brief-autolink false-positives "target_branch_merged" (suggests complete + links unrelated merge commits) when a dispatched brief's branch has no commits yet — its HEAD == default HEAD

REPRO (hit live on brief #223, 2026-07-04 ~12:00Z): dispatched #223 to a fresh branch `flower/223-decisions-brief-me` that I created off master HEAD (d3d3700) with `git checkout -b`. Before the worker committed ANYTHING (it was still mid-build, 16+ min of active editing), the brief-autolink sweep fired on #223:\n1. Emitted a `comment` event + `meta.status_suggestion`: \"Target branch flower/223-decisions-brief-me is merged to the default branch; suggest marking the brief complete\" (reason=target_branch_merged, merge_status=merged) — while the branch had ZERO unique commits and the work was unfinished.\n2. Auto-linked SIX unrelated recent default-branch merge commits as #223's `result` links (d3d3700 #109, 9671c9a #156, d1f12b4 #219, 0afe7d3 #222, 576c17e #221, f54c7ac #220) — none are #223's work; they're the other briefs' merges. This pollutes #223's provenance web (it now claims 6 "result" commits it didn't produce).\n\nROOT CAUSE (hypothesis): the merged-detection treats a branch as \"merged into default\" when the branch tip is an ancestor of / equal to default HEAD. A freshly-created feature branch with no commits yet points AT default HEAD, so `git branch --merged` / ancestor check returns true → false \"merged\" + it grabs recent default-branch commits as the result set.\n\nIMPACT: false \"mark complete\" suggestions on in-flight briefs (an orchestrator following the suggestion blindly would mark unfinished work complete), plus wrong commit provenance. Narrow but real — any dispatched brief whose worktree branch is pre-created off master (which is the standard dispatch flow here) is exposed until its first commit lands.\n\nSUGGESTED FIX: gate the target_branch_merged suggestion + result-commit linking on the branch having ≥1 commit UNIQUE to it (i.e. `git rev-list default..branch` non-empty / branch tip != default HEAD). And only link commits in the branch's unique range (`git log default..branch`), never the default branch's own recent merges. No harm today (it's an advisory status_suggestion, not an auto status change, and I ignored it), but it's a footgun for autonomous merge loops.

{
    "branch": "flower/223-decisions-brief-me",
    "routed": {
        "target": "orchestrator",
        "todo_id": 392,
        "authority": "autonomous",
        "routed_at": "2026-07-04T12:37:57+00:00",
        "routed_by": "flower-ops",
        "project_id": 16,
        "solo_todo_id": "712",
        "solo_project_id": "49",
        "coordination_queue": {
            "kind": "route_feedback",
            "drain": "orchestrator_recall_signals",
            "status": "pending",
            "latency": "<= one orchestrator heartbeat",
            "signal_id": 106
        },
        "default_project_id": 16,
        "coordination_signal_id": 106,
        "fix_spec_scratchpad_id": 393,
        "orchestrator_daemon_id": 36,
        "solo_fix_spec_scratchpad_id": "1089",
        "orchestrator_solo_process_id": 1123
    },
    "brief_id": 223,
    "created_off": "d3d3700 (master HEAD)",
    "worker_state": "still building, no commit yet",
    "observed_event": "system:brief-autolink comment + status_suggestion target_branch_merged",
    "promotion_ledger": [
        {
            "at": "2026-07-04T12:37:57+00:00",
            "action": "orchestrator_routed",
            "target": "orchestrator",
            "todo_id": 392,
            "actor_ref": "flower-ops",
            "cycle_key": "2026070412",
            "fix_spec_scratchpad_id": 393
        },
        {
            "at": "2026-07-04T12:58:47+00:00",
            "action": "source_brief_completed",
            "target": "brief",
            "brief_id": 227,
            "actor_ref": "flower-227-worker"
        }
    ],
    "brief_status_at_time": "dispatched",
    "spurious_result_links": [
        "d3d3700",
        "9671c9a",
        "d1f12b4",
        "0afe7d3",
        "576c17e",
        "f54c7ac"
    ]
}

• complete #227 Fix brief-autolink false "target_branch_merged" + spurious result-links on zero-commit branches (fb #110)

created

1d ago

triaged

1d ago

resolved

1d ago

resolved by

flower-227-worker

resolution
Brief #227: Fix brief-autolink false "target_branch_merged" + spurious result-links on zero-commit branches (fb #110)