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fix(pharaoh-setup): infer required_links direction from edges, not link names#14

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fix(pharaoh-setup): infer required_links direction from edges, not link names#14
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@bburda bburda commented May 5, 2026

Summary

pharaoh-setup Step 2b inferred [pharaoh.traceability].required_links chain direction from a heuristic table mapping link option names to fixed chains (implements -> "spec -> impl", tests -> "impl -> test", etc.). The table assumed a single project convention (parent references child via the link option). Projects that follow the opposite convention -- child references parent via :implements:, :reqs:, etc. -- received chains pointing the wrong way, and pharaoh:mece reported 100% gaps for the source type.

What changed

skills/pharaoh-setup/SKILL.md Step 2b now resolves chain direction from three sources in priority order:

  1. Built needs.json when available. For each declared link option L and ordered pair of declared types (X, Y), emit "X -> Y" only when at least 90% of X instances bearing :L: resolve to a Y, with a sample size of at least 3. The direction matches the edges the project actually emits.
  2. Declared semantics from [needs.links.<name>]. Used only when ubproject.toml carries an explicit type-pair hint; the outgoing/incoming description alone does not identify the type pair, so the skill does not invent it from the link option name.
  3. Refuse to guess. When neither source resolves a (source-type, target-type) pair, emit a TODO comment instead of a chain.

The previous heuristic-name table is removed. Type-pair filtering against [[needs.types]] and the empty-array fallback continue to apply to every source.

Repro / verification

Reproduction is documented in #11 against useblocks/sphinx-needs-demo. After the fix, when needs.json is available, Step 2b emits chains that match the demo's actual link semantics (spec -> req, impl -> spec, safety_goal -> hazard, fsr -> safety_goal, arch -> req) and pharaoh:mece reports 0 gaps.

Closes #11

…nk names

The previous Step 2b inferred chain direction from a heuristic table mapping
link option names to fixed chains (e.g., `implements -> "spec -> impl"`).
The table assumed a single convention (parent references child). On projects
that follow the opposite convention (child references parent via
`:implements:`), every emitted chain is the inverse of the actual edge and
`pharaoh:mece` reports 100% gaps for the source type.

Replace the heuristic table with three sources applied in priority order:

1. Built `needs.json` when available -- emit `X -> Y` only where at least
   90% of `X` instances with the link option resolve to a `Y` (and at least
   3 instances exist), so the direction matches the data the project emits.
2. Declared `outgoing`/`incoming` semantics in `[needs.links.<name>]` --
   only used when an explicit type-pair hint is supplied; the description
   alone does not identify the type pair.
3. Refuse to guess -- emit a TODO comment instead of a chain.

The type-pair declared-in-`[[needs.types]]` filter and the empty-array
fallback continue to apply to every source.

Closes #11
Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings May 5, 2026 12:30
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Pull request overview

Updates pharaoh-setup’s Step 2b documentation so [pharaoh.traceability].required_links direction is inferred from observed link edges (preferably via built needs.json) rather than guessing from link option names, avoiding inverted chains on projects with opposite link conventions.

Changes:

  • Replaces the heuristic link-name→chain-direction table with a needs.json–driven inference algorithm (sample-size + coverage thresholds).
  • Clarifies required_links semantics as “outgoing link from source-type to target-type” per pharaoh:mece.
  • Adds a “refuse to guess” behavior: emit TODO comments when direction/type-pair can’t be determined.

Comment on lines +283 to +284
# found. Build the docs once and re-run `pharaoh:setup`, or add an
# explicit chain manually in the form "source-type -> target-type".
required_links = [
# No traceability chains inferred. Add entries of the form
# "source-type -> target-type" once the link conventions stabilise,
# or build the docs and re-run `pharaoh:setup` to infer from `needs.json`.
Comment on lines +273 to +275
**Source 2 — declared semantics from `[needs.links.<name>]` (greenfield, no `needs.json`).** The `outgoing` and `incoming` descriptions identify the verb and which side bears the link option, but they do not, on their own, identify the type pair: any type can carry any link option. Without empirical edges or an explicit hint, the source and target types are unknown.

