planning: say "decided after you answered" on a stale question and show the review count in the meter #5908

Activity

1. github-actions

   added

   needs-triageNot yet classified. Floor until a type and one priority tier are set.Not yet classified. Floor until a type and one priority tier are set.

   on Oct 2, 2026
2. kyle-sexton commented on Oct 4, 2026

   

   kyle-sexton

   on Oct 4, 2026

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   This was generated by AI during triage.

   Routing: delegable, agent-ready, work-class: scoped (C3, bug fix), priority: low (the reporter rated it low; nothing it blocks).

   Verified against current code:

   • The stale banner always reads "Stale: changed." for a stale question with no upstreamChanged. staleBy() returns the prerequisites decided after this question was, and falls back to every prerequisite, but nothing tells the two cases apart. Basis: verified, plugins/planning/surface/index.html:605-610, 1067.
   • The meter already leaves stale questions out of "answered": settled requires !needsYou(q), and needsYou includes isStale. Basis: verified, index.html:639, 642, 853. So the remaining gap is only the missing "N to review" note on the meter. Group headers already show "N to review" since fix(planning): show only unanswered questions under Open and keep position after an answer #5904 (index.html:784).

   Where I looked: the page's stale banner, staleBy, lastDecisionSeq, settled, needsYou, passes (the Review filter), renderHeader, the group counter, context/surface.md (Upstream changed paragraph), and docs/out-of-scope/ (nothing matches).

   Cluster check: no shared decision with #5769 (constraint staleness), #5909 or #5910. #5922 (untriaged) changes the related upstream-pending chip. It is a different state but sits next to this banner, so dispatch the two one after the other.

   Agent Brief

   Type: Bug
   Summary: The stale banner says whether a prerequisite changed or was decided for the first time after this answer, and the header meter shows how many answered questions wait for review.

   Current behavior:

   • A stale question whose prerequisite was decided for the first time after this question was answered reads "Stale: Q5 changed.", even though Q5 never had an earlier decision.
   • The header meter reads "N of M answered". A stale answered question drops out of N with no explanation on the meter.

   Desired behavior:

   • For each prerequisite the stale banner names, the wording depends on the prerequisite's decision history before this question's latest decision:
     • It had no earlier decision: "Q5 was decided after you answered this".
     • An earlier decision was replaced: "Q5 changed".
     • With several prerequisites, each is worded for its own case.
   • The Upstream changed banner (a dependency's recommendation was revised) keeps its current wording.
   • When any live answered question needs review (the same predicate as the Review filter: live, answered, needs you), the meter appends "· N to review" beside the pending-research count. When none does, nothing is appended.

   Key interfaces:

   • staleBy(q) and the stale-banner text in the detail view.
   • lastDecisionSeq(id), or an equivalent that finds a prerequisite's decision events older than this question's latest decision.
   • renderHeader(): the meter text. Use the same predicate as the Review filter so the two counts always agree.

   Acceptance criteria:

   • If Q6 was accepted before Q5 was ever decided, Q6's banner reads "Q5 was decided after you answered this".
   • If Q5 had a decision before Q6 was accepted and Q5's decision then changed, Q6's banner reads "Q5 changed".
   • With one stale answered question, the meter shows "1 to review", and that question is not counted as answered.
   • With no question to review, the meter shows no review count.
   • A UI test in the surface test suite covers both banner wordings and the meter count.

   Out of scope:

   • The upstream-pending chip and banner wording (planning: name the stale ancestor, not the direct parents, when the interview page marks a question upstream-pending #5922).
   • Constraint-driven staleness (planning: mark interview recommendations stale when a new constraint arrives mid-interview #5769) and the server-side stale cascade (feat(planning): interview page does not enforce answer order or react to changed answers like the terminal interview #5796 G3).
   • Navigation after a save (planning: after a changed answer, take the user to the dependents it made stale #5909) and the Reconfirm label (planning: make Reconfirm on a stale question say exactly what it records #5910).
3. kyle-sexton

   added

   priority: lowNice-to-have, cosmetic, or speculative; opportunistic.Nice-to-have, cosmetic, or speculative; opportunistic.

   agent-readyFully specified and briefed; eligible for autonomous pickup from the frontier.Fully specified and briefed; eligible for autonomous pickup from the frontier.

   work-class: scopedA briefed fix or small feature; blast radius bounded by the brief, tests exist.A briefed fix or small feature; blast radius bounded by the brief, tests exist.

   status: readyTriaged, unblocked, and fully specified; eligible to pick up.Triaged, unblocked, and fully specified; eligible to pick up.

   and removed

   needs-triageNot yet classified. Floor until a type and one priority tier are set.Not yet classified. Floor until a type and one priority tier are set.

   on Oct 4, 2026
4. kyle-sexton commented on Oct 4, 2026

   

   kyle-sexton

   on Oct 4, 2026

   ContributorAuthor

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   This was generated by AI during work-loop.

   Ratify autonomous dispatch of this C3 bug-fix item?

   Classification: work-class: scoped (C3), bug-fix-shaped (confirmed at triage this cycle). Intended dispatch: the work-loop worker lane, through /work-items:work, to a draft PR the lane never merges. Once ratified, the lane dispatches the interview-page items #5815, #5908, #5910 and #5911 one at a time, because they edit overlapping page code. First drain is not complete and no item-level ratification exists, so it is queued here. Ratify through /work-items:attend-queue and it dispatches on a later cycle.

   Lane: work-loop, instance melo-worker-1, cycle 1.
5. kyle-sexton

   added

   needs-humanHuman-in-the-loop required; autonomous sessions must not resolve items carrying this.Human-in-the-loop required; autonomous sessions must not resolve items carrying this.

   and removed

   agent-readyFully specified and briefed; eligible for autonomous pickup from the frontier.Fully specified and briefed; eligible for autonomous pickup from the frontier.

   on Oct 4, 2026
6. kyle-sexton

   added 2 commits that reference this issue on Oct 11, 2026

   fix(planning): say "decided after you answered" on a stale question a…

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   6c9d30a

   fix(planning): take the user to the dependents a changed answer made …

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   0ad9cf4
7. kyle-sexton commented on Oct 11, 2026

   

   kyle-sexton

   on Oct 11, 2026 – with Claude

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   Delivered on branch feat/planning-interview-page-batch in draft PR #7182, one commit for this issue (with Closes #5908).

   The stale banner words each prerequisite for its case ("was decided after you answered this" or "changed"), and the meter shows "· N to review" with the Review filter's own count.

   Verified: ui_page phase 4 covers both wordings and the meter at 1 and 3 to review. The full surface.test.sh was last run in full before the final page commits; the later commits were checked with the ui_page phases. Its one standing failure (AC34 "user name found") is an environment artifact that also fails on main.

   Left for a human: the PR stays a draft until Kyle flips it to ready, which starts the CI and review lanes.

   The needs-human label was left for Kyle to clear.

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   Generated by Claude Code