behavior: interactive wizard (when no --non-interactive flag)
• --non-interactive: bypasses wizard, uses current flag-based behavior (for CI/scripting)

Interactive Flow

$ manage.py test_notify

=== Test Notification Wizard ===

Active notification channels:
  1) ops-slack (slack) — [setup_wizard] slack channel
  2) oncall-email (email) — [setup_wizard] email channel
  3) Configure a new driver manually

Select channel [1]: 1

  Title [Test Alert]:
  Message [This is a test notification...]:
  Severity (critical/warning/info/success) [info]: warning

Sending test notification to ops-slack (slack)...

✓ Notification sent successfully!
  Message ID: abc-123
  Metadata: {"channel": "#alerts"}

What next?
  1) Retry with changes
  2) Send to a different channel
  3) Done

Select [3]: 1

  Title [Test Alert]:
  Severity [warning]:

Sending...
✓ Sent!

What next? [3]: 3

Key behaviors

• Channel discovery: Lists active NotificationChannel records, plus “configure new” option
• “Configure new”: Prompts for driver type, then driver-specific config fields
• Defaults in brackets: Enter accepts default, type to override
• Result display: Success/failure, message_id, metadata, error details
• Adjust loop: Change title/message/severity, or switch channels
• --non-interactive: Current flag-based behavior, unchanged

Command Interface

Preserved flags (all work in --non-interactive mode)

• driver (positional), --title, --message, --severity, --channel
• --json-config, --smtp-host, --smtp-port, --from-address, --use-tls
• --webhook-url, --integration-key, --endpoint, --api-key

New flag

• --non-interactive — Skip wizard, use flag-based behavior. Required for CI/scripting.

Internal structure

def handle(self, *args, **options):
    if options["non_interactive"]:
        self._handle_non_interactive(**options)  # existing logic, renamed
    else:
        self._handle_interactive(**options)       # new wizard

# New private methods:
def _handle_interactive(self, **options)
def _select_channel(self) -> tuple[str, dict]
def _configure_new_driver(self) -> tuple[str, dict]
def _prompt_message_options(self, defaults) -> dict
def _send_and_show_result(self, driver_name, config, message) -> dict
def _post_send_loop(self, driver_name, config, message) -> str  # "retry" | "switch" | "done"

Reuses existing _build_*_config helpers adapted to prompt interactively.

Testing

File: apps/notify/_tests/test_test_notify.py

Area	Tests
Non-interactive mode	Existing flag-based behavior with --non-interactive
Channel selection	Lists active channels, empty state, valid selection
Configure new driver	Prompts for each driver type’s config fields
Message prompts	Defaults accepted, custom values collected
Send result display	Success and failure rendering
Post-send loop	Retry, switch channel, and done paths
Edge cases	No active channels, invalid input

Mocking: unittest.mock.patch("builtins.input") + mock driver send(). Coverage: 100% branch coverage on new interactive code.

Documentation Updates

File	Changes
apps/notify/README.md	Update test_notify section: interactive mode, --non-interactive, wizard example
docs/Setup-Guide.md	Add “Testing Notifications” section after pipeline setup
apps/notify/agents.md	Add interactive wizard contract, --non-interactive for automation