[Phase 2] Adversarial plan-critic pass against the fixed rubric

Story

As a maintainer relying on the planner's output,
I want a single bounded critic pass that reviews Bob's draft plan.json against the fixed rubric, emits structured findings, and has Bob revise once before apply-plan.sh,
so that semantic defects a structural validator can't catch (contested ACs, missing success metric or cost cap, reward-hacking) are caught before the epic materializes.

Acceptance Criteria

After Bob writes the draft plan.json and it passes validate-plan.py, a bounded critic pass reviews it against the fixed rubric from prompts/bmad/scrum-master.md (the same checks defined in story 2) and emits structured findings as JSON ({check, story_id?, severity, finding}).
The pass is a SINGLE review plus ONE revise — no loop. It is implemented as one bounded step (a second claude-code-action step in initiative-planner.yml OR a second turn in Bob's prompt — the choice is made and documented; see open_questions).
Findings Bob can resolve are folded back into plan.json (which is re-validated); findings he cannot resolve become open_questions carrying affected_story_ids, so they gate per the open-questions-as-gate mechanism.
The Initiative: Eval-gated, human-reviewed self-improving skills (SkillOpt-style) #581 plan is captured as a static regression fixture and a test asserts the critic surfaces the six known hand-review findings (contested-AC, no success metric, no cost cap, reward-hacking/overfitting, untracked prereq, reviewability).
The critic adds at most one extra LLM pass; the human initiative:auto gate remains the final say.

Tasks / Subtasks

Wire the bounded critic step (second action step or second prompt turn) that loads plan.json + the rubric and emits structured JSON findings. (AC: test issue from agent #1, Go-live improvements for PR review agent #2)
Have Bob fold resolvable findings back into plan.json and re-run validate-plan.py; route unresolved findings into open_questions with affected_story_ids. (AC: Add @claude delegation, auto-merge, and rebase handling #3)
Capture the Initiative: Eval-gated, human-reviewed self-improving skills (SkillOpt-style) #581 plan as tests/fixtures and add a regression test asserting the six findings are flagged. (AC: Optimize review: small-PR and incremental fast paths #4)
Confirm the pass is single-shot (no loop) and the inert-epic + human gate are untouched. (AC: Go-live improvements for PR review agent #2, feat: add Copilot engine support via REVIEW_ENGINE toggle #5)

Dev Notes

The rubric is defined ONCE in prompts/bmad/scrum-master.md by story 2 — the critic consumes it verbatim; do not fork a second rubric.
Wiring: the workflow runs a single claude-code-action step today (.github/workflows/initiative-planner.yml:88-176). Either add a second step that reads plan.json + rubric and writes findings then a revise, OR instruct Bob to self-critique in a second turn. Keep it bounded (single pass, one revise) — discussion 💡 Adversarial Plan-Critic + Structural Gates for the Initiative-Planner (Bob) #593's adversarial-review rebuttal is explicit that there is NO self-reflection loop.
Findings must be STRUCTURED JSON (not prose), mirroring the production eval-gate practice cited in 💡 Adversarial Plan-Critic + Structural Gates for the Initiative-Planner (Bob) #593.
Routing findings into open_questions requires the object shape (question + affected_story_ids) introduced by story 3 — hence this story is blocked by both the rubric (story 2) and the gate schema (story 3).
Regression fixture: capture the Initiative: Eval-gated, human-reviewed self-improving skills (SkillOpt-style) #581 plan (open epic Initiative: Eval-gated, human-reviewed self-improving skills (SkillOpt-style) #581 / discussion 💡 SkillOpt-Style Self-Improving Skills: Eval-Gated, Human-Reviewed Agent Skill Evolution #572 in context) as a static plan.json under tests/fixtures and assert the six findings — this is the acceptance evidence discussion 💡 Adversarial Plan-Critic + Structural Gates for the Initiative-Planner (Bob) #593 names.
Cost: the suggested-next-step in 💡 Adversarial Plan-Critic + Structural Gates for the Initiative-Planner (Bob) #593 treats this as the pilot AFTER the cheap structural fixes; keep it to exactly one extra pass.

Project Structure Notes

Spans the workflow (new bounded step/turn), the prompt (rubric reuse), and a small findings helper + a tests/fixtures regression case. Depends on the rubric (story 2) and the open-questions gate schema (story 3) being in place so findings have a defined home.

