Add runtime Bird View for resolved PR conversations

Context

This restores the product shape that was accepted but never filed under Epic #12679.

On 2026-07-02, the operator separated two Bird Views: Memory Core sessions/memories by week/month, and pull-request conversation bodies by 3-day/week/month/quarter windows. Epic #12679 recorded the second source as Leaf D — GitHub-conversation temporal windows and the season owner accepted it as a distinct fourth leaf because its ingestion mechanics differ from Memory Core. On 2026-07-12, a fresh authority audit found that Leaf D was never created, while later work shipped a static Markdown handoff retrospective and a static HTML mock instead.

The operator has now restated the requirement at P0: Bird View is a runtime exploration tool, never a Markdown blob in sandman_handoff.md, and resolved pull-request history must remain separate from the Memory/session view.

Source record:

• Epic #12679 — accepted Leaf-D comments IC_kwDODSospM8AAAABIezvDw and IC_kwDODSospM8AAAABIe0zJA.
• Builds on merged #14435 / PR #15096 — the query-time temporal runner, honest envelope, and Memory Core model-bound runtime entry.
• Strategic parent Discussion #11375 — explicitly rejects dashboard/presentation-first work as a substitute for queryable synthesis.
• Graduated history Discussion #11376 and ADR 0028 — L3–L5 are synthesized on demand, never durably materialized.

The Problem

There is no runtime operation that answers: “What happened across the resolved pull-request conversations in this window?”

The existing surfaces are insufficient:

• list_pull_requests returns a bounded metadata list. It does not read review/comment reasoning or synthesize a window.
• get_conversation({pr_number}) gives excellent one-PR drill-down, but reconstructing a week requires first discovering every resolved PR and then walking them N+1, with no coverage manifest or cross-PR synthesis.
• The generated Handoff Retrospective is a parallel direct-read renderer, not the temporal pyramid. Its exact 2026-07-09 09:11Z → 2026-07-12 09:11Z window rendered 50 merged / 10 opened / 50 closed issues / 50 opened issues; bounded GitHub search returns 86 / 99 / 97 / 85. The readers hard-cap several classes at 50, and “opened PRs” means only PRs still open when synthesis runs.
• The handoff session rows are metadata labels such as “session recorded”; no conversation or memory content is synthesized.

The missing capability is not another display. It is a source-complete, window-parameterized, cite-backed runtime query over resolved PR conversation bodies, with exact drill-down handles.

Architectural Step-Back / ungraduated-parent exception

#11375 intentionally remains open as a parent ontology rather than graduating as one epic. Filing is nevertheless valid because: (1) the operator made the runtime/separate-view call directly at P0; (2) graduated Discussion #11376 plus Epic #12679 already accepted Leaf D as an implementation leaf; and (3) the divergence matrix below preempts the remaining parent-level consumer ambiguity. If later #11375 children alter the broader current-state or future-planning dimensions, this ticket’s output vocabulary and consumer list may need amendment; the historical query-time/no-durable-write boundary remains governed by ADR 0028.

The Architectural Reality

Current contract alignment (2026-07-13 intake)

• Facade / model owner: Memory Core registers explore_pull_request_history and owns the temporal runner + chat-model binding shipped by PR #15096.

• Source owner: GitHub Workflow owns repository binding, active/archive corpus reads, resolution semantics, freshness, completeness, and PR/comment/review drill-down through PullRequestHistoryService.

• Dependency inversion: Memory Core injects the generic runner/generate seam into the GitHub-owned service. GitHub Workflow never imports ai/services/memory-core/helpers/*.

• Inference contract: PR conversation content, not titles alone, must reach synthesis. A PR-specific input adapter is required; generic title-only reuse is a blocking falsifier.

• Coverage layers: coverage.totalResolved counts terminal PRs. Comment/review counts and exhaustion are child-evidence coverage and may not be conflated with the PR census.

• Manifest identity: provenance includes content revision/digest, not PR IDs alone, so a post-close conversation edit changes the manifest.

• Release preset: GitHub Workflow resolves cut-to-cut boundaries, then passes one explicit half-open window to the generic temporal runner.

• Drill-down truth: every citation preserves a PR number/URL. Exact comment/review IDs are emitted only when the source artifact actually preserves them; get_conversation is the PR/comment drill-down, not a false review-ID reader.

• GitHub Workflow owns PR ingestion and one-PR drill-down. PullRequestSyncer.mjs writes active and release-bucketed archived PR Markdown containing body/reviews/conversation content; resources/content/_index.json addresses the repo corpus.

• The corpus currently spans both resources/content/pulls/ and resources/content/archive/pulls/; a window reader that scans only the active directory is incomplete by construction.

• PullRequestService.getConversation() is the existing surgical drill-down authority. The new overview must cite PR numbers/comment or review IDs so callers can continue through that tool rather than embedding every conversation in one response.

• #14435 / PR #15096 ship the reusable dynamic runner and model binding in Memory Core. This leaf adds GitHub-owned PullRequestHistoryService and a distinct explore_pull_request_history operation registered by Memory Core. Dependency direction is Memory Core toolService → injected GitHub source service; GitHub Workflow MUST NOT import Memory Core private helpers. Co-location at the MCP facade does not mix source records or response envelopes.

• ADR 0028 §2.2 forbids durable L3–L5 output. Every Bird View is generated on demand from source artifacts and L1/L2 facts.

• PR sync completeness is part of the truth boundary. Current sync artifacts cap comments/reviews, persist neither connection totalCount/pageInfo nor node IDs/exhaustion, and the content index is a regeneratable projection rather than proof of corpus completeness. The source adapter must prove a live resolved-PR census plus child-evidence exhaustion, or return an incomplete/degraded envelope; cap equality, stale paths, and silent truncation are forbidden.

