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+# ADR-3646: Per-task external-tracker content-resolution seam
+
+| | |
+|---|---|
+| **Status** | Proposed |
+| **Date** | 2026-08-27 |
+| **Issue** | [#3646](https://github.com/open-gsd/gsd-core/issues/3646) |
+| **Phase-0 sub-issue** | [#3969](https://github.com/open-gsd/gsd-core/issues/3969) |
+| **Implementation phase** | [#3970](https://github.com/open-gsd/gsd-core/issues/3970) |
+| **Related** | [#3554](https://github.com/open-gsd/gsd-core/issues/3554) (generic `ship:pre` gate/step dispatch — same class of gap, independent) · [#3647](https://github.com/open-gsd/gsd-core/issues/3647) (lifecycle-dispatch steps intermittently skipped) · [#3606](https://github.com/open-gsd/gsd-core/issues/3606) (validator checks hook existence, not dispatch — CLOSED) |
+| **Reference** | [`loop-hook-dispatch.md`](../../gsd-core/references/loop-hook-dispatch.md), [`autonomous-ui-design-contract.md`](../../gsd-core/references/autonomous-ui-design-contract.md) |
+
+## Context
+
+`gsd-core/workflows/execute-plan.md`'s `<step name="execute">` reads every task's instructions
+(`<read_first>`, `<action>`, `<verify>`, `<acceptance_criteria>`, `<done>`, etc.) directly out of
+the `PLAN.md` task block. There is no seam for a capability to resolve that content from an
+external issue tracker (beads, Linear, Jira, GitHub Issues, …) by an id carried in the task block
+instead. A project that wants the tracker to own task *content* — not just task *status* — has to
+patch the workflow file locally. #3646 asks for a native, opt-in seam.
+
+The Feature Review Report on #3646 approved this `go-with-conditions`, with four conditions this
+ADR exists to resolve before any implementation lands.
+
+### The existing extension-point system
+
+`gsd-core/references/loop-hook-dispatch.md` defines the dispatch contract consumed by
+`gsd_run loop render-hooks <point>`. Twelve points exist today, all phase- or wave-scoped:
+`discuss:pre`, `discuss:post`, `plan:pre`, `plan:post`, `execute:pre`, `execute:wave:pre`,
+`execute:wave:post`, `execute:post`, `verify:pre`, `verify:post`, `ship:pre`, `ship:post`. A
+search for `task:pre` / `task:post` / `execute:task` across the tree returns nothing — the finest
+granularity in the system is the wave, one level coarser than what #3646 asks for.
+
+Each point's `activeHooks` array carries entries of `kind: "contribution" | "step" | "gate"`,
+dispatched by prose instructions in the consuming workflow file: `step` invokes a Skill/Agent/
+command; `gate` evaluates a check and blocks or advises depending on `blocking`. Both kinds are
+**natural-language instructions inside a markdown workflow document**, executed by whichever LLM
+is driving the loop.
+
+### Why that mechanism cannot deliver this feature's safety property
+
+The seam's own stated purpose is a **hard halt** on an unresolvable id — deliberately, because a
+silent fall-back to inline `PLAN.md` text would require the tracker and `PLAN.md` to stay in sync
+forever, defeating the point of moving content out of `PLAN.md`.
+
+But #3647 (filed the same day as #3646, still open) reports that lifecycle-dispatch steps are
+**intermittently skipped in real usage** — 1 of 4 wave-close dispatches observed firing. #3606
+(closed) documented a related but distinct failure: the capability validator checked that a hook
+call site *existed*, not that it *dispatched*, so a wired-and-enabled hook could be declared and
+silently never run; that specific validator gap is now closed, but #3647's broader dispatch-
+reliability problem is not.
+
+A per-task point built as a `step`/`gate` entry in `activeHooks`, dispatched the same way the
+twelve existing points are, inherits that reliability profile. Per-task dispatch multiplies the
+number of dispatch opportunities by the task count — a plan with 20 tasks creates 20 chances for
+the dispatch to silently not fire, instead of the 1-per-wave exposure the existing points carry.
+When a per-task dispatch does not fire, nothing errors: the executor simply proceeds to read the
+task's inline `PLAN.md` body. That is **exactly branch 3 of the proposal** (the legitimate
+pre-migration fall-back for tasks authored before a tracker migration) — a missed dispatch and a
+genuine pre-migration task are indistinguishable at the point of failure, so the executor edits
+stale content while believing it authoritative. This reproduces the exact hazard the proposal's
+own hard-halt requirement exists to prevent.
+
+## Decision
+
+### 1. Granularity tier
+
+This ADR adds a **thirteenth extension point, at a new tier below wave**: `execute:task`. It sits
+inside the existing `execute:wave:pre` / `execute:wave:post` bracket, evaluated once per task,
+immediately before that task's `read_first` gate (`execute-plan.md:221`) — the `read_first` list
+is itself a field this point can resolve, so a point evaluated after `read_first` would gate on
+content that has not been fetched yet.
