provenance-gate

Root cause framing for GitHub issues is validated using a three-question assessment that checks whether an issue describes a real root cause versus a symptom, evaluates mechanism fitness, and verifies scope accuracy before execution begins. This prevents unfocused work from starting without proper context.

A cold pickup issue is an existing GitHub issue received by a user-invocable agent without a warm handoff. Cold pickup issues need assessment when an agent requires validation of root-cause framing, mechanism fit, and scope accuracy before safe progression to execution.

Repeated issue framing validation is prevented through gate and marker recording, which records assessment outcomes and gating decisions via GitHub comments or session memory. This formal marker signals whether an issue has passed the three-question assessment.

The three-question assessment is designed for cold pickup GitHub issues handled by user-invocable agents that lack warm handoff context. It evaluates root cause versus symptom, mechanism fitness, and scope accuracy to ensure only well-framed issues proceed to execution.

Automated root-cause gating requires an existing GitHub issue and a user-invocable agent to trigger the three-question assessment. It does not apply to warm handoffs where context is already provided, and it relies on GitHub comments or session memory to record gating decisions.