Use this source only when `ubproject.toml` carries an explicit hint (e.g., a future `[needs.links.<name>] from = "<type>", to = "<type>"` extension). Do not invent the type pair from the link option name.
Comment on lines +290 to +296
**Type-pair filter (applied to every source).** Emit a chain only when both the source type and the target type are declared in `ubproject.toml` `[[needs.types]]`. When Source 1 resolves an edge whose target type is not declared, drop it with a comment naming the dropped target — the chain is dead config that would alarm on every source need from day one:

```toml
required_links = [
"req -> spec",
"spec -> impl",
# "impl -> test", # SKIPPED: 'test' is not declared in [[needs.types]]
bburda added a commit that referenced this pull request May 5, 2026
pharaoh-setup now consults the project's declared conventions and
existing artefacts before generating tailoring. Six setup defects
on real-world projects (useblocks/sphinx-needs-demo) drove this:

- artefact-catalog optional_fields seeded from ubproject.toml
  [needs.fields.X], not from a Pharaoh-internal placeholder set
- workflows.yaml lifecycle_states derived from a status histogram of
  existing RST files; falls back to draft -> reviewed -> approved
  only when no project history exists
- id-conventions prefixes detect collisions in [[needs.types]] and
  warn or FAIL with a remediation hint
- id_regex shape detected from existing IDs (e.g. {DOMAIN}_{NUMBER}),
  not the prescriptive {TYPE}_{NUMBER} default
- mode classifier uses [[needs.types]] declarations and RST content,
  not the gitignored needs.json build artefact
- release-gate fields from the canonical schema (required_links,
  optional_links, required_metadata_fields, required_roles) are
  populated per type from observed link/field declarations

required_links direction inference, partially shipped in PR #14,
extended to cover the full set of relations declared in
[needs.links.X].

Closes #13 section 8.
@bburda bburda self-assigned this May 5, 2026
patdhlk pushed a commit that referenced this pull request May 5, 2026
* fix(pharaoh-setup): infer required_links direction from edges, not link names

The previous Step 2b inferred chain direction from a heuristic table mapping
link option names to fixed chains (e.g., `implements -> "spec -> impl"`).
The table assumed a single convention (parent references child). On projects
that follow the opposite convention (child references parent via
`:implements:`), every emitted chain is the inverse of the actual edge and
`pharaoh:mece` reports 100% gaps for the source type.

Replace the heuristic table with three sources applied in priority order:

1. Built `needs.json` when available -- emit `X -> Y` only where at least
   90% of `X` instances with the link option resolve to a `Y` (and at least
   3 instances exist), so the direction matches the data the project emits.
2. Declared `outgoing`/`incoming` semantics in `[needs.links.<name>]` --
   only used when an explicit type-pair hint is supplied; the description
   alone does not identify the type pair.
3. Refuse to guess -- emit a TODO comment instead of a chain.

The type-pair declared-in-`[[needs.types]]` filter and the empty-array
fallback continue to apply to every source.

Closes #11

* fix(agents): sync agent.md descriptions with SKILL.md, fix gitignore guidance (#12)

The 71 .github/agents/pharaoh.*.agent.md files shipped with descriptions
that diverged from their source SKILL.md. Two were catastrophically
truncated at the first '.' (split caught 'e.g.' and 'index.rst'),
producing unclosed parens and backticks that broke Markdown rendering
in Copilot's review UI on downstream PRs (sphinx-needs-demo#51).

Changes:
- 61 thin-wrapper agents: regenerate description and body verbatim
  from SKILL.md frontmatter; preserve existing handoffs.
- 8 fat agents (mece, plan, change, spec, setup, decide, release,
  trace): update only the frontmatter description; leave hand-tailored
  inline content untouched.
- pharaoh.setup.agent.md Step 3: rewrite gitignore guidance to mirror
  SKILL.md Step 4b. Ignore only ephemeral subpaths
  (.pharaoh/runs/, .pharaoh/plans/, .pharaoh/session.json,
  .pharaoh/cache/); .pharaoh/project/ tailoring stays tracked.
- ci.yaml: add a guard that fails the agent-frontmatter step when the
  description has unbalanced parens, brackets, or backticks. Catches
  the truncation class that produced the original regression.

* cleanup: drop dangling pharaoh-arch-regenerate references

