## Approach
The orchestrator polling loop previously made individual API calls for each PR's
state, CI status, and review decision - 3 separate calls per PR per poll.
With multiple PRs being monitored, this quickly exhausted GitHub's 5,000-point
hourly rate limit.
This PR implements GraphQL batching using aliases, which allows fetching data
for up to 25 PRs in a single GraphQL query. Additionally, a 2-Guard ETag
strategy is used to skip queries entirely when nothing has changed.
## Implementation
### GraphQL Batching
- `generateBatchQuery()` creates a single GraphQL query with unique aliases (pr0, pr1, pr2...)
- Each PR gets the same set of fields: state, CI status, review decision, mergeability
- Uses inline fragments for union types (CheckRun/StatusContext)
- Variable types: String! for owner/repo, Int! for PR numbers
### 2-Guard ETag Strategy
Before running expensive GraphQL queries, two lightweight REST ETag checks detect if
anything changed:
**Guard 1 (PR List ETag):**
- Checks `/repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls` with If-None-Match header
- Returns 304 if no changes → skips GraphQL (0 points)
- Detects: New commits, title/body edits, labels, reviews, state changes
**Guard 2 (Commit Status ETag):**
- Checks `/repos/{owner}/{repo}/commits/{sha}/status` per cached PR
- Returns 304 if no changes → skips GraphQL (0 points)
- Detects: CI status transitions (failing → passing, passing → failing, etc.)
### Caching
- LRU caches for PR metadata (max 200 entries), ETags (100/500 entries)
- Cache misses trigger individual API fallback via lifecycle-manager
- No placeholder caching on errors - allows proper fallback behavior
## Impact
- **API reduction:** ~88% fewer REST calls (216 vs 1,800 calls/hour for 5 PRs)
- **GraphQL efficiency:** Batch query fetches 25 PRs for ~40 points vs ~400 for individual calls
- **Polling interval:** Still 30s, but most polls return cached data (0 cost)
- **Fallback:** Individual SCM calls still work for edge cases (permissions, cache misses)
## Testing
- Unit tests for query generation and parsing helpers
- Integration tests for real GraphQL API calls (skipped by default)
- Covers batch failures, partial success, empty arrays, edge cases
* feat: add PR claim flow for agent sessions
* feat: support PR claim during spawn
* fix: address PR review feedback
* feat: add lifecycle worker automation
* fix: prevent duplicate messages on unconfirmed delivery and deduplicate review prompt
sendWithConfirmation now treats unconfirmed delivery as a soft success
since the message was already sent, preventing the dispatch hash from
staying stale and causing duplicate sends on the next poll cycle.
review-check command now sources its prompt from the lifecycle reaction
config instead of hardcoding it, keeping both paths aligned.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix: pass AO_CONFIG_PATH to spawned lifecycle worker and log duplicate-worker early exit
The spawned lifecycle worker now receives AO_CONFIG_PATH in its
environment so it finds the correct config regardless of CWD. Also
added a log message when exiting early due to an existing worker.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix: prevent lifecycle worker from clearing metadata on SCM fetch failures
SCM methods (getPendingComments, getAutomatedComments) silently returned []
on error, causing maybeDispatchReviewBacklog to treat fetch failures as
"no comments" and clear all tracking metadata every poll cycle. The worker
appeared to do nothing because it kept resetting its own state.
- SCM methods now propagate errors instead of returning []
- maybeDispatchReviewBacklog distinguishes null (fetch failed, skip) from
[] (confirmed empty, safe to clear)
- pollAll() logs errors instead of silently swallowing them
- Added heartbeat logging and stdout flush before process.exit
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix: add debug breadcrumbs when review comment fetch fails
Logs a console.debug message when getPendingComments or
getAutomatedComments fails, making it clear the lifecycle loop is
preserving metadata due to a fetch failure rather than genuinely
having no comments.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix: scope lifecycle worker polling to its project and add missing test
pollAll() now passes the worker's projectId to sessionManager.list(),
so each per-project lifecycle worker only polls its own sessions. This
prevents duplicate SCM API calls and race conditions in multi-project
configs.
Also fixed misleading test name and added a test verifying that
--no-dashboard alone still starts the lifecycle worker.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix: remove dead confirmation check and respect project-level reaction overrides
Removed the unreachable "could not be confirmed" guard from the retry
logic since sendWithConfirmation now returns silently on unconfirmed
delivery.
review-check now resolves the prompt per-session by checking
project-level reaction overrides before falling back to the global
config, matching lifecycle worker behavior.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix: close TOCTOU race in lifecycle worker spawn and unexport getRegistry
Write the child PID from the parent immediately after spawn, closing
the window where a concurrent ensureLifecycleWorker could pass the
"not running" check and spawn a duplicate worker.
