fix(ci): investigate and fix AI PR Quality Gate aggregation failures

[rjmurillo-bot]

Problem

62.5% of stuck PRs (10/16) are blocked by AI PR Quality Gate aggregation step failures, even when all individual checks pass.

Evidence

From PR velocity analysis (2025-12-24):

• PRs affected: docs: add velocity analysis and 10x improvement plan #331, feat: Implement PR merge state verification to prevent wasted review effort #322, chore: Session 85 - PR #315 post-merge analysis and new PR review skills #320, docs(adr): add model routing policy to minimize false PASS #310, docs(orchestrator): add Phase 4 pre-PR validation workflow and HANDOFF-TERMS.md #269, feat(github-skill): enhance skill for Claude effectiveness #255, docs: Local Guardrails analysis consolidated into Issue #230 #246, feat(github-skills): add issue comments support to Get-PRReviewComments #235, feat(agents): add mandatory memory phases to pr-comment-responder #199
• Pattern: Individual AI reviewer checks pass, but aggregation logic fails
• This is a systemic CI bug, not a code quality issue

Impact

• Blocks merges even when PRs are approved
• Creates artificial bottleneck in PR velocity
• Causes PRs to age and accumulate merge conflicts

Acceptance Criteria

• Root cause identified for aggregation failures
• Fix deployed to aggregation workflow
• Previously blocked PRs can proceed through CI

Priority

P0 - This is the single largest blocker for PR velocity (affects majority of stuck PRs)

---

🤖 Generated from PR velocity analysis session

[latta-ai]

A new task Issue: fix(ci): investigate and fix AI PR Quality Gate aggregation failures has been created with an AI Solve step.
AI Solve is now analyzing the reported problem.

[github-actions]

AI Triage Summary

Note

This issue has been automatically triaged by AI agents

What is AI Triage?

This issue was analyzed by AI agents:

• Analyst Agent: Categorizes the issue and suggests appropriate labels
• Roadmap Agent: Aligns the issue with project milestones and priorities
• Explainer Agent (if escalated): Generates comprehensive PRD

Triage Results

Property	Value
Category	bug
Labels	["bug","area-workflows"]
Priority	P0
Milestone	v1.1

Categorization Analysis

```json
{
  "labels": ["bug", "area-workflows"],
  "category": "bug",
  "confidence": 0.95,
  "reasoning": "Issue describes a CI workflow bug where the AI PR Quality Gate aggregation step fails despite individual checks passing, with clear evidence and affected PR numbers"
}

</details>

<details>
<summary>Roadmap Alignment</summary>

```json
```json
{
  "milestone": "v1.1",
  "priority": "P0",
  "epic_alignment": "",
  "confidence": 0.9,
  "reasoning": "CI infrastructure bug blocking 62.5% of PRs is a systemic blocker not aligned to any current roadmap epic; warrants immediate attention.",
  "escalate_to_prd": false,
  "escalation_criteria": [],
  "complexity_score": 0
}

</details>

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---

🔗 Similar Issues

Possible Duplicates

• feat: Categorize AI Quality Gate failures (infrastructure vs code quality) #329

Related Issues

• feat: Add retry logic for infrastructure failures in AI Quality Gate #328
• [P1] Implement Technical Guardrails for Autonomous Agent Execution #230
• [EPIC] 10x Velocity Improvement: Shift-Left Validation and Review Optimization #324

🔗 Related PRs

#76 - fix(workflows): strengthen AI review rigor and enable PR gating [merged]
#100 - fix(ci): ensure Pester Tests workflow satisfies required checks for all PRs [merged]
#296 - fix(workflow): ensure copilot synthesis posts comment on successful AI output [merged]
#331 - docs: add velocity analysis and 10x improvement plan [closed]

👤 Suggested Assignees

• rjmurillo
• rjmurillo-bot

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[rjmurillo-bot]

RCA Complete: Updated Analysis

After thorough investigation, we've identified that "aggregation failures" encompasses two distinct problems:

Two Failure Modes

Failure Mode	Root Cause	Solution
Code Quality Findings	Agents issue legitimate CRITICAL_FAIL for real issues (e.g., missing tests)	Bypass label, context-aware review, prompt calibration
Transient Infrastructure	Copilot CLI timeouts, rate limits, network errors	#338: Retry with exponential backoff

Key Finding

The aggregation logic is working correctly. When we examined workflow runs:

• Matrix jobs complete successfully (job status: success)
• Agents return legitimate verdicts (e.g., CRITICAL_FAIL for missing tests)
• Aggregation correctly blocks PRs when CODE_QUALITY failures exist

The confusion arose because job success ≠ verdict success.

Related Issues

Issue	Relationship
#338	Addresses transient infrastructure failures (retry logic) - prerequisite
#358	PRs ready to merge but blocked by process
#329	Infrastructure vs code quality categorization (CLOSED - already implemented)
#324	Parent epic: 10x Velocity Improvement

Implementation Plan

Phase 0 (Prerequisite): Implement #338 (retry logic) - elevate to P0
Phase 1: Human override mechanism (bypass label) + merge ready PRs (#358)
Phase 2: Context-aware review (doc-only PRs skip test requirements)
Phase 3: Agent prompt calibration

Artifacts

• RCA: .agents/analysis/issue-357-aggregation-rca.md
• Fix Plan: .agents/planning/issue-357-aggregation-fix-plan.md

Recommendation

This issue should be re-scoped rather than closed. The aggregation works correctly, but improvements are needed:

1. Implement fix(ci): Add retry logic with backoff for Copilot CLI failures in AI review action #338 first (retry logic for transient failures)
2. Then add bypass mechanism for human override
3. Then calibrate agent prompts to reduce legitimate-but-unwanted findings

---

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

CC @copilot