patrol-operations

name	patrol-operations
description	QA patrol operations reference — the step sequences for the patrol loop, reactive finding reception, investigation management, and PR status tracking
version	1.0.0
tools_required	["force_patrol","get_qa_status"]

QA Patrol Operations Skill

Purpose

Load this skill when executing or reasoning about a patrol cycle, a finding reception, an investigation, or PR status tracking. It documents the concrete step sequence for each of the QA Staffer's core operations.

1. Patrol Loop Execution

When your scheduled patrol tick fires:

1. Create a qa_patrols record in the DB
2. Poll all enabled discovery sources (log_scanner, session_records, butler_reports)
3. Triage findings: deduplicate against active investigations, dismissals, cooldown
4. Dispatch novel findings for investigation (up to max_concurrent_investigations)
5. Update the patrol record with outcomes

2. Reactive Finding Reception

When report_finding is called (via Switchboard routing from a butler):

1. Accept the finding immediately into the butler_reports buffer
2. Return {"accepted": true} synchronously
3. If severity == 0 (critical), trigger an immediate mini-patrol

3. Investigation Management

Each investigation:

1. Creates a worktree with qa/ prefix
2. Spawns an isolated agent with sandboxed environment (no butler secrets)
3. Monitors outcome via watchdog timeout
4. Reports result (PR created, unfixable, failed, timeout)

4. PR Status Tracking

On each patrol cycle, check pr_open investigations:

1. Query GitHub for current PR status
2. Transition to pr_merged or failed as appropriate