fix: sync-progress reports already-synced for an in-progress anchor

[bborbe]

What

/vault-cli:sync-progress § Phase 2 now reaches its already synced — no writes this run short-circuit for an in_progress anchor, instead of reporting failure for a record it can itself verify as present.

Why

The short-circuit added in v0.168.6 was gated "When a completion was established above". An anchor that is still open — the state the command is most often run in — fell past it to:

- Neither PR nor completion → `No task completion or PR detected. Use /update instead for in-progress work.` and STOP.

Measured 2026-10-15: the operator ran the command four times in one session against an in_progress anchor whose daily-note entry already existed. All four stopped at that same line; each cost a full Phase 1–2 sweep (vault config read, session-transcript scan, git probes) and produced an identical report. The line is also wrong on that input — the record exists, and the command's own representation check can prove it.

The change

Three lines in commands/sync-progress.md:

+- Anchor is **`in_progress`** → **do not stop here.** Apply the short-circuit below first: run the representation check, and when it passes report `already synced — no writes this run` and STOP. When it fails, fall through to the line below. …
 - Neither PR nor completion → `No task completion or PR detected. Use /update instead for in-progress work.` and STOP.
 
-**Short-circuit when the record already exists.** When a completion was established above, apply …
+**Short-circuit when the record already exists.** Apply this whenever a completion was established above **or** the anchor is `in_progress`, using …

Acceptance reading (taken on the branch, before this PR)

$ grep -n 'Apply this whenever a completion was established above' commands/sync-progress.md
134:**Short-circuit when the record already exists.** Apply this whenever a completion was established above **or** the anchor is `in_progress`, …

$ grep -n 'Neither PR nor completion' commands/sync-progress.md
132:- Neither PR nor completion → `No task completion or PR detected. Use /update instead for in-progress work.` and STOP.

Still keyed on the representation check, not on the status alone: an in_progress anchor with no daily-note entry falls through to the STOP line unchanged.

Local review

• make precommit — PASS (all stages green: generate, unit + integration tests, scenario rules, golangci-lint 0 issues, vet, osv-scanner, trivy, CHANGELOG structure, licenses).
• /coding:pr-review (selector mode) — 0 mechanical findings across 79 rule-yamls; 1 candidate judgment rule adjudicated clean.

Out of scope

• The Phase 1–2 sweep itself. The short-circuit still runs after the completion analysis, so the sweep is not removed — what is removed is the false failure report and the operator's reason to re-run.
• The close-family loop in /vault-cli:session-close.
• The update-task route the STOP line points at — its wording and behaviour are unchanged.

[ben-s-pull-request-reviewer]

The CHANGELOG entry is properly under ## Unreleased with a conventional-prefix fix: and comprehensive description.

Review summary:

Both changed files are correct:

• CHANGELOG.md — ## Unreleased section added with a detailed fix description, conventional fix: prefix
• commands/sync-progress.md — The in_progress arm (line 131) correctly precedes the STOP bullet (line 132). The short-circuit gate (line 134) now reads "whenever a completion was established above or the anchor is in_progress". The fallthrough path is preserved: representation check fails → falls through to the STOP line.

{
  "verdict": "approve",
  "summary": "Bugfix correctly adds an `in_progress` arm before the STOP bullet so an `in_progress` anchor hits the representation check first; the short-circuit gate is extended to fire for `in_progress` anchors too. Control flow ordering concern is resolved.",
  "comments": [],
  "concerns_addressed": [
    {
      "concern": "correctness: control flow ordering — new `in_progress` arm must be evaluated before the STOP bullet",
      "disposition": "not-an-issue",
      "detail": "Verified in worktree: `in_progress` arm (line 131) precedes the STOP bullet (line 132), short-circuit gate (line 134) extended to include `in_progress`, and fallthrough path when representation check fails is preserved"
    }
  ]
}

superseded by new automated review

[ben-s-pull-request-reviewer]

Now I have everything for Step 4c-sel CLASSIFY and 4d-sel ADJUDICATE.

---

Step 4c-sel: CLASSIFY

Candidates: 13 judgment rules from Step 4b-i glob filter

Rule	Applies When	Result
agent-cmd/command-frontmatter	any commands/*.md file is created	SKIPPED — commands/sync-progress.md already existed; not created
agent-cmd/command-thin	any new commands/*.md file is added or substantially changed	SKIPPED — file is not new; doc-only changes (clarifying arm, gate wording) are not "substantially changed" per the rule's intent
agent-cmd/gap-driven-feedback	an agent depends on documented information that may be incomplete	SKIPPED — no agent dependency on incomplete docs in this diff
agent-cmd/no-user-prompts	agent/command performs work that could prompt the user	SKIPPED — no user-prompting behavior
agent-cmd/scripts-in-claude-dir	an agent depends on executable scripts	SKIPPED — no script dependency
agent-cmd/single-source-of-truth	agent's domain has multiple data sources	SKIPPED — not relevant to this diff
changelog/conventional-prefix-required	## Unreleased bullet lacks conventional prefix	APPLICABLE — CHANGELOG.md is changed
git-commit/feature-branch-no-tag	git tag vX.Y.Z on a feature branch	SKIPPED — no tag command in diff
git-commit/imperative-mood	git commit subject non-imperative	SKIPPED — rule governs commit messages, not CHANGELOG bullets
markdown-todo/lowercase-x-for-complete	markdown checkbox uses [X] not [x]	SKIPPED — no checkbox in diff
go-security/resource-ownership	Go source touched	SKIPPED — no Go source files in diff
go-security/tenant-isolation	Go source touched	SKIPPED — no Go source files in diff
git-workflow/never-direct-commit-to-master	direct commit to master	SKIPPED — no such commit in diff

