<!-- last-reviewed: f10cdf2c9e44c32308c7ea74fcc3139407703e59 -->
# Dev Agent

**Role**: Implement issues autonomously — write code, push branches, address
CI failures and review feedback.

**Trigger**: `dev-poll.sh` runs every 10 min via cron. Sources `lib/guard.sh` and
calls `check_active dev` first — skips if `$FACTORY_ROOT/state/.dev-active` is
absent. Then performs a direct-merge scan (approved + CI green PRs — including
chore/gardener PRs without issue numbers), then checks the agent lock and scans
for ready issues using a two-tier priority queue: (1) `priority`+`backlog` issues
first (FIFO within tier), then (2) plain `backlog` issues (FIFO). Orphaned
in-progress issues are also picked up. The direct-merge scan runs before the lock
check so approved PRs get merged even while a dev-agent session is active.

**Key files**:
- `dev/dev-poll.sh` — Cron scheduler: finds next ready issue, handles merge/rebase of approved PRs, tracks CI fix attempts. Formula guard skips issues labeled `formula`, `prediction/dismissed`, or `prediction/unreviewed`. **Race prevention**: checks issue assignee before claiming — skips if assigned to a different bot user. **Stale branch abandonment**: closes PRs and deletes branches that are behind `$PRIMARY_BRANCH` (restarts poll cycle for a fresh start). **Stale in-progress recovery**: on each poll cycle, scans for issues labeled `in-progress` with no open PR — removes `in-progress`, adds `blocked` with a human-triage comment (requires maintainer review before re-queuing).
- `dev/dev-agent.sh` — Orchestrator: claims issue, creates worktree + tmux session with interactive `claude`, monitors phase file, injects CI results and review feedback, merges on approval
- `dev/phase-test.sh` — Integration test for the phase protocol

**Environment variables consumed** (via `lib/env.sh` + project TOML):
- `FORGE_TOKEN` — Dev-agent token (push, PR creation, merge) — use the dedicated bot account
- `FORGE_REPO`, `FORGE_API`, `FORGE_URL` — Target repository (FORGE_URL used to auto-detect git remote)
- `PROJECT_NAME`, `PROJECT_REPO_ROOT` — Local checkout path
- `PRIMARY_BRANCH` — Branch to merge into (e.g. `main`, `master`)
- `WOODPECKER_REPO_ID` — CI pipeline lookups
- `CLAUDE_TIMEOUT` — Max seconds for a Claude session (default 7200)

**FORGE_REMOTE**: `dev-agent.sh` auto-detects which git remote corresponds to `FORGE_URL` by matching the remote's push URL hostname. This is exported as `FORGE_REMOTE` and used for all git push/pull/worktree operations. Defaults to `origin` if no match found. This ensures correct behaviour when the forge is local Forgejo (remote typically named `forgejo`) rather than Codeberg (`origin`).

**Session lock**: fd-based flock — released during idle phases (`awaiting_review`, `awaiting_ci`) so other agents can proceed; re-acquired before injecting the next prompt. This prevents the lock from blocking the whole factory while the dev session waits.

**Crash recovery**: on `PHASE:crashed` or non-zero exit, the worktree is **preserved** (not destroyed) for debugging. Location logged. Supervisor housekeeping removes stale crashed worktrees older than 24h.

**Lifecycle**: dev-poll.sh (`check_active dev`) → dev-agent.sh → tmux session → phase file
drives CI/review loop → merge + `mirror_push()` → close issue. On respawn after
`PHASE:escalate`, the stale phase file is cleared first so the session starts
clean; the reinject prompt tells Claude not to re-escalate for the same reason.
On respawn for any active PR, the prompt explicitly tells Claude the PR already
exists and not to create a new one via API.
