Triage

Triage

One state machine, schema-enforced on the local backend (ADR_0005):

needs-triage ──► needs-info | ready-for-agent | ready-for-human | wontfix
needs-info ──► (answered) ──► needs-triage
ready-for-* ──► in-progress ──► done | wontfix

/triage owns the routing decisions; in-progress/done belong to whoever does the work. Never jump states (e.g. needs-triage → done) — the enum won't catch it, you must.

Workflow

1. Resolve configuration and load the queue

Read [tool.patdhlk-skills] from ubproject.toml (missing → point to /setup-patdhlk-skills).

• sphinx-needs: pds status first — it rebuilds needs.json (ADR_0006) and emits the per-status counts, the "what needs attention" buckets, in one query. Then the queue = issues with status == "needs-triage" (jq over the fresh needs.json), plus needs-info ones whose question got answered since.
• github: gh issue list --label needs-triage plus open issues with no state label at all (treat unlabeled as needs-triage; offer to label them). Ensure the five state labels exist (gh label create, idempotent).

Empty queue → say so and stop.

2. Route each issue

Before routing, gather search evidence for each issue (sphinx-needs backend only). If pds is not on PATH, print a loud warning pointing to /setup-patdhlk-skills and skip this enrichment step.

pds search "<issue title> <issue body>" --config ubproject.toml
# exit 0 → hits JSON; exit 2 → stop and escalate

Use the full title + body as the query (ADR_0021 saturation). The top hit is the issue under triage itself — skip it; judge the remaining hits. A high-scoring hit on a done issue or an arch-decision means the report is already shipped; a high-scoring hit on another open issue means it may be a duplicate. Feed both signals into rule 1 below. The github backend keeps its existing gh issue list judgment; pds search is not available there.

Apply in order — first match wins:

1. Duplicate / invalid / out of scope → wontfix, with a one-line reason (and the duplicate's ID if any). Use the search hits above as evidence — cite the twin's ID when recommending duplicate.
2. Cannot be acted on as written — missing repro, ambiguous scope, no way to verify → needs-info, writing the concrete question.
3. An agent can finish it unattended — clear acceptance criteria, no unresolved design decisions, no credentials or human taste required → ready-for-agent.
4. Otherwise → ready-for-human (say what the human must decide).

Propose the routing for the whole queue in one table (ID, title, verdict, reason) and get the user's go-ahead — they may override any verdict — before applying. An override into an in-scope status still authors a fail-closed verdict (§3a).

3. Apply transitions

• sphinx-needs: edit each :status: in place in the issue's RST — git history is the audit trail, no changelog field. For needs-info, append the question to the directive body under a **Needs info.** lead-in. For wontfix, append the one-line reason the same way.
• github: swap the state label (remove old, add new). For needs-info and wontfix, post the question/reason as a comment; close wontfix issues as not-planned (gh issue close --reason "not planned").

3a. Author or update the triage verdict (sphinx-needs backend only)

Fire only when routing into ready-for-agent, ready-for-human, or in-progress. Routing to needs-info, wontfix, or needs-triage authors nothing.

Ordering:

1. Apply the :status: edit and any title/body tightening this pass makes (step 3 above).
2. Run pds fingerprint <id> last — after every title/body edit:

   pds fingerprint ISSUE_0042 --config ubproject.toml
   # prints {"schema":1,"verb":"fingerprint","id":"ISSUE_0042","fingerprint":"sha256:..."}
   

   Only title+body enter the hash (ADR_0015), so the :status: edit's position does not matter — but a fingerprint taken before a body edit is born stale, which the gate then flags. Compute it after the issue is in its final shape.
3. Write or edit VERDICT_<id> in spec/verdicts/index.rst. The derived ID is one slot — edit in place if it already exists (re-triage after a needs-info round-trip); git history is the audit trail (ADR_0005). The directive must carry: :rubric: triage, the computed :fingerprint:, :axes_failed: per the fail-closed rule, and per-axis reasoning as body prose.
4. Run make strict (step 4).

The four triage axes (each is an affirmative claim; ADR_0016):

• category — exactly one correct :kind: for the content (e.g. bug, improvement, feature).
• state — the routing target is justified. For ready-for-agent this means: clear acceptance criteria, no unresolved design decision, no credentials or human-taste required (route rule 3 — an agent finishes unattended).
• actionability — the body is self-contained to the AGENT-BRIEF.md bar: a fresh agent can execute without conversation history.
• duplicate-check — pds search/dedup was run and the top non-self hits were judged not duplicate and not already-shipped.

Fail-closed rule: any axis the triager cannot affirmatively confirm goes into :axes_failed: with a finding sentence in the body explaining why — never omitted, never optimistically passed. A passing (empty :axes_failed:) verdict asserts all four were positively cleared.

Worked RST example (mirror the spec/verdicts/index.rst tracer shape):

.. verdict:: Triage verdict for ISSUE_0042
   :id: VERDICT_ISSUE_0042
   :links: ISSUE_0042
   :rubric: triage
   :fingerprint: sha256:abcd1234ef567890

   *This was generated by AI during triage.*

   Judged on <date>. **category**: improvement, clear-cut — a bounded
   prose change with no ambiguous type. **state**: ready-for-agent —
   acceptance criteria are independently verifiable, no open design
   decisions, no credentials required. **actionability**: body is
   self-contained; a fresh agent executes without conversation history.
   **duplicate-check**: ``pds search`` top non-self hits judged not
   duplicate and not already-shipped.

Quick-override path ("move #42 to ready-for-agent", skip-grill): still authors a verdict, but fail-closed — all unevaluated axes go in :axes_failed: with the finding "routed by maintainer override, not triage-judged", so the gate flags it for a real triage pass rather than rubber-stamping. A failing verdict lists the failed axes in :axes_failed: (comma-separated):

.. verdict:: Triage verdict for ISSUE_0042
   :id: VERDICT_ISSUE_0042
   :links: ISSUE_0042
   :rubric: triage
   :fingerprint: sha256:abcd1234ef567890
   :axes_failed: category, state, actionability, duplicate-check

   *This was generated by AI during triage.*

   Routed to ready-for-agent by maintainer override, not triage-judged:
   no axis was affirmatively checked. Needs a real triage pass.

4. Validate and report

Local mutations end with the strict gate (ADR_0007, ADR_0017):

pds check
# no pds: uv run sphinx-build -W -b html <spec_dir> <spec_dir>/_build/html

Exit 0 means proceed; exit 1 means fix the corpus and re-run; exit 2 means stop and escalate. Report counts per verdict (pds status after the gate shows the new buckets) and the ready-for-agent list — that's the pickup queue for the next work session; pds next returns its lowest-ID member as JSON.

For each issue in ready-for-agent or ready-for-human, name its verdict in the report: ID + pass (empty :axes_failed:) or fail (list the failing axes). Example: "ISSUE_0042 → VERDICT_ISSUE_0042 (pass)". A green make strict guarantees a passing, fresh verdict on every in-scope issue — that is the pickup contract.

Hard rules

• Only the transitions drawn above; /triage never sets in-progress or done.
• Every needs-info carries a concrete, answerable question; every wontfix carries a reason. No silent state changes.
• The user confirms the routing table before anything is applied.
• A failed strict gate is YOUR bug to fix before reporting success.
• Never author a passing verdict for an axis you did not affirmatively check — uncertain is a failing axis with a finding, never a silent pass.