issue-pr-loop

name

issue-pr-loop

description

Use when user invokes /issue-pr-loop or asks an agent to autonomously work the GitHub queue: maintain open PRs, merge ready PRs, address reviews, claim unclaimed issues with an in-progress label, work in isolated git worktrees, ship PRs, and repeat until explicitly stopped. If CI/review is pending, move on to another PR or issue instead of idling; never end with only a status recap while queueable work remains.

Issue/PR Loop

Continuous shipping loop. Each iteration: maintain open PRs first, then pick up new work. Run until the user explicitly stops you or there is nothing actionable left. Do not treat a status recap, green queue, or "waiting for CI/review" as loop completion; the next action is always the next iteration.

Always prefer the next iteration over waiting on the current item. Once a unit is pushed or blocked, advance to the next queueable PR or issue immediately — do not sleep, poll, watch, or set a monitor/wake-up to babysit what you just pushed. Pending CI and pending review resolve on their own; the next iteration's survey re-checks them. See § Waiting Rules.

Core rule: never send a final wrap-up while loop mode is active unless the user asks to stop/pause or the queue is genuinely empty. Use commentary updates for status, then keep moving.

Fully autonomous: this loop runs while the user is away, so never ask the user a question and never wait for an answer. There is no one to reply. When you would otherwise ask — ambiguous scope, an unfamiliar conflict, a risky merge — take the autonomous fallback in § Red Flags (skip, defer, file an issue, or leave a GitHub comment) and continue to the next iteration. Surface concerns as commentary or GitHub comments, never as blocking questions.

One Iteration Is One Unit Of Work

Each iteration completes exactly one unit, chosen in this priority order:

1. Merge a PR that meets every MERGE signal (Phase 1).
2. Unblock a PR that is CONFLICTS, CI FAILING, or ADDRESS (Phase 1): rebase, fix CI, or address review feedback, then push.
3. Start the best available unclaimed issue when no PR is actionable (Phase 2): claim it with the in-progress label, branch in an isolated worktree, implement, run /simplify, push, and open a PR.

Always survey Phase 1 before Phase 2, and fall through to Phase 2 only when no open PR is actionable. Acquire the work-item lock before touching a PR or issue. When the unit finishes, immediately begin the next iteration; never batch two units into one, and never stop between them.

At the start of each iteration's survey, run the worktree cleanup sweep once (cheap — a few gh calls): pwsh scripts/Remove-MergedWorktrees.ps1. It reclaims disk by removing worktrees whose PRs already merged (including squash-merges by other agents/humans), and is safe — it never touches open-PR, detached, or dirty worktrees. See § Merge Command.

Completion Contract

A unit of work is done only when it is committed AND pushed — never before. This applies whether you run the iteration locally or dispatch it to a subagent.

• Sequence: implement → run focused + broader tests → /simplify → commit referencing #<N> → git push --force-with-lease → confirm the PR is opened/updated on GitHub. Only after the push lands is the unit complete.
• Use non-interactive commit-message commands only: git commit -m "...", git commit --file <path>, git commit --amend --no-edit, or git commit --amend -m "...". Never run bare git commit or bare git commit --amend; VS Code may open as $EDITOR and block the unattended loop.
• A status recap, a green local build, or an uncommitted/unpushed edit is not completion. If your work is uncommitted or unpushed, the unit is unfinished — finish it.
• Confirm the push actually landed before reporting: gh pr view <N> --json headRefOid must match local git rev-parse HEAD. A green local build with no matching remote head is a failed unit, not a done one.
• Before the first file edit each iteration, run the active-checkout verify block (§ Worktree Isolation) so edits cannot silently land in the shared checkout.
• If you cannot push (unresolvable conflict, repeated CI failure outside your context, lost lock), the unit failed: release the Redis lock (pwsh $agentLocks release -LockName <lock>), leave a GitHub comment stating the blocker, and report the failure honestly. Never report success for unpushed work.

Dispatching Iterations

If the user explicitly authorizes subagents, dispatch each iteration to a subagent. The subagent does one unit of work and returns a one-line result. State lives in git and GitHub, so fresh context loses little.

