disinto/formulas/groom-backlog.toml

# formulas/groom-backlog.toml — Groom the backlog: triage all tech-debt with verify loop

name        = "groom-backlog"
description = "Triage tech-debt issues OR break down bounced issues dispatched by the planner"
version     = 2

[context]
files = ["README.md", "AGENTS.md", "VISION.md"]

[[steps]]
id    = "check-mode"
title = "Determine operating mode: grooming vs breakdown"
description = """
Check the YAML front matter of the dispatching action issue (if any) for
a `mode` field. Two modes are supported:

1. **breakdown** mode (dispatched by planner for bounced/stuck issues):
   The front matter will contain:
     formula: groom-backlog
     vars:
       target_issue: <number>
       mode: breakdown
       reason: "<why the issue bounced>"

   In this mode, skip the normal tech-debt grooming pipeline. Instead:
   a. Fetch the target issue:
        curl -sf -H "Authorization: token $FORGE_TOKEN" \
          "$FORGE_API/issues/<target_issue>"
   b. Fetch ALL comments on the target issue to understand scope and
      prior bounce reasons:
        curl -sf -H "Authorization: token $FORGE_TOKEN" \
          "$FORGE_API/issues/<target_issue>/comments?limit=50"
   c. Read the affected files listed in the issue body to understand
      the actual code scope.
   d. Break the issue into 2-5 sub-issues, each sized for a single
      dev-agent session. Each sub-issue MUST include:
        - ## Problem (scoped piece of the parent issue)
        - ## Affected files (specific files for this sub-task)
        - ## Acceptance criteria (at least one checkbox)
        - ## Dependencies (reference parent or sibling sub-issues if ordered)
   e. Create the sub-issues via API with the `backlog` label.
   f. Update the parent issue body to include a "## Sub-issues" section
      linking to all created sub-issues.
   g. Remove the `underspecified` label from the parent issue (if present).
   h. If the parent issue is a meta-issue that is fully covered by
      sub-issues, add a comment noting it is now tracked via sub-issues.
   i. Signal completion:
        echo "ACTION: broke down #<target_issue> into <N> sub-issues" >> "$RESULT_FILE"
        echo 'PHASE:done' > "$PHASE_FILE"

   After creating sub-issues in breakdown mode, the formula is DONE —
   do not proceed to the normal tech-debt grooming steps.

2. **grooming** mode (default — no mode field, or mode: grooming):
   Proceed to the inventory step as normal.
"""

[[steps]]
id    = "inventory"
title = "Fetch, score, and classify all tech-debt issues"
needs = ["check-mode"]
description = """
This step only runs in grooming mode. Skip if in breakdown mode.

Fetch all open tech-debt issues:
  curl -sf -H "Authorization: token $FORGE_TOKEN" \
    "$FORGE_API/issues?type=issues&state=open&limit=50" | \
    jq '[.[] | select(.labels | map(.name) | any(. == "tech-debt"))]'

For each issue compute a triage score:
  impact:    blocker=13 / velocity-drag=8 / quality=5 / cosmetic=2
  effort:    trivial=1 / gardener-can-fix=3 / needs-human=8 / unknown=13
  score      = impact / effort  (higher = do first)
  staleness: last update >90 days ago = stale candidate

Flag likely duplicates (similar title/body, >70% word overlap).

Separate into tiers:
  tier-0 = blockers: issues blocking the factory pipeline (impact >= 13, or flagged as PRIORITY_blockers_starving_factory)
  tier-1 = high-value: score >= 1.0, gardener can process
  tier-2 = dust: score < 1.0, cosmetic, single-line, trivial

Print tier counts before proceeding.
"""

[[steps]]
id    = "process-blockers"
title = "Resolve all tier-0 blockers — factory cannot proceed until these reach zero"
description = """
Process EVERY tier-0 issue. No skipping.

The bash pre-analysis above may have flagged PRIORITY_blockers_starving_factory issues.
These are issues that block backlog items but are not themselves labeled backlog.
The dev-agent is completely starved until they are promoted or resolved.

For each tier-0 issue:
  - Read the full body: curl -sf -H "Authorization: token $FORGE_TOKEN" "$FORGE_API/issues/{number}"
  - If resolvable: promote to backlog — add acceptance criteria, affected files, relabel
  - If needs human decision: file a vault procurement item ($OPS_REPO_ROOT/vault/pending/<id>.md)
  - If invalid / wontfix: close with explanation comment

After completing all tier-0, re-fetch to check for new blockers:
  curl -sf -H "Authorization: token $FORGE_TOKEN" \
    "$FORGE_API/issues?type=issues&state=open&limit=50" | \
    jq '[.[] | select(.labels | map(.name) | any(. == "tech-debt"))]'

If new tier-0 blockers appeared, process those too.
Tier-0 MUST reach zero before proceeding to tier-1.
"""
needs = ["inventory"]

[[steps]]
id    = "process-scored"
title = "Process tier-1 issues in descending score order"
description = """
Work through tier-1 issues from highest score to lowest.

