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docs(overseer): escalation-triage for blocked goal e06d9e64 — self-deploy deadlock (complete-delivered-goal) #4914

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# Escalation-triage (CONSOLIDATED) — blocked goal `fix-agent-kgpacks-rs-issue-17-ws2-int8-pq-embed-7f5afcca`

**Goal id:** `fix-agent-kgpacks-rs-issue-17-ws2-int8-pq-embed-7f5afcca`
**Procedure (authoritative):** `prompt_assets/simard/overseer/escalation_triage.md`
**HEAD:** `bbb0d678` · **Consolidated:** 2026-07-27T22:09Z
**Target work:** agent-kgpacks-rs issue #17 — WS2 int8/PQ embedding-quantization spike, gated on eval recall parity.
**Internal diagnostic WHY (input to translate, never surfaced):** #17 done-gate depends on an unmeasurable upstream eval baseline (#16), which was reported open with no PR; engineer healthy and not churning — a hard upstream dependency, not a wedge.
**Reason marker (input to translate, never surfaced):** `health-review:blocked-upstream-dependency`.

---

## 0. What this consolidation reconciles

Five independent deep-dive threads all converge on the same verdict. This document
merges: (a) the authoritative-procedure read, (b) the prior triage artifact
(`…_HEAD_ea46f15e.md`), (c) live GitHub state verification, (d) the done-gate
observable-signals code grounding, and (e) actual execution of the outcome steps.

**Convergent verdict (5/5 threads): `complete-delivered-goal`, `escalate: null`.**

The seed premise — *"#16 not started, no PR; #17 unmeasurable"* — is **stale**.
Live state contradicts it: both issues are CLOSED and both delivering PRs are MERGED.

---

## 1. Restate the PROBLEM in plain English

Simard has a goal to shrink the CVE knowledge pack by storing its embeddings in a
compact 8-bit form (int8/PQ) instead of full 32-bit floats. That work was only
allowed to "ship as done" once a separate accuracy check proved the compact form
still finds the right answers just as well as the original (a recall-parity check).
The yardstick that check needs came from a *different* piece of work — the
full-pack evaluation baseline.

When the goal was first flagged stuck, that yardstick had not yet been built, so
Simard literally could not measure whether the goal was finished — it could neither
declare success nor failure, so every cycle it re-opened the goal and
re-investigated without shipping anything. That is a treadmill, not a failure; a
worker relaunched and returned with nothing unblocked because the thing it waited on
lived outside its own work.

## 2. Recommended NEXT STEP (plain English)

Mark this goal finished and retire it. The compact-embedding work has already
shipped, and the accuracy yardstick it was waiting on has since been built and
landed too — so nothing is left to do and nothing is left to wait on. Retiring it
durably stops the every-cycle re-open treadmill.

## 3. ROOT CAUSE and course-correction DECISION

### 3a. Root cause (grounded in live evidence)

The goal was flagged blocked for a real reason: its finish line depended on an
**upstream deliverable owned by a different issue (#16)** — the recall-parity
evaluation baseline — and at the moment it was flagged, that baseline had not yet
landed, making the done-check **unmeasurable**. Two layers:

1. *Historical/true block:* an upstream-dependency done-gate (recall parity vs. the
#16 baseline) that was unmeasurable while #16's baseline was unlanded.
2. *Why it is still on the board now:* both the dependency and the work have since
landed, but nothing ever recorded this goal as complete — so the daemon keeps
re-picking it up each cycle.

### 3b. Evidence triangulation (live GitHub state, `rysweet/agent-kgpacks-rs`, verified 2026-07-27)

| # | Evidence | What it proves |
|---|----------|----------------|
| 1 | **Issue #16** ("WS1: Full-pack CVE eval validation + extended real 2024/2025 eval questions") is **CLOSED** (2026-07-06T20:16:25Z), delivered by **merged PR #41** (merged 2026-07-06T20:16:24Z, `055709b2`). | The upstream recall-parity **baseline now exists and has landed**; the dependency that made the gate unmeasurable is **cleared**. |
| 2 | **Issue #17** ("WS2: int8/PQ embedding quantization spike, gated on eval recall parity") is **CLOSED** (2026-07-07T19:19:47Z), delivered by **merged PR #40** (merged 2026-07-07T19:19:46Z, `869b5c77`, title *"WS2: int8 embedding quantization codec spike, disabled pending #16 parity (Closes #17)"*). | The goal's **own work is already delivered** by a merged PR that explicitly `Closes #17`. |
| 3 | PR #40 shipped the codec **behind a flag, disabled pending #16 parity** — matching #17's acceptance ("ship behind a flag ONLY if parity holds … otherwise leave DISABLED and commit spike findings"); #16's baseline landed one day *before* #40. | The delivery **honored the recall-parity gate as written** — a correct, complete delivery, not a bypass. |