Subagent prompt:

Run one iteration of /issue-pr-loop in <repo path>.
Read this skill file and follow it exactly.
Use <repo path> only for queue survey and worktree creation; make code changes
inside an isolated git worktree. Before your FIRST file edit, run the active-checkout
verify block (§ Worktree Isolation) and abort if cwd is not the isolated worktree;
never edit the shared checkout.
Do exactly ONE of: merge a mergeable PR, address review feedback and push,
or pick the best available unclaimed issue, add in-progress label, branch, implement,
/simplify, push, and open PR. Size is not a blocker: take large coherent issues whole.
If an issue is genuinely too big for one coherent PR, split it into focused child
issues with native sub-issue + blocked_by links and take the first unblocked child.

COMPLETION CONTRACT — you are NOT done until your work is committed AND pushed:
- A unit completes only after `git push --force-with-lease` succeeds and the PR
  exists/updated on GitHub. A green local build is not completion.
- Confirm the push landed: `gh pr view <N> --json headRefOid` matches local
  `git rev-parse HEAD`. Never report a result whose work is uncommitted or unpushed.
- If you cannot push, the unit failed: release the Redis lock, leave a GitHub
  comment with the blocker, and report the failure — do not report success.

Return one line ONLY after the push is confirmed (or the unit has failed):
"merged #N" / "pushed fixes to #N" / "opened #N closing #M" / "failed #N: <reason>".

If subagents are not authorized, run the same one-iteration loop locally. After each iteration completes, immediately start another iteration instead of stopping.

Worktree Isolation

Assume multiple agents may run concurrently. Use the shared repo path only for read-only queue inspection, GitHub CLI calls, and creating worktrees. Before any action that edits files, checks out branches, rebases, commits, tests generated files, or pushes fixes, enter an isolated git worktree.

Create worktrees outside the shared checkout so agents do not overwrite each other's files:

$repo = git rev-parse --show-toplevel
$agentLocks = Join-Path $repo 'scripts/AgentLocks.ps1'
$worktreeRoot = Join-Path (Split-Path $repo -Parent) "Spectre.MEL-worktrees"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force $worktreeRoot | Out-Null

Keep $agentLocks for the whole iteration and invoke that absolute shared-checkout path for every lock verb, even after entering a worktree. A PR worktree can contain an older lock script whose token-cache format is incompatible with the script that acquired the lock.

If the sandbox cannot write to the sibling directory, use C:\tmp\Spectre.MEL-worktrees instead.

Do not rely on Set-Location inside one shell command to affect later tool calls. When using tool calls, set the tool call workdir to $worktree for every implementation, test, gh pr checkout, commit, push, and PR command. After creating or entering a worktree, verify the active checkout before any mutable operation:

$actualRoot = [System.IO.Path]::GetFullPath((git rev-parse --show-toplevel))
$expectedRoot = [System.IO.Path]::GetFullPath($worktree)
if (-not [string]::Equals($actualRoot, $expectedRoot, [System.StringComparison]::OrdinalIgnoreCase)) {
  throw "Refusing to edit outside isolated worktree. Actual=$actualRoot Expected=$expectedRoot"
}
git status --short --branch

The Redis lock auto-expires on a TTL — there is no periodic heartbeat to run. Optionally, once the worktree exists, write the auto-derive marker so later release calls from inside it can omit -LockName (also points Redis metadata at the real checkout). Skip this for issue branches — release already derives issue-<N> from the branch name:

pwsh $agentLocks renew -LockName $lockName -Worktree $expectedRoot

For a new issue branch, claim the issue first, then create the branch and worktree:

$branch = "issue-<N>-<short-desc>"
$worktree = Join-Path $worktreeRoot $branch
git -C $repo fetch origin main
git -C $repo worktree add $worktree -b $branch origin/main
Set-Location $worktree
$actualRoot = [System.IO.Path]::GetFullPath((git rev-parse --show-toplevel))
$expectedRoot = [System.IO.Path]::GetFullPath($worktree)
if (-not [string]::Equals($actualRoot, $expectedRoot, [System.StringComparison]::OrdinalIgnoreCase)) {
  throw "Refusing to edit outside isolated worktree. Actual=$actualRoot Expected=$expectedRoot"
}

For PR fixes, create a worktree for the PR head branch before editing:

