[Code Quality] Investigate and reduce CI-build retry loop rate (71.43%)

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Description

Analysis of Copilot agent sessions shows CI-build tasks have a 71.43% retry loop rate (5 of 7 sessions), significantly higher than other categories. Despite loops, success rate is only 28.57%, indicating the retry logic may not be optimized. This was identified in the Daily Copilot Agent Session Analysis.

Current State

• Category: CI-Build tasks
• Loop Rate: 71.43% (5/7 sessions)
• Success Rate: 28.57%
• Average Duration: 9.34 minutes
• Context Issues: 100% of context confusion issues occur in CI-build category (5 instances)

Comparison with Other Categories

Category	Loop Rate	Success Rate	Notes
Security	100%	66.67%	Loops are effective (quick iterations)
CI-Build	71.43%	28.57%	High loops, low success - investigate
PR-Review	22.22%	22.22%	Normal patterns
Orchestration	0%	0%	Expected (action_required by design)

Investigation Tasks

1. Analyze CI-build session logs to identify:

   • What triggers retry loops in CI-build tasks?
   • Are retries due to transient failures or missing context?
   • Do retries eventually lead to success or exhaustion?

2. Compare with Security category (100% loop rate but 66.67% success):

   • What makes security retries effective?
   • Can CI-build adopt similar patterns?

3. Address context confusion:

   • All 5 context confusion issues occur in CI-build
   • Are prerequisites unclear for CI tasks?
   • Should CI tasks gather more context before execution?

Suggested Changes

Based on investigation findings, consider:

1. Context-gathering prompts: Add pre-execution context checks for CI workflows
2. Retry logic optimization: Reduce unnecessary retries while maintaining success rate
3. Prerequisites documentation: Clarify what information CI tasks need upfront
4. Session timeout: Add smarter timeout logic to avoid exhaustion

Success Criteria

• CI-build loop rate reduced from 71.43% to < 40%
• CI-build success rate maintained or improved (>= 28.57%)
• Context confusion rate reduced from 100% to < 50% in CI-build
• Average duration remains similar or improves
• Documentation updated with CI-build best practices

Benefits

• Higher success rate: More CI-build tasks complete successfully
• Reduced token usage: Fewer unnecessary retry attempts
• Better user experience: Clearer requirements and faster resolution
• System efficiency: Less wasted compute on unproductive loops

Source

Extracted from Daily Copilot Agent Session Analysis discussion #12696

Priority

High - Affects CI-build category with high loop rate and low success rate

Estimated Effort

Investigation: 2-3 hours
Implementation: 4-6 hours (depending on findings)

AI generated by Discussion Task Miner - Code Quality Improvement Agent

• expires on Feb 13, 2026, 9:14 AM UTC