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73 changes: 73 additions & 0 deletions docs/backlog/P3/B-0098-tick-ordinal-continuity-lint-2026-04-29.md
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---
id: B-0098
priority: P3
status: open
title: Tick-ordinal-continuity lint — ordinals are computed, not narrated
tier: research-grade
effort: S
ask: Multi-AI synthesis packet 2026-04-29 (Deepseek + Amara filter)
created: 2026-04-29
last_updated: 2026-04-29
composes_with: [B-0099, B-0100, B-0101]
tags: [ci-lint, tick-history, derived-metadata, manual-drift-class, mechanical-guard]
---

# Tick-ordinal-continuity lint

Hand-authored tick-ordinal words ("twenty-second", "twenty-third",
etc.) in `docs/hygiene-history/ticks/YYYY/MM/DD/*.md` shards drift
under edit pressure. The 2026-04-29 ordinal-cascade incident showed
the failure mode: a Copilot review thread cited a snippet, my "fix"
trusted the cited context without re-reading the full file
sequence, and introduced a duplicate ordinal. Recovery worked
(read all shards → revert → re-verify), but the underlying class
is *manual metadata drift* — the same class as the bare-`main`
ambiguity rule.

## Two viable resolutions (pick one or compose)

### Option A — Lint that verifies claimed ordinals against file order

```bash
# Pseudocode
for file in $(ls -1 docs/hygiene-history/ticks/YYYY/MM/DD/*.md | sort); do
claimed_ordinal=$(grep -oE '\b(first|second|...|thirtieth|...)\b' "$file" | head -1)
expected_ordinal=$(compute_from_file_position)
[[ "$claimed_ordinal" == "$expected_ordinal" ]] || warn "$file ordinal mismatch"
done
```

Pros: keeps the prose readable.
Cons: still depends on prose, just with a guard.

### Option B — Drop ordinal words from shards entirely; compute in projection

Shards become pure event data (timestamp, model, cron-id, body,
PR refs, observation). The "twenty-second tick" framing lives only
in a generated read-model (`docs/hygiene-history/projection/...`)
that derives the ordinal from file position.

Pros: eliminates the failure class entirely. Aligns with the DBSP/
Z-set pattern Amara cited (event = stored, projection = derived).
Cons: requires updating the existing shard schema + tooling.

## Recommendation

Lean toward Option B (the cleaner fix) when next active work
window opens. Option A as an intermediate guard if prose has to
stay for a few more rounds.

## Composes with

- `memory/feedback_bare_main_ambiguity_automation_discipline_explicit_refs_required_amara_2026_04_29.md`
— same class (computed > narrated metadata).
- B-0099 (PR-count projection) — sibling action item from the same
packet.

## Why P3 (research-grade, not blocking)

The ordinal drift was caught and corrected within 2-3 ticks via the
existing review pipeline. The mechanical guard would prevent
future occurrences but is not blocking; opening it as P0/P1 would
violate the maintainer's narrowing on multi-AI-synthesis-packet
items. Promote when work-bandwidth allows.
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---
id: B-0099
priority: P3
status: open
title: PR-count claims are derived metrics — compute, don't narrate
tier: research-grade
effort: S
ask: Multi-AI synthesis packet 2026-04-29 (Deepseek + Amara filter)
created: 2026-04-29
last_updated: 2026-04-29
composes_with: [B-0098, B-0100, B-0101]
tags: [tick-history, derived-metadata, manual-drift-class, mechanical-guard, projection]
---

# PR-count claims are computed, not remembered

Hand-authored "session PR totals" in tick-history shards (e.g.
"30 PRs total this session arc") drift across shards. The
2026-04-29 session arc had to soften several claims to "approximate"
because the asserted totals diverged from the actual git log.
Same failure class as the tick-ordinal drift (B-0098): derived
metadata authored as prose.

## Resolution

When a tick shard needs to cite a session PR total:

1. **Don't write it as authoritative prose.** No "this is the
thirty-first PR of the arc" style claims unless computed.

2. **If included, cite the computation.** E.g.,
`count via gh pr list --search 'merged:>=2026-04-29 author:@me' | wc -l`.

3. **Better: move totals to a generated projection.** A small
script that walks `docs/hygiene-history/ticks/YYYY/MM/DD/*.md`
+ `gh` API + `git log` and produces a session-summary file
eliminates the manual drift class entirely.

