Thin task-oriented completion, release, and reassessment workflow #993

New Issue

2026-07-31T10:19:14-05:00

jcwalker3 commented

2026-07-31 10:19:14 -05:00

Parent umbrella: issue #989. Informative bootstrap evidence only, not a machine-enforced dependency; Child 1 delivers structured relationships and backfills this.

Problem

Even with a neutral inventory and a safe claim, finishing and releasing a cycle requires traversing many low-level gates in a fragile order. Completion, release, escalation, and reassessment have no coherent surface, and a failed gate can leave the failure recorded nowhere durable.

Charter connection

Bounded work cycle — the smallest unit leaving the project coherent and handoff-ready, completed within a single lease, never spanning multiple leases; if it cannot finish, the worker brings the artifact to a coherent stopping point, records state in Gitea rather than session memory, and releases; continuation is a new task available to any worker. Escalation — record the question on the existing issue or PR, mark blocked-pending-clarification, release, move on; never file a new issue. Approval, parity, and remediation.

Verified current gap

Publish, PR creation, reviewer handoff, and lease retirement are four separate operations with no shared transaction; interruption strands the branch (#891, which itself requires #816). When a gate fails, the closure that stops the mutation also forbids posting the diagnostic handoff (#895). The author work-issue workflow could not be loaded natively (#873). Terminal retirement of author leases is unimplemented (#792).

Scope

A small normal worker surface composing existing safety operations:

inspect project state
validate and claim the caller-selected task
load the task-specific workflow
perform one coherent bounded cycle within one lease
complete and release
block and release
create the durable Gitea handoff
revoke task-scoped capability
return to the neutral state
reassess from fresh Gitea state

Lower-level diagnostic, recovery, administrative, and reconciliation operations remain directly callable.

Non-goals

Creating a monolithic dispatcher. The surface composes; no operation in it selects, ranks, or recommends. Re-owning #891's finalization, #895's failure reporting, #873's workflow loading, #792's retirement, or Child 3's activation lifecycle. Changing exact-head approval semantics. Removing low-level tools. Creating a new issue merely because a worker is confused.

Functional requirements

One bounded cycle fits within one lease, enforced rather than documented.
When work cannot finish, the worker reaches a coherent stopping point, records state durably in Gitea, and releases; continuation becomes a new task available to any worker.
Block and release implements Escalation using Child 1's sanctioned marker: record the question on the existing artifact, apply the marker, release the claim. It must not create a new issue.
Complete and release releases the claim per Child 1's protocol, revokes task-scoped capability per Child 3, and returns the worker to neutral.
Reassess performs a fresh neutral inspection after completion or after contention and names no substitute task.
Durable reporting survives a failed mutation gate.
Approval handling — pending dependency. Exact-head independent approval and approval invalidation after any new commit are specified in #916 and are not verified as enforced. This issue must not weaken whatever enforcement exists, must not claim to implement #916, and must not assert the guarantee holds. If #916 has not landed, this surface records the dependency as pending and fails closed rather than assuming approval validity.

Safety and authority boundaries

No operation selects work or recommends a next task. Diagnostic, recovery, administrative, and reconciliation tools remain directly reachable; this surface is a composition layer, never a gatekeeper over them.

Acceptance criteria

The worker surface exists and composes existing operations without restating them.
A worker completes a full bounded cycle end to end using only this surface plus the bounded role operations.
A cycle cannot span two leases; exceeding the lease forces a coherent stop, a durable Gitea record, and a release.
Block and release records the question, applies Child 1's marker, releases — and creates no new issue.
A failure after a closed gate still produces a durable record.
Complete and release releases the claim, revokes task capability, and returns the worker to neutral.
Reassess returns the neutral inventory and names no substitute task.
Existing approval behaviour is not weakened, and the #916 dependency is recorded as pending rather than assumed.
Every low-level diagnostic, recovery, administrative, and reconciliation tool remains directly callable.
No operation emits a ranking, selection, or recommendation — asserted by test.

Required tests and validation

Full-cycle traversal. Lease-boundary enforcement with a deliberate overrun. Escalation path including marker application and a no-new-issue assertion. Failure reporting after a closed gate. Release-and-revoke returning the worker to neutral. Reassess-names-no-substitute assertion. A regression proving approval behaviour is unchanged by this surface. Direct callability of a representative diagnostic, administrative, recovery, and reconciliation tool. Contract tests use deterministic fixtures with nondeterministic values normalized.

Dependencies

Until Child 1 delivers sanctioned structured relationship operations, the references below are informative bootstrap evidence only. They must not be treated as machine-enforced hard dependencies. Child 1 must backfill the appropriate structured relationships.

