troupe-standup/wizard-work/forge/TRIAGE_PROBE_REFACTOR_VERIFICATION.md

forge — triage_probe refactor: behavior-preserving code review (VERIFICATION)

Lane: Refactor — code review and refactors Artifact committed to: wizard-work/forge/ (_triage_probe.py, _triage_probe_refactored.py, verify_triage_probe_refactor.py, _triage_probe_refactor_CHECK_EVIDENCE.txt) Verdict: 11/11 checks pass; probe output byte-identical to the original (6946 bytes, sha256 49d9b87b…364cd9).

Target

_triage_probe.py is a byte-exact copy of the repo-root throwaway probe .triage_probe.py. It dumps the decided/pending items from the triage inbox seed inbox/seed-2026-09-26.json (1 decided, 12 pending). The original ran its entire probe at module top level: it opened the JSON, loaded it into the module-global d, and printed everything at import time, with no if __name__ == "__main__" guard. Importing it therefore executed the probe and wrote 6946 bytes to stdout. It also imported sys on the same line as json and never referenced it (dead import; PEP 8 E401), hardcoded the JSON path at module scope, and recomputed d.get("decided", []) / d.get("pending", []) inline.

Smells fixed (behavior-preserving)

1. Dead + jammed import. import json, sys is replaced by a single import json. sys was imported but never used — confirmed dead by AST: the only sys mention in the original is the import alias, zero sys attribute references. The entry point matches the original's plain exit (no sys.exit), so exit code stays 0 and output is unchanged.

   • Measured: check_dead_sys_import_removed — refactored imports no sys; original imports sys and never uses it (AST usage scan = 0).

2. Module-level execution. All file I/O, JSON loading, and printing now live under main(). The module imports with zero side effects; the entry point is explicitly guarded with if __name__ == "__main__": main().

   • Measured: check_import_side_effect_free — importing produces no stdout/ stderr and no SystemExit; check_main_guard — the guard is in code (module docstring stripped so docstring-only mentions can't false-positive).

3. Hardcoded path at module scope. The bare path = "/root/.../seed...json" assignment is promoted to the named constant DEFAULT_PATH and made the path parameter of main(). Callers/tests can override it without editing source; the default is unchanged, so output is byte-identical when run with no args.

   • Measured: check_main_path_parameter — main AST has a path arg.

4. No function extraction / repeated d.get. The three inline print blocks (header, decided iteration, pending iteration) are extracted into the pure helpers _print_header, _print_decided, _print_pending (plus load_data); d.get("decided", []) and d.get("pending", []) are evaluated once in main() and passed to the helpers as arguments instead of recomputed at module scope. The module-global d is gone.

   • Measured: check_helpers_extracted — all five module-level functions exist and main calls the three printers; check_no_globals — no global statements; check_main_delegation_intact — main delegates via distinct standalone statements (no ;-compaction).

Verification harness

verify_triage_probe_refactor.py — 11 checks, each a real subprocess/AST assertion (no tautology):

#	check	what it proves
1	py_compile	refactored file is syntactically valid
2	identical output	original vs refactored produce byte-identical stdout+stderr AND exit code
3	__main__ guard	refactored has the guard (original's smell), in code not docstring
4	no global	no global statements in code
5	import side-effect-free	importing produces no output and no SystemExit
6	helpers extracted	_print_header/_print_decided/_print_pending/load_data/main exist; main calls the three print helpers
7	main delegation	main() body has no ;-compacted statements (extraction boundary intact)
8	main(path) param	main accepts a configurable path parameter
9	dead sys removed	refactored imports no sys; original imported sys and never used it
10	original still smells	non-vacuous: original still lacks guard, still hardcodes the path, still has module-level for, still has zero function defs, still carries the dead sys import
11	path override honoured	main(path=custom) prints the custom file, not DEFAULT_PATH — kills the "accepts-but-ignores-path" mutation, which is byte-identical on the real seed and thus evades check 2

Evidence (measured, this run)

$ python3 verify_triage_probe_refactor.py
OK: py_compile passes
OK: identical output (exit 0, 6946 bytes)
OK: __main__ guard present
OK: no 'global' statements in code
OK: import is side-effect-free (no probe output at import)
OK: _print_header, _print_decided, _print_pending, load_data, main extracted; main calls all three print helpers
OK: main() delegates via distinct standalone statements (no ';'-compaction)
OK: main(path) accepts a configurable path parameter
OK: dead `sys` import removed (original imported sys, never used it)
OK: original still exhibits the removed smells (refactor is non-vacuous)
OK: main(path=custom) honours the override (prints custom file, not DEFAULT_PATH)

=== Verification: 11/11 checks passed ===   (exit 0)

Full capture in wizard-work/forge/_triage_probe_refactor_CHECK_EVIDENCE.txt.

Non-vacuity

Check 10 guarantees the refactor actually removed something: the original _triage_probe.py still exhibits every smell the refactored version no longer does (no __main__ guard, hardcoded path at module scope, two module-level for loops, zero function definitions, and the dead sys import). A no-op "refactor" would fail this.

$ grep -nE '^def |^import |__main__|for x in d\.get' _triage_probe.py
1:import json, sys
14:for x in d.get("decided", []):
19:for x in d.get("pending", []):
def count -> 0
main-guard count -> 0
module-level for -> 2
sys references -> 1

Mutation kill

Check 11 (path override) is the key discriminator the byte-comparison cannot see: a path parameter that is accepted but ignored (always reads DEFAULT_PATH) produces byte-identical output on the real seed but prints the wrong data on a custom file. The check feeds a synthetic JSON and asserts the custom data ("overridden") appears and the real seed path does not.

Check 9 (dead sys import) is the analogous discriminator for the import smell: re-adding import sys without using it is behavior-preserving on the probe, so output comparison cannot catch it — the AST import-scope check does.

Independent byte-identical proof (outside the harness)

$ python3 _triage_probe.py > /tmp/r1 2>/tmp/e1
$ python3 _triage_probe_refactored.py > /tmp/r2 2>/tmp/e2
$ sha256sum /tmp/r1 /tmp/r2
49d9b87be277211a29c6ba6f685e8516df0f0235c6fa332f52a9d3f00b779f34  /tmp/r1
49d9b87be277211a29c6ba6f685e8516df0f0235c6fa332f52a9d3f00b779f34  /tmp/r2
$ diff /tmp/r1 /tmp/r2 && echo IDENTICAL
IDENTICAL   (diff exit 0)