Add age-aware successor-risk audit to ticket-intake

Context

We are walking the open issue backlog toward zero. During maintainer review of #9958, the issue was closed as superseded by the later #10733 work. That exposed a gap in ticket intake: duplicate and superseded are already allowed verdicts, but the workflow does not make ticket age, stale bot state, or missing PR close-link hygiene a first-class audit input.

#10555 completed the Ticket Reality Classification protocol. It deliberately did not add a backlog sweeper. This ticket keeps that boundary: intake should get sharper when an agent chooses a ticket; it should not spawn a mass sweep.

The repo stale workflow currently marks inactive issues stale after days-before-issue-stale and closes them after days-before-issue-close unless no auto close is present (.github/workflows/close-inactive-issues.yml). At filing time, those values are 90 and 14 days, but the intake rule should read the workflow config rather than hard-code arbitrary bands.

The Problem

Same-day duplicates happen, but the older a ticket is relative to the stale workflow config, the higher the chance that a later ticket, PR, epic decision, discussion, or current source state has resolved or reshaped the premise. Current ticket-intake already asks for duplicate and superseded checks, but it does not require agents to record createdAt, updatedAt, stale, or no auto close, and it does not scale the successor-risk sweep depth by workflow-derived age state before emitting valid-as-written.

A related edge case: a PR can fully implement a ticket but miss the GitHub close keyword (Resolves #N, Closes #N, etc.). GitHub then leaves the issue open even though the correct intake verdict is already-resolved, not new implementation work.

Architectural Reality

• .agents/skills/ticket-intake/references/ticket-intake-workflow.md owns the Pre-Execution Reflection Gate.
• .github/workflows/close-inactive-issues.yml owns the stale timing and no auto close exemption.
• #10555 added the reality verdicts, including duplicate, superseded, and already-resolved, but not age-aware successor-risk handling.
• Ticket reality is not equivalent to GitHub auto-close state. A missing close keyword can leave completed work looking open.
• ticket-triage may later deserve a narrow extension for never-triaged stale tickets, but that is not part of this ticket.

The Fix

Add an Age / Successor-Risk Audit to ticket-intake, preferably inside Section 1 before Ticket Reality Classification, with a compact required artifact:

• Ticket age: created date, updated date, workflow-derived age state, and relevant labels.
• Successor-risk sweep: newer tickets, PRs, epics, discussions, and current source/docs/tests checked when the ticket is older, stale, or exempted.
• Missing close-link sweep: merged PRs that reference the ticket, touch the target surface, or appear in the issue conversation are checked even when they did not use a GitHub close keyword.
• Stale renewal: if stale is present and the ticket remains valid, refresh the issue with a renewal comment and remove stale as intake routine.
• Exemption discipline: applying no auto close is not routine intake cleanup. It requires explicit operator intent or a blocked/parked-state rationale.
• Verdict integration: age is a risk signal, not a verdict. It raises search depth before valid-as-written.

Suggested workflow-derived states:

• pre-stale: issue age/inactivity is below days-before-issue-stale; run the normal duplicate/successor sweep.
• stale-window: issue has stale or is at/after days-before-issue-stale but before the stale-plus-close window; run explicit newer-ticket and merged-PR sweeps before valid-as-written.
• post-stale-with-exemption: issue remains open beyond days-before-issue-stale + days-before-issue-close, usually because it is exempted or recently refreshed; run the highest-risk audit against newer tickets, PRs, epics, discussions, current source/docs/tests, and merged PRs without close keywords.

Contract Ledger Matrix

Acceptance Criteria

• ticket-intake-workflow.md adds an explicit Age / Successor-Risk Audit before Ticket Reality Classification.
• The classification artifact records createdAt, updatedAt, workflow-derived age state, stale, and no auto close state when available.
• The workflow states that age is never a verdict by itself; it only raises successor-risk search depth.
• Age bands are derived from .github/workflows/close-inactive-issues.yml values instead of hard-coded arbitrary thresholds.
• The audit distinguishes same-day duplicates from older-ticket supersession.
• The audit explicitly checks for merged PRs that completed the ticket but missed a GitHub close keyword, routing those cases to already-resolved rather than branch/code work.
• Missing close-link evidence must name the PR, prove merged status, identify the target surface touched, and cite the issue conversation or source/docs/tests that establish completion.
• Stale renewal and no auto close exemption are separated: renewal is intake routine for still-valid stale tickets; exemption requires explicit parked/blocked rationale.
• The stale bot contract is documented with the current config keys for stale, close, and no auto close exemption.
• The ticket remains scoped to ticket-intake; no new sweep skill, scheduled backlog sweeper, stale bot timing change, or ticket-triage extension is introduced.

Out of Scope

• Automated mass backlog sweeping.
• Closing or editing existing tickets as part of this work.
• Creating a new skill.
• Changing .github/workflows/close-inactive-issues.yml timing or labels.
• Extending ticket-triage for never-triaged stale tickets.

Avoided Traps

• Do not treat old age as negative ROI by itself.
• Do not hard-code age bands that drift from the stale workflow config.
• Do not treat open GitHub state as proof that no PR implemented the issue.
• Do not use keyword-only mass closure. Superseded, duplicate, and already-resolved findings still need evidence.
• Do not bloat ticket-intake/SKILL.md; keep the detailed logic in the referenced workflow file.
• Do not auto-apply no auto close as a convenience label.

Related

• #10555
• #9958
• #10733
• .github/workflows/close-inactive-issues.yml

Origin Session ID: 2821a9d4-7634-4fe7-a8a2-daf49253b929

Handoff Retrieval Hint: ticket-intake age stale no auto close successor risk duplicate superseded older tickets missing close keyword already-resolved merged PR