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/ux-cycle session retrospective — 2026-04-21

📜 Historical snapshot — not current docs

Captured 2026-04-21 during Dazzle's autonomous-improvement cycles. It records the framework as it was then and the gap being worked at the time; it may not describe current behaviour. Start from the documentation home, or see Project Evolution for how these fit together.

Window: cycle 366 (last idle tick) → cycle 372 (this retro). One session, 7 cycles, 4 productive. Wrote as the budget counter approached the 100-soft-cap so the operator gets a clean handoff.

What the loop produced this session

5 infrastructure commits (pre-resume, from the operator-led design session):

Shape What Commit
#1 Widened test_page_route_coverage.py to cover workspace/ / experience/ / reports/ families; added render_fragment + env.get_template patterns; scan src/dazzle/ in addition to dazzle_page/dazzle_http 8d076dc6
#2 New test_ir_field_reader_parity.py ratchet lint + 186-entry JSON baseline; AST-based reader scan over .attr accesses, getattr literals, and Jinja .attr refs 95a23c4a
#3 New tests/unit/audit_internals.py + make audit-internals target; two-section report (IR orphans + module orphans) with re-export propagation fc8a2096
#4 Extended external-resource lint with a canonical-registry assertion: every allowlisted origin must cite a replacement path (#NNN / gap doc / cycle) e101fef7

Preflight gate: 6 lints → 7 lints. Silent-drift coverage table: 6 → 8 entries.

4 productive cycles post-resume:

Cycle Strategy Outcome Commit
367 finding_investigation #838 filed — TwoFactorConfig has no producer + no consumer. Triple signal convergence (external-resource + page-route + reader-parity all point at 2FA) 4dd472a7
368 framework_gap_analysis Gap doc 2026-04-21-ir-policy-field-drift.md — systematised #838 into a subsystem-wide pattern covering ~50 of the 186 baselined orphans 3c2b8b7d
369 finding_investigation #839 filed — compliance pipeline has 3 tested-but-unwired modules (citation/renderer/slicer). Same shape as #834 f105bb7b
371 finding_investigation Audit-tool fix — suspected "fitness DSL orphan" was a bug in _imports_in_file (relative imports ignored). 150 → 65 orphans. New substrate-intel mode #5 added to the skill catalog 4ddc525e

1 housekeeping cycle (370, 5715b076) refreshed dev_docs/ux-loop-state.md after 32 cycles of staleness.

The three-way 2FA picture (coordinated for /issues pickup)

The loop now has three independent filings describing the same broken subsystem. They should be picked up together:

  • #829 (cycle 299) — QR code leaks TOTP secret to api.qrserver.com
  • #831 (cycle 303) — templates/2fa/*.html ship, no page routes serve them
  • #838 (cycle 367) — TwoFactorConfig IR type has no producer / consumer

Each is a different layer (template / runtime / IR). Fixing all three is probably a single coherent PR. Not fixing all three leaves the subsystem broken regardless of which two you pick.

Cross-ref: dev_docs/framework-gaps/2026-04-21-ir-policy-field-drift.md generalises #838 — the pattern (IR vocabulary without runtime teeth) also applies to messaging, governance tenant-provisioning, grants, HLESS, approvals, and LLM cost tracking.

The external-resource triad (also coordinated)

  • #830 (cycle 301) — SRI hashes on external CDN loads
  • #832 (cycle 323) — Vendor Tailwind + own dist
  • #833 (cycle 325) — CSP default alignment

All three are phases of dev_docs/framework-gaps/2026-04-20-external-resource-integrity.md.

Audit-tool blindspot work (cycle 371 discovered one; more remain)

The shape-#3 audit is a heuristic, not authoritative. After the relative-import fix landed (150 → 65 orphans), the remaining 65 still include likely FPs:

  • node_modules paths: dazzle.examples.simple_task.build.simple_task.node_modules.flatted.python.flatted — should be path-excluded
  • Build artefacts under src/: anything in src/**/build/
  • MCP handler registration: ~10 dazzle.mcp.server.handlers.* modules appear orphan but are almost certainly registered via decorators or a handlers dict rather than direct import
  • Agent missions loaded dynamically: dazzle.agent.missions.ux_explore_subagent is called by the /ux-cycle skill's Step 5 via a subprocess python -c — no AST edge exists
  • Test discovery: modules discovered by pytest but not imported elsewhere

Rough estimate: the real findings in the remaining 65 are probably ~5-10 (similar to the compliance trio), with the rest being blindspots. A followup audit-tool improvement pass (similar to cycle 371 relative-import fix) would tighten the list further.

Explore budget state

  • Before session: 93/100, auto-paused at cycle 340 (secondary short-circuit)
  • After session: 99/100 — one slot from the primary soft cap
  • The cap is designed to force operator review. Next productive cycle hits 100 and auto-pauses until a deliberate batch reset.

Loop health

  • Finding-rate post-resume: 100% (4/4 productive cycles delivered artifacts)
  • Shape-#3 audit real-finding rate: 2/150 → 2/65 after cycle 371 fix (3.1% hit rate, up from 1.3%)
  • Heuristic 1 saves: 1 this session (cycle 371 — prevented spurious fitness-parser issue)
  • Synthesis debt: 0 (cycle 368 gap doc covered the one emerging theme)

Operator decision points

  1. Pick up the 9 filed issues. Natural grouping for /issues:
  2. 2FA triad (#829, #831, #838) — one PR
  3. External-resource triad (#830, #832, #833) — one staged PR set
  4. Orphan-module pair (#834, #839) — each needs per-module triage (wire / retire / public-API)

  5. WorkspaceContract persona (#835) — 2-option fix sketch already in the issue

  6. Triage the gap doc. 2026-04-21-ir-policy-field-drift.md covers ~50 baselined orphans. Needs a subsystem-by-subsystem Verdict A/B call before individual fix cycles.

  7. Budget reset. When ready to continue, echo "0" > .dazzle/ux-cycle-explore-count (or whatever delta you prefer). The loop's detection infrastructure is now solid — it will find new things faster than pre-resume.

  8. Audit-tool tightening. The 65-orphan list can shrink further with: (a) .gitignore-aware path exclusion, (b) MCP handler registration pattern detection, (c) dynamic-import awareness for python -c ... subprocess calls. Not urgent; only matters if the advisory audit becomes authoritative.

Where the loop was productive vs. where it wasn't

Productive: loop doing investigation + synthesis when seeded with detection infrastructure. Cycle 340's 26-tick pause was correct behaviour given the pre-resume detection was exhausted; cycles 367-369 validated that new detection = new productivity.

Not productive: filing more issues without shipping fixes for the existing queue. The 9-issue backlog is probably close to saturation for /issues; filing a 10th provides diminishing value until closures happen.

Load-bearing insight: the loop is most valuable when paired with detection infrastructure that keeps producing signal. It's least valuable when re-walking the same backlog at the same resolution. New lints are the durable investment; new issues off existing lints are transient.