Removes six references in pharaoh-arch-review/SKILL.md and one in
pharaoh-arch-draft/SKILL.md to a planned-but-never-implemented
pharaoh-arch-regenerate skill: chains_from list, prose handoff hints,
and three deferred rubric axes. Re-authoring after review is a
follow-up step outside the review skill's scope.

If we later want regenerate symmetry between req and arch (i.e. ship
pharaoh-arch-regenerate as a sibling to pharaoh-req-regenerate), that
is a separate PR.

Closes part of #13 (section 6).

* arch-review: fix grammar in advisory-chain reminder

"Confirm the findings clear" parses as a sentence missing a verb;
"confirm the findings are resolved" reads cleanly. Caught in PR review.

* feat(skills): add pharaoh-author and pharaoh-verify user-entry skills

Implements the two user-entry slash commands @pharaoh.author and
@pharaoh.verify that copilot-instructions.md documents as canonical
steps in the workflow chain (@pharaoh.plan -> @pharaoh.change ->
@pharaoh.author -> @pharaoh.verify -> @pharaoh.release). Both were dead
before: prompt files only carried agent-frontmatter pointing at agent
files that did not exist, while ~26 live references in 6 sibling
agent.md files plus copilot-instructions.md called into them.

pharaoh-author is a type-routing orchestrator over the existing atomic
drafting skills (pharaoh-req-draft, pharaoh-arch-draft, pharaoh-vplan-
draft, pharaoh-decide). Dispatch entries for pharaoh-arch-draft and
pharaoh-vplan-draft are deliberately thin passthroughs -- a follow-up
in this PR will update them once those skills' interfaces are
parameterized.

pharaoh-verify is a content-level satisfaction checker -- given a
need-id, walks the :satisfies: chain and evaluates whether the child
addresses the parent's substance. Distinct from pharaoh-mece
(structural), pharaoh-req-review (per-axis rubric), and
pharaoh-tailor-review (schema-level).

Closes part of #13 (section 5).

* schemas: promote tailoring schemas to canonical install path

Moves the four JSON Schemas from examples/score/.pharaoh/project/schemas/
to schemas/ at the package root so every Pharaoh-tailored project shares
the same authoritative validation rules. Adds schemas/README.md
documenting the resolution order and per-file responsibilities.

Updates pharaoh-tailor-review to resolve schemas in priority order:
(1) explicit schemas_dir argument, (2) per-project
<tailoring_dir>/schemas/, (3) the shipped schemas/ folder, (4) fallback
to built-in structural rules with degraded_mode flag.

Fixes pharaoh-tailor-bootstrap output to validate against the canonical
artefact-catalog schema by dropping the unused child_of and lifecycle_ref
keys (both rejected by additionalProperties: false). The information
child_of carried is recoverable from artefact-type link declarations;
lifecycle_ref was decorative.

Updates skills/shared/tailoring-access.md to document only the
schema-allowed fields (required_fields, optional_fields, lifecycle,
required_body_sections) — the prior child_of and lifecycle_ref entries
were inconsistent with the canonical schema.

Closes part of #13: section 1 sub-bullets (a) artefact-catalog
additionalProperties violations and (d) schemas at canonical install
path. Sub-bullets (b) and (c) are addressed by the next commit on this
branch.

* tailor: reconcile bootstrap/fill output shapes against canonical schemas

Aligns pharaoh-tailor-bootstrap and pharaoh-tailor-fill so the same
tailoring file gets the same shape regardless of which authoring path
ran. Resolves divergences caught when validating real-world projects:

workflows.yaml: bootstrap rewrites its per-type {from, to, gate} map
output to the schema-shaped flat lifecycle_states + transitions[*]
{from, to, requires}. fill already emits this shape on the transitions
side but printed lifecycle_states as a description map; corrected to a
flat list per the schema. bootstrap was the outlier on transitions.

id-conventions.yaml id_regex_*: pharaoh-id-convention-check now reads
id_regex_exceptions (the schema key) instead of id_regex_by_type. The
three fixture files in skills/pharaoh-id-convention-check/fixtures/
move to the same key.

id-conventions.yaml prefixes: canonical value form is the identifier
prefix string (e.g. REQ_, gd_req), not a human description. Tightens
the prefixes additionalProperties regex in
schemas/id-conventions.schema.json to enforce identifier-prefix shape
and updates pharaoh-tailor-fill plus the score example tailoring to
emit prefix strings instead of prose descriptions.

