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Hiring process missing enforcement wiring step + workflow wiring guide #591

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Description

@joniba

Summary

The Adding Team Members section in squad.agent.md covers steps 1-6 (identity, charter, roster, routing table) but does not include a step for wiring enforcement rules when the new member is a reviewer or gate role. This means reviewers get hired onto the roster but never actually review anything — the coordinator has no rule telling it to route work to them.

Two related gaps

1. Missing step 7: Enforcement wiring for gate roles

When adding a reviewer (code reviewer, design approver, quality gate), the hiring process creates:

  • Charter + history (identity)
  • Routing table entry (explicit requests)
  • No enforcement rule in routing.md Rules section

Without a numbered enforcement rule, the coordinator never automatically routes PRs to the reviewer. The reviewer exists on the roster but is never invoked.

This was discovered in production when 20 issues were closed without a single PR review — the code reviewer was on the team from day one but had zero enforcement rules.

2. No workflow wiring guide

There is no reference material explaining:

  • The three enforcement layers (identity -> routing -> enforcement)
  • Why a routing table entry alone is not sufficient for gate roles
  • How to wire a reviewer gate, documenter trigger, or lifecycle rules
  • Common mistakes (adding someone to the roster != enforcing their reviews)

The issue-lifecycle.md template exists in .squad-templates/ but there is no companion guide teaching coordinators HOW to wire the lifecycle into routing.md Rules.

Proposed fix

  1. Add step 7 to Adding Team Members in squad.agent.md:

    1. Wire enforcement (if applicable). If the new member's role involves gating other agents' work (reviewer, design approver, quality gate), add a numbered enforcement rule to routing.md Rules section. Read .squad/templates/workflow-wiring-guide.md for the full wiring process.
  2. Add workflow-wiring-guide.md to .squad-templates/ — a comprehensive guide covering:

    • Configuration surface area (what each file controls)
    • Why existing patterns are not enough
    • How to wire members, gates, and lifecycles
    • Common mistakes and verification checklist
    • End-to-end walkthroughs (code reviewer, documenter)
  3. Add appendix walkthroughs to .squad-templates/:

    • workflow-wiring-appendix-a-code-reviewer.md — 7-step walkthrough for adding a code reviewer
    • workflow-wiring-appendix-b-documenter.md — walkthrough for follow-up trigger pattern

Evidence

This was validated with a clean-session test: a stateless coordinator (no memory of the authoring session) successfully read the guide, audited an existing reviewer's hiring, found the missing enforcement rules, and fixed them — adding 4 numbered rules to routing.md. The guide is sufficient for a coordinator with zero prior context.

Activity

  1. added a commit that references this issue on Mar 24, 2026
    0e964e0
  2. added a commit that references this issue on Mar 26, 2026
    b7104fc
  3. bradygaster commented on Mar 26, 2026

    @bradygaster
    Collaborator

    Thanks @joniba for the thorough analysis! PR #592 fully addressed this by adding the enforcement wiring step to the hiring process and including the workflow wiring guide template. The three-layer enforcement model (identity → routing → enforcement) is now documented and ready for the team. 🙏

  4. added a commit that references this issue on Apr 3, 2026
    1ab0d27
  5. added 2 commits that reference this issue on Apr 8, 2026
    fd8b1cb
    6e72c8a
  6. added a commit that references this issue on Apr 13, 2026
    d21f10f
  7. added a commit that references this issue on Apr 21, 2026
    b8e2b7b
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