Hard: Child 3, #891 (which requires #816), #873, #895. Also Child 1 for the marker and release protocol and #792 for retirement. #916 is a pending certification gate for any workflow path that reviews, approves, or merges; it is not silently assumed and is not implemented here.

Compatibility and rollout

Additive; existing tools keep documented fields and typed failure contracts. The dashboard and allocator are untouched here.

Rollback behavior

Removing the surface returns workers to the underlying operations and stops autonomous cycles safely. It never reintroduces role-first entry or allocator selection, and never leaves a claim held without a release path.

Documentation requirements

The worker surface reference. The composition boundary — what is composed versus what stays direct. The bounded-cycle and escalation rules. An explicit statement of the pending #916 dependency.

Completion evidence

A recorded end-to-end cycle, the lease-overrun result, the escalation-path result, and the release-to-neutral result.

Reusable existing issues, PRs, and primitives

#891, #895, #873, #792, #816, #952, #916 (pending). Live primitives: review-workflow loading, file committing, PR creation, review submission, merging, lease release, issue commenting, label setting.

Fundamental-workflow stage supported

work -> release -> reassess — charter steps 6, 9, 10, 11, and 12, plus Bounded work cycle and Escalation.

Parent umbrella: issue #989. Informative bootstrap evidence only, not a machine-enforced dependency; Child 1 delivers structured relationships and backfills this. ## Problem Even with a neutral inventory and a safe claim, finishing and releasing a cycle requires traversing many low-level gates in a fragile order. Completion, release, escalation, and reassessment have no coherent surface, and a failed gate can leave the failure recorded nowhere durable. ## Charter connection Bounded work cycle — the smallest unit leaving the project coherent and handoff-ready, completed within a single lease, never spanning multiple leases; if it cannot finish, the worker brings the artifact to a coherent stopping point, records state in Gitea rather than session memory, and releases; continuation is a new task available to any worker. Escalation — record the question on the existing issue or PR, mark blocked-pending-clarification, release, move on; never file a new issue. Approval, parity, and remediation. ## Verified current gap Publish, PR creation, reviewer handoff, and lease retirement are four separate operations with no shared transaction; interruption strands the branch (#891, which itself requires #816). When a gate fails, the closure that stops the mutation also forbids posting the diagnostic handoff (#895). The author work-issue workflow could not be loaded natively (#873). Terminal retirement of author leases is unimplemented (#792). ## Scope A small normal worker surface composing existing safety operations: - inspect project state - validate and claim the caller-selected task - load the task-specific workflow - perform one coherent bounded cycle within one lease - complete and release - block and release - create the durable Gitea handoff - revoke task-scoped capability - return to the neutral state - reassess from fresh Gitea state Lower-level diagnostic, recovery, administrative, and reconciliation operations remain directly callable. ## Non-goals Creating a monolithic dispatcher. The surface composes; no operation in it selects, ranks, or recommends. Re-owning #891's finalization, #895's failure reporting, #873's workflow loading, #792's retirement, or Child 3's activation lifecycle. Changing exact-head approval semantics. Removing low-level tools. Creating a new issue merely because a worker is confused. ## Functional requirements - One bounded cycle fits within one lease, enforced rather than documented. - When work cannot finish, the worker reaches a coherent stopping point, records state durably in Gitea, and releases; continuation becomes a new task available to any worker. - Block and release implements Escalation using Child 1's sanctioned marker: record the question on the existing artifact, apply the marker, release the claim. It must not create a new issue. - Complete and release releases the claim per Child 1's protocol, revokes task-scoped capability per Child 3, and returns the worker to neutral. - Reassess performs a fresh neutral inspection after completion or after contention and names no substitute task. - Durable reporting survives a failed mutation gate. - **Approval handling — pending dependency.** Exact-head independent approval and approval invalidation after any new commit are specified in #916 and are not verified as enforced. This issue must not weaken whatever enforcement exists, must not claim to implement #916, and must not assert the guarantee holds. If #916 has not landed, this surface records the dependency as pending and fails closed rather than assuming approval validity. ## Safety and authority boundaries No operation selects work or recommends a next task. Diagnostic, recovery, administrative, and reconciliation tools remain directly reachable; this surface is a composition layer, never a gatekeeper over them. ## Acceptance criteria - The worker surface exists and composes existing operations without restating them. - A worker completes a full bounded cycle end to end using only this surface plus the bounded role operations. - A cycle cannot span two leases; exceeding the lease forces a coherent stop, a durable Gitea record, and a release. - Block and release records the question, applies Child 1's marker, releases — and creates no new issue. - A failure after a closed gate still produces a durable record. - Complete and release releases the claim, revokes task capability, and returns the worker to neutral. - Reassess returns the neutral inventory and names no substitute task. - Existing approval behaviour is not weakened, and the #916 dependency is recorded as pending rather than assumed. - Every low-level diagnostic, recovery, administrative, and reconciliation tool remains directly callable. - No operation emits a ranking, selection, or recommendation — asserted by test. ## Required tests and validation Full-cycle traversal. Lease-boundary enforcement with a deliberate overrun. Escalation path including marker application and a no-new-issue assertion. Failure reporting after a closed gate. Release-and-revoke returning the worker to neutral. Reassess-names-no-substitute assertion. A regression proving approval behaviour is unchanged by this surface. Direct callability of a representative diagnostic, administrative, recovery, and reconciliation tool. Contract tests use deterministic fixtures with nondeterministic values normalized. ## Dependencies Until Child 1 delivers sanctioned structured relationship operations, the references below are informative bootstrap evidence only. They must not be treated as machine-enforced hard dependencies. Child 1 must backfill the appropriate structured relationships. Hard: Child 3, #891 (which requires #816), #873, #895. Also Child 1 for the marker and release protocol and #792 for retirement. #916 is a pending certification gate for any workflow path that reviews, approves, or merges; it is not silently assumed and is not implemented here. ## Compatibility and rollout Additive; existing tools keep documented fields and typed failure contracts. The dashboard and allocator are untouched here. ## Rollback behavior Removing the surface returns workers to the underlying operations and stops autonomous cycles safely. It never reintroduces role-first entry or allocator selection, and never leaves a claim held without a release path. ## Documentation requirements The worker surface reference. The composition boundary — what is composed versus what stays direct. The bounded-cycle and escalation rules. An explicit statement of the pending #916 dependency. ## Completion evidence A recorded end-to-end cycle, the lease-overrun result, the escalation-path result, and the release-to-neutral result. ## Reusable existing issues, PRs, and primitives #891, #895, #873, #792, #816, #952, #916 (pending). Live primitives: review-workflow loading, file committing, PR creation, review submission, merging, lease release, issue commenting, label setting. ## Fundamental-workflow stage supported work -> release -> reassess — charter steps 6, 9, 10, 11, and 12, plus Bounded work cycle and Escalation.

