Alignment Review: repo

Review Metadata

Review Date: 2026-03-28 Scope: repo Status: complete Review Epic: hx-1297bf62 Review Issues: hx-a3dab13b, hx-5c8aee1e, hx-c41039f2, hx-3eb44502 Primary Governing Artifact: workflows/README.md

Scope and Governing Artifacts

Scope

• planning stack and workflow contract
• helix wrapper CLI and run-loop behavior
• built-in tracker implementation and queue hygiene
• HELIX skill packaging, installer, and validation surfaces

Governing Artifacts

• docs/helix/00-discover/product-vision.md
• docs/helix/01-frame/prd.md
• docs/helix/01-frame/features/FEAT-001-helix-supervisory-control.md
• docs/helix/01-frame/features/FEAT-002-helix-cli.md
• docs/helix/02-design/adr/ADR-001-supervisory-control-model.md
• docs/helix/02-design/adr/ADR-002-tracker-write-safety-model.md
• docs/helix/02-design/contracts/API-001-helix-tracker-mutation.md
• docs/helix/02-design/solution-designs/SD-001-helix-supervisory-control.md
• docs/helix/02-design/technical-designs/TD-002-helix-cli.md
• docs/helix/03-test/test-plans/TP-002-helix-cli.md
• docs/helix/04-build/implementation-plan.md
• workflows/README.md
• workflows/EXECUTION.md
• workflows/TRACKER.md
• workflows/actions/reconcile-alignment.md
• workflows/templates/alignment-review.md

Intent Summary

• Vision: HELIX should act as a supervised autopilot that advances the weakest ready layer while preserving authority order, bounded execution, and tracker-first discipline (docs/helix/00-discover/product-vision.md:5-11, docs/helix/00-discover/product-vision.md:36-40, docs/helix/00-discover/product-vision.md:44-69).
• Requirements: helix run should choose the least-power next bounded action, react to downstream artifact changes, preserve tracker-backed execution, and keep the packaged skill surface coherent (docs/helix/01-frame/prd.md:14-18, docs/helix/01-frame/prd.md:82-130, docs/helix/01-frame/prd.md:151-183).
• Features / Stories: FEAT-001 defines supervisory control and direct intervention points; FEAT-002 defines the CLI surface, tracker model, installer contract, and deterministic wrapper proof lane (docs/helix/01-frame/features/FEAT-001-helix-supervisory-control.md:35-47, docs/helix/01-frame/features/FEAT-001-helix-supervisory-control.md:60-90, docs/helix/01-frame/features/FEAT-002-helix-cli.md:23-115).
• Architecture / ADRs: ADR-001 selects the supervisory control model; ADR-002 selects conservative file-backed tracker safety and visible concurrency semantics (docs/helix/02-design/adr/ADR-001-supervisory-control-model.md:23-39, docs/helix/02-design/adr/ADR-002-tracker-write-safety-model.md:24-40).
• Technical Design: SD-001 and TD-002 require bounded queue-drain routing, explicit PLAN and POLISH handling, queue-drift revalidation, review-aware stopping, and coherent package-relative skill installation (docs/helix/02-design/solution-designs/SD-001-helix-supervisory-control.md:16-31, docs/helix/02-design/solution-designs/SD-001-helix-supervisory-control.md:67-103, docs/helix/02-design/technical-designs/TD-002-helix-cli.md:28-40, docs/helix/02-design/technical-designs/TD-002-helix-cli.md:75-101, docs/helix/02-design/technical-designs/TD-002-helix-cli.md:182-247).
• Test Plans: TP-002 defines bash tests/helix-cli.sh as the deterministic verification path for wrapper and tracker behavior (docs/helix/03-test/test-plans/TP-002-helix-cli.md:8-30, docs/helix/03-test/test-plans/TP-002-helix-cli.md:40-72).
• Implementation Plans: the 04-build layer is supposed to sequence the current tracker-backed slices, but the current plan still cites superseded issues instead of the live follow-up set (docs/helix/04-build/implementation-plan.md:13-16, docs/helix/04-build/implementation-plan.md:46-52, docs/helix/04-build/implementation-plan.md:70-74).