References

prompts/bmad/scrum-master.md
.github/workflows/initiative-planner.yml#L88-L176
scripts/initiative-planner/validate-plan.py
tests/fixtures

Likely target surface

.github/workflows/initiative-planner.yml
prompts/bmad/scrum-master.md
scripts/initiative-planner/
tests/test_initiative_planner.bats

Story prepared by the BMAD Scrum Master (Bob) for epic #597. Status: ready-for-dev.

Dev-Lead Implementation Plan

Issue: #603 — [Phase 2] Adversarial plan-critic pass against the fixed rubric

Scope

Wire a single bounded adversarial critic pass into the initiative-planner that scores Bob's draft plan.json against the fixed six-check rubric in prompts/bmad/scrum-master.md (consumed verbatim — no forked rubric), emits structured JSON findings, and has Bob revise exactly once: resolvable findings fold back into plan.json (re-validated), unresolved ones become open_questions carrying affected_story_ids so they gate per #682.

Wiring decision (AC #2 — documented)

Second turn in Bob's prompt, inside the existing single claude-code-action step — not a second action step. Rationale: keeps the critic to one extra reasoning pass in the existing LLM invocation (AC #5), needs no extra engine wiring, and the plan → critique → revise → validate → apply sequence is one bounded session with no self-reflection loop (per discussion #593).

Implementation Checklist

prompts/plan-review.md: align the critic to the six scrum-master.md checks (single source; drop the divergent fork); define findings shape {check, story_id?, severity, finding}.
scripts/initiative-planner/plan.schema.json: add affected_story_ids to the open_questions object.
scripts/initiative-planner/validate-plan.py: validate affected_story_ids reference real story ids.
scripts/initiative-planner/route-findings.sh: deterministic helper that folds unresolved findings into open_questions {question, affected_story_ids, blocking}.
.github/workflows/initiative-planner.yml: add the bounded critic turn (single review + one revise) to Bob's prompt; document the choice.
tests/fixtures/initiative-planner/plan-581.json + plan-581.expected-findings.json: the Initiative: Eval-gated, human-reviewed self-improving skills (SkillOpt-style) #581 plan as a static regression fixture.
Register the new bats file in .github/workflows/lint.yml (repo-specific bats list, per AGENTS.md).

Tests to Write

tests/test_plan_critic.bats: fixture passes validate-plan.py (structural validator can't catch the six semantic defects); rubric in scrum-master.md enumerates the six checks; plan-review.md references scrum-master.md (no fork); expected-findings cover all six checks (contested-AC, success-metric, cost-cap, reward-hacking/overfitting, untracked-prereq, reviewability); route-findings.sh routes unresolved findings into open_questions with affected_story_ids and the result re-validates; major/critical → blocking:true gates apply-plan.
Extend tests/test_initiative_planner.bats: validate-plan accepts/validates affected_story_ids.

Test Command

scripts/run-bats.sh tests/test_plan_critic.bats tests/test_initiative_planner.bats tests/test_plan_review.bats and bash .dev-lead/scripts/dev-lead-lint.sh

Dev-Lead: Implementation Complete

Plan Execution

Aligned prompts/plan-review.md to the single-source six-check rubric in prompts/bmad/scrum-master.md (no forked second rubric) and the {check, story_id?, severity, finding} findings shape (AC test issue from agent #1).
Wired the bounded critic as a second turn in Bob's prompt in initiative-planner.yml — single review + ONE revise, no loop, at most one extra reasoning pass (AC Go-live improvements for PR review agent #2, feat: add Copilot engine support via REVIEW_ENGINE toggle #5). Decision documented inline in the prompt.
Added affected_story_ids to the open_questions object in plan.schema.json; validate-plan.py now rejects ids that don't reference a real story (AC Add @claude delegation, auto-merge, and rebase handling #3).
Added scripts/initiative-planner/route-findings.sh — deterministic transform folding unresolved findings into open_questions {question, affected_story_ids, blocking}; major/critical → blocking:true so they gate per initiative-planner: Bob materializes a plan even when he has unresolved open questions — should gate, not guess #682 (AC Add @claude delegation, auto-merge, and rebase handling #3).
Captured the Initiative: Eval-gated, human-reviewed self-improving skills (SkillOpt-style) #581 plan as tests/fixtures/initiative-planner/plan-581.json + golden plan-581.expected-findings.json and added tests/test_plan_critic.bats asserting the six findings (AC Optimize review: small-PR and incremental fast paths #4).
Confirmed the inert-epic + human initiative:auto gate are untouched (AC Go-live improvements for PR review agent #2, feat: add Copilot engine support via REVIEW_ENGINE toggle #5); registered the new bats file in lint.yml.

