# formulas/groom-backlog.toml — Groom the backlog: triage all tech-debt with verify loop name = "groom-backlog" description = "Triage and process all tech-debt issues — blockers first, then by impact score, verify to zero" version = 1 [context] files = ["README.md", "AGENTS.md", "VISION.md"] [[steps]] id = "inventory" title = "Fetch, score, and classify all tech-debt issues" description = """ Fetch all open tech-debt issues: curl -sf -H "Authorization: token $CODEBERG_TOKEN" \ "$CODEBERG_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 $CODEBERG_TOKEN" "$CODEBERG_API/issues/{number}" - If resolvable: promote to backlog — add acceptance criteria, affected files, relabel - If needs human decision: add to ESCALATE block - If invalid / wontfix: close with explanation comment After completing all tier-0, re-fetch to check for new blockers: curl -sf -H "Authorization: token $CODEBERG_TOKEN" \ "$CODEBERG_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 — " >> "$RESULT_FILE" DUST (trivial — single-line edit, rename, comment, style, whitespace): Write: echo 'DUST: {"issue": NNN, "group": "", "title": "...", "reason": "..."}' >> "$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" >> "$RESULT_FILE" ESCALATE (ambiguous scope, architectural question, needs human decision): Collect into the ESCALATE block written to the result file at the end. Dust vs ore rules: Dust: comment fix, variable rename, whitespace/formatting, single-line edit, trivial cleanup with no behavior change Ore: multi-file changes, behavioral fixes, architectural improvements, security/correctness issues Sibling dependency rule (CRITICAL): Issues created from the same PR review or code audit are SIBLINGS — independent work items. NEVER add bidirectional ## Dependencies between siblings — this creates permanent deadlocks. Use ## Related for cross-references: "## Related\n- #NNN (sibling)" The dev-poll parser only reads ## Dependencies / ## Depends on / ## Blocked by headers. Every 5 issues processed, check for new tier-0 blockers. If found, stop and handle them before continuing. """ needs = ["process-blockers"] [[steps]] id = "classify-dust" title = "Triage tier-2 dust items" description = """ For tier-2 items (trivial, cosmetic, score < 1.0): - Write DUST lines grouped by file/subsystem (script auto-bundles 3+ into one backlog issue) - Close stale/invalid with explanation comment - Close duplicates with cross-reference comment These do not need promotion — just classification so they leave the tech-debt queue. The dust-bundling formula step handles accumulation, dedup, TTL, and bundling; emit correct DUST lines for each item. """ needs = ["process-scored"] [[steps]] id = "verify" title = "Verify completion and loop until zero tech-debt" description = """ Re-fetch ALL open tech-debt issues and count them: REMAINING=$(curl -sf -H "Authorization: token $CODEBERG_TOKEN" \ "$CODEBERG_API/issues?type=issues&state=open&limit=50" | \ jq '[.[] | select(.labels | map(.name) | any(. == "tech-debt"))] | length') echo "Remaining tech-debt: $REMAINING" Check each tier: tier-0 count == 0 (HARD REQUIREMENT — factory is blocked until zero) tier-1 all processed or escalated tier-2 all classified If tier-0 > 0: Go back to process-blockers. Repeat until tier-0 == 0. If tier-1 has unprocessed issues: Go back to process-scored. If tier-2 still has unclassified dust: Go back to classify-dust. If all tiers clear, write the completion summary and signal done: echo "ACTION: grooming complete — 0 tech-debt remaining" >> "$RESULT_FILE" echo 'PHASE:done' > "$PHASE_FILE" Escalation format (for items needing human decision — write to result file): printf 'ESCALATE\n1. #NNN "title" — reason (a) option1 (b) option2 (c) option3\n' >> "$RESULT_FILE" On unrecoverable error (API unavailable, repeated failures): printf 'PHASE:failed\nReason: %s\n' 'describe what failed' > "$PHASE_FILE" """ needs = ["classify-dust"]