+
+`execute:task` is **not registered as a `contribution` / `step` / `gate` entry in
+`loop-hook-dispatch.md`'s existing `kind` vocabulary.** Decision 2 explains why a new `kind` is
+required rather than reusing one of the three.
+
+Ordering within one task: `execute:task` → `read_first` gate → task body (`type="auto"` /
+`"tracer"` / `"checkpoint:*"`) → `acceptance_criteria` hard gate. A `checkpoint:*` task never
+enters `execute:task` — its interactive structure (options, pros/cons, resume-signal) is
+irreducibly a human-facing prose step and stays sourced from `PLAN.md`. Plan-level sections
+(`<objective>`, `<context>`, `<verification>`, `<success_criteria>`) are out of scope for this
+point; `load_prompt`'s whole-file read is unchanged.
+
+### 2. Hard-halt enforcement: Lens B — a code-side resolution seam
+
+**Chosen over Lens A** (a prose `step`/`gate` dispatched the same way as the twelve existing
+points), for the reason argued in Context: #3647 is open, so any `step`/`gate`-shaped
+implementation inherits a live, unresolved reliability defect and cannot deliver the feature's own
+safety property. The Feature Review Report's Lens B recommendation is adopted as-is; Lens A is
+rejected outright rather than sequenced behind #3647, because sequencing behind an open reliability
+issue with no committed fix date blocks #3646 indefinitely on someone else's timeline for no
+architectural gain — Lens B is buildable today and is strictly the safer shape regardless of
+whether #3647 is ever fixed.
+
+`execute:task` resolution is a **real subprocess invocation with a real exit code**, not an LLM
+instruction:
+
+```bash
+gsd_run task resolve-content --plan "<PLAN.md path>" --task-id "<task id>" --raw
+```
+
+Contract:
+
+- **No capability registers a task-content resolver for this plan** → the command exits `0` with
+  `{"resolved": false}`. The workflow proceeds to read the task's inline `PLAN.md` body exactly as
+  it does today. This is the unconditional default for every existing project — the seam is
+  additive and opt-in.
+- **A capability registers a resolver and the resolution fails** (tracker unreachable, id not
+  found, malformed response) → the command **exits non-zero**. `execute-plan.md`'s `execute` step
+  treats any non-zero exit from `task resolve-content` as a hard halt for that task: surface the
+  id, the tracker, and the raw error, and stop. This is enforced by the same mechanism every other
+  `gsd_run` subcommand's failure is enforced by (`src/cli-exit.cts`'s `runMain` / `ExitError`
+  seam — see [ADR-3889](3889-process-exit-contract.md)) — a real process exit code the calling
+  loop cannot fail to observe the way it can fail to execute a prose instruction.
+- **A capability registers a resolver and resolution succeeds with non-empty content** → exits `0`
+  with `{"resolved": true, "content": {...}}`; that payload's fields stand in for the task's
+  `<read_first>` / `<action>` / `<verify>` / `<acceptance_criteria>` / `<done>` PLAN.md elements
+  for every downstream gate in the `execute` step (the `read_first` MANDATORY gate, the
+  `acceptance_criteria` HARD GATE, `<verify>`/`<done>` checks).
+- **A capability registers a resolver and resolution succeeds with empty/absent content** → exits
+  `0` with `{"resolved": false, "reason": "empty"}` — the documented pre-migration boundary case;
+  the workflow falls back to the inline `PLAN.md` body. This is the *only* legitimate fall-back
+  path, and it is now distinguishable from a missed dispatch: a missed dispatch cannot happen
+  because there is no dispatch to miss — the resolver either runs (and reports which of the three
+  outcomes above occurred) or is absent by construction (`resolved: false`, no resolver
+  registered).
+
+Resolver registration itself (how a capability declares "I own task-content resolution for this
+project") is implementation detail for #3970, constrained by Decision 3.
+
+### 3. Registration and validation
+
+`execute:task` is declared in `gsd-core/references/loop-hook-dispatch.md` in the same change that
+implements it (#3970), as a new section documenting the `kind: "resolver"` shape (Decision 4) and
+the `gsd_run task resolve-content` contract above — not as a new entry in the existing
+`contribution`/`step`/`gate` dispatch-rules list, since it is dispatched differently (a required
+subprocess call with a binding exit code, not a best-effort prose step). `gsd-core/bin/lib/
+capability-validator.cjs` is extended in the same change to recognize a manifest declaring a
+task-content resolver, so a capability that declares one but never wires the corresponding command
+fails validation at install time rather than failing silently at first use — closing, for this new
+point, the exact class of gap #3606 closed for the existing twelve.
