# FIRST-WEEK TRIAGE — WooCommerce Checkout Redesign ## STEP 1 — INVENTORY - **O1**: WooCommerce site with 47 active plugins. - **O2**: Several plugins have not been updated in more than two years. - **O3**: Checkout customization code is stored inside the active theme's `functions.php` file. - **O4**: No staging environment exists. - **O5**: Payment processing currently works. - **O6**: No one knows which custom hooks control tax calculations. - **O7**: No one knows which custom hooks control shipping calculations. `Total observations: 7` ## STEP 2 — CLASSIFY RISK | ID | Risk Class | Reason | |---|---|---| | O1 | NEEDS-INVESTIGATION | Interactions among 47 plugins are undocumented; scope and dependency map unknown | | O2 | NEEDS-INVESTIGATION | Unclear which outdated plugins touch checkout/payment paths | | O3 | DO-NOT-TOUCH-YET | Checkout logic mixed into theme file with no tests/docs; may affect payment processing | | O4 | NEEDS-INVESTIGATION | Absence of a safe validation environment; must be established before other work proceeds | | O5 | DO-NOT-TOUCH-YET | Currently working, but mechanism is undocumented; may affect payment processing | | O6 | DO-NOT-TOUCH-YET | Hook location unknown; may alter production data (tax calculations) | | O7 | DO-NOT-TOUCH-YET | Hook location unknown; may alter production data (shipping calculations) | `SAFE-TO-MODIFY: 0` `NEEDS-INVESTIGATION: 3` `DO-NOT-TOUCH-YET: 4` ## STEP 3 — SILENT-BREAK SCAN | ID | Hidden Dependency/Failure Path | What a Naive Fix Would Miss | Earliest Failure Signal | Investigation Method | |---|---|---|---|---| | O3 | Checkout markup, logic, and possibly payment/tax/shipping hooks share one file | A "cosmetic" redesign could delete or reorder a hook silently | Broken checkout during real traffic, not in a quick manual test | Trace callers/imports; reproduce in staging | | O5 | Payment flow depends on undocumented logic elsewhere in the stack | Assuming the gateway integration is self-contained | Failed or duplicate charges under specific cart/discount conditions | Inspect runtime logs; review deployment history | | O6 | Tax hook location and trigger conditions unknown | Redesign could remove or bypass tax logic without visible error | Wrong tax charged for specific regions/product types, caught late (compliance/audit) | Search configuration references; trace callers/imports | | O7 | Shipping hook location and trigger conditions unknown | Redesign could break rate calculation for edge-case zones/weights | Incorrect shipping cost on uncommon carrier/zone combos | Search configuration references; reproduce in staging | | O1 | Plugin-to-plugin interactions undocumented | Assuming plugins are independent of checkout markup changes | Conflict surfaces only when two specific plugins fire on the same checkout event | Trace callers/imports; inspect deployment history | | O2 | Stale plugins may rely on deprecated hooks/APIs | Assuming "still active" means "still compatible" | Failure appears only after a WooCommerce/PHP version bump | Review deployment history; audit plugin changelogs | `Silent-break candidates: 6` ## STEP 4 — EMIT THE AUDIT (Client-Facing Summary) ### A. Context - **Requested audit format:** Client-facing summary - **Client priority:** Redesign the checkout flow without disrupting payments, tax calculations, or shipping rules. - **Handoff context:** The previous freelance developer stopped responding. - **Evidence limitations:** No plugin names, code excerpts, hosting environment, or payment gateway details were provided. This audit is based solely on the notes above. ### B. Triage Table | Observation ID | Observation | Risk Class | Evidence-Based Reason | Client-Priority Relevance | |---|---|---|---|---| | O1 | 47 active plugins | NEEDS-INVESTIGATION | Interaction map absent | Any could affect checkout rendering or logic | | O2 | Plugins unpatched 2+ years | NEEDS-INVESTIGATION | Compatibility/security status unverified | May include checkout-adjacent plugins | | O3 | Checkout code lives in theme `functions.php` | DO-NOT-TOUCH-YET | No isolation, no tests, no docs | Directly is the file the client wants redesigned | | O4 | No staging environment | NEEDS-INVESTIGATION | No safe place to validate changes | Blocks safe testing of any redesign | | O5 | Payment processing currently works | DO-NOT-TOUCH-YET | Mechanism undocumented | Client explicitly wants payments undisturbed | | O6 | Tax-calculation hooks unknown | DO-NOT-TOUCH-YET | No visibility into logic location | Client explicitly wants tax undisturbed | | O7 | Shipping-calculation hooks unknown | DO-NOT-TOUCH-YET | No visibility into logic location | Client explicitly wants shipping undisturbed | ### C. Silent-Break Register (highest