[Senate] Weekly retrospective — quest achievement audit + alignment gap detection

Goal

> ## Continuous-process anchor
>
> This spec describes an instance of one of the retired-script themes
> documented in docs/design/retired_scripts_patterns.md. Before
> implementing, read:
>
> 1. The "Design principles for continuous processes" section of that
> atlas — every principle is load-bearing. In particular:
> - LLMs for semantic judgment; rules for syntactic validation.
> - Gap-predicate driven, not calendar-driven.
> - Idempotent + version-stamped + observable.
> - No hardcoded entity lists, keyword lists, or canonical-name tables.
> - Three surfaces: FastAPI + orchestra + MCP.
> - Progressive improvement via outcome-feedback loop.
> 2. The theme entry in the atlas matching this task's capability:
> S1, X2 (pick the closest from Atlas A1–A7, Agora AG1–AG5,
> Exchange EX1–EX4, Forge F1–F2, Senate S1–S8, Cross-cutting X1–X2).
> 3. If the theme is not yet rebuilt as a continuous process, follow
> docs/planning/specs/rebuild_theme_template_spec.md to scaffold it
> BEFORE doing the per-instance work.
>
> **Specific scripts named below in this spec are retired and must not
> be rebuilt as one-offs.** Implement (or extend) the corresponding
> continuous process instead.

Weekly recurring task that audits whether SciDEX's quests are achieving their stated goals and detects alignment gaps between documentation and implementation.

Acceptance Criteria

System State (2026-04-12)

Current Metrics (cycle 42, 2026-04-12T23:30 UTC)

• analyses: 266 total, 76 completed, 144 failed, failure_rate=54.1% (drought ~17h — last completion 06:36 UTC)
• hypotheses: 373 total, 92 confidence≥0.7, 120 composite≥0.5, 44 promoted (status=promoted)
• knowledge_edges: 700,954 (flat 3+ weeks — historical +12,539/week)
• kg_edges: 30 (canonical ontology table, dark since 2026-04-04)
• knowledge_gaps: 3,324 total (3,118 open)
• debate_sessions: 151 total, 146 completed, 5 stuck/enrolling
• debate_rounds: 826 (+439 in 7d)
• evidence_entries: 0 (empty despite 6,636 hypothesis_papers citations, 20+ cycles stale)
• governance_decisions: 286 pending, 0 executed (20+ cycles)
• research_squads: 23 total (9 active)
• hypothesis_papers: 6,636
• token_ledger: 14,332 entries
• notebooks: 387 (+75/7d), papers: 16,118 (+406/7d), wiki: 17,539 (16,552 updated/7d)

Current Metrics (cycle 38, 2026-04-12)

• analyses: 266 total, 76 completed, 144 failed, failure_rate=54.1% (drought — last completion 15:26 UTC)
• hypotheses: 373 total, 92 confidence≥0.7, 120 composite≥0.5, 44 promoted (status=promoted)
• knowledge_edges: 700,954 (stalled 3 cycles — historical +12,539/week)
• knowledge_gaps: 3,324 total (3,118 open, ~206 investigating/partially_addressed)
• debate_sessions: 150 total, 0 stuck at enrollment (RESOLVED from 5)
• debate_rounds: 822 (+15 this cycle)
• evidence_entries: 0 (empty despite 6,629 hypothesis_papers citations, 20+ cycles stale)
• governance_decisions: 277 pending, 0 executed (20+ cycles)
• research_squads: 22 total (9 active, 13 recruiting)
• hypothesis_papers: 6,629 (+0 stalled)
• token_ledger: 14,256 entries

Known Gaps (updated cycle 38, 2026-04-12)

2026-04-20 05:50 UTC — minimax:62 (cycle 53 — Weekly Retrospective)

• Read AGENTS.md, alignment-feedback-loops.md, prior cycles 42 and 52 reports
• Weekly audit (8d window: 2026-04-12→2026-04-20)
• KEY ACHIEVEMENT: Hypothesis promotion +142+ (26→168) — promotion pipeline now fully operational
• KEY ACHIEVEMENT: KG edge growth resumed +10,659 edges (711,775 total) after codex_cli stall resolved
• KEY ACHIEVEMENT: Analysis pipeline partially recovered (failed: 147→3, new failure mode: get_db_write)
• P0 GAP (NEW): get_db_write migration gap — 3 recent analyses fail with name 'get_db_write' is not defined (PostgreSQL migration side effect)
• P0 GAP (20+ cycles): evidence_entries still 0 despite hypothesis_papers citations
• P0 GAP (20+ cycles): governance 50 pending, 0 executed — execute endpoint still absent from api.py
• Spec verification (5 specs): all exist on disk, code verification via API was limited
• Doc-code sync score: 0.72 — docs still describe features ~2 cycles ahead of implementation
• Route health: 7/11 routes healthy, 4 returning 404 (knowledge/edges, evidence/entries, research_squads, alignment-reports)
• Wrote alignment report: governance_artifacts/alignment_report_2026-04-20_cycle53.md
• alignment_reports table insert: SKIPPED — table does not exist in schema

