I3204 — The backlog's bound is declared once in policy, and every session brief says when the landable backlog is past it

✕BLOCKED wave 0 · p1 · implementation profile · parallel safe

Part of delivery-flow-is-measured — The way from a pull request to a verified publication is measured per phase, and its bounds are read where work starts.

Objective

Move the landable-backlog threshold from the MJ_BACKLOG_MAX default in scripts/ci/backlog-check into .ai/repo/policy.yaml, read it in both backlog-check and the session brief, and have the brief's integration section say 'past the bound' from the last recorded observation, without a network call and without refusing anything.

Why

The owner's repeated demand was that pull requests be processed, not accumulate (c209#0, c220#0); on 2026-09-11 the review asked for one typed policy source for staleness and age thresholds and a cached entry warning (c112#3). Rule project.accumulation-is-measured asks for a threshold that makes growth loud; today the threshold is an environment default of one script. Proposed in ADR 0197 (The backlog is bounded by a declared bound that every session reads at start, and the bound reports rather than refuses) (proposed; it carries no authority until the owner accepts it). Sources: chatgpt-majordomus:c112#3.

Current state

scripts/ci/backlog-check --remote measures the landable backlog against MJ_BACKLOG_MAX (default 10); the brief (apps/majordomus-cli/src/capability/builtin/brief.rs) reports prs brief without any bound; .ai/repo/policy.yaml declares release.floor but no integration bound. The session-start context does not pass through brief.rs: lib/context.sh mj_context_integration calls prs brief and writes no section for a checkout that never observed the forge.

Desired state

policy.yaml declares integration.backlog_max (and the age after which a ready pull request is starving); backlog-check and the brief read it; the brief line reads 'N landable, bound M: past the bound' when exceeded. Rule project.blocking-checks-cheap holds: it is reported, never a refusal.

Scope

• .ai/repo/policy.yaml
• scripts/ci/backlog-check
• apps/majordomus-cli/src/capability/builtin/brief.rs
• apps/majordomus-cli/src/commands/prs.rs
• test/cases/131_backlog_hygiene.sh
• lib/context.sh

Out of scope

• Refusing new work (an open question to the owner)
• Querying the forge at session start

Dependencies

None. This issue is a root of the graph.

What waits on this

• I3212✕BLOCKED Two open pull requests that realise the same issue are reported as duplicates, with the survivor named

Acceptance criteria

• The bound appears in exactly one canonical file and both readers name it
• A recorded observation over the bound makes the brief say so; under it the brief says nothing extra
• A checkout that never observed the forge says the backlog is unobserved, not zero
• The session-start context (lib/context.sh mj_context_integration) writes 'backlog unobserved' for a checkout that never observed the forge when policy declares integration.backlog_max, and writes nothing when no bound is declared, keeping its rule that a repository which does not integrate pull requests grows no section
• The context line and the brief line are the same text, produced by prs brief

Validation

• bash test/run.sh 131_backlog_hygiene
• majordomus prs brief

Evidence required

• case_the_backlog_bound_is_read_at_start

Evidence

None recorded. Every token above needs a command or an artifact behind it before this issue can be completed; narrative is refused.

Timeline

started

—

verified

—

completed

—

Those three fields, the evidence above and the state of the dependencies are all the status is made of. There is no status field to disagree with them.

Canonical record: .ai/repo/project/issues/I3204.yaml. Read it back with majordomus plan show I3204.