Proposal (rationale)

SWE-agent supplies a minimal coding loop and OpenHands supplies a sandboxed, multi-run product, but neither was selected to answer the local git lifecycle as its primary question. rungs writes into a developer’s existing repository, so the boundary between model-selected context, an applied edit, validation, commit, diff, undo, and human control is unusually relevant to its own product.

Aider is selected as a git-first local counterpoint. Its public project documents repository mapping, automatic lint/test integration, and git commits and undo. The extraction must establish how those features actually compose and what repository state they assume; the project description alone is not implementation evidence.

Decision

proposed — 2026-08-15. Captured as the git-native product child of WI-018, after WI-019.

Plan

Requirements

• Pin SHA, licence, date, measured scale, default configuration, and the coder/git/test packages read.
• Trace one change request through repository-map or context selection, model request, edit format, patch/application, lint or test feedback, and commit or user-visible diff.
• Establish the dirty-tree, branch, ignored-file, generated-file, and undo boundaries, including what is automatic versus opt-in.
• Trace malformed edits and failing validation back into the loop, including termination budgets.
• Identify where the user approves, steers, rejects, or recovers a change and what state survives restart.
• Map findings against narrow-anchor, structural-gate, land/candidate, agent-facing-interface, and prompt-writes-artifact patterns without editing the catalogue.

Impacts

• One durable/local-product extraction and index row.
• Direct evidence about repository ingress/egress and validation that can be compared with WI-016 in WI-028, without changing either source extraction.

Approach

Use one ordinary edit path and the default git integration. Treat repository mapping as a context selection mechanism, not a claim about semantic understanding. Read architect/editor or alternate edit formats only where they materially change ownership or validation boundaries.

Acceptance criteria / tests

1. One request is traced from context selection through repository mutation and its git result.
2. Dirty-tree, commit, undo, ignore, and validation-failure semantics cite named implementation and tests.
3. The extraction states which safeguards are defaults, optional settings, or user workflow conventions.
4. Repository-map claims distinguish measured structure from model-facing summaries.
5. Opinion is labelled; catalogue work remains WI-028; rungs check and site links pass.

Out of scope

• Model leaderboards, benchmark scores, or choosing an edit format by performance.
• IDE integrations beyond the boundary needed to trace the core local path.
• Comparing Aider as a product against OpenHands or SWE-agent inside this extraction.
• Catalogue, module, or CLI changes.

Execution

Not started.

Review

Not started.