Also removed the unnecessary export on getRegistry since it has no
external consumers.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix: always include ao base prompt on spawn
* fix: clear heartbeat on shutdown and add initial delay to confirmation loop
Clear the heartbeat interval in the shutdown handler to prevent it
firing during the stream-flush window after lifecycle.stop().
Move the sleep in sendWithConfirmation to before each check (including
the first), so the runtime has time to reflect the message before
the first confirmation attempt.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix: resolve lint errors in lifecycle and session manager
- Replace dynamic delete with object reconstruction in lifecycle-manager
- Add { cause } to re-thrown errors in session-manager for preserve-caught-error rule
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---------
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* docs: add design research artifacts — briefs, token reference, screenshots
Comprehensive design research package for the ao dashboard, session
detail page, and orchestrator terminal. Produced via competitive analysis
of 14 products (Linear, Vercel, Railway, Fly.io, Inngest, WandB, LangSmith,
Supabase, and more) + Playwright CSS extraction from live sites + full
codebase audit.
Artifacts:
- docs/design/design-brief.md Main design brief (v2, Playwright-updated)
- docs/design/session-detail-design-brief.md /sessions/[id] design spec
- docs/design/orchestrator-terminal-design-brief.md Orchestrator page spec
- docs/design/token-reference.css Drop-in CSS replacement for globals.css
- docs/design/competitive-analysis-raw.md Raw research notes, all 14 sites
- docs/design/design-brief-v1.md Original text-only brief (pre-Playwright)
- docs/design/README.md Index + research methods summary
- docs/design/screenshots/linear-homepage.png Playwright-captured screenshot
- docs/design/screenshots/railway-homepage.png Playwright-captured screenshot
Key findings:
- Linear CSS token values verified via Playwright (body bg #08090A, accent
#7070FF, Berkeley Mono monospace, type scale, radius, transitions)
- Recommended palette: #0C0C11 base (blue-cast dark vs current GitHub #0d1117)
- Highest-impact change: load Inter Variable via next/font/google
- Orchestrator terminal needs visual differentiation (violet accent, status strip)
- token-reference.css is ready to drop into packages/web/src/app/globals.css
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* feat(web): redesign dashboard, session detail, and orchestrator terminal
Implements a cohesive dense dark-mode design system across all three main views.
- New color token palette: #0c0c11 base, #141419 surface, #1c1c25 elevated
- Accent blue #5b7ef8, status semantics (ready/error/attention/working/idle/done)
- Violet accent #a371f7 reserved for orchestrator
- Inter Variable + JetBrains Mono loaded via next/font with CSS variables
- activity-pulse keyframe for live agent dots
- AttentionZone header: dot + label + flex divider + count pill + chevron
- Sessions laid out in responsive 1→2→3 column grid
- Solid green merge button (translateY hover), no confirm() dialog
- Breadcrumb nav: ← Agent Orchestrator / {session-id} [orchestrator badge]
- CSS 8×8px activity dot with pulse animation replaces emoji labels
- Merge-ready state: green-bordered banner with checkmark icon
- Orchestrator sessions show zone counts strip (merge/respond/review counts)
- xterm.js dark theme (#0a0a0f bg, #d4d4d8 fg, full 16-color ANSI palette)
- variant prop: "agent" (blue cursor) vs "orchestrator" (violet cursor)
- Dynamic height prop instead of fixed 600px; fullscreen toggle with SVG icons
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* refactor(web): strip rainbow stats, clean header, IBM Plex Sans typography
- Replace Inter with IBM Plex Sans (technical tool aesthetic, distinctive numerics)
- Replace 4-color big-number stats bar with a single compact inline status line
in the header: "35 sessions · 1 working · 9 PRs" — no decorative colors
- Remove the two-tone "Agent (blue) Orchestrator (white)" title — just "Orchestrator"
- Remove ClientTimestamp (useless) — replaced by orchestrator nav link
- Zone headers: colored dot only (semantic), neutral uppercase label, plain count
— removes the rainbow-colored label text that read as a widget template
- Add subtle radial gradient glow at top of page for depth
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* feat(web): kanban layout, amber accent, full-width, bigger stats
- Switch accent from blue (#5b7ef8) to amber/gold (#d18616) throughout
- Replace grid layout with horizontal Kanban columns for active zones
(merge, respond, review, pending, working), Done stays full-width below
- Remove max-w-[1100px] constraint — full viewport width
- Header stats numbers 20px bold (was 12px), orchestrator link is now a
visible bordered button
- AttentionZone gains variant="column" for Kanban mode (compact header
with count pill, vertical card stack)
- Update all hardcoded rgba(91,126,248,...) in SessionCard to amber
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(web): layout, alert sizing, column order, button feel
- Kanban column order: working→pending→review→respond→merge
(left = in progress, right = ready to ship)
- Columns use flex-1 min-w-[200px] to fill available width
instead of fixed 260px leaving half the page empty
- Alert badges: inline-flex wrapper prevents stretching to full
row width when wrapping
- Terminal button: add bg-subtle fill so it reads as a button
- PR number (#91): remove opaque pill background, now plain
amber text link — clearly a hyperlink
- Merge PR button: pt-0.5 spacer above the action area
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(web): don't cache rate-limited partial PR data
When GitHub rate limits fire, enrichSessionPR was caching the
bad partial data (0 additions, CI failing) for 60 seconds, causing
the dashboard to show incorrect data for the full TTL window.