## Composes with

- B-0098 (tick-ordinal-continuity lint) — sibling derived-metadata
action item.
- `memory/feedback_bare_main_ambiguity_automation_discipline_explicit_refs_required_amara_2026_04_29.md`
— same computed-vs-narrated discipline.

## Why P3

Same reasoning as B-0098 — the drift was caught and the prose
softened. Mechanical fix is bounded but research-grade-only per
the maintainer's narrowing.
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---
id: B-0100
priority: P3
status: open
title: Pure-wait tick backpressure / quiescence rule for autonomous-loop tick shards
tier: research-grade
effort: M
ask: Multi-AI synthesis packet 2026-04-29 (Deepseek + Amara filter)
created: 2026-04-29
last_updated: 2026-04-29
composes_with: [B-0098, B-0099, B-0101]
tags: [autonomous-loop, tick-history, backpressure, quiescence, repo-hygiene, soulfile]
---

# Pure-wait tick backpressure / quiescence rule

Right now every `<<autonomous-loop>>` cron fire produces a
tick-history shard PR, even if the only tick activity was "queue
checked, nothing to merge, CI in progress, no events." Over a
long-enough operational drain the repo accumulates thousands of
near-identical "pure-wait" shards.

The packet's strategic point: there's currently no termination
condition.

## Two-tier proposal

### Tier 1 — Backpressure (immediate)

```text
If open tick-history PRs >= 3
and the tick has no substantive event
and only CI is pending,
do not open another pure-wait shard.
Batch or skip until one lands.
```

Implementable as a check in the tick-close procedure: count open
`tick-history/*` PRs; if ≥ N and the tick body would be a
pure-wait note, skip the shard creation step.

### Tier 2 — Quiescence (after Tier 1 lands)

```text
After M consecutive no-op / CI-wait ticks,
enter quiescent mode:
- stop per-minute shards
- run periodic health checks (e.g., hourly)
- wake on external signal:
- new PR opened
- failing build
- maintainer input
- unresolved review thread
```

Implementable as a CronCreate cadence change on detection of
quiescence + a re-arm trigger.

## Why this matters

Per the soulfile-cleanliness rule
(`memory/feedback_repo_is_soulfile_dont_commit_raw_diagnostic_dumps_aaron_amara_2026_04_29.md`),
text compresses well in pack-delta storage so individual
near-identical shards aren't a soulfile risk. But:

- Repo browse-ability suffers (thousands of shards = hard to
scan).
- PR-review backlog accumulates (each shard needs a CI cycle).
- The factory's signal-to-noise ratio degrades — "what changed
this hour" becomes "scroll through 60 shards."

## Why P3

The loop is currently in productive operational drain — every
recent tick has had real events (PR merges, review-thread fixes,
mid-tick corrections). The quiescence rule fires only when drain
runs out. Backpressure is a slightly more proactive safeguard
but still bounded. Promote when active drain is clear.

## Composes with

- B-0098, B-0099, B-0101 — sibling actionables from the same
packet.
- `docs/AUTONOMOUS-LOOP.md` — current per-minute cron contract.
- `memory/feedback_never_idle_speculative_work_over_waiting.md`
— the never-idle invariant; quiescence is its dual (idle is OK
when queue is genuinely empty, but only after sustained
evidence).
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---
id: B-0101
priority: P3
status: open
title: Reviewer-artifact classification — small 5-bucket table (Copilot + future review agents)
tier: research-grade
effort: S
ask: Multi-AI synthesis packet 2026-04-29 (Deepseek + Amara filter)
created: 2026-04-29
last_updated: 2026-04-29
composes_with: [B-0098, B-0099, B-0100]
tags: [code-review, copilot, reviewer-noise, taxonomy, classification]
---

# Reviewer-artifact classification — small 5-bucket table

The autonomous-loop is now effectively a two-agent loop: the
acting agent (Otto / Claude) + the reviewing agent (Copilot
pull-request-reviewer, plus increasingly cross-AI peers). The
review agent has its own failure modes that the acting agent
needs to distinguish from real findings.

Recent recurring reviewer-failure patterns from this session:

- `display-artifact` — Copilot hallucinated "leading space and
`1 ||`" prefix that wasn't in the actual file.
- `time-travel-review-artifact` — reviewer evaluated a PR snapshot
before cited dependency PRs merged; the reference was valid on
current main.
- `incomplete-cited-context` — the reviewer's snippet was correct
but not load-bearing for the issue; trusting it without
re-reading the full file caused an over-correction
(the 2026-04-29 ordinal-drift cascade).

