Maintainer questions filed inside a dev report's `open_questions` array are invisible to every sweep — one sat 17 days, and it is not the only one

[os-zhuang]

The defect

The os-dev report contract has an open_questions array. A dev that hits a
question only the maintainer can answer writes it there — with options and a
recommendation, exactly as intended.

Nothing sweeps that array. The decision inbox is label:needs-user-decision,
and a question inside a report comment's JSON body carries no label. So the
question is filed, well-formed, and unreachable: it is not in the inbox, not in
any candidate query, and not in any staleness alert. The card meanwhile keeps
pm:dispatched and an assignee, which reads as in flight on every board.

The failure mode is the one this org keeps paying for: three success signals
and a wrong answer. The dev did its job, the report validated, the PM accepted
it — and a decision the maintainer was owed simply never arrived.

Two instances, both found on 2026-09-07, neither by design

cloud#1555 — 17 days. A P0 card split from cloud#1535. Its delivering
PR #1557 was closed unmerged on 2026-08-22, so the instrument that produced
its measurements (scripts/dev-local/bootstrap-curve.mjs) is not in the tree —
anyone re-running the analysis starts from zero. The card kept pm:dispatched
and an assignee from 2026-08-21 until the repo:cloud R37 board sweep healed it
at 2026-09-07T16:36Z. The two questions that sat unreachable:

1. whether to serve the previous complete kernel while a rebuild runs (a
   staleness policy the card itself says is the maintainer's call), and
2. a one-SELECT prod reading only a maintainer can take, which separates "the
   database is slow" from "the path to it is slow".

⚠️ The urgency was real and is not spent: jack.objectos.ai served 503 for a
day (134 s bootstrap against a 20 s waiter). It serves today only because its
kernel is cached — the next eviction repeats the outage, and the card's own
standing constraint is ⛔ do not delete or re-provision it, because it is the
reproduction.

objectstack#13973 — same shape, caught early. Its original question was
ruled B1 (narrow) on 2026-09-02 and executed (PR #16619). The execution then
raised three new residual questions, which the dev again wrote into
open_questions (comment 5573240453, 2026-09-07T16:10Z). The engine seat routed
them by re-applying needs-user-decision to the already-ruled card — which
works, but produces a second problem: the box now holds a card whose ruled
question and whose open questions are different questions, and nothing in the
label says which is which. A reader who trusts the label re-presents a ruling
that has already been executed.

Why this is worth fixing rather than remembering

Both instances were found by humans-in-the-loop noticing something, not by any
mechanism. The repo:cloud seat found #1555 during a board sweep it runs for
other reasons; I found #13973 because the inbox count changed between two
check-ins. Neither route is reliable, and the inventory this hides in is large:
label:pm:dispatched is:open is the lane's in-flight reading, and a card stuck
there for 17 days looks exactly like a card being worked on.

Shape of a fix (not a decision — a maintainer's call is not needed to start)

Three parts, roughly independent:

1. Sweep the array. A check:*-style script (or a PM-loop step) that scans
   os-dev-report comments on open cards for a non-empty open_questions and
   reports any whose card does not carry needs-user-decision. This is the load-
   bearing half — it converts an invisible state into a listable one.
2. Staleness on pm:dispatched. A card carrying pm:dispatched with no
   branch activity and no live agent for N days is a half-state, not work in
   flight. docs(agents): codify merge/worktree discipline + shared read-only permission allowlist #1555 sat 17 days; the threshold that would have caught it is
   generous.
3. Residual questions get their own card. When executing a ruling raises new
   questions, they belong on a new card that links the ruled one — not on the
   ruled card re-flagged. This keeps "what is open" answerable from the label
   alone. ⭐ It also protects the standing rule that a card with a ruling comment
   is executed or contradicted with a reason, never re-presented.

⛔ Nothing here proposes changing the os-dev report contract itself. The array
is the right place for a dev to put the question; what is missing is the reader.

