bug: pulse-wrapper silently fails to dispatch when gh CLI <2.51.0 — scripts use --slurp causing 'unknown flag' loop, framework lacks gh minimum version prerequisite check

[superdav42]

Description

Pulse dispatch silently stalls when gh CLI is older than v2.51.0. Multiple aidevops scripts call gh api --paginate --slurp ..., but the --slurp flag was added in gh 2.51.0 (April 2024). On older gh versions, every such call emits unknown flag: --slurp and fails closed.

On Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble), apt install gh pins gh to 2.45.0 indefinitely (Ubuntu universe pin). Users following typical Linux install instructions land on a gh version that breaks pulse dispatch with no clear signal — the pulse keeps running, pulse-health.json keeps writing, but new issues never get dispatched. No aidevops status warning, no setup-time prerequisite check.

This is the same class of bug as #23103 (dashboard-freshness-check.sh using --paginate), but the fix in PR #23124 was a narrow point-fix on one file. The systemic gap — no minimum gh version check anywhere — is the real defect.

Expected Behavior

aidevops status (or aidevops doctor / setup) should report:

• gh CLI version detected
• Minimum required gh version (currently ≥2.51.0 for --slurp)
• Apt-pin warning on Ubuntu/Debian with the canonical cli.github.com apt repo install snippet
• Block or loudly warn if gh is below minimum

Alternatively (or additionally): pulse-wrapper should detect unknown flag errors from gh api and surface them as a fail-stop diagnostic rather than logging silently in pulse-wrapper.log.

Reproducer

Symptom command (from a host with gh 2.45.0 installed via Ubuntu apt):

~/.aidevops/agents/scripts/pulse-wrapper.sh

Actual output (excerpt from ~/.aidevops/logs/pulse-wrapper.log):

[pulse-wrapper] _gh_idempotent_comment: API error (exit=1) fetching comments for #1144 in Ultimate-Multisite/ultimate-multisite — skipping (fail closed)
...
unknown flag: --slurp

Usage:  gh api <endpoint> [flags]

Flags:
      --cache duration        Cache the response, e.g. "3600s", "60m", "1h"
  ...

Error: failed to fetch comments for #7 in Ultimate-Multisite/superdav-ai-newsletter

gh --version → gh version 2.45.0 (2025-07-18 Ubuntu 2.45.0-1ubuntu0.3)

apt-cache policy gh shows Ubuntu noble pinned at 2.45.0:

gh:
  Installed: 2.45.0-1ubuntu0.3
  Candidate: 2.45.0-1ubuntu0.3
  Version table:
 *** 2.45.0-1ubuntu0.3 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates/universe amd64 Packages

aidevops status reports:

Git CLI Tools
[OK] GitHub CLI (gh)

No warning about the broken --slurp flag despite pulse-wrapper actively failing.

Expected output: pulse-wrapper either succeeds, or aidevops status flags gh as too old before pulse silently breaks.

Causal code — call sites confirmed via rg:

.agents/scripts/dispatch-dedup-stale.sh:104       --paginate --slurp 2>/dev/null || true
.agents/scripts/dispatch-dedup-stale.sh:517       --paginate --slurp 2>/dev/null
.agents/scripts/pulse-triage-cache.sh:229         --paginate --slurp | jq -r '

Tests in .agents/scripts/tests/test-dispatch-dedup-stale-pagination.sh and test-worker-lifecycle-marker-pagination.sh explicitly assert --paginate --slurp is invoked, so this is a deliberate pattern — the gap is the lack of a corresponding prerequisite check.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install aidevops on Ubuntu 24.04 (or any host where gh is <2.51.0).
2. Register a repo with open auto-dispatch + status:available issues.
3. Wait for aidevops-supervisor-pulse.service to fire (every 10 min via systemd).
4. Observe issues never get dispatched; ~/.aidevops/logs/pulse-wrapper.log contains repeated unknown flag: --slurp blocks with no other surfaced error.
5. aidevops status continues to report gh as [OK].

Workarounds Applied

1. Installed the official GitHub CLI apt repo manually and apt upgrade gh to 2.92.0:

   sudo mkdir -p -m 755 /etc/apt/keyrings
   wget -nv -O- https://cli.github.com/packages/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg > /dev/null
   sudo chmod go+r /etc/apt/keyrings/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg
   echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg] https://cli.github.com/packages stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/github-cli.list > /dev/null
   sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y gh

   After upgrade --slurp worked and pulse dispatch resumed within one cycle.

2. Killed stuck pulse-wrapper.sh processes left from the 2.45-era cycle (also flagged separately — see Siblings).

3. Removed redundant cron pulse-merge entry running in parallel with the systemd timer (see Siblings).

Environment

• aidevops version: 3.15.31
• Latest version: 3.15.31
• Install method: unknown (/home/dave/.local/bin/aidevops)
• AI Assistant: OpenCode
• OS: Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS
• Shell: bash 5.2.21(1)-release
• gh CLI (after manual upgrade): 2.92.0 (2026-04-28)
• gh CLI (broken state): 2.45.0-1ubuntu0.3 (Ubuntu noble universe)

Additional Context

Five auto-dispatch + status:available issues sat undispatched for 4 days (May 7 → May 11) on Ultimate-Multisite/ultimate-multisite because of this. No telemetry surfaced the failure to the user — diagnosis required reading pulse-wrapper.log directly. After the gh upgrade, dispatch resumed within the next pulse cycle.

