Decision Letter SMS: Create new LetterReadySMSJob sidekiq job by sethdarragile6 · Pull Request #26323 · department-of-veterans-affairs/vets-api

sethdarragile6 · 2026-02-03T23:48:29Z

This is the first implementation task for enabling SMS notifications for Decision Letters. In subsequent stories, we will connect it up to the existing LetterReady infrastructure (see epic for further details)

The changes add:

New LetterReadySmsJob Sidekiq job
SMS retry constant and VA Notify configuration (sender ID, template ID)
Specs for the new job

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Summary

This work is behind a feature toggle (flipper): NO
(Summarize the changes that have been made to the platform)
- New LetterReadySmsJob Sidekiq job
- SMS retry constant and VA Notify configuration (sender ID, template ID)
- Specs for the new job
(If bug, how to reproduce)
(What is the solution, why is this the solution?)
(Which team do you work for, does your team own the maintenance of this component?)
Benefits Management Tools Team 3
(If introducing a flipper, what is the success criteria being targeted?)

Related issue(s)

Link to ticket created in va.gov-team repo OR screenshot of Jira ticket if your team uses Jira
Decision Letter SMS: Create new LetterReadySMSJob sidekiq job va.gov-team#130913
Link to previous change of the code/bug (if applicable)
Link to epic if not included in ticket

Testing done

New code is covered by unit tests
Describe what the old behavior was prior to the change
Describe the steps required to verify your changes are working as expected. Exclusively stating 'Specs run' is NOT acceptable as appropriate testing
If this work is behind a flipper:
- Tests need to be written for both the flipper on and flipper off scenarios. Docs.
- What is the testing plan for rolling out the feature?

Screenshots

Tested from my local environment using User 57 from Staging. Note: content of message not yet finalized/approved

What areas of the site does it impact?

(Describe what parts of the site are impacted andifcode touched other areas)

Acceptance criteria

I fixed|updated|added unit tests and integration tests for each feature (if applicable).
No error nor warning in the console.
Events are being sent to the appropriate logging solution
Documentation has been updated (link to documentation)
No sensitive information (i.e. PII/credentials/internal URLs/etc.) is captured in logging, hardcoded, or specs
Feature/bug has a monitor built into Datadog (if applicable)
If app impacted requires authentication, did you login to a local build and verify all authenticated routes work as expected
I added a screenshot of the developed feature

Requested Feedback

(OPTIONAL)What should the reviewers know in addition to the above. Is there anything specific you wish the reviewer to assist with. Do you have any concerns with this PR, why?

…tter ready SMS notifications The changes add: - New LetterReadySmsJob Sidekiq job with PII protection via AttrPackage - SMS retry constant and VA Notify configuration (sender ID, template ID) - Comprehensive specs for the new job Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

va-vsp-bot · 2026-02-03T23:50:35Z

⚠️ The following Parameter Store values are invalid. Please make sure the values are correct and exist in AWS Parameter Store before merging:

/dsva-vagov/vets-api/dev/env_vars/vanotify/services/benefits_management_tools/template_id/decision_letter_ready_sms
/dsva-vagov/vets-api/prod/env_vars/vanotify/services/benefits_management_tools/template_id/decision_letter_ready_sms
/dsva-vagov/vets-api/sandbox/env_vars/vanotify/services/benefits_management_tools/template_id/decision_letter_ready_sms

va-vsp-bot · 2026-02-03T23:51:49Z

⚠️ The following Parameter Store values are invalid. Please make sure the values are correct and exist in AWS Parameter Store before merging:

/dsva-vagov/vets-api/dev/env_vars/vanotify/services/benefits_management_tools/template_id/decision_letter_ready_sms
/dsva-vagov/vets-api/prod/env_vars/vanotify/services/benefits_management_tools/template_id/decision_letter_ready_sms
/dsva-vagov/vets-api/sandbox/env_vars/vanotify/services/benefits_management_tools/template_id/decision_letter_ready_sms

va-vsp-bot · 2026-02-03T23:57:43Z

👍 All Parameter Store values in this PR are valid

…nd development.yml

va-vsp-bot · 2026-02-04T00:14:38Z

👍 All Parameter Store values in this PR are valid

Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR introduces SMS notification capability for Decision Letters by creating a new Sidekiq job LetterReadySmsJob that sends SMS notifications via VA Notify when decision letters are ready for veterans.

Changes:

New LetterReadySmsJob Sidekiq job with retry logic, PII protection via Redis cache, and comprehensive error handling
Configuration additions for VA Notify SMS (sender ID and template ID) across settings files
New constant SIDEKIQ_RETRY_COUNT_FIRST_SMS for SMS-specific retry count
Comprehensive test coverage including success cases, error handling, PII protection, and retry behavior

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 6 out of 6 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
`app/sidekiq/event_bus_gateway/letter_ready_sms_job.rb`	New Sidekiq job implementing SMS notification logic with retry configuration and PII handling
`app/sidekiq/event_bus_gateway/constants.rb`	Added `SIDEKIQ_RETRY_COUNT_FIRST_SMS` constant for SMS retry configuration
`config/settings.yml`	Added SMS sender ID and template ID configuration from environment variables
`config/settings/development.yml`	Added fake SMS configuration values for development environment
`config/settings/test.yml`	Added fake SMS configuration values for test environment
`spec/sidekiq/event_bus_gateway/letter_ready_sms_job_spec.rb`	Comprehensive test suite covering job functionality, error handling, and edge cases

james-taggart-kind · 2026-02-05T19:08:43Z

What is this?

