Example tasks

Tasks grouped by the problem they solve. Each names the trigger that starts its runs, what a run does, and what it triggers next. Most factories start as one of these and grow by chaining the next.

Untriaged tickets pile up

Explore task

• Trigger: a ticket is created, or a human labels it.
• Does: checks the ticket against the codebase and sorts it into a category (easy call, needs a human, not a bug).
• Triggers: an implementer run for easy calls. Anything else ends with the ticket labelled as waiting for a human.

Ready tickets wait for someone to build them

Implementer task

• Trigger: a ticket is labelled ready, by a human or an explore run.
• Does: builds the ticket until the automated checks pass, and opens a draft PR.
• Triggers: an automated review run.

PRs wait for review

Automated review task

• Trigger: a PR opens with no automated review yet, or a human labels it.
• Does: reviews the diff against the codebase's standards and the ticket it came from.
• Triggers: a rework run on a fail. On a pass it ends, and the PR waits for human review before a human merges it.

Failed automated reviews sit unfixed

Rework task

• Trigger: an automated review run fails a PR.
• Does: fixes only what the automated review named, and pushes.
• Triggers: an automated review run. After a set number of fails, it ends with the PR labelled as waiting for a human.

Specs are too big for one run

Decompose task

• Trigger: a spec ticket is labelled.
• Does: splits the spec into tickets, each recording which tickets it depends on.
• Triggers: an implementer run.

The implementer run here picks the next ticket whose dependencies are all closed, and triggers itself again until no ticket is left.

Migrating to a stricter automated check

A new lint rule (or a stricter type setting) is switched on, but only some files pass it. The rule enforces on the passing files, and the failing ones sit on an exception list.

Ratchet task

• Trigger: a daily clock.
• Does: takes one file off the exception list, fixes it until the stricter check passes, and opens a PR.
• Triggers: an automated review run. Once the exception list is empty, the ratchet run has nothing to take and the migration is done.

One small PR a day keeps human review cheap, and the check only ever gets stricter.

Users report bugs nobody reads

A feedback button in the app is a ticket source: it files each report as a ticket with the explore label already on it. The explore run does the rest.

Production problems are found late

A monitor (slow queries, error rates) is a ticket source. It files a ticket per problem, and comments on the open ticket instead when it sees the same problem again. After a fix merges, it reopens the ticket if the problem persists.

The factory's own runs fail

Fix task

• Trigger: the orchestrator reports a failed run.
• Does: files the failing log as a ticket, and attempts a fix as a PR when the failure is fixable.
• Triggers: an automated review run. A failure in a fix run's own work triggers nothing, so fixes never chain. Because the fix changes the factory itself, it always gets human review.

The codebase drifts

Architecture task

• Trigger: a nightly clock.
• Does: scans recent changes for refactoring candidates and files them as one ticket.
• Triggers: nothing. A human picks a candidate and labels it, which starts the usual chain.

The same mistakes keep coming back

Retro task

• Trigger: a PR merges, throttled to one merged PR in ten.
• Does: reads the PR, its ticket, its automated reviews and its run logs, and proposes changes to the factory's own instructions as a PR.
• Triggers: an automated review run.