fix: unwrap workflow outputs in value_js + oauth2 in SSE server

[buger]

Summary

• Workflow output unwrapping bug: value_js in workflow outputs received raw ReviewSummary wrappers ({ issues: [], output: {...} }) instead of unwrapped step results. This caused all workflow tools (slack-search, slack-read-thread, discourse-read-thread, discourse-reply) to return { success: false, error: "Unknown error" } because outputs['step'].success was undefined — the actual data was nested inside .output. Added unwrapOutputs() helper (same logic as buildProviderTemplateContext) and applied it to value_js, if conditions, Liquid templates, and expression mappings.

• OAuth2 in SSE server: executeHttpClientTool only handled bearer auth, missing oauth2_client_credentials. When the AI called http_client tools with oauth2 auth (e.g. MongoDB Atlas atlas-api), no token exchange happened, causing 401 Unauthorized.

Impact

This was causing complete tool failure in production. A traced task (e6a694b7) showed the AI calling slack-search 4x and slack-read-thread 9x over 7 minutes — every call returned "Unknown error", and the AI produced empty output {"text":""}.

Test plan

• visor test --no-mocks --only discourse-read-real — passes, returns real thread content
• visor test --no-mocks --only atlas-list-projects-real — passes, oauth2 token exchange works
• visor test --only discourse-skill-activation — passes with mocks
• Pre-commit hooks pass (eslint, prettier, unit tests)

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[probelabs]

Pull Request Overview

Summary

This PR primarily adds task telemetry visualization and local observability infrastructure improvements, along with several minor fixes across the codebase.

Note: The PR description mentions fixes for workflow output unwrapping and OAuth2 in SSE server, but those specific files (src/providers/mcp-custom-sse-server.ts, src/workflow-executor.ts) are not present in the actual diff. The changes described below are what's actually in this PR based on the code diff.

Files Changed Analysis

Task Telemetry & Trace Improvements (4 files, +900/-60 lines)

src/agent-protocol/trace-serializer.ts (+839/-56)

• Added buildTraceReport() function returning structured TraceReport with tree, task summary, and header
• Added extractProbeTaskSummary() to parse task telemetry from OTEL spans (created, updated, completed, batch operations)
• Added resolveTraceSpans() to unify trace fetching from Grafana, Jaeger, and local files
• Added buildTraceHeaderLines() to format task status with markers ([x], [~], [!], [-])
• Enhanced span rendering to display task events and snapshots in trace trees
• Improved local NDJSON file reading to filter by targetTraceId for mixed trace files

src/agent-protocol/task-live-updates.ts (+150/-11)

• Added task summary extraction and formatting for live updates
• Displays task status with checkboxes and scopes (Code Explorer, Search Delegate, Engineer)
• Shows task counts and event/snapshot statistics
• Added inflightTick, inflightMetadataRefresh, and inflightPublishes tracking for better concurrency control

src/agent-protocol/task-live-update-slack.ts (+40/-7)

• Added publishQueue to serialize all publish calls and prevent concurrent postMessage races
• Added consecutiveUpdateFailures counter for observability
• Suppresses progress message fallback on chat.update failures to avoid Slack spam

src/agent-protocol/task-evaluator.ts (+4/-4)

• Updated to use buildTraceReport() instead of serializeTraceForPrompt()

src/agent-protocol/tasks-cli-handler.ts (+7/-5)

• Updated trace handler to use buildTraceReport() and display header text

Observability Infrastructure (9 new files, +357 lines)

deploy/observability/local/ directory

• Complete local observability stack replacing single-container LGTM:
  • docker-compose.yml - orchestrates Tempo, OTel Collector, Prometheus, Grafana, autoheal
  • Dockerfile.tempo / Dockerfile.otelcol - adds busybox for health checks
  • tempo.yaml - distributed tracing backend configuration
  • otelcol.yaml - OTLP collector with batch processing and memory limiting
  • prometheus.yaml - metrics scraping configuration
  • grafana/provisioning/datasources/datasources.yaml - auto-configures Tempo and Prometheus
  • README.md - setup and usage documentation

docs/telemetry-setup.md (+18/-2)

