A third census-invisible class, measured — plus the two worst instances
fixed.
## The shape
```ts
if (task.column !== "in-review") { … return; } // the census counts THIS
await this.store.moveTask(taskId, "in-progress"); // and cannot see THIS
```
The census is an AST scan for **comparisons**. A `moveTask` destination
is a **call argument**, so no backlog entry ever points at one.
Converting the guard alone is *worse than converting neither*: the
handler starts admitting work on a renamed board and then tries to move
the card into a lane that board may not declare.
This bit twice in one week — #2797 (`branch-worktree` requeued into a
lane that may not exist) and #2807 (a GitHub "changes requested" review
dropped, then a move to a hardcoded `in-progress`). Both times it was
found only because the guard *next to it* happened to be under
conversion. So I went looking.
## Measured
Across `core`/`engine`/`dashboard`/`cli`/`plugins`, excluding
`__tests__`/`*.test.*` and comment lines:
| | count |
| --- | ---: |
| hardcoded `moveTask` destinations in production | **51** |
| …passing `recoveryRehome: true` — **deliberate**, not defects | 22 |
| …plain, rejected on a board that does not declare the target | **29**
|
**The 22 must not be "fixed".** `moves.ts` exempts them on purpose
(#1411): a card stranded in an undeclared column has to stay rescuable
to a legacy safe-landing column, or it can never be recovered at all. A
sweep that converts them deletes the rescue path. That distinction is
the reason this is 29 and not 51, and it is why I measured before
writing.
## Why this got sharper recently
The `workflowHasColumn(workflowIr, toColumn)` rejection used to sit
inside a block gated on `isWorkflowColumnsCompatibilityFlagEnabled` — a
settings key **nothing in production writes** — so it never executed and
the legacy `VALID_TRANSITIONS` table decided instead. U12 hoisted it out
of that dead branch and it is now live, proven on a real store by
`live-move-path-undeclared-target.test.ts`:
```
moveTask(card in "todo" -> "triage") now REJECTS: /Unknown column for this workflow/
```
That changed the failure mode of all 29 from *"silently lands the card
in an undeclared column"* to *"throws"*.
**29 is not a crash count.** Whether a throw surfaces or disappears
depends on whether the caller catches, which is per-site and I did
**not** measure it — the doc says so explicitly rather than letting the
number imply severity it hasn't earned.
## Fixed here: 9 of the 29
`duplicate-intake` and `duplicate-guard` both archive a duplicate. On a
renamed archive lane the move is rejected, so **the duplicate is never
archived and keeps sitting on the operator's board as live work** — and
in `duplicate-guard` the row has already been stamped
`deterministicDuplicateOf`, so it is *marked* a duplicate while
occupying an active lane. Half-applied, which is the same trap as
#2797's branch clear.
Both now resolve the `archived`-trait column from the task's own
workflow through one shared helper, unioned with the legacy id.
**`cli/commands/task-lifecycle`** — `finalizePullRequestMerge` and
`finalizeNoOpMergeTask` both move the card to a hardcoded `"done"`, and
both run `updateTask({ status: null, mergeRetries: 0 })` *first*. On a
rejection the merge has already landed and the bookkeeping is already
cleared while the card never reaches its complete lane: the operator
sees a merged branch, a card still sitting in review, and a reset retry
counter. Same half-applied shape as #2797's branch clear. Both now route
through one resolver so they cannot drift.
**`contamination` / `foreign-only-contamination` (×2) /
`restart-recovery-coordinator`** — four recovery requeues to a hardcoded
`"todo"`, none of them a `recoveryRehome` escape. On a board without
that column the move is rejected and **the recovery never completes** —
the card stays contaminated or stranded, which is precisely the state
these paths exist to clear.
**Consolidation.** `resolveReboundTargetForTask` and
`resolveArchiveTargetForTask` now live beside
`resolveTaskLifecycleColumns` in `workflow-lifecycle-traits`, already
the store-dependent resolution seam. My first pass put the archive
helper inside `duplicate-intake` and had `duplicate-guard` import it
from there — wrong home, and it would have grown a copy per caller as
more sites converted. Seven call sites now share two definitions.
**Plain (non-`recoveryRehome`) destinations: 29 → 21.**
**Coverage on the CLI pair is scoped, and I'd rather say so than imply
more:** the test covers the *resolver*, not the two call sites. Both
enclosing functions are private and reachable only through
`processPullRequest`, which needs a live GitHub surface — exporting them
purely to test wiring is a worse trade than stating what is covered.
Three cases: renamed lane resolves, no-workflow falls back to the legacy
id (which also pins that a default board is byte-identical), and a
throwing lookup falls back.
## Revert result (measured)
| conversion | reverted → |
| --- | --- |
| duplicate archive destination | new case fails — `moveTask` called
with `"archived"` on a board whose archive lane is `boxed` |
| CLI complete-lane resolver | replacing the body with a bare `return
"done"` fails the renamed case |
| both move-target resolvers | replacing either body with a bare return
of its legacy id fails 5 cases across the resolver suite and
`duplicate-guard` |
Each resolver has a **non-vacuous companion** asserting it does *not*
return the legacy id on a renamed board — without it, a resolver
returning any string would pass. The fallback cases are load-bearing
rather than padding: `resolveWorkflowIrForTask` degrades to the built-in
IR rather than throwing, and the built-in rebound/archive lanes *are*
`todo`/`archived`, so those cases also pin that a default board is
byte-identical.
The pre-existing case asserting the legacy `"archived"` passes both
ways, which is exactly why it could not detect this and why the new one
supplies a workflow.
## Ownership note
`packages/core` was `batch-core`'s territory and `packages/cli` was
`batch-cli-plugins`'. Both batches have landed, and this is
newly-discovered work in the class documented here rather than leftover
conversion backlog. Four sites, two shared helpers — happy for either
half to move if those owners would rather carry it.
## Verification
- `pnpm test:gate` — 161 + 487 + 13 + 71, green
- `duplicate-guard` + `duplicate-intake` — 40 passed
- `tsc` on core and engine — clean
- `pnpm lint`, `check:changesets`, census `--strict` — all clean (run
explicitly; a clean `pnpm lint` alone is not evidence the CI Lint check
passes)
<!-- This is an auto-generated comment: release notes by coderabbit.ai
-->
## Summary by CodeRabbit
- **Bug Fixes**
- Duplicate tasks are now archived to each workflow’s configured archive
lane.
- Completed tasks are moved to the workflow-specific completion lane,
with a safe fallback for older workflows.
- Recovery and requeue actions now use each workflow’s configured
rebound lane instead of assuming a fixed destination.
- **Documentation**
- Added guidance on avoiding failures caused by hardcoded workflow
destinations and incomplete lifecycle conversions.
- **Tests**
- Added coverage for renamed workflow lanes, fallback behavior,
duplicate archiving, and recovery destinations.
<!-- end of auto-generated comment: release notes by coderabbit.ai -->
---------
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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