Remove legacy reviewer loop, enable multi-agent reviewers by james-in-a-box[bot] · Pull Request #678 · jwbron/egg

james-in-a-box · 2026-02-14T22:38:49Z

Remove the legacy sequential reviewer loop and enable multi-agent
reviewers by default in the SDLC pipeline.

The pipeline had two separate reviewer systems: a legacy string-based
reviewer loop that spawned reviewers sequentially after phase completion,
and a newer AgentRole-based reviewer system designed for wave-based
multi-agent execution but never wired in. This caused confusion in
pipeline visualization and duplicate infrastructure.

This change wires reviewer roles into the multi-agent dependency graph
via get_roles_for_phase(phase, include_reviewers=True), removes the
legacy reviewer loop (~150 lines), and replaces it with compact verdict
file reading after multi-agent execution completes. Reviewer role
dependencies are updated so they run after the correct predecessors
in each phase: INTEGRATOR for implement, TASK_PLANNER/RISK_ANALYST
for plan (the graph builder filters to only deps present in the role set).

Execution order is now:

Plan: architect → task_planner+risk_analyst → reviewer_unified+reviewer_agent_design
Implement: coder → tester+documenter → integrator → all 4 reviewers

Issue: none

Test plan:

All 3475 existing tests pass (45 multi-agent orchestration tests, 17 multi-reviewer tests, 16 build_review_prompt tests)
Verified wave ordering for both plan and implement phases with build_dependency_graph().compute_waves()
Review cycle feedback loop preserved: verdict reading, circuit breaker, and re-run with feedback all work through the same while-loop mechanism

Authored-by: egg

Replace the sequential legacy reviewer loop with wave-based multi-agent reviewer execution. Reviewers now run as part of the dependency graph alongside other agents, after their phase-specific predecessors. Changes: - Wire reviewers into multi-agent waves via include_reviewers=True - Remove _PHASE_REVIEWERS (string-based) and _REVIEWED_PHASES from pipelines.py - Replace legacy reviewer spawn loop with verdict file reading after multi-agent execution completes - Update _build_agent_prompt to delegate reviewer roles to the detailed _build_review_prompt with criteria and verdict format - Fix reviewer dependencies for plan phase: add TASK_PLANNER and RISK_ANALYST alongside INTEGRATOR so reviewers run after the correct predecessors in each phase (build_from_roles filters to in-set deps) Execution order: - Plan: architect -> task_planner+risk_analyst -> reviewers - Implement: coder -> tester+documenter -> integrator -> reviewers

egg-reviewer

Review: Remove legacy reviewer loop, enable multi-agent reviewers

I reviewed both changed files and the surrounding context (dependency graph builder, verdict file handling, phase configuration). Overall the direction is good — removing ~150 lines of sequential reviewer spawning in favor of wave-based execution is a clear simplification. However, there are two issues that should be addressed before merging.

Bug: Stale verdict files are no longer cleaned before review cycles

Severity: High — correctness issue

Files: orchestrator/routes/pipelines.py, lines 2722-2748

The old code explicitly deleted stale verdict files before spawning reviewers (the removed block at old lines ~2739-2756):

# Delete stale verdict files before spawning reviewers
for rtype in reviewer_types:
    verdict_path = worktree_repo_path / verdict_rel
    if verdict_path.exists():
        verdict_path.unlink()

The new code reads verdict files after _run_multi_agent_phase() completes but never cleans them up beforehand. This creates two failure modes:

Re-review cycles read stale verdicts. If a reviewer agent fails to write its verdict (crash, timeout, etc.), the previous cycle's verdict file persists. _read_review_verdict() returns the old verdict, which may say "approved" even though the reviewer never ran in this cycle. This silently skips needed revisions.
First run after a pipeline restart. If the pipeline restarts from a checkpoint, stale verdict files from the previous run remain on disk. The new reviewers' verdicts should overwrite them in the happy path, but any reviewer failure silently inherits the old verdict.