• Updated to recommend Visor observability stack over LGTM
• Documents port mappings (8001 Grafana, 4317/4318 OTLP, 3200 Tempo, 9091 Prometheus)

Other Improvements (15 files, +150/-30 lines)

defaults/code-talk.yaml (+13/-0)

• Enabled enableTasks: true for code-talk workflow
• Added comprehensive task protocol documentation for delegates

src/ai-review-service.ts (+37/-7)

• Exported createProbeTracerAdapter() for testing
• Added recordTaskEvent() method to emit task telemetry
• Mirrored span-worthy task events to local NDJSON fallback trace
• Added formatUserFacingExecutionError() usage

src/frontends/*.ts (5 files, +86/-7)

• Added formatUserFacingExecutionMessage() to error formatting in all frontends
• Enhanced error extraction from result.issues for system/error rule IDs

src/cli-main.ts (+9/-1)

• Added child-process-error-handler import at startup
• Made sessionRegistry.clearAllSessions() async

src/index.ts (+6/-1)

• Added child-process-error-handler import
• Made sessionRegistry.clearAllSessions() async

src/email/polling-runner.ts (+10/-3)

• Added storageCleanupStop tracking for periodic cleanup

src/generated/config-schema.ts (+19/-8)

• Added debounce and debounce_key to step config schema
• Made workflow optional in schedule config

package.json / package-lock.json (+5/-5)

• Bumped @probelabs/probe from 0.6.0-rc311 to 0.6.0-rc313

Architecture & Impact Assessment

Task Telemetry System

New task summary extraction:

• Parses task events from OTEL spans (task.created, task.updated, task.completed, task.batch_*)
• Builds hierarchical scopes (Main Agent, Code Explorer, Search Delegate, Engineer)
• Formats task status with markers: [x] completed, [~] in_progress, [!] failed, [-] cancelled
• Displays in live updates, CLI trace view, and task evaluation

Trace report structure:

interface TraceReport {
  traceData: ResolvedTraceData;
  tree: string;              // YAML-formatted span tree
  taskSummary: ProbeTaskSummary | null;
  headerText: string;        // Task summary header
  text: string;              // Combined header + tree
}

Observability Stack

Multi-container architecture:

graph TB
    subgraph "Visor App"
        A[OTel SDK] -->|OTLP| B[4318 HTTP / 4317 gRPC]
    end
    
    subgraph "Observability Stack"
        B --> C[OTel Collector]
        C -->|Traces| D[Tempo :3200]
        C -->|Metrics| E[Prometheus :9091]
        D -->|Service Map| F[Grafana :8001]
        E -->|Metrics| F
        G[Autoheal] -.->|Health Checks| C
        G -.->|Health Checks| D
        G -.->|Health Checks| E
        G -.->|Health Checks| F
    end

Loading

Benefits over LGTM:

• Separate services for independent scaling
• Health checks and auto-recovery via autoheal container
• Easier debugging - can inspect individual components
• Production-ready configuration

Slack Live Updates Concurrency Fix

Before: Race condition where tick() and complete() both see messageTs=undefined and each call chat.postMessage, creating duplicate messages.

After: publishQueue serializes all publish calls:

private enqueue(text: string, mode: 'progress' | 'final') {
  this.publishQueue = this.publishQueue
    .catch(() => {})
    .then(() => this.publish(text, mode));
  return this.publishQueue;
}

Scope Discovery & Context Expansion

Direct Impact

Task telemetry visualization:

• Live updates in Slack now show task progress with checkboxes
• visor tasks trace command displays task summary header
• Task evaluation includes task state from traces

Observability infrastructure:

• Local development now has separate Tempo, Prometheus, Grafana services
• Better debugging capabilities with individual component inspection
• Health checks and auto-recovery for long-running dev sessions

Frontend error formatting:

• All frontends (Slack, Teams, Telegram, WhatsApp, Email) now format errors consistently
• Better error messages from system/error rule IDs

Production Impact

Severity: Low-Medium (improvements and observability enhancements)

No critical bugs fixed in this PR - The description mentions workflow output unwrapping and OAuth2 fixes, but those files are not in the diff.