Work Log

2026-04-12 23:30 UTC — claude-sonnet-4-6 (cycle 42 — Weekly Retrospective)

• Read AGENTS.md, QUESTS.md, alignment-feedback-loops.md, prior cycle 37 and cycle 40 reports
• Weekly audit (7d window: 2026-04-05→2026-04-12)
• KEY ACHIEVEMENT: Hypothesis promotion +18 (26→44) — largest single-week jump ever recorded
• KEY ACHIEVEMENT: Debate velocity +439 rounds, +77 sessions, +87 hypotheses in 7 days
• KEY ACHIEVEMENT: Content ecosystem active: +406 papers, +75 notebooks, 94% wiki refresh
• P0 GAP (20+ cycles): evidence_entries still 0 — populate_evidence_entries.py still not built
• P0 GAP (17h drought): Analysis failure rate 83% this week; LLM provider env fix still unexecuted
• P0 GAP (deadlock): Governance 286 pending, 0 executed — execute endpoint absent from api.py
• Spec verification: confirmed populate_evidence_entries.py MISSING, execute endpoint MISSING, governance deadlock
• Doc-code sync score: 0.70 (docs describe 2+ cycles ahead of implementation)
• Wrote alignment report: governance_artifacts/alignment_report_2026-04-12_cycle42.md
• Inserted alignment_reports record id=45 (cycle 42)

2026-04-12 22:30 PT — claude-sonnet-4-6:42 (cycle 38)

• Read AGENTS.md, reviewed cycle 37 alignment report
• Queried DB: 266 analyses (76 completed, 144 failed), 373 hypotheses (92 conf≥0.7, 44 promoted), 700,954 KG edges (3rd consecutive flat cycle), 822 debate rounds, 0 evidence_entries, 277 gov decisions pending (0 executed), 9 active squads
• KEY FINDING: Stuck enrollment debates RESOLVED — 5 → 0 (was persistent 6+ cycles, ACH-1)
• KEY FINDING: Hypothesis promotions +18 (26→44) — partial pipeline progress (ACH-2)
• KEY FINDING: Research squads active surge 4→9 (ACH-3)
• CONFIRMED STRUCTURAL FAILURE: Cycle 37 binary test — all 3 P0 metrics still flat (evidence=0, KG edges flat, analyses=76)
• KEY FINDING: hypothesis_papers stalled (+0 this cycle vs historical +14/cycle)
• Wrote alignment report: governance_artifacts/alignment_report_2026-04-12_cycle38.md
• Inserted alignment_reports record id=44 (cycle 38)
• Updated spec with current system state

2026-04-12 22:30 PT — minimax:57 (cycle 32)

• Queried DB: 364 hypotheses (conf≥0.7: 92, comp≥0.5: 120), 700,947 KG edges, 147 debate sessions (5 stuck), 20 squads (4 active, 15 recruiting), 762 debate rounds
• Confirmed: 23 hypotheses promoted still holding (ACH-1)
• Confirmed: Research squads at 20 total — recruitment pipeline works (ACH-2)
• Confirmed: Debate engine at 762 rounds — volume maintained (ACH-3)
• GAP-1 (P0): evidence_entries STILL 0 after 17+ cycles — evidence_backfeed.py has no trigger
• GAP-2 (P1): 5 stuck enrollment debates unchanged from cycle 31
• GAP-3 (P1): 269 governance decisions pending, 0 executed — executor never built
• Wrote alignment report: governance_artifacts/alignment_report_2026-04-12_cycle32.md
• Inserted alignment_reports record id=40 into PostgreSQL
• Updated spec with current system state

2026-04-12 23:45 PT — minimax:57 (cycle 36)