For each issue choose ONE action and write its result to the result file:

PROMOTE (substantial work — multi-file, behavioral, architectural, security):
  1. Read full body
  2. Add ## Acceptance criteria with checkboxes
  3. Add ## Affected files section
  4. Add ## Dependencies if needed
  5. Relabel from tech-debt to backlog
  6. Write: echo "ACTION: promoted #NNN to backlog — <reason>" >> "$RESULT_FILE"

DUST (trivial — single-line edit, rename, comment, style, whitespace):
  Write: echo 'DUST: {"issue": NNN, "group": "<file-or-subsystem>", "title": "...", "reason": "..."}' >> "$RESULT_FILE"
  Group by file or subsystem: e.g. "gardener", "lib/env.sh", "dev-poll"
  Do NOT close dust issues — the dust-bundling formula step auto-bundles groups of 3+ into a backlog issue.

DUPLICATE (>80% overlap after reading both bodies — confirm before closing):
  Post comment: curl -X POST ... /issues/NNN/comments -d '{"body":"Duplicate of #OLDER"}'
  Close:        curl -X PATCH ... /issues/NNN -d '{"state":"closed"}'
  Write: echo "ACTION: closed #NNN as duplicate of #OLDER" >> "$RESULT_FILE"

VAULT (ambiguous scope, architectural question, needs human decision):
  File a vault procurement item at $OPS_REPO_ROOT/vault/pending/<id>.md:
    # <What decision or resource is needed>
    ## What
    <description>
    ## Why
    <which issue this unblocks>
    ## Unblocks
    - #NNN — <title>
  Log: echo "VAULT: filed $OPS_REPO_ROOT/vault/pending/<id>.md for #NNN — <reason>" >> "$RESULT_FILE"

Dust vs ore rules:
  Dust: comment fix, variable rename, whitespace/formatting, single-line edit, trivial cleanup with no behavior change
  Ore:  multi-file changes, behavioral fixes, architectural improvements, security/correctness issues

Sibling dependency rule (CRITICAL):
  Issues created from the same PR review or code audit are SIBLINGS — independent work items.
  NEVER add bidirectional ## Dependencies between siblings — this creates permanent deadlocks.
  Use ## Related for cross-references: "## Related\n- #NNN (sibling)"
  The dev-poll parser only reads ## Dependencies / ## Depends on / ## Blocked by headers.

Every 5 issues processed, check for new tier-0 blockers. If found, stop and handle them before continuing.
"""
needs = ["process-blockers"]

[[steps]]
id    = "classify-dust"
title = "Triage tier-2 dust items"
description = """
For tier-2 items (trivial, cosmetic, score < 1.0):
  - Write DUST lines grouped by file/subsystem (script auto-bundles 3+ into one backlog issue)
  - Close stale/invalid with explanation comment
  - Close duplicates with cross-reference comment

These do not need promotion — just classification so they leave the tech-debt queue.
The dust-bundling formula step handles accumulation, dedup, TTL, and bundling;
emit correct DUST lines for each item.
"""
needs = ["process-scored"]

[[steps]]
id    = "verify"
title = "Verify completion and loop until zero tech-debt"
description = """
Re-fetch ALL open tech-debt issues and count them:
  REMAINING=$(curl -sf -H "Authorization: token $FORGE_TOKEN" \
    "$FORGE_API/issues?type=issues&state=open&limit=50" | \
    jq '[.[] | select(.labels | map(.name) | any(. == "tech-debt"))] | length')
  echo "Remaining tech-debt: $REMAINING"

Check each tier:
  tier-0 count == 0  (HARD REQUIREMENT — factory is blocked until zero)
  tier-1 all processed or routed to vault
  tier-2 all classified

If tier-0 > 0:
  Go back to process-blockers. Repeat until tier-0 == 0.

If tier-1 has unprocessed issues:
  Go back to process-scored.

If tier-2 still has unclassified dust:
  Go back to classify-dust.

If all tiers clear, write the completion summary and signal done:
  echo "ACTION: grooming complete — 0 tech-debt remaining" >> "$RESULT_FILE"
  echo 'PHASE:done' > "$PHASE_FILE"

Vault items filed during this run are picked up by vault-poll automatically.

On unrecoverable error (API unavailable, repeated failures):
  printf 'PHASE:failed\nReason: %s\n' 'describe what failed' > "$PHASE_FILE"
"""
needs = ["classify-dust"]