Abort-Safe Handler

Purpose / When to Activate

Activate:

• As the Stage 4 entry gate of the /gaai:bootstrap pipeline, immediately after smart-question-generator returns a question_result
• Before qa-loop-ui is invoked — this skill decides WHETHER the loop runs at all
• The bootstrap orchestrator MUST call this skill instead of calling qa-loop-ui directly

When question_result.questions is empty (legitimate empty OR fallback), skip Stage 4 entirely — return the no-questions shortcut without showing the entry gate. Do NOT activate qa-loop-ui in this case.

What this skill does NOT do:

• Generate questions (smart-question-generator)
• Run the Q&A loop itself (qa-loop-ui, invoked BY this skill when user proceeds)
• Write to memory (orchestrator responsibility after Stage 5 consent gate)
• Accumulate skip counts over time (telemetry counting is E107bS08)

---

Input Schema

question_result:
  questions:                   # from smart-question-generator — already ≤5 items
    - question_text: string
      topic: string
      severity: number
      options:                 # optional
        - label: string
          value: string
  error: string | null
  fallback: bool

workspace_id: string           # for per-workspace telemetry (AC5)

---

Process

Step 0 — No-questions shortcut

if question_result.questions.length == 0:
  log: "[abort-safe-handler] no questions from smart-question-generator — Stage 4 skipped"
  return {
    skipped: false,
    qa_answers: [],
    skip_telemetry: null,
    abort_reason: "no_questions"
  }

This path produces no telemetry event (no user-facing choice was presented — skip is structural,
not a user decision). The orchestrator proceeds to Stage 5 with an empty qa_answers array.
bootstrap-llm-synthesis with an empty answers list behaves identically to qa_answers: null
for the purposes of clarity tagging — ambiguous fields will receive clarity: open-question.

Step 1 — Stage 4 entry gate (AC1)

Display the entry gate message inline:

📋 Bootstrap found {question_result.questions.length} clarifying question(s) about your project.

Answering them improves entry accuracy — ambiguities that go unanswered will be marked
as open-question in your workspace memory and flagged for Discovery review.

  [Y] Answer questions now  (recommended)
  [N] Skip Q&A and continue with default bootstrap

Press Enter or type Y to proceed, N to skip entirely.

Record gate presentation timestamp:

gate_presented_at = current_timestamp_ms()

Step 2 — Await user choice

Await one line of user input. Trim whitespace.

raw_input = trim(user_input)
normalized = lowercase(raw_input)

Step 3 — Route on choice

Path A — User skips (AC2, AC3, AC4)

if normalized == "n" OR normalized == "no" OR normalized == "skip":
  skipped_at_ts = current_timestamp_ms()
  log: "[abort-safe-handler] user chose skip-entire at Stage 4 entry — proceeding without Q&A"
  log: "  workspace_id={workspace_id}  response_time_ms={skipped_at_ts - gate_presented_at}"

  return {
    skipped: true,
    qa_answers: null,                # null → synthesis uses clarity: open-question for ambiguous fields
    skip_telemetry: {
      skip_reason: "user_skip_entire",
      skipped_at: iso_timestamp(),   # ISO 8601 UTC
      workspace_id: workspace_id,
      response_time_ms: skipped_at_ts - gate_presented_at
    },
    abort_reason: null
  }

AC4 guarantee: on Path A, zero Q&A state is created. No answers array is initialized, no
qa-loop-ui invocation occurs. The return is atomic — the only side effect is the log entry.

Path B — User proceeds (delegates to qa-loop-ui)

elif normalized == "y" OR normalized == "yes" OR normalized == "":
  log: "[abort-safe-handler] user chose proceed — delegating to qa-loop-ui"

  qa_session_result = invoke qa-loop-ui(question_result)

  # Forward qa-loop-ui result transparently; add telemetry marker for no-skip path
  return {
    skipped: (qa_session_result.skipped_all == true),
    qa_answers: qa_session_result.answers,      # may be partial if user skip-all'd mid-loop
    skip_telemetry: {
      skip_reason: null,                        # null = user engaged with Q&A
      skipped_at: null,
      workspace_id: workspace_id,
      response_time_ms: null
    },
    abort_reason: qa_session_result.abort_reason
  }

Note on mid-loop skip all: if the user types "skip all" during qa-loop-ui, the result
arrives here with qa_session_result.skipped_all: true. This skill sets skipped: true on the
output, but skip_telemetry.skip_reason remains null because the user DID engage with the entry
gate (they chose to proceed). The telemetry distinction matters for E107bS08 rate analysis:
skip_reason: "user_skip_entire" = pre-loop skip; skip_reason: null with skipped: true =
mid-loop skip-all (the two are counted separately).