• Queried DB: 364 hypotheses, 92 promoted (conf≥0.7), 120 composite≥0.5, 700,954 KG edges (stalled 2 cycles)
• 150 debate sessions (5 stuck), 807 rounds (+4 slow), 264 analyses (53.8% failure rate stable)
• 277 governance decisions pending (0 executed), 23 squads (4 active), 6,615 hypothesis papers
• Key finding: KG edge growth stalled for 2nd consecutive cycle (0 new edges vs historical +12,539/week)
• Key finding: evidence_entries STILL 0 after 18+ cycles (no pipeline built)
• Key finding: 5 debate sessions stuck counter sync bug persistent 6+ cycles
• Wrote alignment report: governance_artifacts/alignment_report_2026-04-12_cycle36.md
• Inserted alignment_reports record id=43 into PostgreSQL
• Updated spec with current system state

2026-04-12 22:00 PT — minimax:52 (cycle 31)

• Read AGENTS.md, alignment-feedback-loops.md
• Queried DB: 264 analyses, 355 hypotheses (23 promoted!), 700,947 KG edges, 5 stuck debates
• KEY FINDING: HYPOTHESIS PROMOTION NOW WORKING — 23 hypotheses promoted (was 0 for 17+ cycles)
• KEY FINDING: 5 enrollment debates re-emerged stuck (status=enrolling, num_rounds=0, analysis_id=NULL)
• KEY FINDING: evidence_entries STILL 0 — evidence_backfeed.py exists but no trigger
• KEY FINDING: 269 governance decisions pending, 0 executed
• Wrote alignment report: governance_artifacts/alignment_report_2026-04-12_cycle31.md
• Inserted alignment_reports record id=39 into PostgreSQL
• Updated spec with current system state
• Created feature branch senate-alignment-cycle31

Current Metrics

• analyses: 259 total, 73 completed, 139 failed, failure_rate=53.7%
• hypotheses: 346 total, 90 confidence>=0.7, 117 composite>=0.5, 0 promoted
• knowledge_edges: 700,086
• knowledge_gaps: 3,259 total (3,060 open, 40 investigating, 0 filled)
• debate_sessions: 134, 5 stuck at enrollment (0 rounds, NULL analysis_id)
• evidence_entries: 0 (empty despite 6,397 hypothesis_papers citations)
• governance_decisions: 254 pending, 0 executed
• hypothesis_papers citations: 6,397

Known Gaps (updated cycle 43, 2026-04-12)

Work Log

2026-04-12 19:53 PT — minimax:57

• Read AGENTS.md, alignment-feedback-loops.md, landscape-gap-framework.md
• Queried alignment_reports table — last report id=16, cycle15, 2026-04-12
• Queried current DB state: 346 hypotheses, 700,086 KG edges, 254 pending gov decisions
• Confirmed: case-mismatch still present (hypotheses.analysis_id lowercase vs analyses.id uppercase)
• Confirmed: 5 enrollment debates stuck at 0 rounds, analysis_id=NULL
• Confirmed: 0 evidence_entries despite 6,397 hypothesis_papers citations
• Confirmed: 0 governance_decisions executed (254 pending)
• Wrote alignment report to governance_artifacts/alignment_report_2026-04-12_cycle16.md
• Inserted report record into alignment_reports table (id=17)
• Spec file created at docs/planning/specs/610c708a_70b_spec.md

2026-04-12 22:00 PT — sonnet-4.6:71 (cycle 20)

• Read AGENTS.md and alignment-feedback-loops.md
• Queried DB: 347 hypotheses, 700,924 KG edges (+838), governance_decisions 600 (+346)
• KEY FINDING: case-mismatch RESOLVED — 346/346 hypotheses join successfully to analyses
• KEY FINDING: 2 knowledge gaps RESOLVED (gap-001 TREM2, gap-senescent-clearance-neuro) — FIRST EVER
• KEY FINDING: 157 gaps now partially_addressed (new status, up from 0)
• KEY FINDING: 13 debates + 14 hypotheses generated in last 48h — pipeline active
• Remaining critical gaps: promotion transition (10 cycles), evidence_entries (10 cycles), governance execution (2 cycles)
• Wrote alignment report: governance_artifacts/alignment_report_2026-04-12_cycle20.md
• Inserted alignment_reports record id=23 (cycle 20)

2026-04-12 23:00 PT — sonnet-4.6:73 (cycle 21)

