Issue → fix dev-loop

How an incoming issue becomes a worktree you (or a local agent) can start working in. This documents maintainer issue labeling, subscription-backed Codex review, path-aware required CI, and the local bridge scripts/start-issue.sh.

It complements — does not replace — RELEASE.md (how a fix ships) and CLAUDE.md (the non-negotiables: vanilla-Hermes-path-upstream-only, commit conventions, public-repo writing hygiene).

The loop at a glance

issue opened ──▶ maintainer triage + labels
                                                        │
                                                        ▼
                         scripts/start-issue.sh <N>   ── local bridge
                                                        │
                                                        ▼
                 ../hr-issue-<N> worktree on fix/issue-<N>-<slug>
                 off origin/dev + ISSUE-BRIEF.md
                                                        │
                                                        ▼
                 implement + verify ─▶ PR to dev ─┬─▶ Required checks
                                                  └─▶ Codex review

Manual issue triage

Maintainers review new issues and apply the appropriate type and area:* labels. Area labels are deliberately manual: generic words such as “relay”, “plugin”, “chat”, and “voice” cross product boundaries and cannot reliably identify the owning implementation surface from issue text alone.

PR review

Codex automatic review is configured through the repository's Codex cloud integration, not a GitHub Actions secret. It reviews every PR and follows the top-level AGENTS.md plus the closest nested AGENTS.md. Request another pass or a narrower focus with @codex review in a PR comment.

Codex review is advisory. Merge availability is controlled by deterministic CI and normal maintainer review, so a provider outage cannot strand a release PR.

Required CI

.github/workflows/ci-required.yml classifies the PR's changed files and calls the relevant Android, CLI, plugin, dashboard, upstream-contract, and public-docs checks. Its final Required checks job succeeds only when every selected check passes. Unaffected toolchains are skipped rather than started.

Verification matrix (surface → how a fix is proven)

The area:* label decides whether a fix can be proven by CI or needs a human. deep-dive and start-issue.sh both bake this in.

Surface (`area:*`)	Paths	Verify	CI-gateable?
`area:plugin`	`plugin/`	`python -m unittest plugin.tests.test_<name>`	✅ ci-plugin.yml
`area:cli`	`desktop/`	`cd desktop && npm run build && npm run smoke` + unit	✅ ci-desktop.yml
`area:android` (logic)	`app/` VM/mapper/pure Kotlin	focused local test, then exact-SHA `Android On-Demand`/PR CI	✅ ci-android.yml
`area:android` (UI/behavior)	`app/` Compose / device behavior	Android Studio ▶ on a real device	❌ human gate
`area:dashboard`	`plugin/dashboard/`	dashboard bundle build	✅ ci-dashboard.yml
`area:docs`	`docs/`, `user-docs/`	docs build	✅ docs.yml

Rule of thumb: where a surface is CI-gateable, write the failing test first (TDD, per the global workflow) so the fix is self-verifying. Android UI/behavior is the deliberate exception — CI only covers lint + unit there, so on-device verification stays a manual maintainer step and a fix is never "done" from CI alone.

Emulator UI evidence

Hermes Android is dark-mode-first. Before emulator screenshots, animation review, or renderer performance measurements, explicitly enable Android dark mode and restart the app so evidence is not captured in the emulator's light default:

adb -s <emulator-serial> shell cmd uimode night yes
adb -s <emulator-serial> shell am force-stop com.axiomlabs.hermesrelay.sideload
adb -s <emulator-serial> shell am start -n \
  com.axiomlabs.hermesrelay.sideload/com.hermesandroid.relay.MainActivity
adb -s <emulator-serial> shell cmd uimode night

Confirm the final command reports Night mode: yes before capturing evidence. Use host GPU acceleration where available; software rendering is useful for compatibility but is not representative performance evidence.

Local bridge: `scripts/start-issue.sh`

scripts/start-issue.sh <issue-number> [base-branch]   # base defaults to dev

Creates ../hr-issue-<N>, a git worktree on fix|feature|docs/issue-<N>-<slug> (prefix chosen from the TYPE label) off origin/<base>, and writes ISSUE-BRIEF.md with the issue body, existing discussion, and the verification plan for the issue's surface. Open your agent session there and it starts pre-briefed. Worktrees share the main checkout's object store, so several issue branches can run concurrently. ISSUE-BRIEF.md is git-ignored. Tear down with git worktree remove ../hr-issue-<N>.

Setup (one-time)

Repository automation only recognizes labels that already exist. Create them once:

gh label create "area:android"            -c "1d76db" -d "Kotlin app"
gh label create "area:cli"                -c "0e8a16" -d "desktop/ Node CLI"
gh label create "area:plugin"             -c "fbca04" -d "plugin/ Python relay + tools"
gh label create "area:dashboard"          -c "c5def5" -d "plugin/dashboard React UI"
gh label create "area:docs"               -c "bfd4f2" -d "docs/ or user-docs/"
gh label create "review-candidate"         -c "ffb300" -d "Build a side-by-side Android and Relay review bundle for this PR"

Operational notes

Manual issue labels. Type and area labels are applied during maintainer triage; no issue-open workflow guesses ownership from keywords.
Review-candidate PRs. Applying review-candidate opts an open PR targeting dev into exact-head Android and Relay review bundles until the label is removed.
No write-access escalation from issues. Auto-attempting a fix from untrusted issue text remains intentionally out of scope.

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