Structural pre-flight

Future ai/services/github-workflow/PullRequestHistoryService.mjs is a structural fast-path sibling of PullRequestService.mjs in ai/services/github-workflow/: same GitHub-corpus service role, no novel directory. The temporal engine stays in the landed #14435 Memory Core lane. The separate operation is added to the existing Memory Core OpenAPI/dispatch; GitHub-specific source code stays under ai/services/github-workflow/. No ArchitectureOverview map update is required.

The Fix

One coherent PR:

1. Add a GitHub PR-history source service that selects all resolved PRs in a half-open [windowStart, windowEnd) interval across active + archived synced content. Resolution semantics are explicit: merged, closed_unmerged, or all_resolved; ordering uses mergedAt/closedAt, never creation time.
2. Prove source completeness. Exhaust PR review/comment connections during sync or persist a structured incompleteness signal; the reader fails closed/degraded when any selected conversation is legacy-unknown or truncated.
3. Feed a PR-specific conversation evidence projection into the landed temporal runner from #14435 / PR #15096 by dependency injection. Do not pass title-only sources; no higher-tier document is persisted.
4. Register the distinct read-only explore_pull_request_history operation in the Memory Core OpenAPI/dispatch, with arbitrary (windowStart, windowEnd) plus presets daily, 3-day, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and release (cut-to-cut resolved by GitHub Workflow). The operation remains separate from explore_memory_history; its source records and response never mix with Memory/session history.
5. Return a structured Bird View: window semantics, exact coverage/exhaustion, source-manifest hash, narrative/themes/decisions/friction/outcomes, cite-backed notable events, and PR/comment/review drill-down handles. Stamp notAuthority: true and generated-at/source provenance.
6. Bound response density without hiding coverage: the narrative may be concise, but coverage.totalResolved, inclusion/exclusion counts, truncation state, and citations remain explicit.

Contract Ledger Matrix

Decision Record impact

aligned-with ADR 0028; composes-with ADR 0035; builds on merged #14435 / PR #15096; implements the accepted Leaf-D disposition under #12679. It does not amend the durable/dynamic tier boundary.

Decision Record

Required authority: ADR 0028 + Epic #12679. Strategic parent #11375 remains open by design.

Discussion Criteria Mapping

Acceptance Criteria

• A read-only runtime tool explores resolved PR conversations separately from Memory/session history; Memory Core owns the operation/model binding, GitHub Workflow owns the injected source adapter, and no GitHub module imports Memory Core private helpers.
• Arbitrary (windowStart, windowEnd) and daily / 3-day / weekly / monthly / quarterly / release presets resolve through one path.
• Window inclusion is half-open and resolution-event based; merged, closed-unmerged, and all-resolved filters are explicit.
• Active and archived PR corpora are both covered; >50 selected PRs neither truncate nor masquerade as a complete answer.
• Conversation review/comment exhaustion is proven; unknown/incomplete artifacts return a degraded envelope, never numeric zero or partial-as-complete synthesis.
• Output includes exact PR-census coverage, separate child-evidence exhaustion, a content-revision-sensitive source manifest/hash, generated timestamp, concise narrative/themes/decisions/friction/outcomes, and drill-down citations.
• Every mutable/derived claim is cite-backed and stamped notAuthority:true.
• Every citation preserves a PR number/URL consumable by get_conversation({pr_number}); exact comment/review IDs are emitted only when retained by the source, and review citations never pretend the comment-only drill-down resolves review nodes.
• No L3–L5 result is written to Chroma, SQLite, Markdown, handoff, or another cache.
• Inference failure preserves deterministic source/coverage evidence and clearly marks narrative synthesis unavailable.
• Focused tests include >50 PRs, active+archive union, exact boundaries, closed-unmerged semantics, release windows, incomplete conversations, no-write behavior, and citation drill-down.
• Cross-family review challenges the exact tool contract and source-completeness proof before merge.

Out of Scope

• Memory/session Bird View (owned separately by #14435).
• Handoff Markdown, Fleet Manager cockpit, dashboard, HTML mock, or other presentation surfaces.
• Issues/Discussion conversation Bird Views; this P0 slice is resolved pull requests. They may extend the source family later without changing this tool’s PR-specific semantics.
• Current-state strategy, future counterfactual planning, ranking, or automatic lane selection.
• Durable weekly/monthly/quarterly narrative summaries.

Avoided Traps

• No reuse of the static Handoff Retrospective as authority.
• No 50-item live API cap presented as a total.
• No “opened PR” proxy for resolved-window membership.
• No counts-only answer to a “WHAT happened?” question.
• No mixed PR + private Memory/session payload.
• No UI-first implementation before the tool contract exists.

Related

Parent: #12679
Builds on: #14435 / PR #15096
Strategic parent: #11375
Graduated history source: #11376
Wrong-shape artifacts: #14603, #14706, #14680, PR #15085
Existing drill-down: get_conversation({pr_number})

Live duplicate sweep: latest 20 open issues, targeted open-title searches, Knowledge Base tickets, active+archived local issues/Discussions, and last 30 all-state A2A messages checked at 2026-07-12T09:59:43.552Z; no equivalent ticket or competing in-flight claim found. #14620 is a Fleet UI consumer, and #14435 is the separate Memory/session source.

Origin Session ID: 837ad74b-c2d2-413d-9aab-b7165a93a82a

Retrieval Hint: "P0 Bird View resolved PR conversation runtime tool Leaf D #12679 #14435 static handoff authority correction"