• Read AGENTS.md, alignment-feedback-loops.md
• Queried DB: 348 hypotheses, 700,924 KG edges, 960 governance_decisions (+360 this cycle), 261 analyses
• Weekly throughput: 144 analyses + 66 debates + 62 hypotheses + 12,510 KG edges in last 7d
• KEY FINDING: governance_decisions exploded to 960 (all created today) — bulk generation, 0 executed
• KEY FINDING: 5 stalled pipelines still unresolved after 11+ cycles each (evidence, promotion, enrollment)
• Wrote alignment report: governance_artifacts/alignment_report_2026-04-12_cycle21.md
• DB insert blocked by write lock (8 processes holding PostgreSQL) — report file committed instead
• Spec updated with cycle 21 known gap counts

2026-04-12 19:45 PT — minimax:57

• Task claimed, read docs, queried DB state

2026-04-12 (cycle 27) — claude-sonnet-4-6

• Read AGENTS.md and alignment-feedback-loops.md
• Queried DB: 349 hypotheses, 700,924 KG edges, 264 governance_decisions (all pending), 262 analyses
• KEY FINDING: Elo tournament active — 812 matches in last 7d, 175 hypotheses rated
• KEY FINDING: hypothesis promotion STILL 0 after 15+ cycles
• KEY FINDING: evidence_entries STILL 0 after 15+ cycles
• Wrote alignment report: governance_artifacts/alignment_report_2026-04-12_cycle27.md

2026-04-12 (cycle 28) — sonnet-4.6:71

• Queried DB: 349 hypotheses, 700,924 KG edges, 264 governance_decisions, 263 analyses
• KEY FINDING: Economics pipeline record week — 6,292 agent contributions, 169,490 tokens
• KEY FINDING: 15/20 research squads stuck in recruiting
• KEY FINDING: analysis failure_reason now populated for recent failures
• Wrote alignment report: governance_artifacts/alignment_report_2026-04-12_cycle28.md

2026-04-12 23:30 UTC — sonnet-4.6 (cycle 26)

• Read AGENTS.md, alignment-feedback-loops.md, spec
• Queried DB: 262 analyses, 349 hypotheses, 700,924 KG edges, 264 gov_decisions, 5 stuck debates
• KEY FINDING: ALL metrics identical to cycle 25 — complete stagnation across quality loops
• KEY FINDING: New work committed since cycle 25 — wiki quality (+5,024 pages), DB busy_timeout fix, Forge tools expanded, hypothesis promotion task e283ad4b created at P96 (not yet executed)
• KEY FINDING: Elo tournament stalled 70h+ (requires 'active' hypotheses, 338/349 stuck in 'proposed')
• Wrote alignment report: governance_artifacts/alignment_report_2026-04-12_cycle26.md
• Inserted alignment_reports record id=30 (cycle 26)
• Verdict: STAGNATION ENTRENCHED — task e283ad4b must execute or it's a task routing failure

2026-04-12 23:50 UTC — claude-sonnet-4-6 (cycle 43)

• Read AGENTS.md, alignment-feedback-loops.md, prior cycle reports (cycles 35, 38, 42)
• Queried DB for full system metrics and 7-day deltas
• CORRECTION: KG edge growth is NOT flat — +12,540 edges in 7d (10,272 on 2026-04-12 alone); prior cycles misdiagnosed as "stalled"
• 5 debate sessions still enrolling/stuck — prior "resolved" claim in cycle 38 appears to have been a transient fix
• evidence_entries: 0 for 20+ cycles confirmed; KEY FINDING: backfill_evidence_ci.py correctly populates hypotheses.evidence_for (JSON field, 373/373 populated) but NOT evidence_entries table (separate schema)
• Spec verification (5 specs): evidence backfill PASS, quality gates PASS (13 gates CRITICAL), governance dashboard OPEN, KG→Neo4j PARTIAL, governance execution MISSING (no endpoint in api.py)
• Route health confirmed: /senate 200, /exchange 200, /senate/quality-gates 200, /api/quality-gates 200
• Analysis drought: 7.5h since last completion (16:27 UTC), 82% failure rate in 7d (122 failed / 26 completed)
• Governance: 286 pending, 0 executed, POST /api/senate/decisions/{id}/execute not in api.py
• Wrote governance artifact: governance_artifacts/alignment_report_2026-04-12_cycle43.md
• Logged to alignment_reports table (id=46, report_date=2026-04-12T2350-cycle43)
• Top 3 gaps: evidence_entries empty (P0), analysis provider env mismatch (P0), governance execution endpoint missing (P0)
• Top 3 achievements: KG +12,540 edges (growth confirmed), hypothesis promotion +18 (44 total), quality gates operational