- Skip cache write when majority of API calls failed
- Downgrade console.error → console.warn (this is handled/expected)
The next page refresh will retry live API calls, so data recovers
as soon as the rate limit window resets.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* feat(web): graceful GitHub API rate limit handling in UI
When the GitHub plugin hits rate limits, the dashboard now:
- Shows a single amber banner: "GitHub API rate limited — PR data
(CI status, review state, sizes) may be stale. Will retry on
next refresh."
- Hides CI badge, review decision, and size pill on PR cards
(they'd show wrong values: +0 -0 XS, CI failing)
- Shows a subtle "⚠ PR data rate limited" note on affected cards
instead of misleading alert badges
- Skips CI/review/conflict-based attention zone classification
for rate-limited PRs (prevents sessions moving to Review due
to phantom "CI failing" from the fallback value)
- Doesn't cache partial rate-limited data so next refresh retries
live API calls as soon as the rate limit window resets
What still works when rate limited:
- Session ID, title, branch, PR number/link
- Session activity status (working/spawning/etc.)
- Merge button if mergeability was already cached
- Restore/terminate/send actions
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* feat(web): dashboard redesign — glassmorphism, Kanban, rate-limit handling, perf fix
Design:
- Kanban layout: active zones as flex columns (working→pending→review→respond→merge),
Done as full-width grid below
- GitHub dark color palette (main's tokens) with glassmorphic card surfaces
(rgba bg + backdrop-blur) and subtle blue/violet body gradient
- Activity state shown as labeled pill (● active / ● idle etc.) instead of bare dot
- Session card: title on its own row, larger font, inline-flex alert badges (no stretch)
- PR number rendered as plain accent link, not a blue pill badge
- Terminal button has background fill to feel like a button
- Info circle icon replaces alarming warning triangle for rate-limit indicators
- "1 working" → "1 active" in header stats
- PR table constrained to max-w-[900px] and centered
- Orchestrator session no longer uses purple accent
Rate limiting:
- isPRRateLimited() helper; getAttentionLevel() skips PR classification when limited
- Rate-limited banner in Dashboard; suppressed CI/size/review badges in PRStatus
- SessionCard shows subtle "PR data rate limited" indicator; getAlerts() returns []
- serialize.ts: rate-limited enrichment results cached for 5 min (not 60s) to stop
retrying 168 failing API calls every minute
Performance:
- page.tsx: 4s hard timeout on PR enrichment — serves stale data fast instead of
blocking SSR for 75s under rate limiting
- cache.ts: TTLCache.set() accepts optional ttl override for per-entry control
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix: suppress stale size/CI/review in PR table when rate limited
PRTableRow now shows "—" for size, CI, and review columns when GitHub
API is rate limited, matching the card view which already hides these.