### 3c. Why the parity criterion was never directly observable (done-gate code grounding)

`src/goal_curation/completion_gate.rs::EvidenceSource` defines the *complete* set of
machine-observable signals the done-gate can check: PR MERGED (`any_pr_merged`),
issue CLOSED (`issue_closed`), self-change deployed (`is_deployed`), governed repo
present (`repo_present`), and upstream `dependency_goal_state` →
`DependencyState::{None,Pending,Resolved}`. `evaluate` is a strict AND-gate
(`Complete` iff `pr_merged && issue_closed && (!self_affecting || deployed)`; any
missing clause → `Blocked`; any source error → `Blocked{CouldNotVerify}` — it never
completes on unverifiable evidence).

Crucially there is **no eval/metric signal** in `EvidenceSource`. "int8/PQ recall
parity vs. the #16 baseline" is prose the gate can never certify *directly*; the only
way to make it machine-checkable is to bind it to an observable anchor
(`done_gate_pins.rs::DoneGatePin` — a MERGED PR / CLOSED issue / committed artifact /
command output). `DependencyState` models the #16 relationship exactly: `Pending`
→ Paused; `Resolved` → auto-clears. **Live state = `Resolved`** (#16 CLOSED, PR #41
MERGED). And #17's own delivery is now certifiable via the standard gate:
`any_pr_merged`=true (PR #40) and `issue_closed`=true (#17) are both satisfied.

### 3d. Decision (exactly one, per procedure §"HOW TO DECIDE")

**`complete-delivered-goal`.**

The work this goal describes already shipped via **merged PR #40 (`Closes #17`)**,
and the recall-parity dependency it was gated on already shipped via **merged PR #41
(`#16` CLOSED)**. The rule "Complete a goal already delivered by a merged PR" applies
directly, and completion writes a **durable tombstone** that no path (seeding, memory
recall, meeting handoff, cycle reconcile) can resurrect — stopping the relaunch for
good.

**Why not the other two options:**

- *rewrite-done-gate* — would be correct **if #16 were still open**: re-point the
gate at a machine-observable condition (e.g. "#16 observed CLOSED **and** PR #41
observed MERGED **and** committed parity artifact
`data/packs/cve/eval-results.json` shows `delta_accuracy >= -0.02`"). But #16 is
CLOSED and PRs #41/#40 are MERGED, so the gate condition is already satisfied —
there is no unmeasurable gate left to rewrite; the goal is simply done.
- *ask-operator-one-question* — not warranted: no scope call or ambiguous intent is
the operator's to make; the evidence resolves the block deterministically.

### 3e. Action taken (executed, not proposed)

Retired the goal through the shipped operator CLI (`src/operator_cli/goal.rs`
`handle_complete` → `tombstone`), which removes it from the board and writes the
durable tombstone (idempotent on an absent/already-tombstoned goal):

```
$ simard goal complete fix-agent-kgpacks-rs-issue-17-ws2-int8-pq-embed-7f5afcca
[simard] goal complete: 'fix-agent-kgpacks-rs-issue-17-ws2-int8-pq-embed-7f5afcca'
not on board; recorded tombstone (idempotent)
```

The goal was already off the active/backlog board, so completion recorded the
durable tombstone idempotently — nothing will re-seed or relaunch it next cycle.

