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The "AC22 Write Set" acceptance-criterion pattern requires an agent-executed change's footprint to match a spec's declared Write Set exactly. Every agent-executed delivery in this repository also writes tracked .claude/agent-memory/ files that no spec's Write Set enumerates in advance, so a criterion phrased this way fails on every delivery regardless of whether the substantive requirement (no untouched production or test file modified) was met. This is a defect in the criterion template wording, not in the work it judges.
Environment
OS/version: Windows 11 Pro 10.0.26200
Python version: not applicable; this concerns the atomic-plan/spec acceptance-criterion template used for C# and cross-language feature work
Command/flags used: n/a (documentation/process defect); observed via git -C <item-871-worktree> diff --name-only <merge-base>..HEAD type footprint review during feature-audit
Read PR fix(#871): add injectable seams to the QfcQueue enqueue path #883's "Follow-ups" section, which states verbatim: "Acceptance criterion AC22 is the one criterion not met as literally worded, and is left unchecked. Its substantive requirement holds: no untouched production or test file was modified. It fails only because the branch carries three tracked agent-memory files that the declared Write Set does not enumerate."
Confirm .claude/agent-memory/ is a tracked directory in this repository (verified: dozens of files under it are tracked and modified across active sessions, including four .md files touched in this same session).
Observe that every agent that executes a plan writes to its configured agent-memory root during the run, so this same AC22-style criterion will recur on the next delivery, and the one after that, independent of which agent or which feature is involved.
Expected Behavior
An AC22-style "Write Set" criterion should be satisfiable by a correctly-scoped, agent-executed change. Either the criterion should carry an explicit repository-wide carve-out for .claude/agent-memory/** writes (since these are infrastructure bookkeeping, not production or test changes), or the Write Set declaration mechanism should be extended to auto-include the agent-memory paths that any executing agent is expected to touch.
Actual Behavior
The criterion as currently worded is unsatisfiable in principle by any agent-executed change, because:
.claude/agent-memory/ is tracked in git.
Every agent (orchestrator, atomic-executor, feature-review, etc.) writes lesson/memory files to it during normal operation.
No spec's Write Set, authored before execution, can enumerate agent-memory files that do not yet exist at authoring time.
The failure therefore recurs on every item, not just item 871, and cannot be fixed by tightening any individual plan's scope.
This shares a root cause with a related, separately-observed problem: some agents' configured agent-memory root resolves into a worktree their own directives forbid them to write to, which produced four disclosed directive breaches in one run (reported separately; not itself the subject of this issue, but the underlying agent-memory-path/worktree-resolution mechanism is the same one implicated here).
Logs / Screenshots
Attached minimal logs or screenshot
Snippet: PR fix(#871): add injectable seams to the QfcQueue enqueue path #883 body, "Follow-ups" section, final bullet: "Acceptance criterion AC22 is the one criterion not met as literally worded, and is left unchecked. Its substantive requirement holds: no untouched production or test file was modified. It fails only because the branch carries three tracked agent-memory files that the declared Write Set does not enumerate. The remedy is a one-line documentation amendment, not a code change." (verified by reading gh pr view 883 on 2026-09-13)
Impact / Severity
Blocker
Medium
Low
Medium: the underlying implementation work was verified sound (no untouched production/test file modified), so no delivered change is actually defective. The cost is a recurring, unfixable-per-item AC failure that will misreport delivered work as incomplete on every future item until the template wording changes.
The following sections were present and filled in the promoted potential-bug entry (docs/features/potential/promoted/2026-09-13-ac22-write-set-criterion-unsatisfiable.md) but were dropped by potential_to_issue when this issue was created. Reposting them here per the known promotion-fidelity defect tracked in issue #887.
Suspected Cause / Notes
The Write Set criterion template was authored without accounting for .claude/agent-memory/ being both (a) tracked in git and (b) written by every executing agent as a side effect of normal operation, independent of the feature's actual scope. A plan-level clause cannot fix this because a plan clause cannot amend a spec-level acceptance criterion; the fix has to live in the template that generates AC22-style criteria.
Proposed Fix / Validation Ideas
Unit coverage areas: not applicable (template/documentation change, not source code)
Integration scenario to retest: apply the corrected template to the next feature that declares an AC22-style Write Set criterion and confirm the criterion can pass without requiring the agent to omit or falsify its agent-memory writes
Manual verification notes: add an explicit carve-out clause to the Write Set criterion template - for example, "the Write Set is understood to exclude .claude/agent-memory/**, which every executing agent may write to as bookkeeping regardless of feature scope" - at the criterion-template level (not per-plan), since a plan clause cannot amend a spec criterion.
Next Step
Promote to GitHub issue (bug-report template)
Move to active fix folder / branch
Cross-reference: pull request #883 (item 871) discloses this exact unchecked AC22 and points at this issue.
Consolidated into the upstream tracker #932. The Write Set criterion wording comes from push-down-owned drm-copilot prompts and templates, so the fix has to be made there. Closing in favour of #932.
Summary
The "AC22 Write Set" acceptance-criterion pattern requires an agent-executed change's footprint to match a spec's declared Write Set exactly. Every agent-executed delivery in this repository also writes tracked
.claude/agent-memory/files that no spec's Write Set enumerates in advance, so a criterion phrased this way fails on every delivery regardless of whether the substantive requirement (no untouched production or test file modified) was met. This is a defect in the criterion template wording, not in the work it judges.Environment
git -C <item-871-worktree> diff --name-only <merge-base>..HEADtype footprint review during feature-auditdocs/features/active/2026-09-11-qfcqueue-enqueue-path-lacks-injectable-seams-871/spec.md(AC22), pull request fix(#871): add injectable seams to the QfcQueue enqueue path #883Steps to Reproduce
fix(#871): add injectable seams to the QfcQueue enqueue path)..claude/agent-memory/is a tracked directory in this repository (verified: dozens of files under it are tracked and modified across active sessions, including four.mdfiles touched in this same session).Expected Behavior
An AC22-style "Write Set" criterion should be satisfiable by a correctly-scoped, agent-executed change. Either the criterion should carry an explicit repository-wide carve-out for
.claude/agent-memory/**writes (since these are infrastructure bookkeeping, not production or test changes), or the Write Set declaration mechanism should be extended to auto-include the agent-memory paths that any executing agent is expected to touch.Actual Behavior
The criterion as currently worded is unsatisfiable in principle by any agent-executed change, because:
.claude/agent-memory/is tracked in git.This shares a root cause with a related, separately-observed problem: some agents' configured agent-memory root resolves into a worktree their own directives forbid them to write to, which produced four disclosed directive breaches in one run (reported separately; not itself the subject of this issue, but the underlying agent-memory-path/worktree-resolution mechanism is the same one implicated here).
Logs / Screenshots
gh pr view 883on 2026-09-13)Impact / Severity
Medium: the underlying implementation work was verified sound (no untouched production/test file modified), so no delivered change is actually defective. The cost is a recurring, unfixable-per-item AC failure that will misreport delivered work as incomplete on every future item until the template wording changes.
Source
From: docs/features/potential/2026-09-13-ac22-write-set-criterion-unsatisfiable.md