Prevents misleading "+0 -0 XS" size and "needs review" labels from the
default fallback values.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* feat: 3D card effect with depth shadow and top-edge shine
Cards now clearly pop against the dark background:
- Solid gradient bg (rgba(28,36,47) → rgba(18,23,31)) instead of
near-invisible rgba(22,27,34,0.8) surface
- Layered box-shadow: contact shadow + diffuse depth + inset top highlight
that simulates light hitting the card's top edge (the "shine")
- Hover: card lifts 2px with deeper shadow
- Merge-ready: green-tinted bg with green ambient glow + stronger lift on hover
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix: restore text legibility inside session cards
The darker solid card gradient made muted/secondary text nearly
invisible — #484f58 (text-muted) had only ~2:1 contrast on the
new card bg. Override the color tokens locally within .session-card
to GitHub's established dark-mode legibility values:
--color-text-muted: #484f58 → #656d76 (3.8:1 on card bg)
--color-text-secondary: #7d8590 → #8b949e (6.2:1 on card bg)
--color-text-tertiary: #484f58 → #656d76
Scoped to .session-card so the rest of the UI is unchanged.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix: address bugbot comments — fonts, review zone, ActivityDot, orchestrator btn
- layout.tsx: add IBM Plex Sans weight 700 (was missing, font-bold falling
back to 600)
- DirectTerminal.tsx: use "IBM Plex Mono" instead of unloaded "JetBrains Mono"
- SessionDetail.tsx: add review zone to OrchestratorStatusStrip (was omitted,
sessions with CI failures were invisible in the strip)
- ActivityDot.tsx: extract shared component, remove duplicate implementations
in SessionCard.tsx and SessionDetail.tsx
- Dashboard.tsx: redesign orchestrator button with 3D glass style matching
card aesthetic (blue-tinted bg, depth shadow, hover lift)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(web): lint — eqeqeq, duplicate import, unused var
- ActivityDot.tsx: != → !== (eqeqeq rule)
- PRStatus.tsx: merge duplicate @/lib/types imports into one
- SessionCard.tsx: remove unused activityIcon import
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* feat(web): elevate session detail + orchestrator page design
- Nav: glass backdrop-blur effect with chevron back link
- Header: detail-card 3D treatment with left-border accent keyed to activity color
- Meta chips: bordered pill style with subtle bg instead of flat text
- Status tag: pill badge for status instead of plain text
- PR card: detail-card 3D treatment, border-color reflects PR state
- PR merged badge: purple pill instead of gray text
- Unresolved count: red pill badge in section header
- Blockers section: renamed "Issues" → "Blockers"
- Terminal section: colored bar indicator instead of plain label
- Orchestrator status strip: total agent count + per-zone colored pills
- globals.css: add .nav-glass and .detail-card classes
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(web): fetchZoneCounts parses body.sessions, delayed 2s to avoid contention
The /api/sessions endpoint returns `{ sessions: [...] }` not a bare array.
fetchZoneCounts was treating the whole response object as an array, so
zone counts were always zero on the orchestrator detail page.
Also delays the initial fetchZoneCounts call by 2s so it doesn't contend
with the session fetch on page load (both hit /api/sessions which is slow
when GitHub enrichment is running).
Also includes: Playwright kill-Chrome-for-Testing tip in CLAUDE.md,
toned-down detail-card shadow in globals.css.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* perf+test(web): cache-first PR enrichment, skip exited sessions, fix component tests
Performance improvements:
- enrichSessionPR() now accepts cacheOnly option and returns boolean
- /api/sessions/[id]: serve from cache immediately, only block on first load
- /api/sessions: skip PR enrichment for EXITED sessions (no longer changing)
- cache: increase default TTL from 60s to 5 minutes
Test fixes (match redesigned SessionCard + AttentionZone):
- "restore session" (header) → "restore"; expanded panel still shows "restore session"
- "merge PR #N" → "Merge PR #N" (capital M)
- "CI status unknown" → "CI unknown"
- "ask to fix CI" / "ask to fix CI" → "ask to fix"
- "terminate session" → "terminate"
- Zone labels: RESPOND/WORKING/DONE → Respond/Working/Done (CSS uppercase is visual only)
- "working" zone no longer collapsed by default; collapse tests now use "done" zone
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* feat(core): ActivityDetection with timestamp propagation
- Add ActivityDetection interface { state, timestamp? } to types.ts
- Agent getActivityState() returns ActivityDetection | null instead of
ActivityState | null, allowing timestamp from JSONL mtime to propagate
- session-manager updates session.lastActivityAt when detected.timestamp
is more recent — fixes "active 22h ago" showing stale timestamps
- Update all agent plugins (claude-code, aider, codex, opencode) to
return ActivityDetection objects
