---

name: routing-gate description: Bridge skill for work-type routing in CHAIN phase. Use to determine next cycle skill based on work item signals. recipes:

• queue
• is-cycle-allowed generated: 2025-12-28 last_updated: '2026-01-15T23:05:12'

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Routing-Gate (Bridge Skill)

This is a Bridge Skill that provides pure work-type routing logic for cycle skill CHAIN phases. It extracts duplicated routing from implementation-cycle, investigation-cycle, and close-work-cycle into a single reusable component.

When to Use

Invoked from: Cycle skill CHAIN phases (implementation-cycle, investigation-cycle, close-work-cycle). Manual invocation: Skill(skill="routing-gate") when determining next work routing.

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Design Note

Threshold checks are NOT in this skill. Per S137 anti-pattern analysis and E2-224 implementation, threshold checks (observation triage trigger) live in the OBSERVE phase of close-work-cycle. This skill does pure work-type routing only.

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The Flow

CopyInput (next_work_id, has_plan)
    |
    +-> Work-Type Routing
            next_work_id is None?
                ├─ YES → await_operator
                └─ NO  → starts with "INV-"?
                            ├─ YES → invoke_investigation
                            └─ NO  → has_plan?
                                        ├─ YES → invoke_implementation
                                        └─ NO  → invoke_work_creation

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Cycle-Locking Check (E2-291)

Before applying the decision table, check cycle-locking:

1. Determine active queue (from survey-cycle context or "default")
2. Run just is-cycle-allowed [queue] [cycle]
3. If BLOCKED:
   • Return {action: "blocked", reason: "Queue [name] only allows [cycles]"}
   • Display warning:

     CopyWARNING: Cycle '[cycle]' is blocked for queue '[queue]'.
     Allowed cycles: [list from config]
     Queue rationale: "[from work_queues.yaml]"
     

4. If ALLOWED: continue to decision table

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Routing Decision Table

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Usage

From cycle skill CHAIN phase:

1. Query next work: just queue [name] (or just ready for backward compat)
2. Read first work file, check documents.plans field
3. Check cycle-locking: just is-cycle-allowed [queue] [cycle]
   • If BLOCKED: display warning and stop
4. Apply the decision table above:
   • next_work_id is None → await_operator
   • ID starts with INV- → invoke_investigation
   • has_plan is True → invoke_implementation
   • Otherwise → invoke_work_creation
5. Execute the corresponding skill invocation:
   • invoke_investigation → Skill(skill="investigation-cycle")
   • invoke_implementation → Skill(skill="implementation-cycle")
   • invoke_work_creation → Skill(skill="work-creation-cycle")
   • await_operator → Report "No unblocked work. Awaiting operator direction."
   • blocked → Report warning with allowed cycles and rationale

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API Reference

determine_route()

Copydef determine_route(
    next_work_id: Optional[str],
    has_plan: bool
) -> dict:
    """
    Determine routing action based on work-type signals.

    Args:
        next_work_id: ID of next work item (None if no work available)
        has_plan: Whether work item has documents.plans populated

    Returns:
        dict with keys:
            action: str - One of: invoke_investigation, invoke_implementation,
                          invoke_work_creation, await_operator
            reason: str - Why this action was chosen
    """

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Key Design Decisions

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Related

• E2-224: OBSERVE Phase Threshold-Triggered Triage (where thresholds live)
• E2-222: Routing Threshold Configuration (future - makes thresholds configurable)
• E2-223: Integrate Routing-Gate into Cycle Skills (consumer integration)
• INV-048: Routing Gate Architecture (source investigation)
• implementation-cycle: Consumer of this skill
• investigation-cycle: Consumer of this skill
• close-work-cycle: Consumer of this skill