Triage

triage

A findings list is not a work list. triage turns one into the other: it re-checks each finding against the source, ranks what survives, and routes every item to fix now, defer, or reject. Nothing is dropped silently; a rejected finding stays in the record with its reason.

When to use it

• After repo-review or code-review returns more findings than one sitting can fix.
• When findings arrive from a teammate or a tool and their confidence is unknown.
• Not for replying to review comments on your own change; that is respond-to-review.
• Skip it for a list of one or two findings; just verify and fix them.

Required inputs

• The findings, one per line, each with whatever evidence came with it.
• Access to the code the findings point at.
• The bar for fix now: what ships soon, what gate must stay green.

Steps

1. Verify before ranking. For each finding, check the claim against the code it names. Tag it confirmed (reproduced or re-read and true), doubtful (could not confirm; say what would), or wrong (the code does not do what the finding says).
2. Rank the confirmed by severity: blocker (breaks the gate, corrupts data, misleads a user), major (wrong behavior with a workaround, a trap for the next editor), minor (cosmetic, style, a nice-to-have).
3. Route each confirmed finding against the caller's bar for fix now: the bar decides what is worth fixing now, severity decides the order. Blockers always meet the bar. Defer (majors and minors worth recording; mark each for the debt log with its reason and revisit trigger, to be recorded through debt-log), and reject only with a reason a reviewer would accept.
4. Wrong findings are answered, not deleted: one line each on why the code is right, so the finding does not come back.
5. End with the work list: fix-now items in order, each with its evidence.

Output format

• Counts first: confirmed, doubtful, wrong, the severity breakdown of the confirmed, and of the confirmed: fix now, defer, reject.
• The work list: fix-now items in severity order, one line each with evidence.
• The record: deferred items (each marked for debt-log with its reason and trigger), rejected items (with reasons), wrong findings (with the one-line answer).

Stop conditions

• Rank and route only; do not fix here. This prompt produces the work list, the fixing happens after it, on the routed items.
• Every input finding appears in exactly one bucket; none dropped silently.
• No finding is confirmed on assertion alone; each was re-checked against the source.
• Deferred items are marked for the debt log with their reason and trigger; recording them is debt-log's job, not this prompt's.