## Proposed small classification table (5 buckets, intentionally small per Amara's filter)

Comment thread
AceHack marked this conversation as resolved.
```text
REAL_DEFECT
- actual code/doc/test issue caught by reviewer
- action: fix in current PR

REVIEWER_SNAPSHOT_LAG
- reviewer evaluated a stale snapshot of repo state
- cited reference is now valid on current main
- action: comment with merged SHAs, resolve thread

DISPLAY_ARTIFACT
- reviewer's quoted excerpt contains characters not in source
- benign hallucination from review-tool rendering
- action: resolve with brief explanatory comment

INCOMPLETE_CONTEXT
- reviewer's cited snippet is correct but not load-bearing
- fix should re-read full file before applying
- action: read full source, decide if fix is real or no-op

NEEDS_HUMAN_REVIEW
- reviewer flagged something the acting agent can't classify
- action: leave thread open, surface to maintainer
```

## Where this lands

Two options:

1. **As a memory file** — `memory/feedback_reviewer_artifact_classification_5_buckets_2026_04_29.md` —
gives future-Claude a quick decision tree.

2. **As a section in a code-review skill** — embed in
`.claude/skills/code-reviewer/` or similar, so the
classification is invoked at decision time, not lookup
time.

Decision deferred to whoever picks up the action item.

## Why P3

The classification works informally now — most reviewer findings
get correctly classified by acting-agent judgment. Codifying it
hardens the discipline but isn't blocking. Promote when active
drain is clear.

## Composes with

- B-0098, B-0099, B-0100 — sibling actionables from the same
packet.
- `memory/feedback_otto_355_blocked_with_green_ci_means_investigate_review_threads_first_dont_wait_2026_04_27.md`
— the BLOCKED-with-green-CI rule that makes review-thread
triage a load-bearing tick step.
- `memory/feedback_outdated_review_threads_block_merge_resolve_explicitly_after_force_push_2026_04_27.md`
— outdated-thread resolution discipline; partially overlaps
with REVIEWER_SNAPSHOT_LAG.
1 change: 1 addition & 0 deletions docs/hygiene-history/ticks/2026/04/29/0558Z.md
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| 2026-04-29T05:58:17Z | claude-opus-4-7 | 26f978a2 | substrate-rich tick — 4 work-streams. (1) PR #804 (durable-retry fix) absorbed Copilot review: 4 P1/P2 findings addressed (named-attribution rewrite in linux.sh + elan.sh; --retry-all-errors qualifier added; hardcoded line-numbers replaced with stable anchors in memory file); 4 threads resolved. (2) PR #805 (tick-0550Z shard) absorbed 1 Copilot finding (memory/ prefix + explicit backlog row paths); 1 thread resolved. (3) Mid-tick packet from maintainer: forwarded Deepseek reassessment + Amara filter-to-actionables. Verbatim absorb landed at `docs/research/multi-ai-feedback-2026-04-29-deepseek-amara-on-loop-state.md` (research-grade, §33 archive header). (4) Filed 4 small backlog rows (B-0098..B-0101) for Amara-filtered actionables: tick-ordinal-continuity-lint, PR-count-projection, pure-wait-tick-backpressure-rule, reviewer-artifact-classification-table. The 5th actionable (external-dep retry/cache) is already addressed by PR #804. Evidence-claim language tightening per the 6th actionable: "strong behavioral evidence of scaffolded self-correction" replaces any "proof of general reliability" framing in future shards. | [#804 Copilot fixes pushed](https://github.com/Lucent-Financial-Group/Zeta/pull/804), [#805 Copilot fix pushed](https://github.com/Lucent-Financial-Group/Zeta/pull/805), this PR (absorb + 4 backlog rows + this shard) | Pattern observation: tick velocity changed from "drain 1 PR/tick" to "drain + absorb mid-tick packet + file bounded action items" without conflict — the packet was integrated alongside the existing review-thread work, not instead of it. The chunking pattern Aaron explicitly liked ("i like your chunking") composes here: ONE PR for the absorb-bundle (research note + 4 backlog rows + tick shard) rather than 6 separate PRs. The maintainer's existing narrowing on multi-AI synthesis ("Do not let Claude/Otto open a bunch of new PRs for all these insights") is honored: action items are P3 backlog rows not active work. Evidence-claim discipline now in force per Amara's filter — "scaffolded self-correction" is the right shape. The factory absorbed real external feedback within 8 minutes of arrival. |
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