Plan: Beta — Wave-pattern reliability + autonomy hardening (operational backlog campaign B)

[bakeb7j0]

Plan: Beta — Wave-pattern reliability + autonomy hardening

Goal

Harden wave-pattern reliability (gate-block + stall fixes from Plan #581 Main debrief), tighten pre-flight hygiene to prevent recurrence, evolve WAVE_AXIOMS with the structural rework + Axiom 9 ("User attention is the cost"), and complete the wave-pattern feature surface (sanctioned-fidget tool, observability daemon, /wave skill, classic-mode removal).

Scope

In scope

• Reliability fixes for the three autonomy-breaking bugs surfaced in Plan Plan: Wave-pattern hardening — operational backlog campaign A #581 Main:
  • wave_finalize returns no_artifacts after wavebus cleanup (mcp-server-sdlc#415)
  • Prime sub-agent stalls mid-sleep on CI poll, returns non-canonical line (cc-workflow#606)
  • /wavemachine post-wave stall — loop-level (cc-workflow#600)
• Pre-flight & sandbox hygiene preventive work:
  • /prepwaves refuses on dirty tree (cc-workflow#603)
  • /devspec finalize commits its doc updates (cc-workflow#604)
  • /prepwaves emits /clear seed prompt (cc-workflow#602)
• WAVE_AXIOMS evolution — constitutional rules layer:
  • Structural rework + Axiom 9 + skill-body wiring (cc-workflow#605)
  • Long-session orchestrator drift mitigation (cc-workflow#601)
• Wave-pattern feature completion:
  • wave_wait_for_signal MCP tool — sanctioned anxiety outlet (mcp-server-sdlc#414)
  • pr_wait_ci short-circuit on empty rollup (mcp-server-sdlc#416)
  • /wave skill wrapping wave_show (cc-workflow#579)
  • wave-watcher standalone daemon (cc-workflow#578)
• Operational polish:
  • /dod reads Plan-issue DoD instead of devspec (cc-workflow#577)
  • Remove /wavemachine Classic mode (cc-workflow#580)
  • /precheck log vox-invocation failures (cc-workflow#550)
  • vox structured mcp-log instrumentation (cc-workflow#551)

Out of scope

• Cross-repo orchestration improvements beyond what's already in mcp-server-sdlc — defer to a future Plan if Beta surfaces a need.
• New MCP servers — this Plan stays within the existing 5-server fleet (sdlc, disc, nerf, wtf, discord-watcher).
• Wave-pattern v3 architectural rewrites — addressed only if Beta surfaces an unrecoverable failure mode.

Plan-level Definition of Done

• Phase 1 DoD satisfied (reliability fixes — all three autonomy bugs resolved with regression tests)
• Phase 2 DoD satisfied (pre-flight hygiene wired into /prepwaves and /devspec)
• Phase 3 DoD satisfied (WAVE_AXIOMS V2 with 9 axioms + skill-body wiring; long-session drift instrumentation in place)
• Phase 4 DoD satisfied (new wave-pattern features deployed and exercised by at least one campaign)
• Phase 5 DoD satisfied (operational polish complete; legacy paths removed)
• Kahuna→main MR merged clean (four-signal trust gate passed end-to-end without manual recovery)
• No regressions surfaced in cc-workflow main-branch CI
• Plan-level retrospective comment filed on this issue with lessons captured in principle_* / lesson_* memory files

Phases

Phase 1 — Wave-pattern reliability fixes

Goal: resolve the three autonomy-breaking bugs from Plan #581 Main that required manual recovery (gate-block manual MR creation, hand-merging stalled flights). Without these, Beta's own campaign would replicate Main's incidents.

DoD:

• mcp-server-sdlc#415 wave_finalize succeeds after per-wave cleanup; MR body assembled from durable state (phases-waves.json + state.json) instead of ephemeral wavebus
• cc-workflow#606 Prime sub-agent emits canonical OK / BLOCKED / FAIL line under long CI; regression test in place
• cc-workflow#600 /wavemachine post-wave handoff is single-tool-use; no inter-wave narration on a 3-wave verification campaign

Phase 2 — Pre-flight & sandbox hygiene

Goal: prevent the recurring incident shapes (sandbox cross-talk, lost doc updates, context-rot from same-session prep+execute) by tightening pre-flight checks.

