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#2320 issue-lifecycle: two ordering deadlocks — ad-hoc fast_forward is unreachable, and verify before conformance review parks the lifecycle

Opened by skunk-ape · 9/21/2026

Two ordering deadlocks in @swamp/issue-lifecycle hit back to back while shipping swamp-club#2313. Both are reproducible from the phase map in extensions/models/_lib/schemas.ts.

1. The ad-hoc "prepare to ship" flow cannot complete

The issue-lifecycle skill documents a "prepare to ship" flow for ad-hoc work: create an issue, start, then fast_forward straight to implementing.

fast_forward is allowed only from phase triaging. But swamp-club rejects the status transition it performs:

swamp-club patch failed: 422 {"error":"Cannot start work on issue in status \"open\". Expected \"triaged\"."}

The only way to reach status triaged is the triage method, which advances the local phase to classified. fast_forward then refuses:

Method 'fast_forward' cannot run in phase 'classified'. Allowed phases: triaging

So the documented shortcut is unreachable for any freshly filed issue. The workaround is to abandon it and walk the full path — triage, plan, adversarial_review, approve, implement — which is what the flow exists to avoid.

Either fast_forward should also be allowed from classified, or it should perform the triage transition itself so the issue leaves status open.

2. Calling verify before the conformance review parks the lifecycle permanently

From the phase map:

  • verify: ["implementing"]
  • code_conformance_review: ["implementing", "pr_failed"]
  • link_pr: ["verifying", "pr_open", "pr_failed"], gated by a code-conformance-clear pre-flight

link_pr is reachable from verifying, but its pre-flight demands a conformance review that can no longer be created from verifying. An agent that calls verify before code_conformance_review — both are legal from implementing, and nothing warns about the ordering — reaches a state where:

  • code_conformance_review refuses: "cannot run in phase 'verifying'. Allowed phases: implementing, pr_failed"
  • link_pr refuses: "No code conformance review exists"
  • complete is not allowed from verifying

The only mechanical escape is verification_failed, which returns to implementing but records a false statement on the issue — especially wrong when verification passed and the attestation is already posted, as happened here.

Suggested fixes, any one of which closes it:

  • allow code_conformance_review from verifying
  • make verify fail its pre-flight when no conformance review exists, so the ordering is enforced at the point of the mistake rather than discovered later
  • add an explicit non-judgemental transition back to implementing

Impact observed

swamp-club#2313 shipped correctly — attestation 4d6fed48-f15c-42bf-9cbf-5de4b14b1888 posted, CI validated, PR #2520 merged as 8ef40537 — but its lifecycle is stranded at verifying and cannot be driven to done without filing a false verification failure.

A third, smaller gap: resolve_findings is allowed only from plan_generated. If anything interrupts between the adversarial review and approval, the resolution notes can never be recorded, while the findings themselves stay on the issue unanswered.

02Bog Flow
◉OPEN○TRIAGED○IN PROGRESS○SHIPPED

Open

9/21/2026, 5:45:59 PM

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