Step 4 — Abort during entry gate (AC4)

If the user interrupts (Ctrl+C, process signal, or agent context terminated) while awaiting the
Y/N choice at Step 2 — before any Q&A answers are collected:

catch interrupt at Step 2:
  log: "[abort-safe-handler] user aborted at Stage 4 entry gate — skip path, no partial state"

  return {
    skipped: true,
    qa_answers: null,
    skip_telemetry: {
      skip_reason: "user_abort",
      skipped_at: iso_timestamp(),
      workspace_id: workspace_id,
      response_time_ms: null
    },
    abort_reason: "user_abort"
  }

AC4 guarantee: interrupt at the entry gate leaves zero partial state. No answers have been
collected, no Q&A session has started. The return is safe for the orchestrator to handle
identically to a skip.

---

Orchestrator responsibility after this skill (AC2)

When abort_safe_result.skipped == true (any path except no-questions shortcut):

• Call bootstrap-llm-synthesis with qa_answers: null
• After synthesis returns, surface entries with clarity: open-question explicitly:

After synthesis, if skipped == true:
  open_entries = synthesis_result.entries.filter(e => e.clarity == "open-question")
  if open_entries.length > 0:
    display:
      "ℹ️  {open_entries.length} topic(s) remain ambiguous (Q&A was skipped):
      {for e in open_entries}
        · {e.title}
      {endfor}
      These entries are tagged clarity: open-question in your workspace memory.
      Run a Discovery session to resolve them when ready."

This orchestrator step fulfills AC2's requirement that open-question entries are "clearly
visible to user". The abort-safe-handler skill provides the signal (skipped: true, qa_answers: null); the synthesis + display is the orchestrator's responsibility.

---

Output Schema

abort_safe_result:
  skipped: bool                    # true = no Q&A answers will reach synthesis
  qa_answers: array | null         # null if skipped; answer array (may be partial) if proceeded
  skip_telemetry:                  # null only on no-questions shortcut (Step 0)
    skip_reason: string | null     # "user_skip_entire" | "user_abort" | null (null = proceeded)
    skipped_at: string | null      # ISO 8601 UTC; null if not skipped
    workspace_id: string           # always present — workspace scope for rate analysis (AC5)
    response_time_ms: number | null  # entry-gate response time; null if not measured
  abort_reason: string | null      # "user_abort" | "no_questions" | null (null = normal)

# Example — user skips at entry gate:
abort_safe_result:
  skipped: true
  qa_answers: null
  skip_telemetry:
    skip_reason: "user_skip_entire"
    skipped_at: "2026-04-29T10:32:00Z"
    workspace_id: "ws_abc123"
    response_time_ms: 4210
  abort_reason: null

# Example — user answers all questions:
abort_safe_result:
  skipped: false
  qa_answers:
    - question_id: "project_type"
      answer_text: "saas"
      skipped: false
      response_time_ms: 3200
  skip_telemetry:
    skip_reason: null
    skipped_at: null
    workspace_id: "ws_abc123"
    response_time_ms: null
  abort_reason: null

# Example — no questions from smart-question-generator:
abort_safe_result:
  skipped: false
  qa_answers: []
  skip_telemetry: null
  abort_reason: "no_questions"

---

Quality Checks

• skipped: true implies qa_answers == null
• skipped: false implies qa_answers is an array (may be empty)
• abort_reason: "no_questions" implies skip_telemetry == null and qa_answers == []
• skip_telemetry.skip_reason == "user_skip_entire" implies skipped_at is a non-null ISO string
• skip_telemetry.skip_reason == null implies skipped_at == null (user proceeded, no skip event)
• abort_reason: "user_abort" implies skipped: true and qa_answers == null
• workspace_id in skip_telemetry is always present when skip_telemetry != null

---

Non-Goals

This skill MUST NOT:

• Run the Q&A interaction loop itself (delegate to qa-loop-ui)
• Generate or rank questions (smart-question-generator, topic-importance-ranker)
• Accumulate skip counts or compute skip rates over time (E107bS08 telemetry)
• Write to memory directly (orchestrator responsibility after Stage 5 consent gate)
• Decide what to do with open-question entries (orchestrator responsibility per §Orchestrator responsibility above)
• Show the open-question entries to the user (orchestrator responsibility)
• Apply any timeout at the entry gate (patience is left to user; no auto-skip on silence)
• Call the LLM (pure interaction + delegation skill; no inference calls)