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(web): dismissible rate limit banner + 60min rate-limit cache TTL
- Add X dismiss button to GitHub API rate limit banner in Dashboard.tsx
so it can be closed during demos
- Extend rate-limited PR cache TTL from 5min to 60min — GitHub GraphQL
rate limits reset hourly, no point retrying every 5 minutes
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(web): address Cursor Bugbot review comments on PR #125
- Dashboard StatusLine: active sessions count now uses var(--color-status-working)
(blue) instead of neutral text color, matching the design system semantics
- SessionCard: isReadyToMerge now guards against rate-limited state — a card
with stale cached mergeability data won't show green merge-ready styling
- DirectTerminal: add `variant` to useEffect dependency array (was missing,
causing stale cursor/selection colors if variant changed after mount)
- agent-aider: include `timestamp: chatMtime` in all ActivityDetection returns,
matching the pattern used by agent-claude-code (enables accurate lastActivityAt)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(ci): resolve lint, typecheck, and test failures
Lint:
- Remove unused parseJsonlFile function (superseded by parseJsonlFileTail)
- Remove dead lastLogModified stat() call in getSessionInfo (field was
removed from AgentSessionInfo but the filesystem read was left behind)
Typecheck + Tests (ActivityDetection):
- session-manager.test.ts: update mocks to return { state: "active" } /
{ state: "idle" } instead of bare strings — getActivityState() returns
ActivityDetection | null, not ActivityState | null
- integration tests (aider, claude-code, codex, opencode): update imports
from ActivityState → ActivityDetection, variable types, comparisons
(activityState?.state !== "exited"), and assertions (?.state).toBe()
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix: parseJsonlFileTail uses readFile for small files; enrich exited sessions with PRs
- parseJsonlFileTail now calls stat() then readFile() for files smaller than
maxBytes, falling back to open()/handle.read() only for large files. This
fixes the test infrastructure (which mocks readFile but not open) and also
fixes a scope bug where `offset` was declared inside an inner try block but
referenced outside both try blocks.
- Math.max(0, NaN) returns NaN not 0, so size must default to 0 when stat
returns a mock without a size field: `const { size = 0 } = await stat(...)`.
- Update activity-detection.test.ts: getActivityState() now returns
ActivityDetection objects, so tests use (await ...)?.state comparisons.
- Remove stale lastLogModified test (field was removed from AgentSessionInfo).
- Remove EXITED skip guard from api/sessions/route.ts: exited sessions can
still have open, merge-ready PRs that need enrichment on the dashboard.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix: comprehensive code review fixes — tests, timestamps, UI correctness
Address gaps identified in code review of the ActivityDetection PR:
Core / Session Manager:
- Add `timestamp` to all `{ state: "exited" }` returns in all 4 agent plugins
(claude-code, aider, codex, opencode) using consistent `exitedAt = new Date()` pattern
- Add 2 new session-manager tests: timestamp propagation when detection timestamp
is newer, and no-downgrade when detection timestamp is older
- Fix `parseJsonlFileTail` lint error: remove useless `= 0` initializer (value was
always overwritten before use; catch block returns early)
Web package — tests:
- Fix 3 `api-routes.test.ts` failures: `sessionsGET()` needs a Request object since
the route reads `request.url` for `?active=true` query param
- Fix `serialize.test.ts` rate-limit test: spy on `console.warn` (what the code uses)
not `console.error`
- Add 5 `ActivityDot` component tests covering all activity states, unknown states,
null activity, and dotOnly mode
Web package — UI correctness:
- Fix `relativeTime()` in SessionDetail to guard against invalid/empty ISO strings
- Fix timer Map leak: add `timersRef.current.clear()` in cleanup effect after forEach
- Add `encodeURIComponent` to sessionId in message fetch URL
Server — race condition fix:
- Guard `activeSessions.delete` in pty.onExit, ws.on("close"), and ws.on("error")
against stale handlers deleting a newly-registered session with the same ID.
Fixes flaky integration test where afterEach's pty.kill() fired asynchronously
after the next test had already set up a new session with the same session ID.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(web): narrow PREnrichmentData types to eliminate unsafe casts in serialize
PREnrichmentData.ciStatus and .reviewDecision were typed as string,
requiring unsafe `as` casts when reading from cache into DashboardPR.
Narrow them to the same literal union types used by DashboardPR, making
the casts unnecessary. Also narrow ciChecks[].status to match CoreCICheck.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---------
Co-authored-by: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
harshitsinghbhandari
Deepak Veluvolu
prateek
Jayesh Sharma