$branch = "<headRefName>"
$worktreeName = "pr-<N>-" + ($branch -replace '[\\/:*?"<>| ]','-')
$worktree = Join-Path $worktreeRoot $worktreeName
git -C $repo fetch origin main
git -C $repo worktree add --detach $worktree origin/main
Set-Location $worktree
gh pr checkout <N>
$actualRoot = [System.IO.Path]::GetFullPath((git rev-parse --show-toplevel))
$expectedRoot = [System.IO.Path]::GetFullPath($worktree)
if (-not [string]::Equals($actualRoot, $expectedRoot, [System.StringComparison]::OrdinalIgnoreCase)) {
  throw "PR checkout ran outside isolated worktree. Actual=$actualRoot Expected=$expectedRoot"
}

The pr-<N>-* directory name is durable cleanup identity for review/rebase worktrees whose local branch or commit may differ from GitHub's PR head after a squash merge. Keep the correct PR number in the name; never rename or reuse that directory for another PR. Cleanup verifies GitHub has no open PR associated with the current commit before it trusts detached identity. Named worktrees must also use a local branch containing the same pr-<N> identity.

For tool calls, prefer two separate calls for PR work: first create the worktree from the shared repo, then call gh pr checkout <N> with the tool workdir set to the worktree path. If gh pr checkout is run from the shared checkout by mistake and no files were modified, immediately return the shared checkout to its original branch (normally main) and continue only inside the worktree.

Do not use existing checkout state as an ownership signal; the local lock decides whether another agent owns a PR or issue. If a worktree path already exists, choose a unique path under $worktreeRoot while keeping the same lock. Run all implementation, tests, /simplify, commits, and pushes from inside the worktree.

Merged-PR worktrees are removed automatically — Merge-Pr.ps1 removes the one it just merged, and the per-iteration Remove-MergedWorktrees.ps1 sweep reaps any others (§ Merge Command). You only remove a worktree by hand when abandoning an issue (no PR merged), and only when it has no uncommitted work:

git -C $repo worktree remove <worktree-path>

Local Service Lifecycle

Spectre.MEL has no Aspire AppHost. Do not run aspire start, aspire stop, or AppHost cleanup commands in this repo.

Tests that need external services use Docker or repo scripts. Only stop processes or containers you started for the current worktree. Never blanket-delete Docker containers or volumes; another agent or local test run may be using them (the spectre-mel-agent-locks-redis container in particular is shared lock infrastructure — never remove it).

Concurrent Work Locks

When multiple agents run on the same machine, acquire a Redis lock before working on a specific PR or issue. Locks prevent duplicate rebases, duplicate review fixes, duplicate merges, and redundant issue implementation. If a lock exists, treat the item as owned and choose another actionable PR or issue. Redis is the only lock backend; do not use filesystem lock directories or PID checks for ownership.

Important: $PID is only the short-lived shell process that created or refreshed the lock. It is not the agent lifetime. Never remove a lock merely because the recorded process no longer exists.

Use the canonical shared-checkout script captured in $agentLocks — one local Docker Redis lock per work item, token-checked so one agent cannot release another's lock. Never invoke scripts/AgentLocks.ps1 relative to a PR worktree: its branch may contain an older cache format. The lock auto-expires on a 2h TTL (the dead-man's switch if an agent dies); there is no periodic heartbeat — just acquire, do the work, release. Do not re-inline the Redis functions; each verb emits one line (or nothing), so a lock cycle costs a few tokens instead of ~100 lines of function bodies. The acquiring token is cached in a temp state file keyed by stable agent identity and lock name — never echo or track the token yourself. Codex supplies CODEX_THREAD_ID automatically. Non-Codex/human automation must set one stable, unique SPECTRE_MEL_AGENT_LOCK_OWNER_ID for every command from that logical agent, or pass the same -OwnerId; missing identity fails closed. Redis stays the sole ownership authority; the state file is only that agent's private token cache.

Acquire before touching a PR or issue ($lockName = pr-<N> or issue-<N>). Acquire always needs an explicit name — it runs before the worktree exists, and a PR lock's number is not in the branch:

$token = pwsh $agentLocks acquire -LockName $lockName
switch ($LASTEXITCODE) {
  0 { }                    # acquired — proceed
  3 { <# HELD by another agent — skip this item, survey another #> ; return }
  default { <# docker/redis error — skip this item #> ; return }
}

Release in the finally/cleanup of every claimed item — from inside the worktree the name auto-derives, else pass it:

pwsh $agentLocks release            # cwd = worktree: name from marker/branch
pwsh $agentLocks release -LockName $lockName   # or explicit
# exit 0 = released; exit 5 (STALE) = token mismatch/expired — do NOT delete or
# overwrite the key; just skip and survey again.