Wiring decision (AC #2, documented)

Second turn in Bob's prompt, inside the existing single claude-code-action step — not a second action step. It keeps the critic to one extra reasoning pass in the existing LLM invocation, needs no extra engine wiring, and runs plan → critique → revise → re-validate → apply as one bounded session with no self-reflection loop (per #593).

Note on the regression test (AC #4)

The LLM critic can't run deterministically in CI, so the test locks the regression contract: the #581 fixture is structurally valid (proving the structural validator can't catch the six semantic defects), the rubric is single-sourced and enumerates the six checks, the golden findings cover all six (contested_ac, success_metric, cost_cap, eval_safeguards, untracked_prereq, reviewability), and route-findings.sh folds them into the gating open_questions shape. The fixture is a faithful capture of the #581 plan's structure (discussion #572 / epic #581) exhibiting each of the six known defects.

Test Results

tests/test_plan_critic.bats ......... 22/22 passing
Full lint.yml bats list ............. 469/469 passing (no regressions)
dev-lead-lint (shellcheck + agent frontmatter) ... all checks passed
shellcheck route-findings.sh / post-plan-findings.sh ... clean
YAML/JSON parse (workflow, schema, fixtures) ... OK

Files Changed

prompts/plan-review.md: rewritten to consume the scrum-master.md rubric verbatim + new findings shape.
.github/workflows/initiative-planner.yml: added the bounded plan-critic turn (critique → revise once → re-validate) to Bob's prompt.
.github/workflows/lint.yml: registered tests/test_plan_critic.bats.
scripts/initiative-planner/plan.schema.json: open_questions.affected_story_ids.
scripts/initiative-planner/validate-plan.py: validate affected_story_ids refs.
scripts/initiative-planner/route-findings.sh: new deterministic routing helper.
scripts/post-plan-findings.sh: header comment updated to the new findings shape (channel is field-name agnostic).
tests/test_plan_critic.bats, tests/fixtures/initiative-planner/plan-581.json, tests/fixtures/initiative-planner/plan-581.expected-findings.json: new regression test + fixtures.

Notes

The existing review-plan.sh/post-plan-findings.sh registry path (engine.sh-based) is left intact; both it and the new in-prompt critic now reference the same single rubric (prompts/bmad/scrum-master.md via prompts/plan-review.md).
affected_story_ids is the field this story adds for routing; the blocking gate field (initiative-planner: Bob materializes a plan even when he has unresolved open questions — should gate, not guess #682) was already present and is reused for gating.

feat: implement issue #603 — [Phase 2] Adversarial plan-critic pass a…

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[Phase 2] Adversarial plan-critic pass against the fixed rubric #603

Story

Acceptance Criteria

Tasks / Subtasks

Dev Notes

Project Structure Notes

References

Likely target surface

Dev-Lead Implementation Plan

Scope

Wiring decision (AC #2 — documented)

Implementation Checklist

Tests to Write

Test Command

Dev-Lead: Implementation Complete

Plan Execution

Wiring decision (AC #2, documented)

Note on the regression test (AC #4)

Test Results

Files Changed

Notes

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[Phase 2] Adversarial plan-critic pass against the fixed rubric #603

Description

Story

Acceptance Criteria

Tasks / Subtasks

Dev Notes

Project Structure Notes

References

Likely target surface

Activity

don-petry commented on Jun 17, 2026

Dev-Lead Implementation Plan

Scope

Wiring decision (AC #2 — documented)

Implementation Checklist

Tests to Write

Test Command

don-petry commented on Jun 17, 2026

Dev-Lead: Implementation Complete

Plan Execution

Wiring decision (AC #2, documented)

Note on the regression test (AC #4)

Test Results

Files Changed

Notes

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Type

Projects

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