Planning Stack Findings

Implementation Map

• Topology: workflows/ holds the normative workflow contract and shared resources; scripts/helix is the wrapper CLI; scripts/tracker.sh is the file-backed tracker; .agents/skills/ is the project-level package surface; skills/ holds the canonical skill directories; tests/helix-cli.sh and tests/validate-skills.sh are the deterministic proof surfaces (workflows/README.md:17-40, scripts/helix:15-22, scripts/tracker.sh:7-18, tests/validate-skills.sh:4-18).
• Entry Points: scripts/helix exposes run, implement, check, align, backfill, plan, polish, next, review, experiment, and tracker; tracker subcommands dispatch through tracker_dispatch; local installation writes ~/.local/bin/helix and links canonical project skills into ~/.agents/skills and ~/.claude/skills (scripts/helix:40-93, scripts/helix:522-643, scripts/helix:730-880, scripts/tracker.sh:761-813, scripts/install-local-skills.sh:36-45, scripts/install-local-skills.sh:92-110).
• Test Surfaces: this pass reran bash tests/helix-cli.sh, bash tests/validate-skills.sh, and git diff --check; the wrapper harness passed all 77 deterministic cases and the skill validator reported 10 validated HELIX skills. The harness still lacks a queue-drain check-failure regression case for the run_check guard in scripts/helix, which leaves hx-7d00b06f as an open runtime test gap (docs/helix/03-test/test-plans/TP-002-helix-cli.md:12-16, tests/helix-cli.sh:1662-1707, tests/helix-cli.sh:2330-2350, scripts/helix:818-821, tests/validate-skills.sh:42-91).
• Unplanned Areas: none found in the reviewed repo surface. Current gaps are stale planning layers, incomplete review follow-through, and missing regression coverage rather than orphaned implementation paths. This is an inference from the absence of uncovered features after revalidating the planning stack, runtime, tracker, installer, and proof lane in this pass.

Acceptance Criteria Status

Gap Register

Quality Findings

Traceability Matrix

Review Issue Summary

Execution Issues Generated

This execution reused the canonical closed review epic hx-1297bf62 and its four functional-area review tasks hx-a3dab13b, hx-5c8aee1e, hx-c41039f2, and hx-3eb44502. Revalidation against the live planning stack, wrapper runtime, tracker, installer, and proof lane found one additional uncovered repo-scope gap since the prior refresh: runtime test issue hx-7d00b06f for queue-drain check-failure coverage. No new review epic or review task was created; the existing canonical review container was updated in place and the durable report was refreshed against the live eight-issue open set.

Issue Coverage Verification

Execution Order

1. hx-e7324e4f to restore feature-spec authority before more wrapper/runtime drift accumulates.
2. hx-c2dd330a to complete the remaining review-handling behavior required by TD-002.
3. hx-7d00b06f to lock in regression coverage for the queue-drain check-failure guard before future refactors erode the fix.
4. hx-650ab26b to make tracker help requests non-mutating.
5. hx-8447a41c to refresh the 04-build layer so it cites the live queue accurately.
6. hx-4e5451cd to repair the stale TP-002 evidence references.
7. hx-bf99e0ee as backlog quality work on implementation-note hygiene.
8. hx-44a5dbfe as backlog quality work on alignment-review note hygiene.

Critical Path: hx-e7324e4f then hx-c2dd330a Parallel: hx-7d00b06f, hx-650ab26b, hx-8447a41c, hx-4e5451cd, hx-bf99e0ee, hx-44a5dbfe Blockers: none First Recommended Execution Set: execution-safe now: hx-c2dd330a, hx-650ab26b, hx-44a5dbfe, and hx-7d00b06f; design-led prerequisite outside the execution-safe queue: hx-e7324e4f

Open Decisions

Queue Health and Exhaustion Assessment

• Actionable follow-up work remains for repo scope; the queue is not exhausted.
• This pass reused the closed canonical repo review epic hx-1297bf62 and its area tasks hx-a3dab13b, hx-5c8aee1e, hx-c41039f2, and hx-3eb44502 rather than creating another same-scope review tree.
• Fresh verification in this execution pass succeeded: bash tests/helix-cli.sh (PASS: 77 helix wrapper tests), bash tests/validate-skills.sh (validated 10 HELIX skills), and git diff --check.
• Current tracker health is 165 total issues, 8 open, 0 in-progress, and 156 closed. ddx bead list --status open --json confirms the remaining eight open issues are exactly hx-e7324e4f, hx-c2dd330a, hx-4e5451cd, hx-8447a41c, hx-bf99e0ee, hx-650ab26b, hx-44a5dbfe, and hx-7d00b06f. The remaining non-open, non-closed record stays deferred historical artifact hx-e4d48132, confirmed by ddx bead list --status deferred --json.
• ddx bead ready --json --execution now returns hx-c2dd330a, hx-650ab26b, hx-44a5dbfe, and hx-7d00b06f. The design and documentation follow-up issues remain intentionally open but not execution-safe.
• This alignment pass corrected hx-7d00b06f from review-only metadata to an actual test execution issue by updating it to phase:test, spec-id: TP-002, and execution-eligible: true, because the real remaining work is deterministic harness coverage rather than more review bookkeeping.
• Revalidation against the current planning stack, runtime, tracker, installer, and proof lane found no additional repo-scope gaps beyond hx-e7324e4f, hx-c2dd330a, hx-7d00b06f, hx-650ab26b, hx-8447a41c, hx-4e5451cd, hx-bf99e0ee, and hx-44a5dbfe.
• Repo scope remains ALIGNED for packaging, installer behavior, queue-drain dispatch, tracker core semantics, and deterministic proof-lane stability. The remaining non-aligned areas are the previously tracked stale-plan and incomplete gaps plus the newly recorded runtime regression-coverage gap above.