DoD:

• cc-workflow#603 /prepwaves refuses on dirty working tree with a clear error listing offending files; explicit --force-dirty override exists
• cc-workflow#604 /devspec finalize creates a commit on the active feature branch for its doc updates with the canonical docs(devspec): finalize Dev Spec for Plan #N title; refuses on protected branch
• cc-workflow#602 /prepwaves output ends with a paste-ready /clear + /wavemachine seed block

Phase 3 — WAVE_AXIOMS V2 + drift mitigation

Goal: evolve the constitutional rules layer based on Main's learnings; mitigate the late-campaign drift observed during Plan #581.

DoD:

• cc-workflow#605 WAVE_AXIOMS.md has 9 axioms (Axiom 9 = "User attention is the cost") with consistent rule/why/how-to-apply structure
• cc-workflow#605 /wavemachine, /nextwave, /prepwaves, /assesswaves skill bodies cross-reference axioms by number instead of restating; single source of truth
• cc-workflow#601 Per-wave drift instrumentation emits wave_message_length_main, wave_stop_hook_blocks, wave_concerns_posts events; one mitigation mechanism implemented and measured against a 6-wave baseline

Phase 4 — Wave-pattern feature completion

Goal: ship the new tools/skills the autonomy contract has been calling for since v2.

DoD:

• mcp-server-sdlc#414 wave_wait_for_signal MCP tool registered, schema valid, returns within 5s of artifact appearance, times out cleanly with partial_matches populated
• mcp-server-sdlc#416 pr_wait_ci short-circuits on empty status-check rollup; existing non-empty-rollup behavior unchanged (regression-tested)
• cc-workflow#579 /wave skill wraps wave_show with conversation-friendly output; included in skills index
• cc-workflow#578 wave-watcher standalone daemon aggregates active wave-pattern state across the fleet; runs cleanly under systemd-equivalent

Phase 5 — Operational polish

Goal: clean up legacy paths and tighten observability ahead of any Plan: Gamma scope.

DoD:

• cc-workflow#577 /dod reads Plan-issue DoD body instead of devspec (per 2026-04-26 Plan/Phase/Epic taxonomy lock); fallback to devspec only when no Plan exists
• cc-workflow#580 /wavemachine Classic mode removed; Kahuna sandbox is the only execution shape; legacy code paths deleted
• cc-workflow#550 /precheck logs vox-invocation failures via mcp-log instead of swallowing with || true
• cc-workflow#551 vox script emits structured mcp-log events on every announcement (success and failure)

References

• Predecessor Plan: Plan Plan: Wave-pattern hardening — operational backlog campaign A #581 (Main — operational backlog campaign A); merged via PR kahuna: Plan #581 — Wave-pattern hardening (operational backlog campaign A) #595, closed 2026-05-05
• Memory files (load-bearing for Phase 3 axioms):
  • principle_user_attention_is_the_cost.md — basis for Axiom 9
  • principle_cost_asymmetry_continue_vs_exit.md — basis for sandbox-clean prerequisite reasoning
  • pattern_sanctioned_fidget_tool.md — basis for wave_wait_for_signal
  • pattern_exhaustive_legal_exits.md — axiom skeleton structure
  • pattern_concerns_channel.md — non-halt-when-unsettled mechanism
  • decision_plan_phase_epic_taxonomy.md — Plan body/comments split
• Dev Spec template: docs/phase-epic-taxonomy-devspec.md §5.1.2 (canonical Plan body)
• Operator reference: docs/plan-issue-template.md
• Main campaign retrospective: Plan Plan: Wave-pattern hardening — operational backlog campaign A #581 closeout comments; .status-panel.html snapshot at merge time