Context
Release classification: ON the board — this is a release-blocking PRIO-zero steering slice under the Golden Path/orchestrator regression.
The live bisect for Related: #13750 showed two coupled failures: the ingestion/embedding path was degraded, and the generated Golden Path still buried current release/incident work behind old governance/meta nodes even after the handoff regenerated. The root-cause lanes for the lease/token/embedding failure are separate; this ticket covers the Golden Path output contract itself.
Live latest-open sweep: checked latest 20 open issues at 2026-06-21T11:33:04Z; no equivalent leaf found. Neighboring issues are scoped differently: Related: #13755 / #13757 own heavy-lease and inherited-token root cause; Related: #13751 owns stop-hook consumption of Golden Path direction.
A2A in-flight sweep: checked the latest 30 all-state mailbox messages immediately before creation; recent claims cover #13755/#13757 root-cause work, Ada's lease-watchdog slice, and Vega's #13754 review request. No peer claimed this Golden Path ranking/output slice.
Local content sweep: exact scan for current release/incident Golden Path focus and non-actionable computed recommendations found historical Golden Path discussions and stale-ticket audits, but no equivalent active issue.
The Problem
resources/content/sandman_handoff.md is the swarm's operational steering surface. If the Computed Golden Path is graph-centrality-only, current same-day release incidents can stay invisible or low-ranked until the graph accumulates enough edges. During the current regression, that failure mode compounded stale ingestion: even a freshly regenerated handoff could still recommend old governance/meta work while the release/orchestrator incident remained outside the actionable steering path.
The Architectural Reality
ai/services/graph/GoldenPathSynthesizer.mjs already owns Golden Path synthesis and appends repo-enrichment sections from local synced issue/PR content. This is the right layer for a deterministic visibility section because it can read synced issue markdown without requiring the Chroma/graph route to already be healthy.
The Computed Golden Path remains graph/semantic routing, but it must not present discussions, epics, or explicitly not-ready tickets as immediate execution recommendations.
The Fix
Add a repo-enrichment section, rendered before stale-assignment/silent-thread/computed routing, that surfaces open current release/incident candidates from local issue markdown. Score candidates by PRIO-zero, incident/regression labels, release milestone, Agent OS topic match, and freshness.
Also filter computed recommendations so discussions, epics, and not-code-ready / needs-design / needs-re-triage issues are excluded from immediate computed work.
Contract Ledger Matrix
| Target Surface |
Source of Authority |
Proposed Behavior |
Fallback |
Docs |
Evidence |
GoldenPathSynthesizer.synthesizeGoldenPath() handoff content |
ai/services/graph/GoldenPathSynthesizer.mjs |
Render ## Current Release / Incident Focus before computed routing when repo enrichment is enabled |
If no candidates exist, render an explicit empty section instead of failing synthesis |
Existing Golden Path handoff format |
Unit coverage for current incident/release candidates |
| Computed recommendation eligibility |
GoldenPathSynthesizer.isActionableComputedRecommendation() |
Skip discussion nodes, epics, and not-ready issue labels from immediate computed recommendations |
Existing debug logging records skipped non-actionable recommendations |
Existing computed Golden Path section |
Unit coverage with discussion/epic/not-ready fixtures plus actionable positive control |
Decision Record impact
none — this tunes the existing Golden Path synthesis surface without changing ADR authority.
Acceptance Criteria
Out of Scope
- Fixing the inherited-token / compatible-pair skip bug in
withHeavyMaintenanceLease(); that is Related: #13757.
- Fixing the broader heavy-maintenance/embedding root-cause epic; that is Related: #13755.
- Enforcing stop-hook consumption of the Golden Path; that is Related: #13751.
- Proving post-merge live handoff regeneration on the operator machine; this ticket ships the deterministic synthesis logic and unit coverage.
Related
Related: #13750
Related: #13755
Related: #13757
Related: #13751
Related: #13759
Origin Session ID: 69f79662-2fbe-403a-a124-78bca1abdb16
Handoff Retrieval Hints: GoldenPathSynthesizer current release incident focus, #13750 live bisect Golden Path stale governance, commit a61bd1429d.
Context
Release classification: ON the board — this is a release-blocking PRIO-zero steering slice under the Golden Path/orchestrator regression.
The live bisect for Related: #13750 showed two coupled failures: the ingestion/embedding path was degraded, and the generated Golden Path still buried current release/incident work behind old governance/meta nodes even after the handoff regenerated. The root-cause lanes for the lease/token/embedding failure are separate; this ticket covers the Golden Path output contract itself.
Live latest-open sweep: checked latest 20 open issues at 2026-06-21T11:33:04Z; no equivalent leaf found. Neighboring issues are scoped differently: Related: #13755 / #13757 own heavy-lease and inherited-token root cause; Related: #13751 owns stop-hook consumption of Golden Path direction.
A2A in-flight sweep: checked the latest 30 all-state mailbox messages immediately before creation; recent claims cover #13755/#13757 root-cause work, Ada's lease-watchdog slice, and Vega's #13754 review request. No peer claimed this Golden Path ranking/output slice.
Local content sweep: exact scan for current release/incident Golden Path focus and non-actionable computed recommendations found historical Golden Path discussions and stale-ticket audits, but no equivalent active issue.
The Problem
resources/content/sandman_handoff.mdis the swarm's operational steering surface. If the Computed Golden Path is graph-centrality-only, current same-day release incidents can stay invisible or low-ranked until the graph accumulates enough edges. During the current regression, that failure mode compounded stale ingestion: even a freshly regenerated handoff could still recommend old governance/meta work while the release/orchestrator incident remained outside the actionable steering path.The Architectural Reality
ai/services/graph/GoldenPathSynthesizer.mjsalready owns Golden Path synthesis and appends repo-enrichment sections from local synced issue/PR content. This is the right layer for a deterministic visibility section because it can read synced issue markdown without requiring the Chroma/graph route to already be healthy.The Computed Golden Path remains graph/semantic routing, but it must not present discussions, epics, or explicitly not-ready tickets as immediate execution recommendations.
The Fix
Add a repo-enrichment section, rendered before stale-assignment/silent-thread/computed routing, that surfaces open current release/incident candidates from local issue markdown. Score candidates by PRIO-zero, incident/regression labels, release milestone, Agent OS topic match, and freshness.
Also filter computed recommendations so discussions, epics, and not-code-ready / needs-design / needs-re-triage issues are excluded from immediate computed work.
Contract Ledger Matrix
GoldenPathSynthesizer.synthesizeGoldenPath()handoff contentai/services/graph/GoldenPathSynthesizer.mjs## Current Release / Incident Focusbefore computed routing when repo enrichment is enabledGoldenPathSynthesizer.isActionableComputedRecommendation()Decision Record impact
none — this tunes the existing Golden Path synthesis surface without changing ADR authority.
Acceptance Criteria
Current Release / Incident Focussection beforeComputed Golden Pathwhen repo enrichment is enabled.Out of Scope
withHeavyMaintenanceLease(); that is Related: #13757.Related
Related: #13750 Related: #13755 Related: #13757 Related: #13751 Related: #13759
Origin Session ID: 69f79662-2fbe-403a-a124-78bca1abdb16
Handoff Retrieval Hints:
GoldenPathSynthesizer current release incident focus,#13750 live bisect Golden Path stale governance, commita61bd1429d.