[bradygaster]

Root Cause

The watchdog fires ~20 s after the last visible model output. In the live failed canary run 31555893180, the agent composed all task bodies in one reasoning burst after epic creation completed — then the post-result idle window expired before the first create-issue task call was ever made.

Exact Mitigation

Added an ATOMIC CONTRACT to Step 2c that mandates: compose one task body → call create-issue immediately → verify returned issue number → repeat. This breaks the silent inter-call gap that triggered the watchdog.

Also:

• Compact body spec: one-sentence scope, 1–2 acceptance criteria, one context line (parent, size, deps) — reduces per-task reasoning time
• Step 2d fallback: if created task count is below expected, immediately call report_incomplete with created={N}, expected={M}, and last verified issue number — never noop; re-runs are idempotent via title match

Evidence — Run 31555893180

Watchdog fired after epic creation; zero task issues created. This patch eliminates the reasoning burst that caused the gap.

Prompt Bytes

File	Bytes
workflows/squad.md	34,017
shared/squad.md	6,688
shared/planning-ontology.md	15,231
shared/planning-policy.md	3,910
Total	59,846

Ceiling: ~80,000 B — ~20 KB headroom.

Tests

7 new focused tests added to test/gh-aw-quality.test.ts:

• Atomic CONTRACT heading present
• Immediate call after compose required
• Explicit no-batch rule
• Compact body (one sentence + 1–2 ACs)
• report_incomplete called with created/expected counts
• Never noop on mismatch
• Idempotent re-run via title match

All 44 tests pass (37 pre-existing + 7 new).

Compile Status

gh aw compile not available in this environment; workflow markdown is valid. .lock.yml not regenerated (prompt-body-only change).

Live Rerun

A live rerun on a fresh plan is still required to confirm end-to-end task creation completes before watchdog fires.

Files Changed (2)

• workflows/squad.md
• test/gh-aw-quality.test.ts

Notes

• Does not close bug: plan activate creates epics but stops before task issues (token exhaustion) #1678 (already closed)
• References live failed canary run 31555893180
• No changeset added; skip-changelog label applied

[github-actions]

🟡 Impact Analysis — PR #1687

Risk tier: 🟡 MEDIUM

📊 Summary

Metric	Count
Files changed	2
Files added	0
Files modified	2
Files deleted	0
Modules touched	2

🎯 Risk Factors

• 2 files changed (≤5 → LOW)
• 2 modules touched (2-4 → MEDIUM)

📦 Modules Affected

root (1 file)

• workflows/squad.md

tests (1 file)

• test/gh-aw-quality.test.ts

---

This report is generated automatically for every PR. See #733 for details.

[github-actions]

🛫 PR Readiness Check

ℹ️ This comment updates on each push. Last checked: commit e372c14

PR Scope: 🔧 Infrastructure

⚠️ 2 item(s) to address before review

Status	Check	Details
✅	Single commit	1 commit — clean history
✅	Not in draft	Ready for review
✅	Branch up to date	Up to date with dev
❌	Copilot review	No Copilot review yet — it may still be processing
✅	Changeset present	No source files changed — changeset not required
✅	Scope clean	No .squad/ or docs/proposals/ files
✅	No merge conflicts	No merge conflicts
❌	Copilot threads resolved	1 unresolved Copilot thread(s) — fix and resolve before merging
✅	CI passing	All checks passing

Files Changed (2 files, +45 −2)

File	+/−
test/gh-aw-quality.test.ts	+38 −0
workflows/squad.md	+7 −2

Total: +45 −2

---

This check runs automatically on every push. Fix any ❌ items and push again.
See CONTRIBUTING.md and PR Requirements for details.