danger) - **O3** — Hypothesis: checkout redesign work could unknowingly remove or reorder logic that tax/shipping/payment hooks depend on. Naive fix risk: treating the file as pure front-end markup. Likely consequence: broken calculations discovered in live orders. Investigation: trace all functions/hooks in the file before any edit; reproduce checkout in staging first. Evidence required: a documented map of every hook the file registers. - **O5** — Hypothesis: payment success today may rely on code paths not visible in the notes. Naive fix risk: assuming the gateway is decoupled from checkout markup. Likely consequence: failed/duplicate charges. Investigation: review payment logs and gateway webhook delivery records. Evidence required: confirmation of which files/hooks the gateway integration touches. - **O6 / O7** — Hypothesis: tax and shipping totals are computed by custom hooks embedded somewhere in the theme or a plugin, location currently unknown. Naive fix risk: assuming WooCommerce defaults apply. Likely consequence: silently wrong totals on specific regions, product types, or carriers — likely to surface in a customer complaint or a reconciliation report, not in a manual test. Investigation: search the codebase for `woocommerce_calculate_totals`, `woocommerce_package_rates`, and related filter/action names; confirm behavior in staging before touching checkout. ### D. Week-One Safe List `No modification is currently cleared as SAFE-TO-MODIFY.` ### E. Audit Dossier **Project State:** A WooCommerce store running 47 active plugins, several unpatched for 2+ years, with checkout customization embedded in the active theme's `functions.php`. No staging environment exists. Payment processing works today, but the hooks controlling tax and shipping calculations are unmapped. The previous developer is unreachable. **Primary Client Priority:** Redesign the checkout flow without disrupting payments, tax calculations, or shipping rules. **Confirmed Findings:** O1 (NEEDS-INVESTIGATION), O2 (NEEDS-INVESTIGATION), O3 (DO-NOT-TOUCH-YET), O4 (NEEDS-INVESTIGATION), O5 (DO-NOT-TOUCH-YET), O6 (DO-NOT-TOUCH-YET), O7 (DO-NOT-TOUCH-YET). **Critical Constraints:** - O3 — may affect payment processing (checkout logic co-located with unrelated theme code). - O5 — may affect payment processing (working mechanism undocumented). - O6 — may alter production data (tax hooks unmapped). - O7 — may alter production data (shipping hooks unmapped). **Unknowns Requiring Investigation:** Plugin interaction map (O1); which outdated plugins are checkout-relevant (O2); no validated staging path exists to test changes safely (O4). **Security and Credential Findings:** None explicitly stated in these notes (no exposed credentials mentioned here — the sample scenario had one, this one does not). **Safe Week-One Scope:** None confirmed. **Excluded Commitments:** A redesign delivery date; any direct edit to `functions.php`; any change to tax or shipping logic; any plugin removal/update without a compatibility check. **Required Discovery Actions:** Map all hooks/functions in `functions.php` tied to checkout, tax, and shipping; stand up a staging environment; identify which of the 47 plugins interact with checkout; audit outdated plugins for checkout-relevant dependencies. **Risk Counts:** - Total observations: 7 - SAFE-TO-MODIFY: 0 - NEEDS-INVESTIGATION: 3 - DO-NOT-TOUCH-YET: 4 - Silent-break candidates: 6 ## STEP 5 — VERDICT GATE **Timeline-Safety Verdict: INVESTIGATE-FIRST** **Decision Basis:** The client's requested work (checkout redesign) sits directly on top of four DO-NOT-TOUCH-YET items (O3, O5, O6, O7) — the exact code and logic the client wants untouched (payments, tax, shipping) is co-located with the code the client wants redesigned, and none of it has tests, documentation, or a mapped hook structure. Three further NEEDS-INVESTIGATION items (O1, O2, O4) mean there is currently no safe environment to even validate a change. Zero items are cleared SAFE-TO-MODIFY. A bounded discovery pass can resolve most of this uncertainty rather than requiring an outright refusal. **Safe Promise:** No redesign timeline can be committed yet. What can be promised now is a scoped discovery phase: map the hooks governing tax and shipping, confirm what governs payment behavior, stand up a staging environment, and flag which of the 47 plugins are checkout-relevant. **Required Before Reassessment:** Completed hook map for `functions.php` (tax, shipping, payment-adjacent logic); a working staging environment where checkout can be tested without touching production; a short list of plugins confirmed to interact with checkout. Once these exist, a redesign timeline can be quoted with confidence instead of a guess.