LLM brief Top 5 Structural Pillars promotes zero-connection markdown files on flat-graph repos #2556

Summary

Scan of cicsdev/cics-genapp (COBOL/JCL sample) includes an LLM brief section "Top 5 Structural Pillars (Highest 'Imported By' / Blast Radius)" that lists:

1. Changes.md — 0 inbound connections
2. MAINTAINERS.md — 0 inbound connections
3. README.md — 0 inbound connections
4. base/Building.md — 0 inbound connections
5. base/Installation.md — 0 inbound connections

Problem: When maximum inbound-connection count is 0 (flat dependency graph with no resolvable internal imports), the section should state that and emit no entries, or a placeholder. Instead, it presents five zero-connection markdown files as "the most interconnected files". The section's own prose warns "On a repo with a flatter internal architecture, the gap between #1 and #5 may be small, and this list is a weaker signal accordingly" — but 0 connections is no signal, and an LLM consuming the brief will repeat the list as fact.

Reproduction

galaxyscope --llm-only /path/to/cicsdev/cics-genapp
# LLM brief section 7, subsection "Top 5 Structural Pillars"
# Expected: No entries or a placeholder when max inbound count = 0

Engine: GitGalaxy Scope vlatest (Delta Mode), contemporary with main 8880281.

Questions for scope

Primary: Guard the pillar-list builder in to skip emission when all candidates have 0 inbound connections.

Secondary: Why are documentation files surfacing first among all-zero candidates? Is it alphabetical tie-breaking, and should that be documented or changed?

Labels

• bug
• core-engine
• metrics