VFX-D-1204¶

Title¶

UnusedCapture

Explanation¶

A step's capture block declares a variable name that no {placeholder} anywhere in the suite ever interpolates. The capture still runs and still costs an extraction against the step's response; it simply feeds nothing.

This is about existence, not ordering: a name used before it is captured is VFX-D-1203, and a suite with both problems gets both findings rather than one hybrid.

Reported as a warning, per the spec's own rule table — an unused capture never makes a suite fail.

A script.csharp step consumes captures without a placeholder, by reading Vars["name"] directly, so this rule accounts for scripts before reporting anything. A capture whose name appears anywhere in an inline script code block is treated as used. And when any script step names a file instead, the rule is suppressed for the whole suite: this server never reads a suite's neighbouring files, so the evidence that would answer "is this capture used?" is unreachable by construction, and reporting anyway would be a guess.

Where the capture's own name contains a ${...} reference, the finding's path stops at the capture map ($.steps[N].capture) and the message withholds the name. That is deliberate: this server never echoes a secret reference, and a path segment naming the entry would publish the caller's secret store layout on an otherwise clean result.

Common causes¶

• A capture kept after the step that consumed it was deleted or rewritten.
• A spelling mismatch between the capture key and the placeholder that was meant to read it (matching is case-sensitive and exact).
• A capture added speculatively while drafting, then never wired up.

Fixes¶

• Delete the capture entry if nothing needs the value.
• Or interpolate it in a later step as {name} — check the exact key spelling against validate_suite's summary.captures.
• If the value is only needed for debugging, prefer reading it from the run's event stream via explain_run rather than capturing it into a variable nothing uses.