stale-management

name	stale-management
description	Rules for detecting and managing stale issues and PR reviews.
metadata	{"version":"1.0.0","type":"procedure"}

Stale Management

Covers the stale_issue_sweep cron task. A safety-net that catches issues missed by real-time event triggers (github:issue_opened, github:issue_labeled) and reconciles stale in-progress labels left behind by failed AO sessions.

Operating Principle

This is a SIMPLE label filter. Do NOT infer activity. Do NOT check comments, branches, or commits. Do NOT use assignee as a signal.

Task: stale_issue_sweep

Steps

1. Call ao:status. If AO is degraded, queue depth > 5, or unavailable, stop immediately. Return "AO not ready, skipping sweep."
2. Use repo:list to get all registered repos. For each healthy repo, call github:list_issues with state: open.
3. Stale in-progress reconciliation: For any issue labeled in-progress that was updated more than 3 hours ago (check updated_at), the AO session likely failed without a callback. Remove the in-progress label via github:remove_label so the issue becomes eligible again. Log a warning: "Removed stale in-progress from #N (last updated {time})."
4. For each issue (excluding those still validly in-progress), evaluate eligibility using ONLY labels:
   • Eligible = has label bug, QA, or ao-eligible (match emoji-prefixed variants)
   • Excluded = has label needs-human, coordination, UI, security-sensitive, or in-progress
   • Eligible AND NOT Excluded = candidate for delegation
5. From eligible candidates, select up to 3 (prioritize P1 over P2, then oldest first by issue number).
6. For each selected issue: call github:get_issue, create a structured directive (same format as evaluate_and_delegate), publish architect:build_directive via event:publish.
7. Report what you did: "Delegated N issues: #X, #Y, #Z" or "No eligible issues found" or "AO not ready, skipping.". Include any stale in-progress labels that were removed.

Rules

• Maximum 3 delegations per sweep cycle. Do not flood AO.
• IGNORE assignee field completely — it is not a signal.
• IGNORE issue comments — you cannot read them.
• IGNORE branch existence — you cannot check it.
• If an issue has both an eligible label AND an exclusion label, the exclusion label wins (skip it).
• If no issues were delegated and AO was available, do NOT post to Discord. Silent sweeps are expected behavior.

Stale PR Review Detection

In addition to issues, Architect is responsible for chasing down its own stale PR feedback.

When a PR Review is Stale

• Architect requested changes on a PR
• More than 2 hours have passed since the review
• No new commits have appeared on the PR branch
• No response from AO/Mechanic via events

Response Ladder

Age	Action
2h	Re-dispatch the architect:build_directive with the original feedback
4h	Escalate via strategist:architect_directive asking Strategist to reassign
8h	Close the PR with comment: "Closed due to stale review. Please reopen with the requested changes."

Anti-Pattern

Do NOT "re-approve" a PR with unresolved review feedback just because it's old. Old + unresolved = closer to closing, not closer to merging.

See Also

• issue-triage/SKILL.md — the real-time path that this sweep backs up
• delegation-policy/SKILL.md — for directives published during the sweep
• pipeline-health/SKILL.md — AO health check that gates the sweep