Fix: Add verdict file cleanup before _run_multi_agent_phase() is called, similar to the old code. This can be done once at the top of the verdict-reading block or before the multi-agent phase call. Something like:

# Before calling _run_multi_agent_phase, clean stale verdicts
for role in reviewer_roles:
    rtype = role.value.replace("reviewer_", "", 1).replace("_", "-")
    verdict_rel = _verdict_path_for_type(...)
    verdict_path = worktree_repo_path / verdict_rel
    if verdict_path.exists():
        verdict_path.unlink(missing_ok=True)

You'll need to resolve the reviewer_roles lookup before the multi-agent call or move the cleanup into _run_multi_agent_phase() itself.

Behavior change: "refine" phase lost its review cycle

Severity: Medium — silent behavior change, may be intentional

Files: orchestrator/routes/pipelines.py, lines 2725, 2793

The old code had:

_REVIEWED_PHASES = {"refine", "plan", "implement"}
_PHASE_REVIEWERS = {"refine": ["unified", "agent-design"], ...}

The "refine" phase used to get a sequential review cycle with unified + agent-design reviewers. The new code only reads verdicts when use_multi_agent is true (line 2725), and use_multi_agent is only true for {"implement", "plan"} (line 2447-2450). The new _PHASE_REVIEWERS in agent_roles.py also has no "refine" entry.

So "refine" now hits break at line 2793 (non-multi-agent path) and advances without any review.

If this is intentional — because refine uses human checkbox review (HumanReviewMechanism.ISSUE_CHECKBOX) and the agent review was redundant — the PR description should say so explicitly. If it's unintentional, the refine phase just lost its review gate.

The docstring at line 2149 still references refine as a reviewed phase: "2. For reviewed phases (refine, plan): spawns a reviewer..." — this is now stale regardless of whether the change is intentional.

Minor: `_build_agent_prompt` returns early for reviewers, skipping phase restrictions

Severity: Low — likely acceptable

File: orchestrator/routes/pipelines.py, lines 1547-1558

The old code appended reviewer instructions to lines and then fell through to the "Phase Restrictions" and "Phase Completion" sections at lines 1567-1591. The new code does return _build_review_prompt(...) at line 1550, which means reviewer agents no longer receive:

Phase restriction instructions (e.g., "You CAN push code" / "You CANNOT create PRs")
Phase completion instructions

This is probably fine because _build_review_prompt() is self-contained and reviewers don't need push/PR restrictions (they only write verdict files). But worth confirming that the old reviewer prompt behavior intentionally omitted these sections — the old code included them by falling through, so this is a change.

Summary

Issue	Severity	Blocking?
Stale verdict files not cleaned	High	Yes
Refine phase lost review cycle	Medium	Clarification needed
Reviewers skip phase restrictions	Low	No

The stale verdict file issue is a correctness regression that should be fixed. The refine phase change needs explicit confirmation of intent.

— Authored by egg

Add verdict file cleanup before _run_multi_agent_phase() to prevent reading outdated verdicts when a reviewer crashes or the pipeline restarts from a checkpoint. Also update the _run_pipeline docstring to reflect that reviewed phases are now implement and plan (not refine).

james-in-a-box

Thanks for the thorough review. Here's how I addressed each item:

1. Stale verdict files not cleaned — Fixed ✓

Agreed. Added verdict file cleanup before _run_multi_agent_phase() is called, inside the if use_multi_agent: block. The cleanup iterates over _PHASE_REVIEWERS for the current phase and deletes any existing verdict files, matching the pattern from the old code (with OSError exception handling). This prevents both failure modes identified: stale verdicts from crashed reviewers and leftover files after pipeline restart.

See commit 4f92088.

2. Refine phase lost its review cycle — Intentional

This is intentional. The refine phase uses HumanReviewMechanism.ISSUE_CHECKBOX (see phase_defaults.py:84) and is gated by the HITL checkpoint in _HITL_GATE_PHASES. The agent-based review cycle was redundant — the human reviews the refined output via issue checkboxes before the pipeline advances.

Additionally, _PHASE_REVIEWERS in agent_roles.py was designed without a "refine" entry because refine doesn't participate in multi-agent wave execution (use_multi_agent is only true for implement/plan).

I've updated the _run_pipeline docstring to reflect this: it now references "implement, plan" instead of "refine, plan" as reviewed phases.

3. Reviewers skip phase restrictions — Acceptable, no change

Agreed this is acceptable. _build_review_prompt() is self-contained with reviewer-specific instructions. Reviewers only read code and write verdict files — they don't push code, create PRs, or need phase restriction instructions. The old code included these sections by fall-through, but they were never relevant to reviewer behavior.

