Trigger Policy

Trigger Policy

Contract

Iron law: merge and release MUST appear in every trigger's policy.forbidden_actions — triggers cannot grant Tier 3 autonomy regardless of any other configuration. Invoked in validate mode (read-only) by /flow:trigger create|enable|validate and by /flow:watch step 4 before a trigger YAML is written or enabled, and in enforce mode by /flow:run step 3 and /flow:trigger run before the target command is dispatched. Returns the JSON report below with exit 0 (pass or soft warning), 1 (policy violation), or 2 (schema invalid); the caller aborts on non-zero. Permitted skips: none — every step runs; the only non-blocking outcome is concurrency_warning.

Inputs

The invoking command MUST pass:

1. Trigger YAML path — a template under plugins/flow/triggers/templates/ or a project-local .flow/triggers/<id>.trigger.yaml.
2. Mode — validate | enforce.

Output

{
  "trigger_id": "pr-123-watch",
  "schema_valid": true,
  "tier3_violations": [],
  "recursion_violations": [],
  "missing_required_forbidden": [],
  "cross_reference_violations": [],
  "concurrency_violations": [],
  "overall": "pass"
}

Steps

1. Schema validation: python3 -m jsonschema -i "${TRIGGER_YAML}" "plugins/flow/schemas/v1/trigger.schema.json". Failure → overall: schema_invalid (exit 2).
2. Tier 3 absolute deny: policy.forbidden_actions must contain both merge AND release. Missing either → tier3_violations.append({"action": "merge_or_release", "reason": "must be forbidden"}). Hard fail.
3. Recursion policy: recursion_policy.triggered_runs_may_create_triggers, triggered_runs_may_modify_triggers, and triggered_runs_may_enable_triggers must be false or unset (default false). Any true → recursion_violations; enabling it requires explicit Tier 3 authorization via AskUserQuestion at /flow:trigger create time.
4. Allowed types: trigger.type must be in flow.triggers.allowedTypes (cascade-resolved; default [manual, hook, loop_prompt]). github_actions | local_cron | local_daemon are schema-valid but disabled in v3.0 — surface as tier3_violations unless the project's setting permits them.
5. Active-trigger count: count .flow/triggers/*.trigger.yaml with metadata.enabled: true and lifecycle != disabled. If count >= flow.triggers.maxActiveTriggers (cascade-resolved; default 5), refuse to enable a new trigger — the user must /flow:trigger disable one first.
6. Concurrency sanity: concurrency.policy: cancel_previous on a trigger whose target invokes a Tier 2 action (push, commit) → concurrency_violations warning; cancel_previous + Tier 2 can produce partial commits. Soft warning only — never a hard fail.
7. Target workflow cross-reference: when target.workflow is set, the workflow must exist at plugins/flow/workflows/${WF}.workflow.yaml or .flow/workflows/${WF}.workflow.yaml ([ -f "$PLUGIN_PATH" ] || [ -f "$LOCAL_PATH" ]). Missing → cross_reference_violations.append({"type": "missing_target_workflow", "name": target_workflow, "checked_paths": [PLUGIN_PATH, LOCAL_PATH]}). Hard fail (exit 1) — a trigger pointing at a non-existent workflow is broken by construction; this catches typos (address vs address-pr) at creation rather than when /flow:run trigger <id> dispatches. When target.workflow is absent (target.command only), this step is a no-op.
8. Overall verdict:

Reuse map

• plugins/flow/schemas/v1/trigger.schema.json — schema validated against.
• plugins/flow/triggers/templates/ — plugin-shipped templates.
• plugins/flow/commands/trigger.md, watch.md, run.md — invoking commands.
• plugins/flow/references/flow-triggers.md — user-facing trigger documentation.