postmortem-loop

name	postmortem-loop
description	On-demand postmortem adoption loop — sweeps published postmortem comments for open system-change proposals, dedupes them against the current canonical files, lands the human-approved edits in the canonical skills repo, and posts verdict replies so the state sticks. Use when the user asks to run the postmortem loop, adopt postmortem proposals, or close the loop on postmortem findings — routinely after a batch of /do runs.
argument-hint	[owner/repo ... to sweep; default: this repo's origin] [window in days, default 30]

Postmortem loop — adopt the proposals

Sweep: $ARGUMENTS

Postmortems record system-change proposals but never apply them — that is the postmortem skill's contract. This loop is the other half: collect every open proposal, show the human one deduplicated decision matrix, apply what they approve to the canonical files, and post a verdict on each swept postmortem so the next sweep skips it. Run it from a checkout of the canonical skills repo — the repo these skills sync from, named in claude/skills/README.md (in a consumer repo, .claude/skills/README.md) — because that is where edits land and re-sync to consumers.

Steps

1. Collect

Sweep each repo in $ARGUMENTS (default: this repo's origin) for published postmortems:

gh api "repos/<repo>/issues/comments?sort=created&direction=desc&per_page=100" \
  -q '.[] | select(.created_at >= "<since>")
          | select(.body | test("^# Postmortem|type: postmortem"))'

Page manually (?page=N) and stop once a page's oldest created_at precedes the window (default 30 days) — --paginate walks the repo's entire comment history regardless of the filter. From each postmortem, extract the proposals in its "What to change so it doesn't recur" section: target file, proposed edit, evidence — each tagged with its source comment URL. A postmortem is settled only when its anchor thread carries a verdict comment (first line # Proposal verdicts) that names that postmortem's item and source comment URL and gives every proposal a terminal status — an anchor thread can host several postmortems, so a verdict for one never settles another, and a proposal marked deferred stays open: harvest it again on every sweep until a later verdict closes it.

Success criteria: every postmortem in the window is harvested or skipped as settled by its own matching verdict; deferred proposals re-enter the sweep; each harvested proposal carries its source URL.

2. Reconcile

Cluster proposals that target the same file and change substance — the same fix is typically proposed by several runs. Check every cluster against the current canonical file: many are already landed or superseded by later edits. Classify each cluster open, landed (<commit>), or superseded (<what replaced it>).

Success criteria: one deduplicated cluster list, each cluster classified with file-level evidence, no proposal double-counted.

3. Decide (human gate)

Present the matrix — cluster · target file · runs citing it · classification · the concrete edit — and ask the human to approve, decline, or defer each open cluster. This is the loop's one gate; nothing is applied without it.

4. Apply

Make each approved cluster's edit in the canonical file, worded per the repo's conventions (concise positive rules; evidence and rationale go in the commit message). A cluster that is environment knowledge rather than a rule change lands in references/known-issues/ (see its README). One commit per cluster (skills: <what changed> (postmortem adoption)); one PR for the sweep via the normal branch flow.

5. Post verdicts

Reply on every swept postmortem's anchors (the same work-item and PR threads it was published to), first line # Proposal verdicts — <item> — <date>, with the source postmortem comment URL on the next line, then each of its proposals as adopted (<commit/PR>), declined — <reason>, landed earlier (<commit>), superseded, or deferred — <reason>. The verdict comment is the ledger — it is what step 1 of the next sweep matches against, and only the terminal statuses settle a proposal; deferred keeps it in play.

Success criteria: every swept postmortem has a verdict reply naming its item and source comment URL and covering each of its proposals; approved edits are committed with evidence in the messages; nothing was applied without step 3's approval.