## 4. OUTPUT (per `escalation_triage.md` §OUTPUT contract)

```json
{
"problem": "Simard has a goal to store the CVE pack's embeddings in a compact 8-bit form to shrink the pack. It was only allowed to finish once an accuracy check proved the compact form still retrieves answers as well as the original, and that accuracy yardstick came from a separate piece of work. When the goal was flagged stuck, that yardstick had not been built yet, so Simard could not measure whether the goal was done and kept re-opening it every cycle without shipping anything.",
"next_step": "Mark this goal finished and retire it. The compact-embedding work has already shipped, and the accuracy yardstick it was waiting on has since been built and landed, so nothing is left to do and nothing is left to wait on.",
"root_cause": "The goal's finish check depended on an accuracy baseline owned by a separate piece of upstream work that had not landed when the goal was flagged, making the check impossible to measure and leaving the goal on a re-open treadmill. That upstream work has since shipped and the goal's own compact-embedding work has shipped too (correctly shipped disabled until the check was available), but nothing ever recorded the goal as complete, so it kept getting re-picked-up.",
"decision": "complete-delivered-goal",
"action_taken": "Marked the goal complete and retired it (removed from the board and permanently tombstoned so it will not be re-opened next cycle): `simard goal complete fix-agent-kgpacks-rs-issue-17-ws2-int8-pq-embed-7f5afcca`. The described work already shipped via a merged pull request, and the accuracy baseline it was gated on has itself shipped via another merged pull request.",
"escalate": null
}
```

**Contract checklist:**
- [x] `problem` — WHAT is wrong, plain English, no jargon/markers.
- [x] `next_step` — smallest clear unblocking action, plain English.
- [x] `root_cause` — grounded in live #16/#17 + PR #40/#41 evidence.
- [x] `decision` — exactly one enum value: `complete-delivered-goal`.
- [x] `action_taken` — the actual completion command (executed, agentic).
- [x] `escalate` — `null` (course-corrected without a human).
- [x] Change is additive/non-breaking (goal-board state transition via shipped CLI); no `Bridge` naming; no `print!`.

## 5. Jargon-free Signal messages (one per step; DELIVERED)

Sent over the live signal-cli JSON-RPC daemon (`127.0.0.1:7583`, account/recipient
`+1206…`). Each `send` returned an OK acknowledgement timestamp.

1. **Restate (what's wrong)** — ack ts `1785190166501`:
> "I looked at the goal about shrinking the security-data pack by storing its embeddings in a smaller, more compact 8-bit form. It kept getting re-opened every cycle without finishing, because Simard couldn't measure whether it was done. Its finish test needs an accuracy yardstick from a separate piece of work, and when the goal first got stuck that yardstick hadn't been built yet."

2. **Root cause (why)** — ack ts `1785190167062`:
> "Two things have changed since then. The accuracy yardstick it was waiting on has now been built and merged, and the compact-embedding work this goal was about has also already shipped and merged (it correctly shipped switched off until the accuracy check was available). So the thing it was blocked on is gone and the work itself is finished — but nobody ever marked the goal complete, which is why it kept coming back each cycle."

3. **Action taken (done, nothing needed from you)** — ack ts `1785190167543`:
> "I've marked the goal finished and retired it so it won't be re-opened every cycle. Nothing is needed from you — this one is closed out."

### Marker-leak scan (policy gate — every operator-facing string)

Programmatic scan of all §4 JSON values and the three Signal messages for forbidden
tokens. **Result: zero leaks** (guard asserted before send; connection would abort on
any hit).

| Forbidden token | Present in operator output? |
|---|---|
| `OODA-SAFEGUARD` | No |
| `UNCLEAR-CRITERIA` | No |
| `GENUINELY-STUCK` | No |
| `blocked-upstream-dependency` | No |
| `health-review:` | No |
| `why=` / `evidence=[` | No |
| 🔒 (lock token) | No |
| raw goal id / issue-number jargon | No |

---

## 6. Execution record (actions actually performed this consolidation)

1. **Live GitHub state re-verified** — #16 CLOSED (PR #41 MERGED `055709b2`),
#17 CLOSED (PR #40 MERGED `869b5c77`). Seed premise confirmed stale.
2. **Goal parked / retired (durable tombstone)** — `simard goal complete …`
recorded the tombstone idempotently (goal already off board).
3. **Three jargon-free Signal messages sent** to the operator over signal-cli
JSON-RPC; all three returned OK ack timestamps; all passed the forbidden-token
leak scan.

## Verdict

**`complete-delivered-goal` · `escalate: null`.** The compact-embedding work is
delivered by **merged PR #40 (`Closes #17`)**, and the recall-parity baseline it was
gated on is delivered by **merged PR #41 (`#16` CLOSED)** — the upstream dependency
that made the done-gate unmeasurable is **cleared**. Goal retired via
`simard goal complete fix-agent-kgpacks-rs-issue-17-ws2-int8-pq-embed-7f5afcca` to
durably park it and stop the per-cycle relaunch; three marker-free Signal updates
delivered; zero marker leakage. This consolidates and matches all prior convergences.
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