# Review by Andrej Karpathy (Round 1)

## Review Complete — Andrej Karpathy

**VERDICT: approve**

### Summary

This is a clean, well-scoped implementation of task-level retry. Here's what matters:

1. **All 6 functional requirements implemented** — config field, error-aware prompt, git cleanup, retry loop, recovery events, and validation. No gaps.

2. **218/218 tests pass** (22 new + 196 existing, zero regressions).

3. **The prompt design is correct** — injecting `previous_error` into the retry prompt is the single highest-leverage intervention. The model gets a structured "here's what broke" signal rather than blindly retrying. This is how you treat prompts as programs.

4. **The test philosophy is correct** — unit tests mock `run_phase_sync` and test deterministic logic (git cleanup called, error injected, events logged, dependents unblock). This avoids the integration test trap that killed the two prior attempts.

### Minor Observations (not blocking)

- `_drain_injected_context()` runs inside the retry loop — if the provider is destructive (queue-drain), the retry gets empty context. Cosmetic.
- Safety-net fallback at line 1092 doesn't populate `task_results` for the edge case. Extremely low risk.
- Recovery event logs `"success": False` for the *trigger*, not the retry *outcome*. Minor naming ambiguity.
- No hard ceiling on `max_task_retries` — consistent with existing config patterns.

**Ship it.**