References

Code Locations

Task telemetry changes:

• src/agent-protocol/trace-serializer.ts:343-440 - resolveTraceSpans
• src/agent-protocol/trace-serializer.ts:923-1485 - task telemetry parsing
• src/agent-protocol/trace-serializer.ts:1547-1615 - buildTraceReport
• src/agent-protocol/task-live-updates.ts:660-731 - task summary formatting

Observability stack:

• deploy/observability/local/docker-compose.yml - complete stack
• deploy/observability/local/README.md - setup docs

Slack live updates:

• src/agent-protocol/task-live-update-slack.ts:31-50 - enqueue logic

Frontend error handling:

• src/frontends/slack-frontend.ts:598-606 - error formatting example

Related Patterns

• src/utils/template-context.ts:66-76 - buildProviderTemplateContext unwrap pattern (mentioned in desc but not changed)
• src/failure-condition-evaluator.ts:173-183 - condition evaluator unwrap (mentioned but not changed)
• src/utils/oauth2-token-cache.ts - OAuth2TokenCache (mentioned but not changed)

Metadata

• Review Effort: 3 / 5
• Primary Label: enhancement

---

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Last updated: 2026-05-04T11:50:37.803Z | Triggered by: pr_updated | Commit: e6e082b

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[probelabs]

Security Issues (1)

Severity	Location	Issue
🟠 Error	contract:0	Output schema validation failed: must have required property 'issues'

Performance Issues (9)

