Would you merge this?

Four agent-authored changes reach the review queue together. You still have to decide what is safe.

Uppercase channel names fail   → fix
Clarify webhook retries        → ask a question
Empty messages are delivered   → stop
Add delivery priority          → wait for a person

Not every request should become a pull request. The next action depends on the available evidence and the uncertainty that remains.

Give the Factory Four Honest Exits

Build a command that traces four issues through four different factory outcomes.

Hands-on Exercise 1.1

Create your course repository

The course starter has two branches:

• main is the starter branch you will modify throughout the course.
• solution contains the completed project for reference. Complete the exercises on main.

Two repositories appear in the workflow:

Create your GitHub copy and Vercel project:

The button creates a repository in your GitHub account and connects it to a Vercel project. If you prefer to fork manually, fork the starter on GitHub and import that fork into a new Vercel project.

Clone your copy, then confirm that it is on main:

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_GITHUB_NAME/signalworks-software-factory.git
cd signalworks-software-factory
git switch main
pnpm install

The project starts small:

agent/                         # eve agent, channels, policies, and stations
fixtures/issues/               # prompts for the four course cases
fixtures/runs/                 # recorded outcomes used before live model calls
packages/notification-sdk/     # sample TypeScript product the factory maintains
evals/                         # regression evaluations added in Section 5

Trace the four outcomes

Read each issue before its recording. Predict where it should finish and what evidence would change your answer.

Now add the trace command to package.json:

{
  "scripts": {
    "trace": "node scripts/trace-work-order.mjs"
  }
}

Keep the existing scripts. The shortened object shows the new entry only.

Create scripts/trace-work-order.mjs. Load every JSON recording instead of hard-coding one issue:

import { readdir, readFile } from "node:fs/promises";
 
const runsUrl = new URL("../fixtures/runs/", import.meta.url);
const files = (await readdir(runsUrl))
  .filter((file) => file.endsWith(".json"))
  .sort();
 
for (const file of files) {
  const run = JSON.parse(await readFile(new URL(file, runsUrl), "utf8"));
  console.log(`${run.workOrderId}: ${run.issue.title} [${run.outcome}]`);
 
  for (const [index, event] of run.events.entries()) {
    const step = String(index + 1).padStart(2, "0");
    const station = event.station.toUpperCase().padEnd(12);
    console.log(`${step} ${station} ${event.status}`);
    console.log(`   ${event.summary}`);
  }
 
  console.log();
}

import.meta.url keeps the fixture path relative to the script.

Before running it, inspect issue-44.json. Routing accepts a plausible bug; investigation disproves it.

Run the trace now:

pnpm trace

The output should show four outcomes:

issue-42: Uppercase channel names fail [fix]
issue-43: Clarify webhook retries [clarify]
issue-44: Empty messages are delivered [reject-premise]
issue-45: Add delivery priority [human-judgment]

Find the earliest divergence. The unclear request stops at routing, the false premise reaches investigation, and the public API request waits after specification.

Try It

Verify the local project:

pnpm validate

pnpm validate should finish with zero diagnostics. Section 3 connects the services immediately before the first live invocation.

Commit

git add package.json scripts/trace-work-order.mjs
git commit -m "feat(factory): trace four outcomes"

Done-When

• pnpm trace prints all four work orders
• The unclear request stops before investigation
• The false premise stops after repository evidence arrives
• The public API request pauses before implementation
• The recordings show only independently verified work reaching draft pull request approval
• pnpm validate reports zero diagnostics

The first factory success changed zero files. Now we can give every future decision a durable record.

Solution

The exercise contains the complete package.json entry and scripts/trace-work-order.mjs. Your result should match the four headings in Trace the four outcomes.