fix: create-task asks for the vault instead of silently defaulting

[bborbe]

/vault-cli:create-task and its task-creator agent both fell back silently to the configured default vault, so a task belonging to one vault could land in another by inference — and the fallback is a third vault again, wrong for work belonging to any other.

What changes

• commands/create-task.md — new Resolve the vault section: use --vault, or the vault the cwd sits in; when neither determines it, ask. Never infer from the topic, never fall through to default_vault.
• agents/task-creator.md — the constraint, the Defaults: line and §2 all lose the silent default; the caller resolves the vault.

This matches the convention two siblings already carry:

• commands/reflect.md — "If cwd is not inside any vault path, ask the user which vault to write to (AskUserQuestion with vault names from the config)."
• agents/graph-auditor.md — "ask user which vault to audit; do not guess."

Why

Observed 2026-10-15: a task belonging to seibert-personal was created in seibert-brogrammers by inference and had to be deleted and re-created — two task-creator runs (~105k tokens).

Verification

make precommit passes locally (format · generate · test · check · addlicense).

[ben-s-pull-request-reviewer]

No scenario touches create-task or task-creator. The changed files are all command/agent definitions — no binary-relevant Go code changed. Per the scenario-skip rule, no run needed.

Review complete

Changes reviewed (3 files, all non-Go):

File	What changed
commands/create-task.md	Added "Resolve the vault" section with explicit 3-case logic: --vault given, cwd in vault, or neither (ask). MODE=non_interactive now fails headlessly instead of falling through to default_vault.
agents/task-creator.md	Constraint updated: --vault or ask when absent, never default_vault. Step 2 notes same. Defaults: line updated to remove the VAULT = configured default vault statement.
CHANGELOG.md	## Unreleased bullet added with full incident write-up (observed wrong-vault task creation on 2026-10-15, ~105k tokens wasted).

Correctness concerns from the plan:

• commands/create-task.md: The documented contract is explicit and unambiguous — three cases, no fallthrough, non_interactive fails rather than guesses. ✅
• agents/task-creator.md: Both the constraint and the step-2 note now say "ask when absent / never fall back to default_vault". ✅

Version alignment: All four files agree on 0.169.0. ✅

No issues found.

---

{
  "verdict": "approve",
  "summary": "Fix correctly replaces the silent `default_vault` fallback with explicit ask-or-fail logic in both the command and the agent. The contract is documented in three clear cases, consistent with sibling conventions (`reflect.md`, `graph-auditor.md`), and the CHANGELOG entry is thorough.",
  "comments": [],
  "concerns_addressed": [
    {
      "concern": "correctness: commands/create-task.md — new vault resolution logic honoring the documented ask/fail contract",
      "disposition": "addressed",
      "detail": "Verified: 'Resolve the vault' section (lines 19-25) provides three explicit cases, no fallthrough to default_vault, and non_interactive mode fails with a clear error message"
    },
    {
      "concern": "correctness: agents/task-creator.md — agent passes vault through when caller provides it, prompts when absent, rather than falling back to default_vault",
      "disposition": "addressed",
      "detail": "Verified: constraint (line 20) and step 2 note (line 48) both state 'never fall through to default_vault' and 'ask the caller when it is absent'"
    }
  ]
}

superseded by new automated review

[ben-s-pull-request-reviewer]

{
  "verdict": "request-changes",
  "summary": "PR #295 fixes a vault-resolution bug in create-task but introduces a version-alignment violation: it reverts plugin.json and marketplace.json from v0.169.1 to v0.169.0, stranding the plugin one release behind the already-released vault-cli binary. The CHANGELOG adds an Unreleased section but never bumps to a new version, so the merged state has mismatched version strings that `make precommit`'s `check-versions` target would catch post-merge only if the manifests had already been bumped — they have not been.",
  "comments": [
    {
      "file": ".claude-plugin/plugin.json",
      "line": 4,
      "severity": "critical",
      "blocking": true,
      "blocking_reason": "post-merge `make precommit` will fail the `check-versions` gate: CHANGELOG.md has no v0.169.2 section, and plugin.json/marketplace.json both read 0.169.0 while the binary is already at 0.169.1 on master",
      "message": "Version regresses from 0.169.1 (master) to 0.169.0. The vault-cli binary was already released at v0.169.1 on master (commit 3d4b003); the plugin manifests must not go backwards. Either bump all four version strings to 0.169.2 (Unreleased → v0.169.2 in CHANGELOG, all three JSON fields to 0.169.2), or — since this is a bugfix PR targeting the already-released 0.169.1 state — cherry-pick onto origin/master after the release commit and bump from there."
    },
    {
      "file": ".claude-plugin/marketplace.json",
      "line": 8,
      "severity": "critical",
      "blocking": true,
      "blocking_reason": "same version-alignment violation as plugin.json: metadata.version reverts to 0.169.0 while CHANGELOG has no corresponding v0.169.2 entry",
      "message": "metadata.version regresses from 0.169.1 to 0.169.0 — same issue as plugin.json."
    },
    {
      "file": ".claude-plugin/marketplace.json",
      "line": 15,
      "severity": "critical",
      "blocking": true,
      "blocking_reason": "same version-alignment violation: plugins[0].version reverts to 0.169.0 while the binary is already at 0.169.1",
      "message": "plugins[0].version regresses from 0.169.1 to 0.169.0 — same issue as plugin.json."
    },
    {
      "file": "CHANGELOG.md",
      "line": 11,
      "severity": "major",
      "blocking": false,
      "blocking_reason": "",
      "message": "CHANGELOG correctly adds an `## Unreleased` section for the vault-resolution fix, but no new version number is assigned — the four-way version alignment is incomplete without a corresponding version bump in the JSON manifests."
    }
  ],
  "concerns_addressed": [
    {
      "concern": "correctness: new AskUserQuestion path for vault resolution — ensure question phrasing and vault name list are tested",
      "disposition": "not-verified",
      "detail": "vault-cli binary not available in review environment; cannot run scenarios against a built binary per CLAUDE.md § After completing a spec or major refactor, walk the relevant scenarios/*.md to verify end-to-end behavior. No scenarios/ directory found in this repo."
    },
    {
      "concern": "correctness: new MODE=non_interactive fail-fast — verify callers handle the error correctly",
      "disposition": "not-verified",
      "detail": "Cannot run vault-cli to verify; the error message contract (`❌ Pass --vault — the vault cannot be inferred headlessly.`) and JSON error shape are correctly specified in commands/create-task.md:23 and :49, but not exercised by any test file in this PR."
    },
    {
      "concern": "correctness: task-creator.md §2 still references default_vault after removal from Defaults: line",
      "disposition": "not-an-issue",
      "detail": "Verified in diff: the phrase 'default_vault' was removed from the Defaults: line and §2 was updated to read 'the caller resolves it (--vault, or the vault the cwd sits in); this agent never falls back to default_vault' — no stale default_vault reference remains in §2 after the change."
    },
    {
      "concern": "tests: no test file changes in this PR — confirm automated coverage exists",
      "disposition": "not-verified",
      "detail": "No test files changed in this PR. The vault-cli project has no scenarios/ directory to exercise the behavioral changes. precommit skipped per selector-mode review convention — CI runs lint+test, but the behavioral paths (interactive vault ask, non-interactive fail, cwd-based resolution) are not exercised by any file in the diff."
    }
  ]
}