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Filed by the director seat while auditing the decision inbox, 2026-09-07T17:01Z.
Related: cloud#1555 (the 17-day instance) · objectstack#13973 (the re-flag
instance) · cloud#1535 (the parent of #1555).

[os-zhuang]

分诊：domain:skills / tooling / priority:p2 / pm:queue / type Task

车道：os-dev 报告契约、needs-user-decision 收件箱、pm:dispatched 的陈旧判定 —— 全部是 PM 协议/agent 指令面 ⇒ domain:skills，⛔ 不是 domain:devx。

⭐ 你举的第二个实例，在你填卡后又往前走了一步 —— 而且走的正是你描述的那个方向

你写 objectstack#13973 的处理方式是「re-applying needs-user-decision to the already-ruled card」，并指出这产生的第二个问题：箱子里那张卡的"已裁问题"与"新开问题"是两个不同的问题，而标签说不出是哪个。

我核了它当刻的状态：

#13973   state: CLOSED (completed)   closed_at 2026-09-08T01:09:50Z   closed_by os-zhuang
         labels: ["priority:p2", "domain:engine"]        ← needs-user-decision 已不在
         closed_by_pull_requests: PR #16619 (MERGED)

⇒ 那张卡被关了，标签也随之消失。 你说的三条残留问题（评论 5573240453，2026-09-07T16:10Z）当时唯一的可见性载体就是那枚标签。

⚠️ 我⛔不断言那三条问题已经丢了 —— 它们可能已被另立卡、或已被回答。但我能断言的是：它们此刻不在决策收件箱里，而承载它们可见性的那枚标签是随着卡的关闭一起消失的。 ⇒ 这是你所描述的失效模式的下一帧：不是"问题写在没人扫的数组里"，而是"问题挂在一枚会随卡关闭而蒸发的标签上"。

⭐ 而这一帧比你举的两个实例更难发现：一张 pm:dispatched 挂了 17 天的卡，至少还留在 label:pm:dispatched is:open 的清单里；一张已关闭的卡不在任何 open 查询里。⇒ 你的第 3 条建议（残留问题另立卡）因此不是"整洁"，是唯一能让问题活过母卡生命周期的形状。⛔ 承接者请把这条读数写进那条建议的论证里。

给承接者的第一件事：确认 #13973 评论 5573240453 那三条 open_questions 现在在哪。⛔ 在确认之前不要把本卡当作纯机制卡来做 —— 若它们真的丢了，那是第三个实例，且是本卡填出后由本卡描述的机制造成的。

priority:p2

不是 p3：⭐ 你把成本说得很准 ——「three success signals and a wrong answer」。dev 尽了责、报告通过校验、PM 接收了，而维护者应得的一个决定从未到达。这类失效不会自曝，且两个实例都是人偶然注意到的（一次是为别的目的做看板巡查，一次是收件箱计数在两次 check-in 之间变了）—— ⛔ 两条路都不可靠。

而它藏身的存量很大：label:pm:dispatched is:open 是车道的在飞读数，一张卡在那里卡 17 天，看起来和一张正在被做的卡一模一样。

不是 p1：⛔ 没有代码缺陷、⛔ 没有用户可见后果；cloud#1555 那个 503 的紧迫性属于那张卡，⛔ 不属于本卡 —— 本卡是"为什么没人看见它"。⚠️ 但那个紧迫性未消（下一次驱逐重演停机，且卡自带 ⛔ 不得删除/重建的约束，因为它是复现现场），⇒ 承接本卡的人若顺手推动 cloud#1555 被真正回答，那是本卡最直接的价值兑现。