Related historical fix: #23103 / PR #23124 fixed --paginate on gh issue list in dashboard-freshness-check.sh for gh <2.55 compatibility. The same root cause (no gh minimum version gate) remains for --slurp on gh api in at least three other call sites.

Siblings

• Subshell RATIONALE variable lost in pulse-fix-the-fixer-detector.sh line 352 — produces WARN: ... classification skipped — with empty rationale.
• Stale cron pulse-merge entry left after migration to systemd timer — both fire in parallel until manually cleaned.
• Repo-level priority: "high" value in ~/.config/aidevops/repos.json scores 0 in pulse-dispatch-engine.sh (only tooling/product are recognized) — silent enum mismatch.
• aidevops-supervisor-pulse.service KillMode=process leaves child pulse-wrapper processes alive when the systemd unit is stopped.

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aidevops.sh v3.15.31 plugin for OpenCode v1.14.48 with claude-opus-4-7 spent 55m and 48,357 tokens on this with the user in an interactive session.

[github-actions]

Thanks for the report, @superdav42.

This issue has been queued for maintainer review. A maintainer will review it and either:

• Approve it using: sudo aidevops approve issue 23427
• Ask for more information if the report needs clarification
• Close it if it's a duplicate or out of scope

Tip: For faster, higher-quality issue reporting, use /log-issue-aidevops in your AI assistant session. It gathers diagnostics automatically and checks for duplicates.

[superdav42]

Update: gpt-5.5 worker crashes — upstream root-cause identified

The OpenCode TypeError (undefined is not an object (evaluating 'J.type')) that was causing 3/4 openai/gpt-5.5 headless workers to premature_exit (exit 77) is the same Effect Schema migration regression documented in anomalyco/opencode#26156 (Kimi/Moonshot's $.annotations crash since v1.14.23 — minified variable name differs per build, but failure shape is identical).

Root cause (upstream): anomalyco/opencode#24005 migrated session/message schemas from zod to Effect Schema in v1.14.23. Effect Schema deserialization is stricter than zod — streaming response parts with missing/null optional fields throw TypeError: undefined is not an object instead of being silently accepted.

Cross-reference posted: anomalyco/opencode#26156 (comment)

Status of original 5 sibling findings in this issue:

1. gpt-5.5 worker failures → upstream regression, not aidevops — kept in oauth-pool (resume contracts recover it).
2. fix-the-fixer-detector.sh:352 subshell RATIONALE bug — still actionable in this repo.
3. Stale cron * * * * * pulse-wrapper.sh --merge-only — already removed during diagnosis.
4. repos.json invalid priority:"high" enum on ultimate-multisite-support-tickets — still actionable.
5. KillMode=process orphans from gh 2.45 stalls — already mitigated by gh upgrade to 2.92.0.

No aidevops framework changes needed for the gpt-5.5 issue. Pulse's resume_session_with_completion_contract next-action correctly recovers from the crash (verified: issue #1139 succeeded on resume after premature_exit). The 24h success rate on openai/gpt-5.5 is healthier than initially estimated (67% overall worker success including resumes).

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aidevops.sh v3.15.31 plugin for OpenCode v1.14.48 with claude-opus-4-7 spent 1h 8m and 76,200 tokens on this with the user in an interactive session.

[marcusquinn]

Review: Approved

Pre-Review Context

Check	Result
Pre-existing duplicates	No exact duplicate found. #23103 is related historical evidence for the same dependency-class problem, but it was a narrow gh issue list --paginate compatibility fix, not this gh api --paginate --slurp prerequisite gap.
Superseded by recent work	None found. Merged PR #23124 did not add a minimum gh gate; PR #23408 / commits 48a0f7d, fe30f25, 41da920 are pulse dispatch rc handling/tests and do not address --slurp compatibility.
Framing matches reality	Yes. Current source still has gh api --paginate --slurp in pulse/dispatch paths and aidevops status only checks that gh exists.
Current file state matches issue body references	Yes. The cited references still match current source: .agents/scripts/dispatch-dedup-stale.sh:104, .agents/scripts/dispatch-dedup-stale.sh:517, .agents/scripts/pulse-triage-cache.sh:229. Additional call sites exist in dispatch/worker/pulse helpers.

Issue Validation

Check	Status	Notes
Reproducible	Yes, structurally	I did not downgrade local gh, but confirmed local gh api --help exposes --slurp, current scripts require it, and the status path does not enforce a minimum version. On a pre---slurp gh this will fail exactly at those call sites.
Not a pre-existing duplicate	Yes	Search found only this issue and the related closed #23103.
Not superseded by recent work	Yes	Recent merged/open PR search for gh slurp minimum version pulse dispatch found no fix.
Actual bug	Yes	The framework intentionally depends on --slurp for correctness, so reporting GitHub CLI (gh) as OK when the installed version lacks that flag is a real prerequisite/diagnostics defect.
In scope	Yes	This is core aidevops setup/status/pulse reliability.