Renew is optional and NOT periodic — call it only for the rare unit that may run past the 2h TTL (re-arms it), or once with -Worktree to write the agent.lockName marker so a later bare release from that worktree resolves a pr-<N> lock:

pwsh $agentLocks renew -LockName $lockName [-Worktree $expectedRoot]
# exit 4 (LOST): ownership expired and was re-taken — stop work on this item, do not push.

When -LockName is omitted (release/renew/status), the name resolves from the worktree's agent.lockName marker, else from an issue-<N>-* branch → issue-<N> (so issue work never needs -Worktree/renew; PR work either passes -LockName to release or writes the marker once via renew -Worktree). status prints FREE / HELD / HELD-BY-ME to inspect without mutating. Never assume the lock is gone until release exits 0.

Lock names:

Work	Lock name
PR merge	pr-<N>
PR conflict rebase	pr-<N>
PR review or CI fixes	pr-<N>
New issue implementation	issue-<N>

If acquire exits 3 (HELD), do not wait and do not inspect local files or recorded PIDs as proof of abandonment. Skip that PR or issue and choose another actionable item.

Redis locks expire automatically after the 2h TTL. Do not manually remove another agent's Redis lock. If a lock appears stale, rely on the TTL to expire it and work a different item in the meantime. GitHub's in-progress issue label remains the cross-process claim for issues (it outlives the lock, so a slow-but-live agent whose lock expired is still protected there); the Redis lock is the machine-level mutual exclusion for both issues and PRs.

Phase 1: Maintain Open PRs

Survey:

gh pr list --author @me --state open --json number,title,headRefName,mergeable,mergeStateStatus,reviewDecision,statusCheckRollup,isDraft

Fetch All Review Surfaces Per PR

gh pr list hides inline comments. Without these calls, PRs with unaddressed feedback look identical to "waiting on reviewer":

gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{N}/reviews
gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{N}/comments
gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues/{N}/comments
gh api graphql -f query='query($owner:String!,$repo:String!,$pr:Int!){repository(owner:$owner,name:$repo){pullRequest(number:$pr){reviewThreads(first:100){nodes{isResolved comments(first:1){nodes{body author{login}}}}}}}}' -F owner=... -F repo=... -F pr=N

Actionable means any of: (a) a review (pulls/{N}/reviews) whose state is CHANGES_REQUESTED, or whose top-level body raises a concern/finding/suggestion — even when state=COMMENTED (bots and humans post blocking findings in the review body, not inline; COMMENTED is not non-blocking); (b) an inline comment with position != null and no reply from you; or (c) any unresolved review thread that is not eligible for autonomous resolution below. Check reviews AND inline threads — a PR can have zero unresolved threads yet a review body demanding changes. Only an empty/boilerplate review body (e.g. a Codex "will react 👍 if nothing to add" header) is non-blocking. When unsure, treat the review as blocking. This forces ADDRESS, not WAITING.

Resolve Addressed Review Threads Autonomously

Unresolved bot threads must not strand a green PR. Resolve a thread under the PR lock when all are true:

1. The thread was opened by a bot.
2. You replied with the fix commit or a concrete technical disposition.
3. The current PR head contains that fix.
4. A bot review/CI cycle completed after the reply and did not rebut the disposition; a latest REVIEW_VERDICT: CLEAR against the current head is strongest evidence.

Do not resolve a thread with a newer rebuttal, an unaddressed finding, or a human reviewer awaiting a response. Address those first. Once every eligible thread is resolved, re-fetch review/thread/check state and continue to the normal merge gate in the same iteration.

Fetch thread IDs and resolve eligible threads with GitHub GraphQL:

$threads = gh api graphql -f query='query($owner:String!,$repo:String!,$pr:Int!){repository(owner:$owner,name:$repo){pullRequest(number:$pr){reviewThreads(first:100){nodes{id isResolved comments(first:100){nodes{body createdAt author{login}}}}}}}}' -F owner=... -F repo=... -F pr=N

gh api graphql -f query='mutation($thread:ID!){resolveReviewThread(input:{threadId:$thread}){thread{id isResolved}}}' -F thread=<thread-id>

