Owner boundary triage

Owner Boundary Triage

Core Principle

Owner conclusions require both reproduction breadth and mechanism attribution. A shared-looking source file is not proof that every consumer belongs to the shared owner.

Required Signals

• Where the failure reproduces.
• Where it does not reproduce.
• Which mechanism appears responsible.
• Which owner controls that mechanism.
• Which consumers are affected.
• Which evidence is missing.

Triage Flow

1. Define the failing behavior in one sentence.
2. Map reproduction breadth:
   • single route or surface,
   • multiple consumers of one capability,
   • all consumers of a shared capability,
   • data-source-specific,
   • environment-specific.
3. Attribute mechanism:
   • feature composition,
   • shared component,
   • data schema,
   • permissions,
   • environment or harness,
   • acceptance wording.
4. Assign owner only when breadth and mechanism agree.
5. If they do not agree, return owner_boundary_unclear with the smallest next check.

Verdict Vocabulary

Verdict	Use When
feature_owner	Failure is isolated to a feature composition or route-specific integration.
shared_capability_owner	Failure reproduces across consumers and mechanism is in the shared capability.
data_owner	Failure depends on data schema, lifecycle, or seed shape.
environment_owner	Failure depends on setup, harness, browser, network, or fixture availability.
verifier_owner	Failure is in the evidence, receipt wording, or acceptance procedure.
owner_boundary_unclear	Reproduction breadth or mechanism attribution is insufficient.

Output Contract

verdict:
failure_summary:
reproduction_breadth:
mechanism_attribution:
excluded_owners:
missing_checks:
next_owner:
return_gate:
return_owner_on_fail:

Common Mistakes

• Assigning a shared owner because code lives in a shared folder.
• Assigning a feature owner because the bug was first seen on one page.
• Ignoring negative reproduction evidence.
• Treating verifier wording mistakes as runtime defects.
• Asking one owner to fix another owner's missing evidence.

Minimum Owner Claim

Use the narrowest owner conclusion that the evidence supports. If one more reproduction check would change the owner, do that check or return owner_boundary_unclear.