# Review: Principal Systems Engineer — Round 1

**Branch**: `colonyos/when_you_should_run_the_cli_tests_before_deliver_4c1d93388a`
**PRD**: `cOS_prds/20260401_224904_prd_you_are_a_code_assistant_working_on_behalf_of_the_engineering_team_the_following.md`

## Checklist Assessment

### Completeness
- [x] **FR-1**: Verify phase inserted between Learn and Deliver in `_run_pipeline()` with read-only tools `["Read", "Bash", "Glob", "Grep"]`
- [x] **FR-2**: Verify-fix loop with configurable `max_verify_fix_attempts` (default 2), matching review-fix pattern
- [x] **FR-3**: Hard-block delivery on persistent failure via `_fail_run_log()` + early return
- [x] **FR-4**: Budget guard before each verify and fix iteration (same pattern as review loop)
- [x] **FR-5**: `VerifyConfig` dataclass, `PhasesConfig.verify`, `DEFAULTS["verify"]`, `_parse_verify_config()` with validation
- [x] **FR-6**: `verify.md` (read-only sentinel contract) and `verify_fix.md` (write-enabled fix with context) created
- [x] **FR-7**: Resume support via `_compute_next_phase("learn") → "verify"`, `"verify" → "deliver"`, and `_SKIP_MAP` entries
- [x] **FR-8**: Heartbeat touch + UI phase header (with fallback `_log()`)
- [x] **FR-9**: Thread-fix verify untouched — no changes to that flow

### Quality
- [x] All 3110 tests pass (including 55 verify-specific tests)
- [x] No linter errors introduced
- [x] Code follows existing patterns (budget guard, heartbeat, `_append_phase`, phase result capture)
- [x] No unnecessary dependencies added
- [x] No unrelated changes included (only review artifacts + verify implementation)

### Safety
- [x] No secrets or credentials in committed code
- [x] No destructive operations — verify agent is enforced read-only via `allowed_tools`
- [x] Error handling: fix agent failure breaks loop, budget exhaustion blocks delivery, empty/ambiguous output defaults safe

## Findings

### Strengths

- **[src/colonyos/orchestrator.py]**: `_verify_detected_failures()` is well-structured — sentinel-first parsing (`VERIFY_RESULT: PASS/FAIL`) with safe regex fallback that only matches non-zero failure counts. The false-positive on `"0 failed"` from the initial implementation is fully resolved. 16 unit tests cover edge cases.

- **[src/colonyos/orchestrator.py]**: The verify loop structure (`for attempt in range(max + 1)`) is clean — first iteration is verify-only, subsequent iterations are fix-then-verify. Budget guards before both verify and fix agents. This mirrors the review-fix loop pattern exactly.

- **[src/colonyos/orchestrator.py]**: Two-agent separation (read-only verify vs. write-enabled fix) preserves audit boundaries. You can trace exactly what was observed vs. what was changed in the phase log.

- **[src/colonyos/config.py]**: `_parse_verify_config()` validates `max_fix_attempts >= 1` — no silent misconfiguration. Round-trip serialization is tested.

- **[src/colonyos/instructions/verify.md]**: Sentinel contract (`VERIFY_RESULT: PASS/FAIL`) treats the prompt as a typed function with a parseable return value. Clean separation of concerns.

- **[tests/test_verify_phase.py]**: 621 lines of comprehensive tests covering: pass/fail/fix-then-pass/exhaust-all-attempts, budget exhaustion, config disable, heartbeat, resume from failed verify, and full pipeline integration with cost assertions.

### Accepted Trade-offs (Non-blocking)

- **[src/colonyos/orchestrator.py]**: `Phase.FIX` reuse for verify-fix means verify-fix and review-fix are indistinguishable by enum alone in logs. Acceptable for v1 — the phase ordering in the log makes it unambiguous in practice.

- **[src/colonyos/orchestrator.py]**: `_verify_detected_failures()` is fail-open (unknown output → assume pass). This is the pragmatic choice — the sentinel makes this a narrow edge case, and blocking delivery on truly ambiguous output would be more frustrating than useful.

- **[src/colonyos/orchestrator.py]**: No haiku default for verify agent despite PRD suggestion. The verify agent inherits the global model. This is a reasonable v1 choice — users who want cost savings can set `phase_models.verify: haiku` in config.

- **[src/colonyos/config.py]**: `per_run` default not bumped from $15 to $20 as PRD suggested. The verify phase is cheap (test execution), so $15 is likely sufficient. Can be revisited if budget exhaustion becomes common.

---

VERDICT: approve

FINDINGS:
- [src/colonyos/orchestrator.py]: `_verify_detected_failures()` correctly implements structured sentinel parsing with regex fallback — all 16 edge-case unit tests pass
- [src/colonyos/orchestrator.py]: Verify-fix loop follows established review-fix pattern (budget guards, heartbeat, two-agent separation, `_append_phase`)
- [src/colonyos/orchestrator.py]: `_compute_next_phase()` and `_SKIP_MAP` correctly route learn → verify → deliver for resume support
- [src/colonyos/orchestrator.py]: Hard-block via `_fail_run_log()` + early return ensures no broken PR is ever opened — the core invariant holds
- [src/colonyos/config.py]: `VerifyConfig` with validation, `PhasesConfig.verify`, round-trip serialization — clean config integration
- [src/colonyos/instructions/verify.md]: Sentinel contract (`VERIFY_RESULT: PASS/FAIL`) makes verify output reliably parseable
- [tests/test_verify_phase.py]: 621 lines covering all happy paths, failure modes, budget exhaustion, resume, and integration scenarios

SYNTHESIS:
This is a clean, well-scoped implementation that follows every established pattern in the codebase. The critical engineering decisions are sound: two-agent separation preserves audit boundaries, budget guards prevent runaway costs, the hard-block invariant guarantees no broken PR reaches main, and the structured sentinel approach to output parsing eliminates the class of false-positive bugs that plagued the initial implementation. The 55 new tests (621 lines in test_verify_phase.py alone) cover the decision boundaries thoroughly — particularly the `_verify_detected_failures()` function which is the most failure-prone component. The implementation adds exactly the right amount of complexity: no over-abstraction, no premature optimization, no config knobs that aren't immediately useful. The three accepted trade-offs (Phase.FIX reuse, fail-open on ambiguous output, no haiku default) are all reasonable v1 decisions that can be revisited without breaking changes. Ship it.