State to Action

State	Required signals	Action
MERGE	MERGEABLE + CLEAN + all statusCheckRollup COMPLETED and SUCCESS/SKIPPED/NEUTRAL + zero unresolved threads + zero unaddressed inline comments + no review requesting changes or raising a concern in its body (check pulls/{N}/reviews, not just threads) + (approved or repo does not gate on approval) + bot had a CI cycle since your last fix push	Run the fail-closed gate (§ Merge Command); merge only if Assert-PrGreen.ps1 exits 0
CONFLICTS	mergeStateStatus=DIRTY	git fetch origin main; run rebase with editors disabled: git -c core.editor=true -c sequence.editor=true rebase origin/main; resolve; continue with git -c core.editor=true -c sequence.editor=true rebase --continue so Git does not wait for interactive message editing; git push --force-with-lease. If conflicts touch code you cannot resolve confidently, abort the rebase, leave a PR comment noting the blocker, release the lock, and work another item.
CI FAILING	Any check conclusion=FAILURE	gh pr checks <n>; gh run view <id> --log-failed; fix the root cause as part of the loop; push. Rerun only if confirmed flaky: gh run rerun <id> --failed.
ADDRESS	Any actionable review, inline comment, or thread	Apply fixes. Reply per thread — and per blocking review body — with what changed or why not. Push. Do not merge same iteration; bots run on push, so let one CI cycle pass.
WAITING	CI green, no new comments since last push	Skip.

Approval gate heuristic: if recent merged PRs on main lacked reviewDecision=APPROVED, the repo does not require human approval; green CI and clean threads suffice.

Waiting Rules

Waiting is not a stopping condition. Default to the next iteration, never to waiting on the current work item.

• The instant your current unit is pushed (or blocked), move to the next iteration. Do not stay attached to the item you just pushed to see how its CI lands — the next iteration's Phase 1 survey re-checks it for free.
• If a PR has pending CI/review after your push, leave a short update and inspect the next PR.
• If all PRs are pending or externally blocked, pick a new issue and start a branch.
• Never wait on, poll, or monitor a pending work item. Forbidden while any other work is queueable: Start-Sleep; watch loops (gh pr checks --watch, gh run watch); the Monitor tool; scheduling a wake-up (ScheduleWakeup) to revisit the item; spawning a background task/command just to poll CI; or any sleep-then-recheck loop on the same item. The queue survey at the top of each iteration is the only polling you need.
• Watching/monitoring a pending check is a last resort only: no other actionable PR and no queueable issue (i.e. you would otherwise hit the Stopping condition). Even then, prefer one survey pass over a blocking watch.
• If a watched check remains pending but new work appears, stop watching and take the new work.
• When a PR becomes green in a later iteration, merge it unless it received your fix push in the current iteration.

Merge Command — Fail-Closed Gate

Do not rely on branch protection being present, current, or configured for every branch. scripts/Assert-PrGreen.ps1 is the local fail-closed gate. Never merge without it passing.

The guard enforces only the mechanical MERGE signals. The judgment-only signals from the MERGE row — approval (or repo-does-not-gate), zero unaddressed comments, and a bot CI cycle since your last fix push — are still yours to confirm before you run it; a passing guard is necessary, not sufficient.

Merge with scripts/Merge-Pr.ps1 -Pr <n> -Worktree <path> when you own that PR's worktree. The explicit path lets cleanup remove review/rebase branches whose local name differs from GitHub's head branch. Omit -Worktree only when no isolated worktree exists; exact-head-branch auto-discovery remains a fallback. The command runs the gate, merges only if the gate passes, then performs best-effort cleanup:

pwsh scripts/Merge-Pr.ps1 -Pr <n> -Worktree $worktree
if ($LASTEXITCODE -ne 0) {
  # NOT merged (gate denied or merge failed) — nothing destroyed.
  # Leave a short update, skip the PR, advance to the next iteration.
}

Merge-Pr.ps1 internally: (1) calls the pure Assert-PrGreen.ps1 gate (re-fetches fresh state; exits 0 only when OPEN + MERGEABLE + CLEAN + every check terminal-and-passing + no unresolved threads); (2) validates the explicit isolated worktree, or finds the PR's exact head-branch worktree; (3) on exit 0, runs gh pr merge <n> --squash without asking gh to delete a branch that may still be checked out; (4) removes that same validated clean worktree; (5) only after the worktree is gone, deletes the remote and local head branches. If tracked changes exist, it preserves the worktree and both branches. Once the merge succeeds, later cleanup failures warn and still exit 0 — never retry an already-completed merge because cleanup was incomplete. The gate remains a separate read-only predicate — do not fold merging into it; Merge-Pr.ps1 composes it.