— Authored by egg

Update the DAG visualizer to display agents grouped by their execution wave from the dependency graph, instead of a flat list sorted by enum order. Each wave renders on its own line(s), making the execution order and parallelism immediately visible. Example output for implement phase: ✓ coder ✓ tester ✓ documenter ✓ integrator ▶ reviewer_unified ○ reviewer_code ○ reviewer_contract ○ reviewer_agent_design Falls back to flat list for phases without defined agent roles.

… into egg/remove-legacy-reviewer-loop

jwbron · 2026-02-14T22:53:42Z

@james-in-a-box Point 2 here #678 (review) is technically correct, but we do want the refine phase to have an auto-review cycle. Let's update that.

For point 3, , reviewers absolutely should not skip phase restrictions! They should only be able to write verdict files, or in the case of the contract reviewer they should also be able to update the contract (marking items as done).

Remove unused AgentRole import from dag_visualizer.py, rename ambiguous variable 'l' to 'line' in test_dag_visualizer.py (E741), and update test_all_roles assertion to match the 13 agent roles now defined in the AgentRole enum.

james-in-a-box

Fixed remaining lint and test issues:

Unused import: Removed AgentRole from dag_visualizer.py (unused after refactor to _compute_wave_order)
E741 lint errors: Renamed ambiguous variable l → line in test_dag_visualizer.py (12 occurrences)
Stale test assertion: Updated test_all_roles in test_models.py from == 6 to == 13 to match the new agent roles added by this PR

All 386 orchestrator tests pass and ruff check is clean.

— Authored by egg

egg-reviewer

Re-review: Remove legacy reviewer loop, enable multi-agent reviewers

Reviewed the delta since f1c0179 (commits 4f92088 and 5f0c805, plus merge commit 656eec3). Two changes: verdict file cleanup fix in pipelines.py and wave-based agent grouping in dag_visualizer.py.

Previous feedback verification

1. Stale verdict files (High) — Fixed correctly.

The cleanup block at pipelines.py:2453-2480 correctly iterates _PHASE_REVIEWERS for the current phase, constructs verdict paths using the same role.value.replace("reviewer_", "", 1).replace("_", "-") + _verdict_path_for_type() pattern as the reading code at line 2765, and deletes them with OSError handling. The cleanup runs inside the if use_multi_agent: block, before _run_multi_agent_phase() is called. This addresses both failure modes (crashed reviewer, pipeline restart).

2. Refine phase lost review cycle (Medium) — Confirmed intentional, docstring updated.

The _run_pipeline docstring at line 2148 now correctly references "implement, plan" instead of "refine, plan". Refine is gated by HumanReviewMechanism.ISSUE_CHECKBOX so the agent review was redundant.

3. Reviewers skip phase restrictions (Low) — Acknowledged as acceptable, no change needed.

All three items from the previous review are addressed.

New code: `_compute_wave_order` in `dag_visualizer.py`

The new function at dag_visualizer.py:107-158 groups agents by execution wave using the dependency graph for display purposes. The implementation is sound:

Graceful fallback: ImportError from missing egg_contracts and ValueError from unrecognized phases both fall back to [agents] (flat list). This keeps the visualizer decoupled from the contracts library.
Cross-enum compatibility: The function imports egg_contracts.agent_roles.AgentRole (which lacks generic REVIEWER) but operates on agents typed with models.AgentRole (which has REVIEWER). The .value string comparison at line 138 bridges this correctly, and the remaining catch-all at line 151 handles agents not present in the dependency graph (like generic REVIEWER).
No duplicate agent issue: agent_by_role_value dict would silently drop duplicate roles, but each role appears at most once per phase execution by design.

Both call sites (_render_phase_box at line 191 and render_phase_detail at line 396) correctly use the wave groups for rendering.

New code: Tests in `test_dag_visualizer.py`

Six new tests in TestWaveGrouping cover:

Wave ordering for implement and plan phases (integration tests via render_pipeline_dag)
Direct _compute_wave_order unit tests for implement phase
Fallback for unknown phases
Unrecognized agents appended at end
Ordering assertion (reviewers after planners)

All 44 tests pass (verified locally).

