From 9c8311415990e38482f31449b645316e4a82daf9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Aaron Stainback <aaron_bond@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 13 May 2026 18:33:28 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] fix(bg/notifier): strip YAML inline comments from depends_on
 values
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`parseDependsOn` in `tools/bg/backlog-ready-notifier.ts` extracted the
raw line content after the `-` marker without stripping YAML inline
comments. Block-style entries like

    depends_on:
      - B-0395  # operational-resonance-conversation-interface (Clifford engine)

were parsed as the literal string `B-0395  # operational-resonance-...`
rather than `B-0395`, producing a false-positive dangling-dep warning
(the row exists; the comment was conflated with the ID).

Fix:

- New `stripInlineComment(value)` helper finds the first whitespace+`#`
  and slices everything after it off. Backlog IDs never contain `#`, so
  the simple split is safe and matches YAML's actual comment semantics
  (`#` preceded by whitespace, outside quoted contexts).
- Apply to both inline-array (`[B-0440, B-0441]`) and block-style
  (`- B-0440\n  - B-0441`) parsing paths.

Tests:

- New `strips YAML inline comments from block-style depends_on` uses
  the real B-0422 → B-0395 example that surfaced the bug.
- New `strips YAML inline comments from inline-array depends_on`
  exercises the array path.
- Existing 33 tests unchanged; 35/35 pass.

Empirical effect on origin/main:

  dangling dep ref(s): 9 → 8

(The remaining 8 are real lost-files cases — B-0257..B-0261, B-0289
addressed by PR #3044; B-0055.1, B-0054.1 are genuine missing sub-row
decompositions for a future tick.)

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 tools/bg/backlog-ready-notifier.test.ts | 33 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
 tools/bg/backlog-ready-notifier.ts      | 16 ++++++++++--
 2 files changed, 47 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tools/bg/backlog-ready-notifier.test.ts b/tools/bg/backlog-ready-notifier.test.ts
index 26f034dea3..fb506a9023 100644
--- a/tools/bg/backlog-ready-notifier.test.ts
+++ b/tools/bg/backlog-ready-notifier.test.ts
@@ -150,6 +150,39 @@ depends_on:
       expect(row?.dependsOn).toEqual(["B-9000", "B-9001", "B-9002"]);
     });
 
+    test("strips YAML inline comments from block-style depends_on", () => {
+      // Real-world example from B-0422: `- B-0395  # operational-resonance-...`
+      // was previously parsed as the full string (including the comment),
+      // producing a false-positive dangling-dep warning.
+      const content = `---
+id: B-9011
+priority: P1
+status: open
+depends_on:
+  - B-0395  # operational-resonance-conversation-interface (Clifford engine)
+  - B-9001
+  - B-9002 # short trailing note
+---`;
+      const row = parseRow(content, "B-9011.md");
+      expect(row?.dependsOn).toEqual(["B-0395", "B-9001", "B-9002"]);
+    });
+
+    test("strips YAML inline comments from inline-array depends_on", () => {
+      const content = `---
+id: B-9012
+priority: P1
+status: open
+depends_on: [B-0440, B-0441 # ready-to-grind notifier, B-0442]
+---`;
+      const row = parseRow(content, "B-9012.md");
+      // Note: a `#` in an inline-array element terminates the list visually
+      // but YAML doesn't treat `]` as commentable so this is best-effort.
+      // The first two entries are clean; the third gets absorbed by the
+      // comment which the parser strips. Verify the clean entries survive.
+      expect(row?.dependsOn).toContain("B-0440");
+      expect(row?.dependsOn).toContain("B-0441");
+    });
+
     test("returns null when frontmatter missing", () => {
       expect(parseRow("no frontmatter here", "x.md")).toBeNull();
     });
diff --git a/tools/bg/backlog-ready-notifier.ts b/tools/bg/backlog-ready-notifier.ts
index ee27087e64..d7b9042893 100644
--- a/tools/bg/backlog-ready-notifier.ts
+++ b/tools/bg/backlog-ready-notifier.ts
@@ -91,19 +91,31 @@ export const AGENT_MAP: Record<string, string[]> = {
   riven: ["riven", "grok"],
 };
 
+// Strip a YAML inline comment from a parsed depends_on value.
+// Lines like `- B-0395  # operational-resonance-conversation-interface`
+// previously produced the full string (including the comment) as a
+// "dependency ID" which then surfaced as a false-positive dangling-dep
+// warning. YAML's spec treats `#` (preceded by whitespace) as the start
+// of a comment outside quoted contexts; backlog IDs never contain `#`,
+// so the simple "split on whitespace-#" handling is sufficient and safe.
+function stripInlineComment(value: string): string {
+  const idx = value.search(/\s+#/);
+  return (idx === -1 ? value : value.slice(0, idx)).trim();
+}
+
 function parseDependsOn(frontmatter: string): string[] {
   const inlineMatch = frontmatter.match(/^depends_on:\s*\[(.*?)\]/m);
   if (inlineMatch && inlineMatch[1] !== undefined) {
     return inlineMatch[1]
       .split(",")
-      .map(s => s.trim())
+      .map(s => stripInlineComment(s.trim()))
       .filter(s => s.length > 0);
   }
   const blockMatch = frontmatter.match(/^depends_on:\s*\n((?:[ \t]+-[ \t]*[^\r\n]+\r?\n?)+)/m);
   if (blockMatch && blockMatch[1] !== undefined) {
     return blockMatch[1]
       .split(/\r?\n/)
-      .map(line => line.match(/^[ \t]+-[ \t]*(.+?)\s*$/)?.[1] ?? "")
+      .map(line => stripInlineComment(line.match(/^[ \t]+-[ \t]*(.+?)\s*$/)?.[1] ?? ""))
       .filter(s => s.length > 0);
   }
   return [];