Hard rules — no exceptions:

1. Merge only via Merge-Pr.ps1 — never call gh pr merge directly. The wrapper runs the Assert-PrGreen.ps1 gate in the same call and re-fetches fresh state (survey output goes stale within seconds); a direct gh pr merge bypasses the gate.
2. --auto is forbidden. Auto-merge bypasses this loop's local fail-closed gate and can merge later without the current review/thread judgment. Merge-Pr.ps1 never passes --auto; never add it.
3. Any non-terminal check (QUEUED/IN_PROGRESS/PENDING/WAITING) means the PR is not mergeable this iteration. Skip it; the next iteration's survey re-checks it for free. Do not wait, poll, or auto-merge.
4. Merge-Pr.ps1 exiting non-zero is the correct outcome, not an obstacle. It means the gate denied or the merge failed — nothing was destroyed. Advance to the next item; never retry the merge or work around the gate.

Worktree and branch cleanup are part of Merge-Pr.ps1. It removes a clean merged-PR worktree before deleting its remote/local head branches. If tracked changes exist, it preserves the worktree and both branches (untracked build artifacts are cleared). Post-merge cleanup failures are warnings because the merge cannot safely be retried. You do not run a separate removal step after merge.

Per-iteration safety-net sweep. Once per loop iteration, run pwsh scripts/Remove-MergedWorktrees.ps1. It reaps worktrees with a merged PR, including squash-merged review/rebase variants. It first uses GitHub branch, tip, and commit association. If those miss a local-only tip, a named worktree requires matching pr-<N> path and branch identities; a detached worktree additionally requires a successful GitHub lookup confirming the current commit has no open PR. It preserves dirty, open-PR, locked, and harness-managed worktrees. It also removes failed-cleanup remnants with dangling .git markers. For legacy remnants where Git already removed .git, deletion requires canonical root/name, a merged PR number, and no meaningful file newer than the merge. A [gone] branch remains insufficient evidence because closed-unmerged PRs also lose remote refs.

Other Rules

• Address both blocking and minor suggestions when they improve the code.
• Push back once with reasoning if you disagree; if reaffirmed, implement.
• Resolve addressed bot threads using the deterministic criteria above; never leave a PR permanently blocked only because a bot did not close its own thread.
• Always use git push --force-with-lease. Never use bare --force.
• Never allow git to open an interactive editor. For rebase, use -c core.editor=true -c sequence.editor=true or set GIT_EDITOR=true and GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR=true in the same shell command. For commit-message edits, use git commit -m, git commit --file, git commit --amend --no-edit, or git commit --amend -m; do not run editor-driven commit, amend, squash, or rebase flows.

Phase 2: Pick Up New Work

in-progress means another agent has already picked up the issue. Never pick an issue that already has this label.

Ensure the label exists before listing candidates:

$inProgressLabel = gh label list --search in-progress --json name --jq '.[] | select(.name == "in-progress") | .name'
if (-not $inProgressLabel) {
  gh label create in-progress --color FBCA04 --description "Picked up by an agent"
}

gh issue list --state open --search 'no:assignee -label:in-progress' --json number,title,labels,body,comments --limit 50

Easiest-Issue Score

Lowest score wins.

Modifier	Points
Clear acceptance criteria / good-first-issue / easy	+0
Per discussion comment	+1
Body empty or vague	+2
Labeled complex / epic / needs-design / discussion	+3
Has open native blocked_by dependencies, or otherwise depends on another open issue/PR	+5
Labeled wontfix / duplicate / question	Skip

For ties, choose any issue with a non-empty body and clear enough scope to ship. Do not deliberate.

This score orders work; it does not define a cutoff. Size is never a reason to skip, pause, or stop. If no small or easy issue is available, take the best available larger scoped issue. Avoid only items that are explicitly skipped, externally blocked, already claimed, or impossible to ship safely. A large but coherent issue — one with a single Closes #<N> deliverable — is queueable: implement the whole thing in one PR; do not chop a coherent feature into artificial fragments. Only when an issue is genuinely too large for one coherent PR (multiple independent deliverables, cross-cutting work, or no single closing PR) decompose it on GitHub and pick up the first unblocked child — see § Splitting An Oversized Issue below.

