A Resolved Issue Points At What Fixed It

Press Release

A resolved issue now points at what fixed it. abcd capture resolve <iss-N> "<note>" --impact fix --intent itd-N --spec spc-N --commit <sha> stamps the structured provenance the schema has modelled all along — the resolved_by pointer that was parsed on read and written by nothing. "When I close an issue I name the intent, spec, or commit that fixed it, and six months later the trail is still there," says Nia, facilitator.

Why This Matters

Step 12 of the twelve-step record walk closes the issue but loses the trail: ResolvedBy{Intent, Spec, Commit} is parsed on read while Resolve writes only resolution and impact, so a resolved issue asserts it was fixed in prose but cannot point at what fixed it — while the intent side of the same record store binds its verdicts to a SHA-256 receipt. One record store, two evidence standards. This intent closes the resolved_by half of iss-245 (the promoted_to (historical) half is itd-119); when both ship, iss-245 itself resolves with provenance — the first entry in the ledger to carry the trail.

Scope Conditions

None stated.

Acceptance Criteria

BDD format, per the itd-1 discipline. Walked and confirmed by the maintainer, 2026-08-16.

• Given an open issue, when resolve runs with any of --intent itd-N, --spec spc-N, --commit <sha>, then resolved_by is written with exactly the supplied members, alongside resolution and impact, in the same atomic transition to resolved/.
• Given --intent or --spec, then the id must exist in its record store (any bucket, open or closed); --commit is shape-checked only (7–64 hex characters). An unknown id or malformed value refuses the whole transition — nothing written, the issue stays open.
• Given no provenance flags, then resolve behaves exactly as today: no resolved_by key is written at all — provenance is optional, never defaulted, never guessed.
• Given --json, then the result reports the transition and the written resolved_by members.
• Given the change, then wontfix is untouched — a non-action ships nothing and points at nothing.
• Given the sweep, then commands/capture.md and the issues README document the provenance flags.

SOTA

Close-with-reference is standard tracker practice (GitHub "fixes #N" commit links, GitLab closing patterns, Jira issue links); nothing importable — the provenance lands in abcd's native frontmatter schema, already modelled. Chosen path: bespoke, extending the existing Resolve transition and its atomic-write machinery. No new dependency.

Open Questions

None gating. Backfilling resolved_by onto already-resolved issues was ruled out of scope at the grill, 2026-08-16 — the verb closes the gap going forward.

Audit Notes

Fidelity review — receipt rcp-b741cdb3204d (verifier abcd:intent-auditor claude-fable-5-1).

Provenance: abcd:intent-auditor@claude-fable-5-1 · rubric_hash sha256:effa65b3e9e88ff29433b443ec2be159522a8b0b71cf1434526514aa61edb13e · prompt_hash sha256:1b78d748d8fbc6654013fa3563875ad19302a5986ba546eba3bf3b6e8bc3ee6c Input attestations: diff:tree at da7b7cf409b41758b3502d3873687dc8b817d8c4 (worktree HEAD; the host supplied no commit range, so the whole tree at that commit is the delivered reality)@-;

Acceptance rollup: MET 5 · MET_WITH_CONCERNS 1 · NOT_MET 0 · INCONCLUSIVE 0

Per-criterion verdicts:

• ac-1 — MET: Resolve appends only the supplied members as a nested resolved_by object to the extras that ride the single transition call beside impact and the resolution note; the core test writes all three members and the partial test writes a subset. evidence: internal/core/capture/workflow.go:266 — "if rb != nil {" evidence: internal/core/capture/workflow.go:279 — "extras = append(extras, kv{"resolved_by", members})" evidence: internal/core/capture/workflow.go:281 — "res, err := transition(req.RepoRoot, req.IssuesRoot, req.ID, "resolve", "resolution", req.Resolution," evidence: internal/core/capture/resolve_provenance_test.go:33 — "func TestResolveWritesResolvedBy(t *testing.T) {" evidence: internal/core/capture/resolve_provenance_test.go:78 — "func TestResolvePartialProvenance(t *testing.T) {"
• ac-2 — MET_WITH_CONCERNS: resolveProvenance runs before the move: intent and spec ids are shape-checked then probed for existence in any bucket, the commit is shape-checked only, and the refusal test proves the issue stays open with its bytes unchanged for every bad value; concern: the sha regex admits lowercase hex only, narrower than the criterion's 7-64 hex characters (git itself only emits lowercase, so the gap is theoretical). evidence: internal/core/capture/workflow.go:298 — "func resolveProvenance(req ResolveRequest) (*ResolvedBy, error) {" evidence: internal/core/capture/workflow.go:308 — "if _, ok := findRecordFile(repoRoot, intentStoreRelDirs(), req.ByIntent); !ok {" evidence: internal/core/capture/capture.go:327 — "reCommitSha = regexp.MustCompile(^[0-9a-f]{7,64}$)" evidence: internal/core/capture/resolve_provenance_test.go:128 — "t.Fatalf("%s: issue must stay open, got status=%q err=%v", name, status, ferr)" evidence: internal/core/capture/resolve_provenance_test.go:135 — "t.Fatalf("%s: refused resolve mutated the issue", name)"
• ac-3 — MET: With no member supplied resolveProvenance returns nil and the extras never gain a resolved_by key; the flagless regression test guards it. evidence: internal/core/capture/workflow.go:299 — "if req.ByIntent == "" && req.BySpec == "" && req.ByCommit == "" {" evidence: internal/core/capture/resolve_provenance_test.go:143 — "func TestResolveFlaglessWritesNoResolvedBy(t *testing.T) {"
• ac-4 — MET: TransitionResult carries the written members under a resolved_by json tag and the CLI surface test decodes id, to_status and the exact members from the --json envelope. evidence: internal/core/capture/capture.go:245 — "ResolvedBy *ResolvedBy json:"resolved_by,omitempty"" evidence: internal/core/capture/workflow.go:286 — "res.ResolvedBy = rb" evidence: internal/surface/cli/capture_surface_test.go:312 — "func TestCaptureResolveProvenanceJSON(t *testing.T) {" evidence: internal/surface/cli/capture_surface_test.go:355 — "t.Fatalf("resolved_by members wrong: %+v", r.ResolvedBy)"
• ac-5 — MET: WontfixRequest has no provenance members, so nothing on that path can write resolved_by, and the plugin page states it. evidence: internal/core/capture/capture.go:220 — "type WontfixRequest struct {" evidence: commands/capture.md:311 — "back in the JSON as resolved_by. wontfix takes no provenance — a non-action"
• ac-6 — MET: The plugin page documents the three flags with the existence and shape rules, and the issues README documents the field and the flags that write it. evidence: commands/capture.md:289 — "resolve also takes optional provenance — the structured resolved_by pointer" evidence: .abcd/work/issues/README.md:127 — "- resolved_by — optional pointer object (intent, spec, commit) naming"

Gap audit:

• honoured:
  • a resolved issue points at what fixed it through a structured pointer written in the same transition evidence: internal/core/capture/workflow.go:222 — "// resolved_by object (spc-25) in the same atomic transition. Ids are validated"
  • provenance is optional, never defaulted, never guessed evidence: internal/core/capture/workflow.go:226 — "// resolved_by key at all: provenance is optional, never defaulted."
• diverged:
  • the commit sha accepts 7-64 hex characters evidence: internal/core/capture/capture.go:327 — "reCommitSha = regexp.MustCompile(^[0-9a-f]{7,64}$)"
• missing: (none)