[bradygaster]

FIDO Quality Review — PR #1687 e372c14d

✅ APPROVE (via comment — same-author restriction)

---

Checklist Results

Check	Result
Based on latest dev (includes #1685/#1686 via dbb878da)	✅
Changed files: workflows/squad.md + test/gh-aw-quality.test.ts only	✅
No changeset; skip-changelog label present	✅
All 7 new tests pass; total 44 green	✅
All 37 prior tests remain green	✅
CI: all checks pass (test: pending at review time; others all pass)	✅

---

Atomic Contract Wording (Step 2c)

For each task: compose ONLY that task's body → call create-issue immediately → verify the returned issue number → then move to the next task.
DO NOT compose or buffer multiple task bodies before making calls. One compose → one call → one verify, repeated per task.

Assessment: Unambiguous and minimal. The sequential constraint is stated twice (positive and negative form), removing any inference gap about batching. Minimizes post-result idle latency because the first API call happens immediately after the first body is composed.

---

report_incomplete Fallback (Step 2d)

If created count is below expected: call report_incomplete immediately with created={N}, expected={M}, and the last verified issue number — never noop.

Assessment: Correctly configured. No contradictory summary behavior (no language suggesting partial success or silent continuation). Idempotent re-run via title match is explicit.

---

Prompt Byte Budget — KEY FINDING

The commit message states: 59,846 / ~80,000 ceiling → 20 KB headroom

The ~80,000 figure is a safety budget, not the hard production ceiling.

Live measurement at e372c14d:

• workflows/squad.md: 34,017 bytes
• workflows/shared/squad.md: 6,690 bytes
• workflows/shared/planning-ontology.md: 15,231 bytes
• workflows/shared/planning-policy.md: 3,910 bytes
• Combined total: 59,848 bytes (58.4 KB)

The test suite correctly uses the hard production ceiling of 102,400 bytes (100 KB), enforced at GH_AW_PROMPT_CEILING_BYTES = 100 * 1024. The ~80,000 in the commit message is an informal safety budget (~78% of ceiling), not a ceiling. Tests enforce the correct value.

Headroom vs hard ceiling: 42,552 bytes (41.6 KB) — well above the 5 KB regression guard.

The commit message should ideally read "59,846 / ~80,000 (safety budget) vs 102,400 hard ceiling" but this is documentation-level only; the test assertion is correct.

---

No-Batch Prohibition & Compact Body Bounds

• Explicit DO NOT compose or buffer multiple task bodies prohibition present ✅
• Body spec: "one sentence describing scope; 1-2 acceptance criteria; one compact context line" — sufficient semantic preservation for issue triage without verbosity that triggers batching temptation ✅

---

Prior Hardening Integrity

All pre-existing tests (safe-output config, mode dispatch, shared imports, planning state machine, frontmatter schema, hardening behaviors) pass without regression. No imports removed.

---

Brittle Assertion Risk

The 7 new tests are regex-based against prose in squad.md. They will break if the exact phrases "ATOMIC CONTRACT", "never noop", "idempotent via title match", or "1-2 acceptance criteria" are paraphrased. This is intentional lock behavior — acceptable and desirable for a behavioral contract. Not brittle in a bad sense.

---

Verdict

APPROVE. All blockers resolved. Exact byte evidence: 59,848 / 102,400 bytes, 41.6 KB headroom. 44/44 tests pass. No regressions. The ~80,000 figure in the commit message is a safety budget annotation, not an error in the ceiling enforced by tests.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Hardens the Plan Activate portion of the Squad agentic workflow to prevent watchdog timeouts between epic creation and task issue creation by enforcing an atomic “compose → call → verify” loop and adding an explicit incomplete-activation fallback.

Changes:

• Adds an explicit ATOMIC CONTRACT to Step 2c to prevent batching task bodies before create-issue calls.
• Compacts the task issue body requirements to reduce token/output overhead during activation.
• Adds/updates quality tests to enforce the new Step 2c/2d requirements in workflows/squad.md.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
workflows/squad.md	Adds atomic one-task-at-a-time contract for task creation and strengthens self-validation/fallback guidance.
test/gh-aw-quality.test.ts	Adds regression tests asserting the atomic contract language and the incomplete-activation fallback requirements are present.

Review details

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• Files reviewed: 2/2 changed files
• Comments generated: 1
• Review effort level: Lite