Splitting An Oversized Issue

Do not pause or abandon an issue because it is large. Decide between two paths:

• Coherent in one PR, even if big: take it whole. Size alone is never a blocker.
• Genuinely too large for one PR — multiple independent deliverables, cross-cutting work, or no single coherent Closes #<N>: decompose it on GitHub, then pick up the first unblocked child this iteration. Splitting + implementing the first child is the unit of work.

Spectre.MEL tracks decomposition with GitHub native sub-issues (parent/child) and dependencies (blocked_by / blocking) when available, not markdown checklists as source of truth. Prefer native blocked_by relationships for blockage. Repo is thomhurst/Spectre.MEL. Write calls need the numeric issue .id (an integer distinct from #number, passed with -F, not -f).

First, survey existing decomposition so you do not file duplicates — an open-only gh issue list hides closed-but-done children and makes a mostly-finished epic look un-split:

gh api repos/thomhurst/Spectre.MEL/issues/<N>/sub_issues --paginate --jq '.[] | "\(.number) [\(.state)] \(.title)"'
gh api repos/thomhurst/Spectre.MEL/issues/<N>/dependencies/blocked_by --jq '[.[].number]'

If children already exist, do not re-split — pick up the first unblocked child instead (skip to step 5).

1. Draft 2–5 focused child issues, each shippable in one PR with clear acceptance criteria. Carve along natural seams (per service, per layer, per endpoint) so children are independent where possible.

2. Create each child, then capture its numeric .id (gh issue create prints the URL, not JSON):

   $childUrl = gh issue create --title "<focused title>" --body "Part of #<N>.`n`n<scope + acceptance criteria>"
   $childNum = ($childUrl.Trim() -split '/')[-1]
   $childId  = gh issue view $childNum --json id --jq '.id'
   

3. Link the child to the parent as a native sub-issue:

   gh api --method POST repos/thomhurst/Spectre.MEL/issues/<N>/sub_issues -F sub_issue_id=$childId
   

4. For ordering, mark a child blocked by its prerequisite (use the prerequisite's .id):

   gh api --method POST repos/thomhurst/Spectre.MEL/issues/<blockedNum>/dependencies/blocked_by -F issue_id=<blockingId>
   

5. Leave the parent open — it auto-tracks children. If you claimed the parent with in-progress, remove that label; the parent is now an epic, not directly workable:

   gh issue edit <N> --remove-label in-progress
   

6. Pick up the first pickup-ready child — one whose every blocked_by target is closed (or that has none). Claim it with in-progress, branch, and implement this iteration. Children auto-unblock as prerequisite PRs merge and close their issues; later iterations pick up the next unblocked child.

Claim Before Work

After choosing issue <N>, re-fetch it before branching:

gh issue view <N> --json number,state,assignees,labels

If the issue is closed, assigned, or has in-progress, skip it and score the next candidate. Otherwise claim it:

gh issue edit <N> --add-label in-progress
gh issue view <N> --json number,state,assignees,labels

Do not create the branch until the issue is confirmed open, unassigned, and labeled in-progress. Keep the label while a PR is open. If you abandon the issue before opening a PR, remove in-progress so it returns to the queue:

gh issue edit <N> --remove-label in-progress

Verify Shippable, Cover Full Scope

Search for the API, type, logger/formatter/renderer path, or console scenario the issue references. If it does not exist, the issue is asking you to build it; that is the true scope.

Use rg across source, tests, benchmarks, and samples before estimating scope:

rg "<symbol|type|option>" src tests benchmarks samples -g "*.cs" -g "*.md" -g "*.json" -g "*.yml"

Cover every journey listed. Closes #<N> means closes, not "starts addressing." Only defer a journey when it depends on a separate actively-worked issue; link the dependency.