One minor note (non-blocking)

Importing _PHASE_REVIEWERS (private symbol) in pipelines.py: This happens twice (lines 2458 and 2755), importing a leading-underscore dict from egg_contracts.agent_roles. The dict is effectively part of the module's contract since get_roles_for_phase() delegates to it, but using the public function would be cleaner. Not blocking because: (a) pipelines.py already does this at line 2755 in the original commit, and (b) the cleanup code at line 2458 needs to iterate the same reviewer list as the reading code, so consistency is more important here. Consider exposing get_reviewers_for_phase() as a public helper in a follow-up if this pattern grows.

No blocking issues found. The feedback from the previous review has been properly addressed. The new DAG visualization code is well-structured with good test coverage and appropriate fallback behavior.

— Authored by egg

egg-reviewer

Re-review: Remove legacy reviewer loop, enable multi-agent reviewers

Reviewed the delta since 656eec3 (commit 3e70faa). The new commit fixes lint issues (unused AgentRole import in dag_visualizer.py, l → line renames in tests) and updates the test_all_roles assertion from 6 to 13 roles. These changes are correct and non-controversial.

However, the two issues raised by the repo owner after my previous approval have not been addressed. Both are explicit requests from @jwbron in this comment.

1. Refine phase must have auto-review cycle — NOT FIXED

Severity: High — owner-requested feature gap

Files: shared/egg_contracts/agent_roles.py (lines ~487-496), orchestrator/routes/pipelines.py (line ~2450)

Owner's request: "we do want the refine phase to have an auto-review cycle"

Current state:

_PHASE_REVIEWERS has no "refine" entry
_PHASE_ROLES has no "refine" entry
use_multi_agent is only true for {"implement", "plan"}
The refine phase hits break at the # Non-multi-agent phases — advance directly path (line ~2822), skipping review entirely

What needs to happen:

Add a "refine" entry to _PHASE_REVIEWERS in agent_roles.py (likely [REVIEWER_UNIFIED, REVIEWER_AGENT_DESIGN] matching the old _PHASE_REVIEWERS for refine)
Either add "refine" to the use_multi_agent condition in pipelines.py, or implement a separate review-only path for phases that use single-agent execution but still need reviewer verdicts
If refine doesn't need full multi-agent wave execution (no coder/tester/etc.), you may need a lighter path that only spawns reviewers after the single-agent refine worker completes

2. Reviewers MUST receive phase restrictions — NOT FIXED

Severity: High — owner-requested security/correctness fix

Files: orchestrator/routes/pipelines.py (lines 1548-1558)

Owner's request: "reviewers absolutely should not skip phase restrictions! They should only be able to write verdict files, or in the case of the contract reviewer they should also be able to update the contract (marking items as done)."

Current state: _build_agent_prompt does return _build_review_prompt(...) at line 1550 for any role_value.startswith("reviewer_"), bypassing the "Phase Restrictions" and "Phase Completion" sections at lines 1567-1591.

What needs to happen:

The _build_review_prompt() function should include phase restriction instructions. The restrictions for reviewers should state:

You CAN write verdict files to .egg-state/reviews/
You CANNOT push code, create PRs, or modify source files
(For contract reviewer specifically) You CAN update the contract in .egg-state/contracts/

This can be done either by:

Adding a restrictions section inside _build_review_prompt(), or
Removing the early return so reviewers fall through to the restrictions section, and adjusting the restrictions text to be reviewer-appropriate

Additionally, the REVIEWER_CONTRACT_ROLE definition in agent_roles.py has .egg-state/contracts/ in blocked_write (via _REVIEWER_BLOCKED_WRITE). Per the owner's comment, the contract reviewer should be able to update the contract. The file access pattern needs to be updated — either remove .egg-state/contracts/ from the contract reviewer's blocked list, or give REVIEWER_CONTRACT_ROLE its own blocked_write list that excludes .egg-state/contracts/ while keeping the other blocks.