Root Cause: The framework has grown a real runtime prerequisite (gh api --paginate --slurp) but only validates gh presence, not feature/version support. Several pulse paths then fail closed or log locally without surfacing a clear prerequisite failure.

Solution Evaluation

Criterion	Assessment	Notes
Simplicity	Good	Prefer one shared gh version/feature check used by aidevops status, setup/doctor, and pulse preflight rather than patching each call site.
Correctness	Good with one constraint	Do not remove --slurp just to support old gh; tests show it protects pagination invariants for long comment threads. Gate the prerequisite instead.
Completeness	Needs implementation	Cover Debian/Ubuntu apt-pin guidance, clear status output, and a pulse fail-stop diagnostic for unknown flag: --slurp.
Consistency	Good	Fits existing status/tool-version-check patterns, but should not be a brew-only check because the reported failure is Linux apt packaging.

Alternatives: Best approach is a shared minimum-version/feature probe. A fallback pagination implementation could be added later, but it is higher-risk because --slurp was deliberately introduced to preserve cross-page ordering/counting semantics.

Second-Order Effects

Dimension	Finding
Architectural intent	Aligned. Recent tests intentionally assert --paginate --slurp (.agents/scripts/tests/test-dispatch-dedup-stale-pagination.sh:7, .agents/scripts/tests/test-worker-lifecycle-marker-pagination.sh:119), so the fix should preserve that invariant and add prerequisite visibility.
Safety gates touched	Dispatch dedup and pulse dispatch diagnostics. The fix should strengthen fail-closed visibility, not bypass dedup/idempotency checks. Prompt-injection handling is not directly touched; I treated the issue body as untrusted and did not execute its installation snippets.
Symptom vs root cause	Root cause if implemented as a shared minimum gh prerequisite check plus pulse fail-stop surfacing. A per-call workaround would be only a symptom patch.
Ripple effects	aidevops status output changes; setup/doctor may warn or block on older gh; pulse-wrapper may stop earlier with a clearer diagnostic; tests should pin both pass/fail version parsing and unknown flag: --slurp classification.
Rollback path	Revert the shared version check and pulse diagnostic changes; no data migration expected.

Scope & Recommendation

• Scope creep: Low if limited to gh prerequisite + pulse diagnostic; defer sibling findings into separate issues.
• Complexity: Medium (tier:standard) because it touches setup/status/pulse diagnostics and needs portable version parsing.
• Decision: APPROVE
• Labels: bug, tier:standard, keep needs-maintainer-review until a maintainer explicitly approves/dispatches.
• Implementation guidance:
  • Add a shared gh minimum/feature check for gh api --paginate --slurp support, currently minimum 2.51.0 per the report.
  • Surface it in .agents/scripts/aidevops-cli/aidevops-status-lib.sh near .agents/scripts/aidevops-cli/aidevops-status-lib.sh:107 instead of only check_cmd gh.
  • Wire setup/doctor/preflight to warn or block before pulse scheduling starts.
  • In pulse logging, classify unknown flag: --slurp as a prerequisite failure with the detected gh --version and remediation guidance.
  • Add shell tests for old/new version parsing and the pulse diagnostic path; preserve existing tests that require --paginate --slurp.

Dispatchability Assessment

Check	Status	Notes
Brief exists	No	No todo/tasks/*23427* brief found.
Brief has code blocks	No	Not applicable until a brief is created.
TODO entry with ref	No	TODO.md has no ref:GH#23427 entry.
Task ID claimed	No	No task ID found for this issue.

Tier prerequisite met: No — recommended tier:standard, but it still needs a worker-ready brief/TODO/task-id before dispatch.
What is needed to dispatch: Create a tier:standard brief that names the files above, adds version-parsing and pulse-diagnostic tests, and explicitly excludes the sibling findings from this issue scope.

[marcusquinn]

Thanks for the report, @superdav42.

Accepted and queued for implementation as #23428 / t3587. The implementation scope is the shared gh >= 2.51.0 / gh api --paginate --slurp prerequisite check plus status/setup/pulse diagnostics; the sibling findings called out in this thread remain separate work.

We'll link back here when the fix ships.

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[github-actions]

The needs-maintainer-review label was re-applied automatically.

Removing this label requires a cryptographic approval — even for maintainers. This ensures every approval is auditable and cannot be forged by automation.

To approve this issue, run from your terminal:

sudo aidevops approve issue 23427

This signs the approval with a root-protected key and posts a verifiable comment.

[marcusquinn]

Maintainer Approval (cryptographically signed)

APPROVE:issue:marcusquinn/aidevops:23427:2026-05-12T00:56:36Z

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This approval was signed with a root-protected SSH key. It cannot be forged by automation.

This issue is now locked. To propose scope changes, open a new issue referencing this one.

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