Severity	Location	Issue
🟡 Warning	src/agent-protocol/trace-serializer.ts:344-440	resolveTraceSpans() makes multiple sequential backend calls without early exit optimization. If the first backend (e.g., Grafana) returns spans successfully, it still continues to check other backends in the loop. The code has early returns after successful fetchFromGrafanaTempo/fetchFromJaeger, but the structure could be clearer and the remote backend loop could exit immediately after the first successful response instead of continuing through remaining backends. 💡 Suggestion Add a 'break' statement immediately after successful span retrieval from any remote backend to exit the for-of loop early. The current code does return early, but the loop structure could be more explicit about exiting after first success.
🟡 Warning	src/agent-protocol/trace-serializer.ts:588-640	findTraceFile() reads the entire first line of each trace file to check traceId, but the new fetchFromLocalFiles() implementation reads ALL lines of NDJSON files when targetTraceId is set. For large mixed trace files with many traces, this O(n) scan through all lines happens multiple times - once in findTraceFile() and again in fetchFromLocalFiles(). This is redundant I/O. 💡 Suggestion Cache the file-to-traceId mapping after the first scan, or combine the traceId discovery and span extraction into a single pass. Consider maintaining an in-memory index of trace files to their traceIds.
🟡 Warning	src/agent-protocol/trace-serializer.ts:508-545	fetchFromLocalFiles() creates a readline interface and streams through the entire NDJSON file line-by-line, parsing each JSON object. For large trace files with many spans, this is O(n) memory and CPU intensive. The code does filter by targetTraceId early, but still parses every JSON object in the file even when only interested in one trace. 💡 Suggestion Consider adding a fast-path index file that maps traceIds to byte offsets, allowing direct seeking to the relevant trace data. Alternatively, use a binary format with better random access properties than NDJSON.
🟡 Warning	src/agent-protocol/trace-serializer.ts:923-1486	extractProbeTaskSummary() and related task telemetry functions (parseTaskStatusSnapshot, summarizeTaskTelemetrySpans, buildProbeTaskScopeSummary, buildTemporalTaskScopes) perform multiple passes over the spans array with sorting, filtering, and Map operations. For traces with thousands of spans, this O(n log n) sorting and multiple iterations could impact trace rendering performance, especially in live updates where this runs every 10 seconds. 💡 Suggestion Consider caching the parsed task summary per traceId, or optimize to a single-pass algorithm that builds task scopes while iterating spans once. The current implementation sorts spans multiple times and creates intermediate Map structures.
🟡 Warning	src/agent-protocol/task-live-updates.ts:311-324	tick() method uses an inflightTick promise to prevent concurrent executions, which is good. However, the pattern of storing the promise and checking it could lead to missed ticks if a tick is already in progress when a new one is scheduled. The comment says 'if this.completed return this.inflightTick' but the actual check just returns without waiting, potentially skipping updates. 💡 Suggestion Consider whether skipped ticks are acceptable for live updates. If not, implement a queue or flag to request a re-tick after the current one completes. The current implementation may miss state changes during long-running ticks.
🟡 Warning	src/agent-protocol/task-live-updates.ts:207-317	scheduleMetadataRefresh() uses the same coalescing pattern as tick(), preventing concurrent metadata refreshes. However, metadata refresh happens every 30 seconds independently of ticks, and both operations call extractTraceSkillMetadata() which fetches spans. This could result in redundant span fetching if a tick and metadata refresh happen close together. 💡 Suggestion Consider sharing the fetched spans between tick and metadata refresh operations, or increase the metadata refresh interval to reduce redundant fetches. Add a cache with TTL for span data to avoid re-fetching the same trace within a short window.
🟡 Warning	src/agent-protocol/task-live-update-slack.ts:40-54	enqueue() chains promises by reassigning this.publishQueue, which creates a chain of promises. In theory this is fine, but if publish() calls fail repeatedly without resolution, the chain could grow unbounded. The .catch(() => {}) swallows errors, which is good for flow but could hide issues. 💡 Suggestion Consider adding a maximum queue depth limit. If the queue grows too large (e.g., >100 pending publishes), start dropping or coalescing updates to prevent memory issues from promise chain buildup.
🟡 Warning	src/agent-protocol/task-live-updates.ts:313-328	trackPublish() adds promises to inflightPublishes Set but never removes them if the promise rejects. The try/finally block handles successful completion, but if the promise rejects before being added to the Set, or if there's a race condition, promises could accumulate in the Set causing a memory leak over long-running tasks with many live updates. 💡 Suggestion Ensure promises are always removed from the Set even if they reject. The current finally block should handle this, but consider adding a defensive cleanup or periodic Set clearing to prevent accumulation.
🟡 Warning	src/ai-review-service.ts:117-137	emitEvent() mirrors span-worthy events to local NDJSON fallback trace by creating a new child span and immediately ending it, then also calling emitNdjsonFullSpan(). This double-emission creates both an OTel span and an NDJSON record for the same event, doubling I/O and memory usage for telemetry. 💡 Suggestion Consider whether both emission paths are necessary. If OTel export is working reliably, the NDJSON fallback may be redundant. Alternatively, make the NDJSON emission conditional on a flag or only emit to one backend, not both.

Quality Issues (14)