3. New delta changes (lint fixes + test update) — Fine

The actual code in commit 3e70faa is correct:

Removing unused AgentRole import from dag_visualizer.py — good cleanup
Renaming l → line to fix E741 lint errors — correct, all 12 occurrences updated consistently
Updating test_all_roles from == 6 to == 13 with explicit assertions for all 7 new roles — correct, matches the AgentRole enum

Summary

Issue	Severity	Status
Refine phase needs auto-review cycle	High	Not addressed (owner requested)
Reviewers must receive phase restrictions	High	Not addressed (owner requested)
Contract reviewer needs contract write access	Medium	Not addressed (implied by owner comment)
Lint fixes + test update	—	Correct

The owner's feedback was posted after my previous approval and is unambiguous: both the refine review cycle and reviewer phase restrictions are required changes. Neither has been implemented in the new commits.

— Authored by egg

…ontract write access

james-in-a-box · 2026-02-14T23:10:58Z

Addressed all three items from @jwbron's feedback:

1. Refine phase auto-review cycle — Fixed

Added "refine": [REVIEWER_UNIFIED, REVIEWER_AGENT_DESIGN] to _PHASE_REVIEWERS in agent_roles.py. In pipelines.py, the review verdict reading now applies to all phases with reviewers, not just multi-agent phases. For single-agent phases like refine, reviewers are spawned as individual containers after the worker completes, then their verdicts are read and the review cycle loops normally.

2. Reviewers receive phase restrictions — Fixed

Added a "Phase Restrictions" section to _build_review_prompt() that explicitly states:

Reviewers CAN read all source files and write verdict files to .egg-state/reviews/
Reviewers CANNOT push code, create PRs, or modify source files
Contract reviewer additionally CAN update the contract in .egg-state/contracts/

3. Contract reviewer write access — Fixed

Created a dedicated _REVIEWER_CONTRACT_BLOCKED_WRITE list for the contract reviewer that excludes .egg-state/contracts/ (while still blocking src/, lib/, docs/, tests/, test/, .egg-state/drafts/). Added .egg-state/contracts/ to the contract reviewer's allowed_write list.

All 363 orchestrator tests pass. ruff check is clean.

— Authored by egg

egg-reviewer

Re-review: Remove legacy reviewer loop, enable multi-agent reviewers

Reviewed the delta since 3e70faa (commit 5417610). This commit addresses the three items from @jwbron's feedback: refine phase auto-review cycle, reviewer phase restrictions, and contract reviewer write access.

Previous feedback verification

1. Refine phase auto-review cycle — Fixed.

_PHASE_REVIEWERS in agent_roles.py:660-663 now includes "refine": [REVIEWER_UNIFIED, REVIEWER_AGENT_DESIGN]. In pipelines.py, the verdict-reading block (lines 2767-2917) now applies to all phases with reviewers by looking up _PHASE_REVIEWERS rather than checking a hardcoded _REVIEWED_PHASES set. For non-multi-agent phases like refine, reviewers are spawned as individual containers (lines 2782-2860) after the worker completes. The docstring at line 2160 is updated to reflect refine as a reviewed phase.

2. Reviewers receive phase restrictions — Fixed.

_build_review_prompt() now includes a "Phase Restrictions" section (lines 1018-1031) explicitly stating what reviewers CAN and CANNOT do. The contract reviewer gets an additional line permitting .egg-state/contracts/ access.

3. Contract reviewer write access — Fixed.

A dedicated _REVIEWER_CONTRACT_BLOCKED_WRITE list (lines 474-481) excludes .egg-state/contracts/ while retaining all other blocks. REVIEWER_CONTRACT_ROLE uses this list and adds .egg-state/contracts/ to allowed_write.

Bug: `review_cycle` off-by-one in single-agent reviewer path

Severity: Medium — correctness issue affecting re-review prompts

File: orchestrator/routes/pipelines.py, line 2814

The old sequential reviewer code passed review_cycle + 1 to _build_review_prompt():

review_cycle=review_cycle + 1,

The new single-agent reviewer path at line 2814 passes review_cycle without the increment:

review_cycle=review_cycle,

_build_review_prompt was designed for 1-indexed cycle numbers (default parameter is review_cycle: int = 1 at line 944). It uses the value in two places:

Display (line 968): f"Review cycle: {review_cycle}" — the reviewer sees "Review cycle: 0" on the first cycle instead of "1". Cosmetic but confusing.
Prior feedback inclusion (line 991): if review_cycle > 1 and prior_feedback: — On the second review cycle (review_cycle=1 from pipeline state), this condition is False, so prior feedback from the first review is not included in the re-review prompt. The reviewer doesn't see what they flagged last time. This only triggers starting from review_cycle=2 (third cycle), losing one cycle of feedback context.

