Execution Log: the start opens the conversation

Append-only log of progress for the user's visibility.

Phase transitions

Phase	Entered	Reviewed/approved by	Notes
phase-selection	2026-09-03	—	Tier 3 (human-approves-pr; below security.review.humanSignOffMinTier: 4): the change lives in cli/the_loop/channels/, one seam of the dispatcher, the daemons' wiring, tests and docs; no schema, workflow or harness-config path is touched. Brainstorming skipped — the ticket's two bullets are the requirements
requirements-definition	2026-09-03		requirements.md — the thread opens on the first event, minutes after the start; three requirements, five abuse cases
design	2026-09-03		design.md — open on the channel, open_conversation on the bus, an injected opener on the dispatcher's spawn path; decision-107
test-planning	2026-09-03		testing-plan.md — thirteen rows, seven applicable
tasks-breakdown	2026-09-03		tasks.md — six tasks
implementation	2026-09-03		On claude/github-issue-317-7mtlc5
verification	2026-09-03		evidence/verification.md — rows T1, T2, T8, T10, T12; evidence/security-review.md — five abuse cases, five closed
needs-review	2026-09-03		PR raised; awaiting the owner (tier 3: human-approves-pr)
complete

Pull requests

PR	Scope / tasks	Status
#319	tasks 1–6: the whole work item	open

Progress entries

2026-09-03 — implemented, verified, ready for review

• Phase: implementation → verification → needs-review
• Did: tasks 1–6, red first each. SlackBotChannel.open (the issue-312 root under the same lock, origin start, no reply) and _open_thread(…, origin); start in CONVERSATION_ORIGINS; the Conversational protocol beside Channel; bus.open_conversation (every conversational channel, best-effort, channel.open_failed); publishers.conversation_opener (config per call, the comment publisher's shape); Dispatcher(opener=…) called from _spawn_for after the adapter check and before the checkout; wired in gh-webhook, in the poller's _build_dispatcher (new cli_config_getter) and through it in the core facade with the config it was handed; the four scenarios; the docs, two capability docs, decision-107.
• Checkpoint/tests: make check — see evidence/verification.md. New tests: 6 unit (channel/state), 3 (bus/opener), 6 (dispatcher seam), 2 (facade/poll wiring), 4 scenarios. No existing assertion changed: the lazy path is untouched, so every issue-312 test stands as written.
• Self-review: three passes over the diff. Fixed in place: the open ran before the missing-adapter check (R1.4 names that refusal — moved behind it); the opener's inner function shadowed the bus's open_conversation (renamed); the restart scenario rebuilt a RoutedEvent from __dict__ (now dataclasses.replace). Pass three found nothing new.
• Next: the owner's review.
• Blockers: none.

2026-09-03 — spec chain drafted

• Phase: requirements-definition → tasks-breakdown
• Did: read the channel package, the dispatcher's spawn path and both daemons' wiring at f56a71f; found that every way of starting a work item converges on Dispatcher._spawn_for, and that the Slack root is opened only by the first event; wrote the four artifacts and the decision.
• Checkpoint/tests: baseline — the channel, bus and control test files green.
• Next: task 1 (open on the channel), red first.
• Blockers: none.

Verification results

Only when this work item declared test-planning away. It did not: results live in testing-plan.md.

What was verified	Command	Outcome	Evidence
—	—	—	see testing-plan.md

Design critic review

Not selected for this work item.

Round	Critic (<harness>/<model>)	Outcome	Findings → disposition	Link

Review cycles

Cycle	Type (self/critic/security)	Reviewer	Outcome	Link
1	self	the-loop (this session)	new findings — the open ahead of the adapter check; the shadowed name; the __dict__ rebuild: fixed	this log
2	self	the-loop (this session)	zero (converged)	this log
3	self	the-loop (this session)	zero (converged)	this log
—	critic	—	unavailable — reviews.critics is empty in this repository's config; does not count toward criticReviewCount	—
4	security	the-loop checklist	pass; no human sign-off at tier 3	evidence/security-review.md

Security review (gate)

• Mechanism: the-loop checklist (security.review.mechanism: auto; no security-review skill is invocable from this session's plugin set)
• Outcome: pass — evidence/security-review.md, five abuse cases closed
• Human sign-off: n/a (tier 3 is below humanSignOffMinTier: 4)

Final validation evidence

Requirement	Proof
R1.1 a start opens the conversation, before the checkout, from every entry point	test_a_start_opens_the_conversation_once_before_the_checkout; Scenario: A start opens the work item's thread before any event; test_the_facade_dispatcher_opens_with_the_config_it_was_given, test_the_poll_builder_wires_an_opener_by_default
R1.2 the root alone, no reply	test_open_posts_the_root_alone_and_binds_with_origin_start
R1.3 idempotent — a bound work item keeps its thread	test_open_is_idempotent_for_a_bound_work_item; Scenario: A restarted work item keeps its thread
R1.4 a refused start opens nothing	test_a_refused_start_opens_no_thread, test_an_unauthorized_start_opens_no_thread; Scenario: A refused start opens no thread
R1.5 best-effort, channel.open_failed, the lazy path as fallback	test_a_failed_open_binds_nothing, test_a_failing_open_is_a_result_and_an_event_never_an_exception, test_a_raising_opener_never_fails_the_spawn; Scenario: A Slack outage never fails the spawn
R1.6 the ledger and any channel without open are skipped	test_open_conversation_opens_on_every_channel_that_can_and_skips_the_ledger
R1.7 the first event is the first reply	Scenario: A start opens the work item's thread before any event (the ask lands as a reply)
R2.1 origin start, listed	test_open_posts_the_root_alone_and_binds_with_origin_start, test_an_unknown_origin_is_coerced_to_event (channels threads prints the origin column unchanged, issue-312)
R2.2 channel.thread_opened / channel.open_failed, ids only	test_open_posts_the_root_alone_and_binds_with_origin_start, test_a_failing_open_is_a_result_and_an_event_never_an_exception; test_eventlog.py catalog
R3.1 the bus is the only caller; config per call	test_the_daemon_opener_reads_the_config_per_call_and_needs_a_channels_section
R3.2 both daemons and the facade wire it; the facade with its own config	test_the_facade_dispatcher_opens_with_the_config_it_was_given, test_the_poll_builder_wires_an_opener_by_default; gh-webhook wired in _build_routing (no unit seam; the same conversation_opener)
R3.3 no opener, no change	test_a_dispatcher_without_an_opener_opens_nothing
A1–A5	evidence/security-review.md

Capability docs

Capability doc	What changed	History row
channels.md	a new current-behaviour bullet (the thread opens when the work item starts: every entry point, root only, idempotent, refused starts open nothing, best-effort with channel.open_failed, the injected opener); the observability bullet names the new event and the start origin; the Design list links this spec and decision-107	issue-317 row
interactive-sessions.md	a new current-behaviour bullet beside the announcement: the spawn path opens the work item's channel conversations first	issue-317 row

Documentation

Document	What changed
docs/cli/commands/channels.md	§ One thread per work item: the thread opens when the work item starts; the lazy path as fallback; the origin column
docs/cli/commands/sessions.md	the start bullet: the channel conversation is opened first
docs/cli/state.md	the start origin in the conversations map
docs/config/cli/channels-options.md	the thread paragraph: opened at start, on every enabled channel, channel.open_failed as the fallback signal
skills/the-loop/reference/collaboration.md	one clause in the channels paragraph: opened the moment the work item starts
docs/decisions/decision-107.md, decisions.md	the decision and its index row
README.md, skills/the-loop/SKILL.md	unchanged — neither describes when the Slack thread opens