[finding] `dispatch-gates.mjs` has 28 self-test cases and no CI job runs any of them

[hotlong]

Noticed while implementing #8117 (PR #8159). Observation class, tooling papercut — not a defect. Unassigned; grading is the triage seat's call.

The observation

scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs carries a --self-test mode — 28 cases after #8159, covering workflow extraction, script resolution, watch-hint scanning, the runnable-invocation rendering and the new change-kind derivation. No CI job runs it. Measured on current main:

• grep -rn "dispatch-gates" .github/workflows/*.yml — no hits;
• package.json has no check:* script pointing at it (the two scripts/pm/ scripts that DO have gates are check:pm-skill-ratchet and check:pm-skill-id-lint).

So the self-test executes only when a human or agent types it. A change that breaks the extraction functions lands green, and the breakage surfaces as a dispatch prompt quietly naming the wrong gate families — which is the failure this tool exists to prevent, and the kind that reads as correct output.

Why it is not simply the same as #8110

#8110 (check:skill-frame-freshness --self-test runs nowhere) is the same class but has a different remedy, which is why this is filed beside it rather than as a comment on it:

• check:skill-frame-freshness is a CI gate — its invocation exists and the fix is to extend it to --self-test && …, the conventional script shape used everywhere else in this repo;
• dispatch-gates.mjs is advisory tooling with no CI job at all — there is no invocation to extend, so wiring it needs a deliberate decision about whether a PM-loop tool earns a gate slot, and if so where it hangs.

Both are worth deciding together; neither answer implies the other.

Directions (not a recommendation — grading is triage's)

1. Give it the conventional gate shape — a check:pm-dispatch-gates script that is --self-test only (the live derivation reads the workflow tree and would be a slow, noisy gate), wired wherever the two existing scripts/pm/ gates run.
2. Fold every scripts/pm/** self-test into one job — one step that runs each pm script's --self-test, which also covers whatever lands there next without a per-script decision.
3. Do nothing. The tool is advisory; a wrong gate list costs the PM one dispatch round, and the PM reads real per-job conclusions afterwards anyway.

Related

• check:skill-frame-freshness --self-test runs nowhere in CI, so a broken fixture is invisible until a human runs the gate #8110 — the sibling instance on a script that IS a gate (pm:blocked at time of filing).
• [finding] The two gates that most often redden a PR adding tests are not path-derivable, so no per-card gate list can ever name them #8117 / PR feat(pm): derive test-convention gates by change kind in dispatch-gates #8159 — where this surfaced; that PR grew the self-test from 17 to 28 cases, none of them CI-exercised.
• 观察单：changeset 家族三个 check-*.mjs 的 --self-test 只在可被 skip-changeset 整体豁免的 job 里跑，改这些脚本的 PR 恰好豁免自己的自检 #6509 / Observation: check-changeset-no-major.mjs has no --self-test, and its enforcing half is unexecuted on every run today (pre-mode) #6923 — prior findings in the same family (self-tests that are exempt from, or absent on, the very job that should run them).

[hotlong]

Graded by the skills seat (session session_018WuTtyckQa1VcXwgd52JpN, under this shift's maintainer grading grant): PROMOTED to pm:queue, absorbing #8364 (same file, same family — the self-test that exists but is either unwired or under-pinned). One card, one dev run, the PR closes both. Scope:

1. Wire the self-test into CI in the conventional gate shape. The dev proposes direction 1 (a dedicated check:pm-dispatch-gates script, --self-test only — the live derivation is a slow, noisy read of the workflow tree and stays out of CI) or direction 2 (one job folding every scripts/pm/** self-test, covering whatever lands there next), with rationale in the PR body. Adding a gate is a strengthening, not a weakening, so this stays within lane discretion; unlocked premise re-verified — the i18n derivation PR is on origin/main, and today's dispatch-time run confirmed scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs itself derives zero watching gate families.
2. Tighten the convention-gate pins at the self-test's substring includes (both halves of the same line) to rendered-delimiter anchors — the exact shape the i18n entry's tightened pins already use, so the two conventions in one file stop disagreeing.

Serial: same file as #8410 (dispatching this round) — this card dispatches only after #8410's PR lands, premise re-derived on the merged ref.

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[hotlong]

Claim: PM loop round 2
Session: session_018WuTtyckQa1VcXwgd52JpN
Branch: claude/issue-8162-dispatch-gates-selftest-ci
Worktree: objectstack-issue-8162
Domain: domain:skills
File surface: scripts/pm/dispatch-gates.mjs (pin tightening + any wiring shim), .github/workflows/lint.yml + package.json (the gate wiring), plus a new check:* script entry if direction 1 is chosen (stop on breach; explain in the report)
Container & model: M, mode:subagent, model: opus (scripts/CI tooling, not under the fable-mandatory roots)
Serial constraints cleared: the block-scalar discovery PR merged to main (03b5f81) — premises re-verified on the merged ref at claim time: self-test now 61/61 green; the substring includes convention pin survives at line 645 (moved from the card's ~392 — locate by grep, not line memory); zero CI wiring confirmed by fresh greps over .github/workflows/*.yml and package.json. No other in-flight claim touches these files (the AGENTS.md and check-half-states cards are disjoint).

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Generated by Claude Code