pharaoh-lifecycle-check: documentation note tying the workflows.yaml
shape it consumes to schemas/workflows.schema.json; no behavioural
change.

Closes #13 sections 2 (bootstrap/fill incompatibility) and 1 sub-bullets
(b) workflows shape mismatch and (c) id-conventions value-form ambiguity.

* release-gate: emit and validate required_links/metadata_fields/roles

Closes the silent no-op where four release-gate fields were consumed
but never emitted by any tailoring author:

  required_links / optional_links     read by pharaoh-link-completeness-check
  required_metadata_fields            read by pharaoh-output-validate
  required_roles                      read by pharaoh-review-completeness

Adds all four as optional per-type properties to
schemas/artefact-catalog.schema.json. Documents inference rules in
pharaoh-tailor-bootstrap and emission defaults in pharaoh-tailor-fill.
Adds cross-file rule C6 in pharaoh-tailor-review that surfaces a
finding when any of the three required-* fields is absent (empty arrays
are valid -- they declare an explicit choice; missing keys are not).

Closes #13 (section 3).

* toml-example: document all consumed pharaoh.toml sections, single defaults source

Adds the three sections that were consumed but undocumented:

  [pharaoh.codelink_comments]   read by pharaoh-req-codelink-annotate
                                and pharaoh-req-from-code
  [pharaoh.diagrams]            read by 11 diagram-draft skills plus
                                pharaoh-feat-component-extract and
                                pharaoh-feat-flow-extract
  [pharaoh.quality_gate]        read by pharaoh-diagram-lint

Documents [pharaoh.codelinks].src_dir (consumed by pharaoh-write-plan
and pharaoh-feat-file-map) which the example previously left
undocumented under [pharaoh.codelinks].

Reconciles the workflow-flag defaults that previously disagreed across
three sources (shared/strictness.md, pharaoh-gate-advisor, the
example). The example is now the single source of truth; the other two
defer to it explicitly rather than redeclare.

Persists [pharaoh.workflow].mode as a real key (was a comment-only line
that no skill could parse).

Closes #13 (section 4).

* atomic: parameterize pharaoh-arch-draft and pharaoh-vplan-draft by target_level

Drops the hardcoded type vocabulary that locked these two atomic
drafting skills to a fixed set of artefact types:

pharaoh-arch-draft no longer accepts only arch_type in {module,
component, interface}. It now takes a target_level argument and reads
the type's required_fields and id_regex from artefact-catalog.yaml /
id-conventions.yaml. Drafting swarch, sys-arch, or any other
architecture-shaped need declared in the catalog now works without
modifying the skill.

pharaoh-vplan-draft no longer hardcodes the tc__ prefix or the tc
catalog key. The prefix is derived from id-conventions.yaml's prefixes
map for the target_level type; the catalog key matches the type name.
A project whose test type uses prefix T_ now generates compliant IDs.

pharaoh-author routing entries for both skills now pass the
parameterized target_level instead of the previous thin passthrough.
The router dispatches by artefact-catalog category, so any
catalog-declared architecture type routes to pharaoh-arch-draft and
any verification-plan-shaped type routes to pharaoh-vplan-draft.

Closes #13 section 9 sub-bullets (a) and (b).

* atomic: extend pharaoh-req-draft to cover ISO 26262 safety-V types

Reframes pharaoh-req-draft as the canonical drafter for any
requirement-shaped artefact, not just classical req / comp_req. Any
target_level declared in artefact-catalog.yaml routes here, including
ISO 26262 safety-V types: hazard (HARA outputs), safety_goal (Part 3),
and fsr / functional safety requirement (Part 4).

The skill drives every type from artefact-catalog.yaml's required_fields
and required_metadata_fields, so safety-V-specific fields like asil,
severity, exposure, controllability, and safe_state are surfaced as
placeholders without hardcoding ISO-26262 logic into the skill itself.
A project that doesn't declare these fields in its catalog gets a
plain requirement; a project that does (e.g. useblocks/sphinx-needs-demo)
gets the safety-V shape.

pharaoh-author routing for safety-V target_levels no longer FAILs with
"no drafter for type X yet" -- they dispatch to the reframed
pharaoh-req-draft like any other requirement-shaped type.

Closes #13 section 9 sub-bullet (c).

* flow: extend pharaoh-flow to SYS/SWE split and safety V

