fix(gh-aw): scan the first non-empty line in PC-0, not record 1 (#1835)

[bradygaster]

Closes #1835

What

PC-0 normalized the dispatched command with an awk program gated on NR==1. A value whose first character is a newline puts an empty string on that record, so:

PC0($'\nimplement')  →  EMPTY_DISPATCH

EMPTY_DISPATCH routes to the activation guard, which halts with a ::warning:: and no comment by design (PR #1777, junk issues #12/#14). A structurally valid implement dispatch therefore halted silently instead of running — the same silent-loss-of-a-valid-command class that #1824 and #1832 exist to close.

Fix

Scan the first non-empty line rather than record 1: skip blank records, take the first one carrying content, and fall through to EMPTY_DISPATCH via END only when every record was empty or whitespace-only. Genuinely empty input still reaches the silent activation-guard halt, so #1777 stays closed.

PC-1 is untouched. The asymmetry is deliberate — on the comment path a missing /squad token is the error condition, and loosening it would reopen #1824.

Acceptance (from the issue)

#	Criterion	Status
1	PC0($'\nimplement') yields /squad implement	✅
2	PC0('') and PC0(' ') still yield EMPTY_DISPATCH	✅
3	Reverting the fix turns the new test red, failure text names the input	✅
4	Existing PC-0 cases green, PC-1 cases untouched	✅

Mutation proof

Reverting the awk to NR==1 turns four new cases red, each naming the offending input:

× dispatching '\nimplement' reaches its mode
× dispatching '\n\n\ncast' reaches its mode
× dispatching '\n  connect org/repo  ' reaches its mode
× dispatching '\n/squad status' reaches its mode

AssertionError: PC-0 must skip leading blank lines and normalize "\nimplement"
to "/squad implement". Scanning only record 1 reads the leading newline as an
empty command and emits EMPTY_DISPATCH, halting a valid dispatch silently via
the activation guard.: expected 'EMPTY_DISPATCH' to be '/squad implement'

A status-only assertion would pass a truncating parser; these name the input, per the standing bar. Whitespace-only cases ('', ' ', '\n', '\n\n', ' \n \t \n ') pin EMPTY_DISPATCH so the fix cannot overshoot.

Tests: 27 → 36 in gh-aw-command-parse. gh-aw-quality stays green.

⚠️ Reviewer note — prompt budget is nearly exhausted

The awk one-liner is written without inter-statement spaces deliberately, and the explanatory paragraph I first wrote was removed. Both overran gh-aw-quality's reports combined bytes and headroom gate.

workflows/squad.md on dev sits ~37 bytes above the 5 KB floor of the 100 KB prompt ceiling. This PR leaves ~65 bytes. Readable spacing in that one line cost ~18 bytes; a five-line prose note cost ~430.

The next change to workflows/squad.md will fail CI on byte count regardless of its merit. That needs its own issue — I did not file one as part of this PR.

Scope

workflows/squad.md + test/gh-aw-command-parse.test.ts. No packages/*/src/ changes, so no changeset required.

[github-actions]

🛫 PR Readiness Check

ℹ️ This comment updates on each push. Last checked: commit c2b0e61

PR Scope: 🔧 Infrastructure

⚠️ 1 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	No Copilot review threads
✅	CI passing	All checks passing

Files Changed (2 files, +45 −2)

File	+/−
test/gh-aw-command-parse.test.ts	+43 −0
workflows/squad.md	+2 −2

Total: +45 −2

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[github-actions]

🟡 Impact Analysis — PR #1841

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-command-parse.test.ts

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

[Copilot]

🟢 Approval recommended

The change is narrowly scoped to PC-0 normalization, matches the stated acceptance criteria, and is backed by targeted behavioral tests covering both the regression and non-regression cases.

Pull request overview

This PR fixes a parsing edge case in the gh-aw workflow command normalization step (PC-0) where a dispatched command value beginning with a newline was incorrectly treated as empty, causing a silent EMPTY_DISPATCH halt instead of running a valid command.

Changes:

• Update PC-0’s awk normalization to scan the first non-empty trimmed line (rather than NR==1).
• Add behavioral tests to ensure leading blank lines are skipped while whitespace-only inputs still yield EMPTY_DISPATCH.

File summaries

File	Description
workflows/squad.md	Adjusts PC-0 normalization logic to skip leading blank/whitespace-only records and only emit EMPTY_DISPATCH when all records are empty.
test/gh-aw-command-parse.test.ts	Adds coverage for leading-newline dispatch inputs and guards against overshooting (whitespace-only inputs remain EMPTY_DISPATCH).

Review details

• Files reviewed: 2/2 changed files
• Comments generated: 0
• Review effort level: Lite

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