Core tests fail on Adobe ColdFusion with `coldfusion.compiler.ASTcffunction` error in TestBox metadata loading

[zainforbjs]

Describe the bug
When running the Wheels core test suite on Adobe ColdFusion, test execution fails with the following error:
coldfusion.compiler.ASTcffunction

The error occurs while TestBox is attempting to load component metadata using getComponentMetadata().

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Run the Wheels repository using Adobe ColdFusion.
2. Navigate to the core test runner.
3. Execute the core tests.
4. Observe the coldfusion.compiler.ASTcffunction error.

Expected behavior
The core test suite should run successfully on Adobe ColdFusion without errors when loading test component metadata.

Screenshots

Desktop:

• OS: Any
• CFML Engine: Adobe ColdFusion

[wheels-bot]

Wheels Bot — Triage

Classified as bug.

Suspected layer

config — closest fit from the canonical layer list; the actual fix will live in whichever spec CFC under vendor/wheels/tests/specs/ is causing Adobe CF's parser to fail. The canonical reference for this kind of issue is .ai/wheels/cross-engine-compatibility.md and CLAUDE.md § "Known cross-engine gotchas".

Fix sketch

The error surfaces in vendor/wheels/wheelstest/system/TestBox.cfc:457, where TestBox calls getComponentMetadata() on every CFC in the test bundle. coldfusion.compiler.ASTcffunction is Adobe CF's generic AST-failure on a function node, which means one spec CFC contains syntax Adobe CF can't compile — and per CLAUDE.md, one compilation error in any spec crashes the entire suite for that engine. Most likely culprits, all documented as known cross-engine gotchas:

• Unescaped # in string literals (e.g. o instead of &##111;)
• Bracket-notation function calls inside closures (obj["key"]() crashes ACF 2021/2023 parsers)
• private access on mixin helper functions in vendor/wheels/model/*.cfc or similar (ACF and Lucee skip them during $integrateComponents())
• Array-by-value capture inside struct literals in closures

To localize the offender, the next stage should run tools/test-matrix.sh adobe2023 sqlite (or adobe2025) locally — if CI-equivalent containers pass, the regression is likely on an older ACF version (2021/2018) and we need the reporter's version. If they fail, binary-search by directory under vendor/wheels/tests/specs/ via the directory= query param on /wheels/core/tests.

Confidence: low

Cross-engine concern forces auto-downgrade to at most medium; further downgraded to low because the issue body omits the Adobe CF version, the specific failing spec, the URL/directory used to run the tests, and the latest CI run on develop passes on both adobe2023 and adobe2025 — so reproduction is not guaranteed without more context.

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