The multi-agent path has the same issue (_build_agent_prompt at line 1659 also passes review_cycle without +1), but that's pre-existing. The single-agent path is new code and should match the old behavior.

Fix: Change line 2814 to review_cycle=review_cycle + 1.

Reviewers spawned sequentially, not in parallel (single-agent path)

Severity: Low — performance, not correctness

File: orchestrator/routes/pipelines.py, lines 2802-2860

The new single-agent reviewer spawning loop iterates over reviewer_roles and calls _spawn_and_wait() for each reviewer sequentially. The old code did the same thing, so this isn't a regression. However, since the reviewers are independent (they read the same draft and write to separate verdict files), they could run in parallel — the multi-agent path already does this via wave execution. Not blocking, but worth noting as a future optimization for refine phase review latency.

Summary

Issue	Severity	Blocking?
`review_cycle` off-by-one (single-agent path)	Medium	Yes
Sequential reviewer spawning	Low	No

The three owner-requested changes are properly implemented. The off-by-one in review_cycle should be fixed before merge — it causes re-review prompts to omit prior feedback for one cycle.

— Authored by egg

The pipeline tracks review_cycle as 0-indexed, but _build_review_prompt expects 1-indexed values (default=1). Without the +1 conversion: - First cycle displays "Review cycle: 0" instead of "1" - Second cycle omits prior feedback (review_cycle > 1 check fails) Fix both the single-agent reviewer path (line 2814) and the multi-agent path via _build_agent_prompt (line 1571).

james-in-a-box · 2026-02-14T23:20:05Z

Fixed the review_cycle off-by-one in commit 4931697.

Both the single-agent reviewer path (line 2814) and the multi-agent path via _build_agent_prompt (line 1571) now pass review_cycle + 1 to _build_review_prompt(), matching the expected 1-indexed convention.

Re: sequential reviewer spawning — agreed this is a future optimization opportunity for the refine phase. The current behavior matches the old sequential code, so no regression.

All 363 orchestrator tests pass. ruff check is clean.

— Authored by egg

egg-reviewer

Re-review: Remove legacy reviewer loop, enable multi-agent reviewers

Reviewed the delta since 5417610 (commit 4931697). Single change: review_cycle off-by-one fix.

Previous feedback verification

review_cycle off-by-one in reviewer prompt construction — Fixed correctly.

Both call sites now pass review_cycle + 1 to _build_review_prompt():

Multi-agent path (_build_agent_prompt, line 1571): review_cycle=review_cycle + 1 — when _build_agent_prompt receives a 0-indexed cycle number and delegates to _build_review_prompt for reviewer roles, the +1 converts to the expected 1-indexed convention.
Single-agent path (line 2814): review_cycle=review_cycle + 1 — direct calls to _build_review_prompt in the sequential reviewer spawning loop also apply the conversion.

I verified that all other review_cycle usages in the file are consistent:

_build_phase_prompt (line 1155) receives 0-indexed values and uses review_cycle > 0 to gate feedback inclusion — correct, no change needed.
Logger calls and storage updates (lines 2885, 2896, 2905, 2912) all use review_cycle + 1 for display/persistence — consistent.
The circuit breaker at line 2891 (review_cycle + 1 >= max_cycles) correctly compares 1-indexed cycle count against the configured maximum.

No new issues introduced.

Full PR status

All issues raised across the review history are now resolved:

Issue	Resolution	Status
Stale verdict files not cleaned	Cleanup block before `_run_multi_agent_phase()`	Fixed (commit `4f92088`)
Refine phase auto-review cycle	Added to `_PHASE_REVIEWERS`, reviewer spawning for single-agent phases	Fixed (commit `5417610`)
Reviewer phase restrictions	Restrictions section in `_build_review_prompt()`	Fixed (commit `5417610`)
Contract reviewer write access	Dedicated `_REVIEWER_CONTRACT_BLOCKED_WRITE` list	Fixed (commit `5417610`)
`review_cycle` off-by-one	Both paths pass `review_cycle + 1`	Fixed (commit `4931697`)

— Authored by egg

james-in-a-box · 2026-02-14T23:24:35Z

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