Implement

1. Create and enter an isolated worktree for issue-<N>-<short-desc> using the worktree commands above.
2. Use TDD: failing test first; document why if not feasible.
3. Make the minimal implementation to pass.
4. Run focused tests, then broader tests. Every local dotnet command must run through pwsh scripts/Invoke-AgentDotNet.ps1 with the shell/tool timeout at least 30 seconds longer than the guard timeout; never invoke dotnet directly. Tests use TUnit on Microsoft.Testing.Platform — run via dotnet run, not dotnet test: guarded arguments equivalent to dotnet run --project tests/MEL.Spectre.Tests/MEL.Spectre.Tests.csproj -- --treenode-filter "/**", and use --treenode-filter for focus. For TUnit focused runs, use one --treenode-filter pattern per command unless using valid TUnit OR parentheses. Guard exit 124 (timeout) or 137 (memory) is a local validation limit: do not raise the limit and retry automatically; report it in the PR and let CI run the expensive check.
5. Run /simplify before opening any code-touching PR.
6. Commit referencing #<N>.
7. Push and open a PR with Closes #<N> on its own line:

@"
## Summary
...

## Test plan
- [ ] ...

Closes #<N>
"@ | gh pr create --title "..." --body-file -

Stopping

Stop only when:

• User explicitly says "stop", "pause", or "enough", or interrupts.
• Queue is genuinely empty: zero queueable unassigned open issues without in-progress, and every open PR is blocked on a human decision or another external dependency after all eligible bot threads were resolved autonomously.

Do not stop because of long context, lots already shipped, compute spend, uncertainty about which issue is next, an issue being large or daunting, green PRs after a fix push, pending CI, pending review, or a desire to wrap up. If another issue is queueable, work it instead. Larger scoped issues count as queueable when no smaller unclaimed work is available; if one is too big for a single PR, split it (§ Splitting An Oversized Issue) rather than stopping.

At every "maybe stop" impulse: gh pr list, act on actionable PRs, otherwise pick the best available unclaimed issue, claim it with in-progress, and branch.

Red Flags: Defer, Don't Ask

This loop runs unattended. Never ask the user a question and never wait for a reply — there is no one to answer. When you hit something you cannot safely complete, take the autonomous fallback below (skip / defer / file an issue / leave a comment), release the lock, and move to the next iteration. Surface the concern in commentary or a GitHub comment, not as a blocking question.

Situation	Autonomous action
Conflict resolution needs code understanding outside your context	Abort the rebase, comment the blocker on the PR, release the lock, work another item.
Issue scope turns out wildly larger than its title	Do not pause. If still one coherent deliverable, take it whole; if genuinely too large for one PR, decompose into linked child issues and pick up the first unblocked child (Phase 2 § Splitting An Oversized Issue). If you cannot find a sensible decomposition, file a comment on the issue describing why, remove in-progress, and pick another item.
Reviewer reaffirms a change you technically disagree with	Implement it, then note in the thread if it materially weakens the code.
CI failure looks like infra or flake and you already reran once	Comment the suspected cause on the PR, skip the PR, and work another item. Do not rerun again or mask it.
Fixture or seeder exposes a real bug needing cross-cutting investigation	File a new GitHub issue capturing the bug, link it from the current PR/issue, and continue with the original scope.

Gotchas

• Lost code in rebase: when both branches add at the same insertion point, picking one side can silently drop the other. Diff against origin/main after rebase.
• Rebase/editor hangs: after resolving conflicts, use git -c core.editor=true -c sequence.editor=true rebase --continue or another non-interactive continue command. Avoid any git command that opens VS Code for commit messages, amends, squashes, or rebase TODOs.
• Library code under src/ must use ConfigureAwait(false) on awaited tasks; tests do not need it.
• Logging hot paths are performance-sensitive: avoid introducing allocations, LINQ, closures, or boxing on the per-log-message path. Changes touching the write/render path benefit from a before/after [MemoryDiagnoser] benchmark (see benchmarks/) with numbers in the PR body.
• /simplify and review feedback must never introduce allocations, LINQ, closures, virtual dispatch, or async overhead into hot paths. If a "simplification" or reviewer suggestion regresses performance, decline it in the thread with the performance rationale — performance wins over style in src/.
• Configure-once invariants (CLAUDE.md): SpectreTheme.Freeze() and the MaskedNamePatterns snapshot make the theme and masking immutable after provider construction; mutation must throw InvalidOperationException. Preserve this invariant when adding options.
• dotnet build is the lint — TreatWarningsAsErrors + EnforceCodeStyleInBuild + latest-recommended analyzers. Run a guarded build before committing; a warning is a CI failure.
• Flaky tests indicate real bugs. Do not rerun CI just to get green; investigate timing, synchronization, and shared-state causes.
• Local debugging beyond 2-3 iterations on one test: push to CI and let CI judge.