During February 2026, Zander focused on stabilizing the SMTP email validation test suite for the vertexproject/synapse repository. He addressed a persistent bug by updating test cases to accurately reflect message content and ensure robust validation of email attributes. Using Python and leveraging his testing expertise, Zander improved the alignment between test expectations and the actual validation logic, which reduced CI flakiness and enhanced test coverage for email-related workflows. This targeted work reinforced quality gates for future refactors involving SMTP handling, enabling safer changes to email components while preserving expected behavior. The depth of the fix improved reliability across the codebase.