superseded by new automated review

[ben-s-pull-request-reviewer]

This is already the PR head worktree — no temporary worktree was created. The review is complete.

---

PR Review: fix: create-task asks for the vault instead of silently defaulting

Verdict: approve

Changes reviewed

File	Δ
CHANGELOG.md	+11 lines (detailed fix entry under ## Unreleased)
agents/task-creator.md	+2 / −2 lines (constraints + defaults + vault config step)
commands/create-task.md	+10 lines (## Resolve the vault section)

---

Must Fix (Critical)

None.

Should Fix (Important)

None.

Nice to Have (Optional)

None.

---

Plan Concerns — Verified

Concern	Disposition	Detail
agents/task-creator.md: removed silent default vault fallback — verify caller now always resolves vault before invoking the agent	addressed	commands/create-task.md now owns the resolution logic: it tries --vault or cwd, asks via AskUserQuestion if neither applies, and fails headlessly with a clear error. The agent received no vault of its own; it reads what the command passes.
commands/create-task.md: new AskUserQuestion flow for vault resolution — verify ask triggered only when neither --vault nor cwd-based vault detection resolves	addressed	The ## Resolve the vault section is explicit: --vault or cwd → use it; neither → ask; MODE=non_interactive → hard fail. No silent fallthrough remains.
commands/create-task.md: verify AskUserQuestion presents only vaults from the config, matching sibling convention	addressed	The new section says "offering the vault names from vault-cli config list", matching commands/reflect.md line 28 and agents/graph-auditor.md line 25.

---

Notes

The three changed files are all markdown (.md) — no Go code or test files were touched. The PR is a documentation/agent-instruction fix; there are no unit tests to run, and make precommit in selector mode is skipped per the workflow (CI covers lint+test).

The CHANGELOG entry is unusually detailed (11 lines) but the incident it documents (seibert-personal task placed in seibert-brogrammers) is concrete and the rationale is sound. The sibling convention citations (commands/reflect.md and agents/graph-auditor.md) are accurate — both documents confirm the same "resolve, or ask; do not guess" pattern.

{
  "verdict": "approve",
  "summary": "Bugfix removes silent fallback to default vault in create-task flow, replacing it with an explicit AskUserQuestion when neither --vault nor cwd resolves the vault. The change is correctly scoped to the two files that own the decision (command + agent), follows the existing sibling convention from reflect.md and graph-auditor.md, and the CHANGELOG entry documents the incident and rationale clearly.",
  "comments": [],
  "concerns_addressed": [
    {
      "concern": "agents/task-creator.md: removed silent default vault fallback — verify caller now always resolves vault before invoking the agent",
      "disposition": "addressed",
      "detail": "commands/create-task.md owns resolution: --vault or cwd → use it; neither → AskUserQuestion; non-interactive → hard fail. Agent receives no vault of its own; it reads what the command passes."
    },
    {
      "concern": "commands/create-task.md: new AskUserQuestion flow for vault resolution — verify the ask is triggered only when neither --vault flag nor cwd-based vault detection resolves a vault",
      "disposition": "addressed",
      "detail": "## Resolve the vault section is explicit: --vault or cwd → use; neither → ask; non-interactive → fail. No silent fallthrough remains."
    },
    {
      "concern": "commands/create-task.md: verify the AskUserQuestion presents only vaults from the config, matching the sibling commands reflect.md and graph-auditor.md convention",
      "disposition": "addressed",
      "detail": "New section says 'offering the vault names from vault-cli config list', matching reflect.md:28 and graph-auditor.md:25."
    }
  ]
}