[deep-report] Require verified-merged evidence before closing self-filed reliability/doc issues (5 bugs closed 25+ times, all still broken)

[github-actions]

Across this cycle's analysis, five independent recurring reliability/quality bugs were each closed as "fixed" one or more times, yet a fresh check today (2026-08-10) shows every single one is still broken:

#	Bug	Times filed & closed	Still broken as of today?
1	DeepReport repo-memory frozen (wrong file-glob depth)	#51110, #51172 (2026-08-07)	Yes — memory/deep-report branch has exactly 1 commit total, dated 2026-04-03. .github/workflows/deep-report.md still writes to the two-level-deep path (/tmp/gh-aw/repo-memory/default/memory/deep-report/) that #51172's own diagnosis says is silently dropped by the *.md file-glob. See companion issue for the concrete fix.
2	Copilot Session Insights: 0 conversation transcripts available	#14352, #14414, #44575, #50061, #50071, #50273, #51113, #51195 (Feb–Aug)	Yes — 2026-08-10 report says "44th+ consecutive day" of zero transcript files.
3	Firewall/MCP raw log retention (access.log/gateway.jsonl missing)	#10489, #43654, #43658, #47299, #48674, #51111 (Feb–Aug)	Yes — 2026-08-10 Observability Coverage Report: 0/15 firewall runs have access.log, 0/2 MCP runs have gateway.jsonl/rpc-messages.jsonl (0.0% coverage both categories).
4	Quick Start docs: undefined jargon ("frontmatter", "engine", "safe outputs")	#7933, #8510, #11593, #32421, #34964, #39814, #44059, #46370, #46478 (Apr–Aug)	Yes — 2026-08-10 Documentation Noob Test Report flags the exact same three terms as undefined on first use.
5	Quick Start docs: no engine-choice guidance	#27602, #27658, #31207, #43575, #43590, #43687 (multiple cycles)	Yes — 2026-08-10 Documentation Noob Test Report: "Engine choice is a fork in the road with no guidance."

That is 5 separate lineages, roughly 25+ historical issue closures combined, none of which produced a durable fix. In at least the repo-memory case (#1), the issue was closed directly with no linked merged PR (timeline API shows event: closed with no source PR) — the fix was never actually implemented, just described and closed.

Why this matters

Each of these closures creates a false "resolved" signal that suppresses re-filing (dedup gates correctly treat "already closed as fixed" as a reason to not re-raise it) — which is exactly the failure mode: the dedup logic that keeps the issue tracker clean is also what lets a falsely-closed bug hide from every subsequent DeepReport/audit cycle until someone happens to read the actual current state (as this cycle did for #1) instead of trusting issue status.

Recommendation

Add a lightweight verification step before any DeepReport-family or specialized-agent workflow closes a self-filed reliability/doc issue as resolved:

1. Require the closing comment to cite a merged PR/commit SHA that implements the change (not just a description of the intended fix).
2. For infra-facing bugs specifically (repo-memory, log retention, artifact paths), add a same-cycle or next-cycle automated re-check of the actual artifact/state (e.g., "does the target branch have a new commit", "does access.log exist in the next sampled run") before allowing the tracking issue to be closed, rather than closing on the strength of a plan description alone.
3. For docs bugs that keep regressing, consider a lint/test that fails CI if Quick Start renders without a Glossary link on first use of a tracked jargon list, so the fix can't silently not-land the way rejig docs #1 didn't.

Data sources

DeepReport Intelligence Briefing analysis, 2026-08-10 — cross-referenced discussions #51110, #51172 (deep-report), #51111 (deep-report), #51725 (copilot-session-insights), #51654 (observability), #51678 (docs-noob-tester), plus gh api search/issues history back to Feb 2026.

Suggested Agent: New Agent (or extend audit-workflows/deep-report closing logic)
Estimated Effort: Medium (1-4 hours) for the verification-gate change; the underlying bugs themselves are separate, larger efforts.

Generated by 🔬 Deep Report · agent · 237.7 AIC · ⌖ 55.3 AIC · ⊞ 11.3K · ◷

• expires on Aug 12, 2026, 7:12 AM UTC-08:00

[github-actions]

This issue was automatically closed because it expired on 2026-08-12T15:12:15.727Z.

Closed by Workflow