Severity	Location	Issue
🟢 Info	src/agent-protocol/trace-serializer.ts:1061	renderYamlNode() truncates task titles to 100 characters without clear justification. This magic number should be a named constant. 💡 Suggestion Replace 100 with a named constant like MAX_TASK_TITLE_LENGTH and document the rationale
🟢 Info	src/agent-protocol/trace-serializer.ts:1921	Multiple magic numbers for truncation: 80 for task titles, 120 for task IDs, 100 for errors. These should be named constants. 💡 Suggestion Extract magic numbers to named constants with clear names
🟢 Info	src/providers/mcp-check-provider.ts:597	The stderr error handler only logs debug messages. If stderr errors occur frequently, there is no visibility into the problem or metrics for monitoring. 💡 Suggestion Consider incrementing a metric or counter for stderr errors to monitor transport health
🟢 Info	src/providers/script-check-provider.ts:382	The stderr error handler only logs debug messages. There is no tracking of how often these errors occur for monitoring purposes. 💡 Suggestion Add metrics or counters for stderr errors to monitor transport health
🟢 Info	src/slack/markdown.ts:135	The stderr and stdout error handlers are empty functions that do nothing. While this prevents crashes, it provides no visibility into Mermaid rendering failures. 💡 Suggestion Log or track these errors instead of silently ignoring them
🟡 Warning	src/agent-protocol/task-live-updates.ts:260	The enqueue() method chains promises with .catch(() => {}) which silently swallows errors. If publish() fails, the error is lost and subsequent publish calls may continue with inconsistent state. 💡 Suggestion Log errors caught in .catch() instead of silently ignoring them for debugging and monitoring
🟡 Warning	src/agent-protocol/task-live-updates.ts:283	The complete() and fail() methods wait for inflightTick but use try/catch without re-throwing or logging. If the tick fails, the error is swallowed. 💡 Suggestion Log the error from inflightTick before continuing to provide visibility into failures
🟡 Warning	src/agent-protocol/trace-serializer.ts:343	resolveTraceSpans() reads local NDJSON files line-by-line using readline.createInterface, parsing every line to filter by targetTraceId. This is O(n) for every trace lookup, inefficient for large files. 💡 Suggestion Consider indexing trace files by traceId or caching parsed spans in memory when the same file is accessed multiple times
🟡 Warning	src/agent-protocol/trace-serializer.ts:922	parseTaskStatusSnapshot() uses regex to parse XML-like task status. This is fragile for nested XML and does not handle malformed input gracefully. 💡 Suggestion Use a proper XML parser library instead of regex, or validate the XML structure before parsing
🟡 Warning	src/scheduler/scheduler.ts:289	When workflow is not set (reminder mode), the code only checks if job.inputs.text exists. It does not validate that inputs.text is a non-empty string. 💡 Suggestion Add validation that inputs.text is a non-empty string when workflow is not set
🟡 Warning	src/email/polling-runner.ts:105	startPeriodicStorageCleanup is called without checking if a previous cleanup timer exists. If startListening is called multiple times, it may create multiple cleanup timers. 💡 Suggestion Check if storageCleanupStop exists and call it before starting a new cleanup timer
🟡 Warning	src/agent-protocol/trace-serializer.ts:800	The PR adds extensive task telemetry parsing functions (parseTaskStatusSnapshot, summarizeTaskTelemetrySpans, buildProbeTaskScopeSummary, buildTemporalTaskScopes, extractProbeTaskSummary) but there are no corresponding unit tests for these complex functions. 💡 Suggestion Add comprehensive unit tests for task telemetry parsing functions, covering edge cases like malformed task status XML, missing attributes, empty task lists, and nested scopes
🟡 Warning	src/ai-review-service.ts:103	The createProbeTracerAdapter function is modified to add recordTaskEvent method and mirror span-worthy task events to NDJSON fallback trace, but there are no tests verifying this new telemetry functionality. 💡 Suggestion Add unit tests for recordTaskEvent method that verify task events are emitted as both spans and NDJSON records
🟡 Warning	src/agent-protocol/task-live-updates.ts:670	The extractTraceSkillMetadata function is modified to include task summary extraction, but there are no tests verifying this new functionality. 💡 Suggestion Add unit tests for extractTraceSkillMetadata that verify task summary extraction from trace spans with task telemetry events

---

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Last updated: 2026-05-04T11:50:07.635Z | Triggered by: pr_updated | Commit: e6e082b

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