t247: Reduce clean_exit_no_signal retries

[marcusquinn]

Summary

Reduces clean_exit_no_signal retries through three coordinated improvements that prevent context exhaustion, preserve worker output, and eliminate unnecessary retries. This meta-task combines t247.1 and t247.2 to address the root cause of 16 retry incidents (100% eventually succeeded, but each retry wasted ~300s).

Problem

Workers that exhaust their context window exit cleanly (EXIT:0) without emitting completion signals. The supervisor sees:

• No FULL_LOOP_COMPLETE or TASK_COMPLETE signal
• No PR URL in log or DB
• Clean exit code (0)

Result: retry:clean_exit_no_signal → full re-dispatch → ~300s wasted per retry.

Solution (Three-Tier Defense)

1. Context-Remaining Guard (t247.1 - PR #987)

Location: .agents/scripts/loop-common.sh, ralph-loop-helper.sh

Mechanism: Proactive detection before context exhaustion:

• Iteration threshold: Triggers at 80% of max_iterations
• Explicit markers: Regex match for "context limit" / "token limit" in output
• Empty output: Tool produced <100 bytes after first iteration
• Output shrinkage: Output drops below 20% of rolling average (3+ iterations baseline)

Action: When triggered:

1. loop_emergency_push() — Commits and pushes any uncommitted work
2. loop_emit_completion_signal() — Emits <promise>FULL_LOOP_COMPLETE</promise> to stdout
3. Clean exit before context runs out

Result: Worker signals completion before dying, supervisor sees FULL_LOOP_COMPLETE → no retry.

2. Supervisor Auto-PR Creation (t247.2 - PR #988)

Location: .agents/scripts/supervisor-helper.sh:5303 (new function auto_create_pr_for_task())

Mechanism: Git heuristic Tier 2.5 enhancement (line 6134):

if [[ "$branch_commits" -gt 0 ]]; then
    if [[ -n "$meta_pr_url" ]]; then
        echo "complete:${meta_pr_url}"
    else
        # NEW: Auto-create PR instead of returning task_only
        auto_pr_url=$(auto_create_pr_for_task "$task_id" "$git_dir" "$task_branch" "$repo_slug_detect")
        if [[ -n "$auto_pr_url" ]]; then
            echo "complete:${auto_pr_url}"
        else
            echo "complete:task_only"  # Graceful fallback
        fi
    fi
fi

Action: When worker has commits on branch but no PR:

1. Push branch to remote if needed
2. Create draft PR via gh pr create with commit summary
3. Persist URL via link_pr_to_task() (t232)
4. Return complete:<PR_URL> → normal PR lifecycle (review, merge, deploy)

Result: Preserves worker output for review instead of retrying. Saves ~300s per occurrence.

3. Git Heuristic Coverage (Already Comprehensive)

Location: .agents/scripts/supervisor-helper.sh:6093-6153 (Tier 2.5)

Current Coverage:

• ✅ Commits + PR URL → complete:<PR_URL>
• ✅ Commits + no PR → Auto-create PR (NEW in t247.2) → complete:<PR_URL>
• ✅ No commits + uncommitted changes → retry:work_in_progress
• ✅ No commits + no changes → Falls through to AI eval (appropriate)

Result: Catches all concrete evidence of work before expensive AI eval. Only truly ambiguous cases reach Tier 3.

Flow Comparison

Before (t247)

Worker exhausts context → exits cleanly (EXIT:0)
→ No signal, no PR in log
→ evaluate_worker: "retry:clean_exit_no_signal"
→ Full re-dispatch (~300s)
→ Retry succeeds (100% success rate, but wasteful)

After (t247.1 + t247.2)

Worker approaching context limit
→ loop_context_guard() triggers
→ Commits work, pushes, emits FULL_LOOP_COMPLETE
→ evaluate_worker: "complete:<PR_URL>"
→ Normal PR lifecycle (no retry)

OR (if guard missed):

Worker exhausts context → exits cleanly
→ No signal, but commits exist on branch
→ evaluate_worker Tier 2.5: auto_create_pr_for_task()
→ Draft PR created, URL persisted
→ evaluate_worker: "complete:<PR_URL>"
→ Normal PR lifecycle (no retry)

Impact

• Retry reduction: 16 incidents → 0 expected (context guard prevents, auto-PR catches stragglers)
• Time saved: ~300s per avoided retry × 16 incidents = ~80 minutes saved
• Worker efficiency: Uncommitted work preserved instead of lost
• Supervisor efficiency: Fewer AI eval calls (Tier 2.5 resolves most cases)

Testing

• t247.1: ShellCheck zero violations, bash syntax verified, backward compatible
• t247.2: ShellCheck zero violations, graceful fallback if gh unavailable
• Integration: Both PRs merged and deployed, no regressions observed

Related

• t175: Git heuristic signals (foundation for Tier 2.5)
• t232: Centralized PR-to-task linking (used by auto-PR)
• t171: PR URL seeding from DB (reduces gh API calls)
• t161: PR discovery fallback (validates PR belongs to task)

Task

Closes t247. Combines t247.1 (PR #987) and t247.2 (PR #988).

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🔍 Code Quality Report

�[0;35m[MONITOR]�[0m Code Review Monitoring Report

�[0;34m[INFO]�[0m Latest Quality Status:
SonarCloud: 0 bugs, 0 vulnerabilities, 46 code smells

�[0;34m[INFO]�[0m Recent monitoring activity:
Wed Feb 11 00:46:57 UTC 2026: Code review monitoring started
Wed Feb 11 00:46:58 UTC 2026: SonarCloud - Bugs: 0, Vulnerabilities: 0, Code Smells: 46

📈 Current Quality Metrics

• BUGS: 0
• CODE SMELLS: 46
• VULNERABILITIES: 0

Generated on: Wed Feb 11 00:47:01 UTC 2026

---

Generated by AI DevOps Framework Code Review Monitoring

[sonarqubecloud]

Quality Gate passed

Issues
0 New issues
0 Accepted issues

Measures
0 Security Hotspots
0.0% Coverage on New Code
0.0% Duplication on New Code

See analysis details on SonarQube Cloud