[quality] kube.py shared helpers have no unit tests

[kubestellar-hive]

Finding

tests/service_catalog/shared/kube.py provides six helper functions used by every homelab test suite (homelab_access, homelab_backup, homelab_storage, homelab_substrate):

• run_kubectl(*args) — subprocess wrapper
• require_kubectl(*args) — asserting subprocess wrapper
• get_pods_json() — JSON pod list fetcher
• restart_workload() — deployment restart + rollout wait
• first_pod_name() — pod name resolver
• http_get() — in-cluster HTTP probe

None of these have unit tests. A bug in any helper silently breaks multiple test suites and may mask real environment failures.

Additional note: test_k8s_lifecycle.py duplicates run_kubectl and write_artifact locally instead of importing from kube.py, meaning the shared module is not exercised by that suite.

Recommendation

1. Add tests/service_catalog/shared/test_kube.py with mocked subprocess.run for all six functions.
2. Add a unit-tests.yml CI workflow that runs pytest on every PR.
3. Refactor test_k8s_lifecycle.py to import from kube.py.

Priority

• Impact: high
• Effort: low

---

Filed by quality agent (hold-gated mode)

[hanthor]

Closing as duplicate of #175. This issue covers the same gap: Python test files exist but no CI workflow executes them.