Defer Finding

Summary

Triggered after Gate B triage routes a finding to deferral: out-of-scope P2s and all P3s. Reads the single finding by id from docs/findings.json — does not iterate the array. Refuses P1 findings (which are merge blockers, not deferral candidates). Runs a dedup check against open deferred-from-loop issues before creating a new one. Files the issue with an actionable title, distilled body, and correct labels. Appends to docs/issues-filed.json whether the URL came from a new or pre-existing issue. Operates on exactly one finding per invocation; parallelism comes from running multiple instances against independent findings.

Procedure

Step 1 — Read and validate the finding

Read docs/findings.json. Locate the entry whose id matches the provided finding_id. Do not iterate every finding — read the file once and extract the single matching entry.

If no entry with the given finding_id exists, stop immediately and output:

Cannot defer: finding '<finding_id>' not found in docs/findings.json.
Verify the id and re-run, or check that review-fanout has been run for this workflow.

If the found entry has priority: P1, stop immediately and output:

Refused: finding '<finding_id>' is priority P1.
P1 findings are merge blockers and must be resolved, not deferred.
Route this finding to resolve-finding instead.

Do not modify any files. Do not proceed.

Record these fields from the finding for use in subsequent steps:

• id
• priority
• in_scope
• reviewer
• title
• description
• location (optional)
• reproducer (optional)
• suggested_fix (optional)

Step 2 — Dedup check

Before creating an issue, search for an existing open GitHub issue that already covers this finding.

gh issue list --label "deferred-from-loop" --search "<short keyword from finding title>" --state open --json number,title,url,body

Scan the returned issues. A match is a finding whose title and description address the same root cause in the same location — not just surface keyword overlap. Use judgment: if the candidate issue clearly covers the same problem, it is a match. If uncertain, do not treat it as a match — create a new issue.

If a clearly matching open issue exists:

Append to docs/issues-filed.json:

{ "finding_id": "<finding_id>", "url": "<existing-issue-url>", "filed_at": "<ISO-8601 datetime>", "dedup": true }

Output:

Deferred (dedup): <finding_id>
  Matched existing issue: <existing-issue-url>
  No new issue created.
  Recorded in docs/issues-filed.json.

Stop. Do not create a new issue.

If no matching issue exists: continue to Step 3.

Step 3 — Create the GitHub issue

Create an issue with gh issue create. Do not leave blank labels or omit required fields.

Title: Rewrite the finding title to be actionable and reader-friendly. Drop reviewer jargon and internal ids. Format: imperative verb + concrete subject. Example: finding: "Missing index on notification.user_id" → issue: "Add database index on notifications.user_id for read query performance".

Body: Include all five of the following sections in this order:

1. Summary (one paragraph): what the problem is, where it lives, and why it matters. Distill the finding description; do not copy it verbatim.
2. Location: the location.path (and line range if present). If no location, write "Location: not location-bound."
3. Context: reviewer that found it (reviewer field) and the workflow it came from (workflow_id input). Example: Found by: security-sentinel | Workflow: add-email-notifications-mention.
4. Deferral reason: one of "Out of scope for workflow <workflow_id>" (for out-of-scope P2s) or "P3 — lower-priority improvement" (for P3s). Do not embellish.
5. Reproducer (if available): paste or summarize finding.reproducer. If absent, omit the section entirely — do not write "Reproducer: N/A".

Labels: Apply all of the following:

• Map the reviewer's category to a matching label (security, performance, architecture, quality, or the closest match). Run gh label list if uncertain whether the label exists; do not invent labels.
• deferred-from-loop — required; this is how harvest finds deferred items later.
• priority:P2 or priority:P3 — matching the finding's priority.

Assignees: Assign to the repo's owner or team lead per project conventions. For this repo, assign to jdforsythe.

Capture the URL of the created issue.

Step 4 — Record the URL

Append to docs/issues-filed.json. The file is a JSON array. Read it in full, append one new entry, and write it back:

{ "finding_id": "<finding_id>", "url": "<gh-issue-url>", "filed_at": "<ISO-8601 datetime>", "dedup": false, "labels_applied": ["<label1>", "<label2>"] }

If docs/issues-filed.json does not exist, create it as an empty array [] before appending.

Step 5 — Confirm to the user

Output a confirmation:

Deferred: <finding_id> (<priority>)
  Title:    <issue title>
  Issue:    <gh-issue-url>
  Labels:   <comma-separated list>
  Recorded in docs/issues-filed.json.

Constraints

• One finding per invocation. Never iterate docs/findings.json to defer multiple findings. Each invocation targets exactly one finding_id.
• Refuse P1 findings. If priority: P1, stop at Step 1 without creating any issue.
• Dedup before creating. Always run the dedup check in Step 2. Creating a duplicate issue is the primary failure mode.
• Actionable title. The rewritten title must use an imperative verb and name a concrete subject. Do not copy the finding's raw title.
• Distilled body. Issue bodies are for triage — write to be scanned in seconds. Do not paraphrase the finding verbatim or pad with reviewer metadata.
• Required label: deferred-from-loop. This label is how harvest detects recurring deferral categories. It must be present on every issued filed by this skill.
• Never modify docs/findings.json. The findings file is the output of review-fanout and is read-only from the perspective of this skill.
• docs/issues-filed.json is a JSON array. Read-append-write atomically; never truncate or overwrite with only the new entry.
• Never file P1 findings as issues. P1 findings that reach this skill indicate a filter error upstream. Refuse and report; do not silently downgrade to P2.