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Branches Tags

master

fix/issue-987-native-mcp-bootstrap

feat/issue-985-project-scoped-launcher-identity

fix/issue-983-cross-repo-base-ref

feat/issue-980-stale-worker-retirement

fix/issue-975-client-identity-heartbeat

fix/issue-973-cross-repo-canonical-roots

fix/issue-970-safely-resolve-missing-worktrees

fix/issue-969-native-mcp-bootstrap

feat/issue-664-break-glass-restart

feat/issue-708-mcp-namespace-attachment

feat/issue-665-restart-audit

fix/issue-700-durable-walls

fix/issue-704-prevent-env-workspace-bindings

feat/issue-707-cross-project-boundaries

fix/issue-690-review-profile-switch-guard

fix/issue-953-bootstrap-lock-provenance

feat/issue-949-native-fleet-inventory

fix/issue-943-runtime-context-helpers

fix/issue-945-owning-pr-renewal-evidence

fix/issue-941-scope-guard-bootstrap-wiring

docs/issue-930-remote-mcp-coupling-inventory

fix/issue-892-author-bootstrap-deadlock

fix/issue-686-detect-reject-manual-mcp

fix/issue-672-mcp-config-drift

fix/issue-689-deterministic-mcp-namespace

feat/issue-666-concurrent-mcp-restart-tests

feat/issue-659-maintenance-drain-mode

feat/issue-648-notifications-console

fix/issue-670-direct-master-incident

feat/issue-644-console-recovery

feat/issue-650-providers-insights

feat/issue-669-scoped-component-recovery

docs/issue-668-mcp-ha-rolling-restart

feat/issue-667-console-restart-controls

feat/issue-645-linkage-console

feat/issue-643-request-preview-initiate

fix/issue-897-permission-stale-runtime-classification

feat/issue-641-runtime-session-view

feat/issue-663-restart-classes

feat/issue-661-drain-proof-hard-gate

fix/issue-854-semantic-container-exclusion

issue-640

fix/issue-682-starlette-httpx2

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Reference: Scaled-Tech-Consulting/Gitea-Tools#993