Part of the multichannel notification system the notifies veterans when they have a letter ready (benefits letters, claims decisions, etc.). This job focuses on SMS, but there are other jobs that focus on email and push notifications.

Why does this exist?

We want to send veterans and their families custom SMS messages they can trust to let them know their letter is ready.

How did we do it?

Created a new job for SMS
Retrieves info from BGS and MPI
Personalizes the message
Tracks the path of the request
Includes validation
Handles exceptions
High test coverage

…ckageError rescue block Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

va-vsp-bot · 2026-02-05T22:42:45Z

👍 All Parameter Store values in this PR are valid

va-vsp-bot · 2026-02-05T22:49:20Z

👍 All Parameter Store values in this PR are valid

Co-authored-by: Copilot <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

va-vsp-bot · 2026-02-05T22:51:47Z

👍 All Parameter Store values in this PR are valid

…nses in AttrPackage tests Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

va-vsp-bot · 2026-02-05T22:59:15Z

👍 All Parameter Store values in this PR are valid

github-actions · 2026-02-05T23:01:20Z

⚠️ Warning: Low Coverage Report

Coverage: 90.5%

Please add or expand tests to improve coverage before merging.

View detailed coverage: Open test run → Scroll to Artifacts → Download Coverage Report → Open index.html

sethdarragile6 · 2026-02-06T16:10:35Z

@rjohnson2011 would you mind re-approving when you get a chance? My apologies, I forgot to run Copilot before taking it out of draft and I tweaked a few things. I also added some unit tests per a teammates suggestion. Thanks 🙏

sethdarragile6 self-assigned this Feb 3, 2026

Merge branch 'master' into bmt3/130913_create_letterreadysms_job

c44ce70

github-actions Bot added lint-failure settings-failure labels Feb 3, 2026

github-actions Bot removed the lint-failure label Feb 3, 2026

[bmt3/130913_create_letterreadysms_job]: added new keys to test.yml a…

4eea63a

…nd development.yml

github-actions Bot removed the settings-failure label Feb 4, 2026

sethdarragile6 requested review from james-taggart-kind and lianafleming February 5, 2026 00:23

lianafleming reviewed Feb 5, 2026

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Comment thread app/sidekiq/event_bus_gateway/letter_ready_sms_job.rb

github-actions Bot added the require-backend-approval label Feb 5, 2026

lianafleming previously approved these changes Feb 5, 2026

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sethdarragile6 marked this pull request as ready for review February 5, 2026 18:45

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings February 5, 2026 18:45

sethdarragile6 requested review from a team as code owners February 5, 2026 18:45

Copilot AI reviewed Feb 5, 2026

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Comment thread app/sidekiq/event_bus_gateway/constants.rb

Comment thread app/sidekiq/event_bus_gateway/letter_ready_sms_job.rb Outdated

Comment thread app/sidekiq/event_bus_gateway/letter_ready_sms_job.rb

Comment thread config/settings.yml

Comment thread config/settings.yml

james-taggart-kind reviewed Feb 5, 2026

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Comment thread app/sidekiq/event_bus_gateway/letter_ready_sms_job.rb

james-taggart-kind previously approved these changes Feb 5, 2026

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rjohnson2011 previously approved these changes Feb 5, 2026

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github-actions Bot removed the require-backend-approval label Feb 5, 2026

[bmt3/130913_create_letterreadysms_job]: Add test coverage for AttrPa…

9db7a40

…ckageError rescue block Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

sethdarragile6 dismissed stale reviews from rjohnson2011 and james-taggart-kind via 9db7a40 February 5, 2026 22:41

sethdarragile6 dismissed lianafleming’s stale review via 9db7a40 February 5, 2026 22:41

github-actions Bot added require-backend-approval lint-failure labels Feb 5, 2026

Merge branch 'master' into bmt3/130913_create_letterreadysms_job

1fe7914

Apply suggestion from @Copilot

a3c4153

Co-authored-by: Copilot <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

[bmt3/130913_create_letterreadysms_job]: Fix rubocop indentation offe…

9fc048d

…nses in AttrPackage tests Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

github-actions Bot removed the lint-failure label Feb 5, 2026

sethdarragile6 requested review from james-taggart-kind, lianafleming and rjohnson2011 February 5, 2026 23:27

lianafleming approved these changes Feb 5, 2026

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james-taggart-kind approved these changes Feb 5, 2026

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sethdarragile6 enabled auto-merge (squash) February 6, 2026 00:01

Crankums approved these changes Feb 9, 2026

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github-actions Bot removed the require-backend-approval label Feb 9, 2026

sethdarragile6 merged commit a530b43 into master Feb 9, 2026
43 of 45 checks passed

sethdarragile6 deleted the bmt3/130913_create_letterreadysms_job branch February 9, 2026 14:45

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Summary

Related issue(s)

Testing done

Screenshots

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Acceptance criteria

Requested Feedback

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⚠️ Warning: Low Coverage Report

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sethdarragile6 commented Feb 3, 2026 •

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