Today the orchestrator's description claims V-model end-to-end but
the body only walks the classical req -> arch -> vplan -> fmea chain.
swreq / sysreq / sys-arch / swarch never appear; hazard / safety_goal
/ fsr never appear.

Extends the chain to three optional layers:

  Safety V:   hazard -> safety_goal -> fsr   (ISO 26262 Part 3 + 4)
  SYS/SWE:    sysreq -> sys-arch
              swreq  -> swarch
  Classical:  req / comp_req -> arch -> vplan -> fmea

Each layer auto-detects from artefact-catalog.yaml: a layer runs only
if the catalog declares its types. Caller can also pass an explicit
stages argument to skip layers (e.g. run only safety_v while the rest
of the V is still being bootstrapped).

Safety-V dispatch goes to pharaoh-req-draft with the appropriate
target_level (hazard / safety_goal / fsr), not new safety-V skills —
the reframe in the prior commit makes pharaoh-req-draft the canonical
drafter for any requirement-shaped artefact.

Closes #13 section 10.

* setup: read project state before imposing defaults

pharaoh-setup now consults the project's declared conventions and
existing artefacts before generating tailoring. Six setup defects
on real-world projects (useblocks/sphinx-needs-demo) drove this:

- artefact-catalog optional_fields seeded from ubproject.toml
  [needs.fields.X], not from a Pharaoh-internal placeholder set
- workflows.yaml lifecycle_states derived from a status histogram of
  existing RST files; falls back to draft -> reviewed -> approved
  only when no project history exists
- id-conventions prefixes detect collisions in [[needs.types]] and
  warn or FAIL with a remediation hint
- id_regex shape detected from existing IDs (e.g. {DOMAIN}_{NUMBER}),
  not the prescriptive {TYPE}_{NUMBER} default
- mode classifier uses [[needs.types]] declarations and RST content,
  not the gitignored needs.json build artefact
- release-gate fields from the canonical schema (required_links,
  optional_links, required_metadata_fields, required_roles) are
  populated per type from observed link/field declarations

required_links direction inference, partially shipped in PR #14,
extended to cover the full set of relations declared in
[needs.links.X].

Closes #13 section 8.

* fix: pass target_level to pharaoh-req-draft and populate score example release-gate fields

pharaoh-author Step 2 dispatched to pharaoh-req-draft without
target_level, so a call like pharaoh-author(target_type=hazard) would
fall through pharaoh-req-draft's "default to first req-shaped catalog
key" path and emit a gd_req instead of a hazard. Same problem for
safety_goal, fsr, tsr, sysreq, swreq, and any non-default req variant.
The Step 1 routing table already advertised "target_level forwarded
verbatim" — this commit makes the dispatch block honour that.

Also populates the four release-gate fields (required_links,
optional_links, required_metadata_fields, required_roles) for every
type entry in the score example artefact-catalog. The schema added
the fields as optional, the bootstrap and setup skills emit them, but
the canonical example file was silent — leaving a copy-paste source
that disagrees with what fresh tailoring runs would produce.

* fix(review): address 11 cross-phase review findings

Critical:
- CHANGELOG.md drops local pharaoh-validation harness citations
- pharaoh-tailor-review SKILL.md drops harness-cite at line 304
- pharaoh-author drops category-field routing (schema additionalProperties:
  false rejects it); relies on synonym table only
- pharaoh-vplan-draft now defaults verification_level=system on absent input
  so pharaoh-author dispatch chain doesn't hard-FAIL
- pharaoh.setup.agent.md replaces hardcoded 8-agent list with dynamic
  enumeration from .github/agents/
- pharaoh-tailor-review prefixes-value rule no longer calls it a
  "description"; matches schema pattern

Important:
- pharaoh-author resolution rule made deterministic for ambiguous *_req
- plugin.json bumped 0.1.0 -> 0.2.0
- CHANGELOG migration section: id_regex_by_type rename, prefixes value form,
  child_of/lifecycle_ref drops, C6 behaviour
- pharaoh.author / pharaoh.verify added to handoffs of pharaoh.change and
  pharaoh.plan agents
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bburda commented May 5, 2026

#16 included this

@bburda bburda closed this May 5, 2026
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pharaoh-setup: required_links direction inferred from link option labels, not actual link semantics

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