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+# Running `tests/ic`
+
+    ./bin/testament --nim:<your compiler> cat ic
+
+## The metamorphic tests are expensive, and look hung when they are not
+
+16 of the tests carry `#? metamorphic`. Each has 3–4 `#!STEP` directives, and
+every step compiles the program **twice** — once under `nim ic`, once with
+`nim c` as the reference oracle. That is 100+ full compilations for the
+category. Under `--ic:on` each compilation additionally fans out one backend
+process per module per stage, and each of those is a compiler holding its own
+module graph (~800MB peak).
+
+**A `nim ic` parent sitting at 0% CPU is normal.** It is waiting on its
+children. It is not a deadlock, and neither is a metamorphic test that occupies
+the runner for many minutes. Before concluding anything is stuck, check that the
+test NAME changes over a few minutes — that is the difference between slow and
+hung, and it is easy to get wrong.
+
+On a memory-constrained machine the fan-out will swap. The symptoms are exactly
+the ones that read as a deadlock: several processes at 0% CPU, no output, a
+different test "stuck" on every run, and the same compilation finishing in
+seconds when run on its own. Check `vm_stat` (page-ins per second) and
+`sysctl vm.swapusage` before looking for a bug. This was diagnosed as a
+testament/`nim ic` interaction more than once before anyone measured.
+
+Cap the fan-out to fit the machine — precedence documented at `deps.nim`'s
+`let parallel`:
+
+    --parallelBuild:N     # standard flag, given meaning under IC
+    -d:icJobs:N           # same cap, legacy define
+    -d:icNoParallel       # serial, and non-interleaved child output
+
+Serial output matters for a second reason: the parallel backend processes share
+one stderr, so any per-process diagnostic printing (`NIM_IC_BNODE_GRIND`,
+`-d:icCanRaiseLog`) interleaves and produces torn lines. Either use
+`-d:icNoParallel` or parse defensively and count what you dropped.
+
+## Running a single test
+
+`testament r tests/ic/<file>.nim` works for the ordinary tests. It does NOT work
+for the metamorphic ones — the multi-step files carry several `discard """`
+spec blocks and the single-test path rejects them with "duplicate `specStart`".
+Those only run through `cat ic`.
+
+Files matching `tests/ic/*_temp.nim` are ignored by git (see `.gitignore`) and
+are scratch, not tests: several import helper modules that do not exist and fail
+for that reason alone.