disinto/gardener/AGENTS.md

Gardener Agent

Role: Backlog grooming — detect duplicate issues, missing acceptance criteria, oversized issues, stale issues, and circular dependencies. Enforces the quality gate: strips the backlog label from issues that lack acceptance criteria checkboxes (- [ ]) or an ## Affected files section. Invokes Claude to fix or escalate to a human via Matrix.

Trigger: gardener-run.sh runs 4x/day via cron. Sources lib/guard.sh and calls check_active gardener first — skips if $FACTORY_ROOT/state/.gardener-active is absent. Then creates a tmux session with claude --model sonnet, injects formulas/run-gardener.toml with escalation replies as context, monitors the phase file, and cleans up on completion or timeout (2h max session). No action issues — the gardener runs directly from cron like the planner, predictor, and supervisor.

Key files:

• gardener/gardener-run.sh — Cron wrapper + orchestrator: lock, memory guard, consumes escalation replies, sources disinto project config, creates tmux session, injects formula prompt, monitors phase file via custom _gardener_on_phase_change callback (passed to run_formula_and_monitor). Kills session on PHASE:escalate to prevent zombies. Stays alive through CI/review/merge cycle after PHASE:awaiting_ci — injects CI results and review feedback, re-signals PHASE:awaiting_ci after fixes, signals PHASE:awaiting_review on CI pass. Executes pending-actions manifest after PR merge.
• formulas/run-gardener.toml — Execution spec: preflight, grooming, dust-bundling, blocked-review, agents-update, commit-and-pr
• gardener/pending-actions.json — Manifest of deferred repo actions (label changes, closures, comments, issue creation). Written during grooming steps, committed to the PR, reviewed alongside AGENTS.md changes, executed by gardener-run.sh after merge.

Environment variables consumed:

• FORGE_TOKEN, FORGE_REPO, FORGE_API, PROJECT_NAME, PROJECT_REPO_ROOT
• PRIMARY_BRANCH, CLAUDE_MODEL (set to sonnet by gardener-run.sh)
• MATRIX_TOKEN, MATRIX_ROOM_ID, MATRIX_HOMESERVER

Lifecycle: gardener-run.sh (cron 0,6,12,18) → check_active gardener → lock + memory guard → consume escalation replies → load formula + context → create tmux session → Claude grooms backlog (writes proposed actions to manifest), bundles dust, reviews blocked issues, updates AGENTS.md, commits manifest + docs to PR → PHASE:awaiting_ci (stays alive) → CI pass → PHASE:awaiting_review → review feedback → address + re-signal → merge → gardener-run.sh executes manifest actions via API → PHASE:done. On PHASE:escalate: session killed immediately.