instructions/dev/issue-tracking.md: destructive-step invariants, comment-vs-body authority, rename sweep (#47 Block 1, #29)
Files changed: - CHANGES.md - VERSION - instructions/dev/issue-tracking.md
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@@ -34,6 +34,8 @@ issues at that URL, which is exactly why `dist export` excludes
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moved.
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- Closing one: the body is rewritten to its final state first, and only then
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closed (step 7).
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- A rename or move ships: sweep the open issues for text that assumed the old
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name or path (§ Renames and other decay in the tracker).
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## Steps
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@@ -42,6 +44,26 @@ issues at that URL, which is exactly why `dist export` excludes
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specific files or commands involved. An issue that only makes sense to
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whoever wrote it is a note, and notes were the problem.
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**Destructive steps carry the invariant they must not violate.** A body
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that prescribes a mechanism gets built as prescribed - including its
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bugs. Where a step deletes, overwrites, resets or moves, name the
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property that must still hold afterwards, not only the command that gets
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there. "Remove the working directory, then `git checkout HEAD --
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<stage>`" is a mechanism; "the content stages must afterwards match
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`HEAD` exactly, without any untracked or ignored file being touched" is
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the same instruction plus its test - a build instruction and an
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acceptance criterion at once, so the defect surfaces while the test is
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written rather than in review afterwards. #30's `upstream merge` body
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wrote the mechanism and got exactly that bug: a working-directory removal
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that took a stage's gitignored, unrecoverable data with it.
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**An acceptance criterion states a checkable property, not an activity.**
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"Implement X" is done when someone says so; "after `upstream merge`,
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`reports/` still holds every file it held before" is done when it is
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true. This is not a ban on imperative steps - a numbered procedure can
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still produce a correct control flow, and that is its merit - it binds
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the destructive steps, and every box in the criteria list.
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2. **The body is the working state, not a historical first post - keep it
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current as you go.** It is this stack's plan file: the same thing a harness's
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own plan document is, and it is maintained the same way. Not written once,
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@@ -73,6 +95,32 @@ issues at that URL, which is exactly why `dist export` excludes
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Body rewrites and comments are an LLM session's job. A human normally
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touches only labels and metadata directly.
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**Reading an issue, the body is the state and comments are history.** A
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session picking an issue up reads the body as the spec; comments are read
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for provenance - why something was decided, what was tried - never as
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the current instruction. A recommendation in a comment can be older than
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the body's decision and read just as convincingly: on #30 an earlier
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comment recommended a smaller, `verify`-only command, while the body had
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since settled on building the full `merge` command. A session trusting
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the comment would have built the wrong thing, with a plausible
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justification out of this repo's own tracker.
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**A body that is demonstrably wrong is corrected first, not worked
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around.** "Body beats comment" is a rule of precedence, not a licence to
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execute a stale spec. Where a comment or the tree proves a claim in the
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body false, the body is rewritten before the work starts - the rewrite
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above is the fix; leaning on the comments as the "real" state is not.
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#10 is the case: its body claimed coverage had never been measured while
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three comments carried a percentage, a statement count and a CI run
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number.
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**Where two comments contradict each other, evidence decides, not
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recency.** On #10, one comment showed a retrieved artifact with zero
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items on a finished run - the report was not actually retrievable - and
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a later comment declared the same criterion met without re-checking. The
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later comment is not the newer truth, only the unchecked one. Resolve it
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into the body with the evidence named, or mark the point open.
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3. **Comment a changelog, never a copy.** A body rewrite gets one short comment
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naming only what changed against the previous state - what is new, what is
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gone, what was corrected. Do not snapshot the old body into a comment: a full
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@@ -180,6 +228,27 @@ issues at that URL, which is exactly why `dist export` excludes
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shipped. Nothing mechanical catches it (see below), which is why it is a step
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rather than a habit.
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## Renames and other decay in the tracker
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A rename is not finished when the tree is green. Renaming a package, a path,
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a command, a flag or the repository itself moves text that lives outside the
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working tree, and the open issues are the largest such text. Nothing catches
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them - `wikitool` does not know this tracker exists and must not learn (see
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"What no tool checks" below) - so a pass over the open issues is part of the
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rename, in the session that did it, not a follow-up someone remembers.
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Distinguish a wayfinder from a piece of evidence: a path meant to point at
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where something *is* gets pulled through; a path quoted for what was true at
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a time is left standing and dated. Note per corrected body what was pulled
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through and when, so the next pass can tell a checked body from one that
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merely looks right. Closed issues are out of scope - they guide nobody.
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Renames are not the only thing that ages an issue text. A page a body cites
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can vanish from `kb/` (`wikitool search` against the cited titles is the
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second pass), and an old body can carry private infrastructure detail into
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what is now a public tracker - both found in the same issue, both worth the
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same look.
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## What no tool checks
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`wikitool` does not know this tracker exists, and should not learn. It ships to
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