🐛🧑‍💻 - bug pre branch SDD drafting fails after successful analysis with an unclassified agent exit #541

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues.

Which actions are affected?

Issue

Which platforms are affected?

Linux

Description

Dogfooding #538 is blocked before branch creation: the pre-branch SDD analysis succeeds and its blocking product question has an authorized answer, but the following SDD draft agent call exits with code 1 and only the fixed diagnostic unclassified. Repeating the same operation has reproduced the draft failure. Expected: a validated SDD is published through the existing managed-branch gate, or a safe actionable diagnostic identifies why that exact request cannot complete.

Investigate the actual provider/schema/process cause before choosing the correction. Preserve the configured provider/model, authentication isolation, native structured output and local semantic validation, the one-repair ceiling, original requirements/owner, and verified SDD publication before implementation. Do not expose raw provider output or bypass branch readiness. A schema-compatibility correction must retain the existing local minimum/maximum length checks and size/format repair behavior.

Reproducing the issue

1. Start the admitted feature #538 using the installed start label and pre-branch SDD enabled.
2. Use the catalogued setup-and-doctor owner and a new companion at specs/organization-configuration-reuse-and-batch-setup.md.
3. Answer Q1 with the fixed 1–25 repository and sequential-application limits, as in the retained answer.
4. Inspect run 39028422654, attempt 2: analysis succeeds, then drafting exits after approximately 31 seconds. The configured Copilot request timeout is 15 minutes; a timeout root cause has not been established.
5. Compare minimal controlled requests using the exact draft schema versus an otherwise equivalent supported native object shape. Keep all length constraints enforced locally before any writer or branch publication.

Acceptance: identify the cause with controlled evidence; add deterministic regression coverage for the failing boundary and existing length/format/retry guarantees; update the existing SDD/catalog and troubleshooting documentation as appropriate; pass normal quality gates; re-run #538 through its normal SDD/managed-branch lifecycle with the corrected reviewed Action before claiming it unblocked.

copilot Version

3.5.5 / master 29270b2; runner codex-cli 0.163.0; develop c6a6966

Relevant Log Output

Agent execution completed.
Agent execution started.
Agent execution admitted (codex codex-cli 0.163.0).
Agent execution failed (run/process, exit 1, unclassified).
Pre-branch SDD gate failed: The configured agent did not complete its operation.

Additional context and comments

Authorized by the maintainer to investigate and correct the SDD failure so #538 can proceed. This is the existing SDD mechanism failing; the setup feature remains separate. Relevant paths: src/application/usecases/sdd/pre_branch_sdd_draft_workflow.ts, src/application/policies/agent_execution/codex_execution_plan_policy.ts, src/data/repository/agent_cli_execution.ts, src/data/repository/agent_cli_exit_diagnostic.ts, and the existing issue-start-and-sdd-readiness / agent-runtime catalog evidence. The draft shape currently sends markdown with minLength: 1800 and maxLength: 70000 for a companion (18000 for an update). This difference is a hypothesis to test, not an established root cause.