+
+### 4. Autonomous-mode behavior
+
+`gsd-core/references/autonomous-ui-design-contract.md:34` records that `activeHooks` entries with
+`kind == "gate"` are silently ignored on the autonomous path, because autonomous mode is always
+pipeline mode and has no blocking-gate UI to route through. `execute:task` is **not** a `gate` —
+it is the new `kind: "resolver"` — so that silent-ignore rule does not apply to it and does not
+need an exception carved out. `execute:task` runs identically in autonomous and interactive modes:
+a required subprocess call whose exit code is either observed (halt) or falls through by design
+(`resolved: false`). Autonomous mode has no discretion to skip it, because there is no discretion
+built into a `kind` that autonomous mode's dispatcher does not special-case at all — the contract
+is honored by omission, not by an added branch.
+
+## Rejected alternatives
+
+- **Lens A, unconditionally** — matches the established `step`/`gate` pattern, cheapest to build,
+  reviewable in one PR. Rejected: cannot deliver the hard-halt guarantee while #3647 is open (see
+  Context); multiplies dispatch-reliability exposure by task count.
+- **Lens A, sequenced behind a fix to #3647** — would deliver the guarantee once #3647 lands.
+  Rejected: blocks #3646 on an unscoped, undated fix to a different issue, for no benefit over
+  Lens B, which needs no such dependency and is architecturally the more precise fit (a resolution
+  failure is a data-fetch failure, which is what process exit codes exist to signal — not a
+  workflow-routing decision, which is what the `step`/`gate` vocabulary exists for).
+- **Reusing `gate` with `kind: "gate"` and `blocking: true`** — would at least be checked by the
+  existing dispatch contract. Rejected: `blocking: true` gates still route through the autonomous
+  silent-ignore rule at `autonomous-ui-design-contract.md:34` for *other* points sharing that
+  `kind`, and reusing the tag would require carving out a per-point exception to that rule rather
+  than making the safety property structural. It also still depends on the LLM executing the
+  dispatch instruction at all, which is the reliability problem this ADR exists to route around.
+- **A per-task point that falls back to inline `PLAN.md` on ANY resolver error** (matching
+  branch-3 semantics for both failure and pre-migration) — rejected explicitly by the issue itself:
+  it requires the tracker and `PLAN.md` to stay in sync forever, defeating the purpose of the
+  feature.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- `execute-plan.md`'s per-task loop gains one new required call before the `read_first` gate,
+  for every task, on every plan — including plans with no resolver registered, where it is a
+  fast, always-`{"resolved":false}` no-op. This is a small, unconditional per-task cost in
+  exchange for the hard-halt guarantee being real.
+- A new `kind: "resolver"` is added to the dispatch vocabulary alongside `contribution` / `step` /
+  `gate`. Any future per-task or finer-grained point that needs a binding (not best-effort)
+  outcome has a precedent to follow instead of inventing its own shape.
+- `capability-validator.cjs` grows a new manifest shape to validate, and every runtime's emitted
+  copy of `execute-plan.md` carries the new step through the installer — this puts the change
+  under the workflow-content gates (`docs/INVENTORY.md`, manifest regen, `size:baseline`) for
+  #3970, not the doc-only exemption this ADR itself qualifies for.
+- The `beads`/`bd` local patch referenced in #3646 becomes portable: its three branches (halt on
+  fetch failure, non-empty description supersedes PLAN.md, empty description falls back) map
+  directly onto the three `gsd_run task resolve-content` outcomes above, so #3970 can validate the
+  new seam against that existing, already-proven-in-production patch.
+
+## Open questions for #3970
+
+- Exact resolver-registration surface in the capability manifest schema (a new `contributions`
+  entry shape, most likely — concrete design left to the implementation phase).
+- Whether `gsd_run task resolve-content` needs a `--dry-run`/preview mode for `gsd-plan-checker`
+  to validate resolver reachability before execution starts, rather than only at first task.
diff --git a/docs/adr/README.md b/docs/adr/README.md
index 5f0050e4d..97a558239 100644
--- a/docs/adr/README.md
+++ b/docs/adr/README.md
@@ -276,6 +276,7 @@ Decided in principle, not yet ratified. Do not cite as settled architecture.
 | [ADR-1671](1671-dynamic-context-management-platform.md) | Dynamic context management platform | Proposed | — |
 | [ADR-1953](1953-complexity-triggered-refactor.md) | Complexity-triggered refactor — the loop measures the entropy it just added | Proposed | — |
 | [ADR-3128](3128-adaptive-runtime-evidence.md) | Adaptive runtime evidence for GSD Debug | Proposed | — |
+| [ADR-3646](3646-per-task-content-resolution-seam.md) | Per-task external-tracker content-resolution seam | Proposed | — |
 | [ADR-3889](3889-process-exit-contract.md) | One exit-code registry — 0 and 1 are free, everything else is allocated | Proposed | — |
 | [ADR-3942](3942-emitted-drift-ack-commit-trailer.md) | The emitted-drift acknowledgment is PR-lifetime data — it belongs in a commit trailer, not the working tree | Proposed | — |