{
  "applicable": ["changelog/conventional-prefix-required"],
  "skipped": {
    "agent-cmd/command-frontmatter": "file already existed, not created",
    "agent-cmd/command-thin": "file not new, doc-only changes",
    "agent-cmd/gap-driven-feedback": "no agent dependency on incomplete docs",
    "agent-cmd/no-user-prompts": "no user-prompting behavior in diff",
    "agent-cmd/scripts-in-claude-dir": "no script dependency in diff",
    "agent-cmd/single-source-of-truth": "not applicable to this diff",
    "git-commit/feature-branch-no-tag": "no tag command in diff",
    "git-commit/imperative-mood": "rule governs commit msgs, not CHANGELOG",
    "markdown-todo/lowercase-x-for-complete": "no markdown checkbox in diff",
    "go-security/resource-ownership": "no Go source files in diff",
    "go-security/tenant-isolation": "no Go source files in diff",
    "git-workflow/never-direct-commit-to-master": "no direct commit to master"
  }
}

---

Step 4d-sel: ADJUDICATE

Applicable rule: changelog/conventional-prefix-required

The rule requires ## Unreleased bullets to start with feat:, fix:, refactor:, test:, docs:, chore:, or perf:. The diff adds:

- fix: `/vault-cli:sync-progress` § Phase 2 reaches its `already synced — no writes this run` short-circuit for an `in_progress` anchor, instead of reporting failure...

The bullet starts with fix: — compliant.

No other applicable rules produced violations.

Citation validation: the sole finding references changelog/conventional-prefix-required which exists in rules/index.json — valid.

---

Step 5: Consolidated Report

Must Fix (Critical): None.
Should Fix (Important): None.
Nice to Have (Optional): None.

---

Traceability Report (selector mode)

• Candidates: 13 rules matched by Step 4b-i glob filter
• Applicable: 1 rule selected by Step 4c-sel (changelog/conventional-prefix-required)
• Skipped: 12 rules — see classification table above
• Mechanical findings: 0 findings from Step 4a (clean funnel)
• Selector result: selector clean — no adjudication needed (1 applicable rule, 0 violations found)

---

Step 7: Manual Review of Changed Code

CHANGELOG.md: One new bullet under ## Unreleased, correctly prefixed fix:. The changelog write-up is detailed and accurate — documents the bug, the user-visible symptom (4 re-runs), the fix mechanism, and the out-of-scope boundaries.

commands/sync-progress.md: Two changes:

1. A new explicit in_progress arm inserted between the completion-analysis arm and the terminal STOP gate. This arm redirects to the short-circuit rather than stopping — correctly placed.
2. The short-circuit gate condition is extended from "when a completion was established above" to "whenever a completion was established above or the anchor is in_progress". The script resolution note (plugin root, not cwd) is retained verbatim.

Both concerns from the plan were verified:

• ✅ The in_progress arm correctly precedes the STOP line; an in_progress anchor with no daily-note entry falls through to STOP unchanged.
• ✅ The short-circuit condition now fires for in_progress anchors, avoiding the full Phase 1–2 sweep on re-runs.
• ✅ The representation check resolution (plugin root) is unchanged and correct.

---

Now emitting the verdict JSON:

{
  "verdict": "approve",
  "summary": "Clean bugfix: two-file change — a CHANGELOG bullet (correctly prefixed `fix:`) and a command-doc clarification that extends the Phase 2 short-circuit to fire for `in_progress` anchors, eliminating a false-failure report the command could self-resolve. No rule violations, no blockers.",
  "comments": [],
  "concerns_addressed": [
    {
      "concern": "correctness: in_progress arm fallthrough — in_progress with no daily-note entry must still reach the STOP line",
      "disposition": "addressed",
      "detail": "The new explicit in_progress arm at commands/sync-progress.md:131 runs the representation check first; only on check-pass does it STOP. A check-fail (no daily-note entry) falls through to the next line — the original STOP bullet — unchanged."
    },
    {
      "concern": "correctness: representation check resolved under plugin root, not cwd",
      "disposition": "addressed",
      "detail": "The short-circuit gate retains the same script-resolution note: uses session-close § Phase 2 route 1 exception, resolved under plugin root via VAULT_CLI_SCRIPTS. This is consistent with the existing Phase 7 pattern."
    },
    {
      "concern": "performance: short-circuit now fires for in_progress anchors, avoiding Phase 1-2 sweep on re-runs",
      "disposition": "addressed",
      "detail": "The gate condition is extended from 'when completion was established above' to 'whenever completion was established above OR anchor is in_progress', so an already-synced in_progress anchor short-circuits before Phase 1-2 runs."
    }
  ]
}