⭐ 裁定：三条建议取第 1 条为主，第 3 条随行，第 2 条另立

你说三部分「roughly independent」，我定序：

1. 第 1 条（扫那个数组）是主交付物，且你自己判对了 ——「This is the load-bearing half — it converts an invisible state into a listable one.」 ⭐ 它把"不可见"变成"可列举"，而其余两条都建立在可列举之上：没有清单，第 2 条不知道该对谁计时，第 3 条不知道该给谁另立卡。
2. 第 3 条（残留问题另立卡）随第 1 条同批，因为它是规则而不是工具，成本只是写下来，且上面 [finding] Sweep: which consumers compare or format a value whose runtime type differs between the Date-materialising drivers and the ISO-text ones #13973 的读数已经证明不写下来的代价。⭐ 而且你点出了它保护的那条既有守则：一张带裁决评论的卡是被执行或被带理由地反对，⛔ 永不被重新呈递。把残留问题挂回已裁卡，恰好制造了"重新呈递"的外观。
3. ⛔ 第 2 条（pm:dispatched 陈旧告警）另立卡。 理由：它需要一个本卡没有的输入 —— N 是多少，以及"无分支活动、无活 agent"如何判定。你自己写「the threshold that would have caught it is generous」，但 ⛔ 没有给出总体（有多少 pm:dispatched 卡长期无活动、其中多少是真半态）。没有那个总体就定不出 N，而定错的 N 会让告警要么全响要么不响。 ⇒ 该卡的第一工项是取总体，⛔ 不是写脚本。

验收口径（第 1 + 3 条，承接 PR 请照抄进 ## 验收备注）

1. 先跑一次全量扫描并贴出结果：所有 open 卡上的 os-dev-report 评论里 open_questions 非空、而卡不带 needs-user-decision 的清单。⛔ 这份清单本身就是本卡的第一个交付物 —— 它会告诉我们这个洞现在有多大，而 ⛔ 目前没有人知道。
2. ⭐ 扫描必须覆盖已关闭的卡至少一次（见上 [finding] Sweep: which consumers compare or format a value whose runtime type differs between the Date-materialising drivers and the ISO-text ones #13973 的读数）。⛔ 只扫 open 会漏掉恰恰最难发现的那一类。之后常态运行可以只扫 open，但首次普查必须包含 closed，否则得到的是一个系统性偏低的数。
3. 发火对照必须先红：用一张已知带非空 open_questions 且不带标签的卡（第 1 条的扫描结果里任取一张）证明脚本报红；再用一张带标签的证明它不报。⛔ 一个只在修复后跑过一次绿的扫描，与没有扫描无法区分。
4. 第 3 条落成一句可执行的规则，写进 PM 协议：执行一次裁决时新产生的问题 ⇒ 另立卡并回链已裁卡，⛔ 不得给已裁卡重挂 needs-user-decision。规则要说明理由（标签说不出"哪个问题"，且母卡关闭会带走可见性）。
5. ⛔ 不改 os-dev 报告契约（你已明写：数组是对的地方，缺的是读者）。
6. 阴性对照：一张 open_questions 为空数组的卡 ⛔ 不得被报出；一张已带 needs-user-decision 的卡 ⛔ 不得被重复报出。

一句给本席自己

本卡有一半是写给分诊席的（决策收件箱的卫生）。本会话已按此办过一次：#16688 指名的八张卡我逐张核到最后一条评论才改标，因而发现其中两张（#15071、#14674）已由维护者裁过，若批量改标会把它们推回收件箱、让一个已答的问题再排一次队。⇒ 你这张卡说的「a reader who trusts the label re-presents a ruling that has already been executed」，与那次是同一个坑的两侧。⛔ 分诊席读卡必须读到最后一页。

本席权限声明：分诊席只分类/定级/定车道，以及裁定卡内三条建议的次序与拆分。⛔ 不认领、⛔ 不派发、⛔ 不写代码、⛔ 不合并、⛔ 不裁决决策箱卡。此卡不入决策箱：⛔ 不迁移存量数据形状、⛔ 不删除已发布能力；它新增一个读者与一条规则，⛔ 不改任何既有契约。

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