# Review: Git State Pre-flight Check — Andrej Karpathy

## Checklist Assessment

### Completeness
- [x] All functional requirements from the PRD are implemented (FR-1 through FR-10)
- [x] All tasks in the task file are marked complete (except 5.3 and 7.3 which are manual/runtime)
- [x] No placeholder or TODO code remains

### Quality
- [x] All tests pass (174 orchestrator/CEO + 84 preflight/github = 258 passing)
- [x] Code follows existing project conventions (dataclass patterns, subprocess patterns, click exception patterns)
- [x] No unnecessary dependencies added (git + gh only, already required)
- [x] No unrelated changes included

### Safety
- [x] No secrets or credentials in committed code
- [x] No destructive database operations without safeguards
- [x] Error handling is present for failure cases (OSError, TimeoutExpired, JSONDecodeError all handled)

## Findings

- [tests/test_preflight.py:267]: Typo `AssertionError` instead of `AssertionError` — this happens to work because Python evaluates the raise only when the code path is hit, and the test passes because offline mode correctly skips the network calls. But if the test ever regressed, the developer would get a `NameError: name 'AssertionError' is not defined` instead of a clean assertion failure. Should be `AssertionError`.

- [src/colonyos/orchestrator.py]: The `_preflight_check` function patches `subprocess.run` at the module level in tests but uses `validate_branch_exists()` which is a higher-level function also calling subprocess. The mock in tests patches `colonyos.orchestrator.subprocess.run` — this works correctly because `validate_branch_exists` uses `subprocess.run` from the same module. Clean design.

- [src/colonyos/orchestrator.py]: The decision to make this procedural logic rather than an LLM phase is exactly right. Git state is a deterministic, closed-form check — burning tokens on it would be wasteful. The `PreflightResult` dataclass gives auditability without the cost.

- [src/colonyos/cli.py]: The `_ensure_on_main` function in the auto loop does `git checkout main && git pull --ff-only`, which is the correct approach for autonomous mode. Failure on checkout raises, failure on pull warns — good asymmetry since checkout failure is fatal but pull failure means you can still work with local state.

- [src/colonyos/orchestrator.py]: The `_resume_preflight` includes HEAD SHA divergence detection, which was flagged as a V2 consideration in the PRD's open questions (Q2). Nice to have it in V1 — it's a cheap check that prevents a subtle class of bugs where someone manually pushes to the branch between runs.

- [src/colonyos/cli.py]: The `--force` flag is only on `run`, not on `auto` — this is correct. Autonomous mode should never force through bad state; it should fail the iteration and move on.

- [src/colonyos/models.py]: `PreflightResult.from_dict` validates required keys explicitly with clear error messages. Good fail-closed behavior for deserialization.

## Minor Observations

- The `--offline` flag skips both `check_open_pr` (when branch exists) and the `git fetch`/`rev-list` staleness check, but the branch-exists check via `git branch --list` still runs since it's local-only. This is the right separation.
- Error messages are actionable: they tell the user exactly what to do ("commit or stash", "use --resume", "use --force"). This is treating the CLI output as a program output — good prompt engineering for humans.
- The `head_sha` field on `PreflightResult` was added beyond the original PRD spec. It's a natural extension that enables the resume divergence check. Clean addition.

VERDICT: approve

FINDINGS:
- [tests/test_preflight.py:267]: Typo `AssertionError` should be `AssertionError` — non-blocking since the code path is never hit in a passing test, but would produce a confusing NameError on regression
- [src/colonyos/orchestrator.py]: All 10 functional requirements implemented with correct fail-closed semantics and graceful degradation
- [src/colonyos/cli.py]: Auto mode correctly catches preflight ClickExceptions, marks iteration failed, and continues — exactly the right autonomy behavior
- [src/colonyos/models.py]: PreflightResult serialization is clean with explicit validation on deserialization

SYNTHESIS:
This is a well-executed implementation of a deterministic pre-flight check that correctly avoids wasting LLM compute on closed-form git state assessment. The key architectural decision — procedural logic over an agent phase — is exactly right. The implementation follows a clean separation: state gathering (subprocess calls) is isolated from decision logic (raise or proceed), making the code testable without real repos. The error messages are treated as program output with actionable suggestions, which is the right philosophy. The graceful degradation on network failures (fetch timeout → warn and proceed) means the system fails open on non-critical checks and fail-closed on critical ones (dirty tree → refuse). The only nit is a typo in a test assertion class name that would manifest as a confusing error on regression, but it's non-blocking. The 528-line test file with comprehensive edge case coverage gives confidence in the implementation. Ship it.
