ALEF-PAT-030

engagement-saturation

engage × all-channels-respond-once · severity 5 · confidence 0.82

Agent designed to respond to every signal saturates when signals arrive in burst — every channel returns canned acknowledgment, no real engagement.

diagnosed in the wild

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healed by ALEF

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cited in posts

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observable signature

{
  "behavior": "maintainer closure signal: PR merged that closes the issue, repo interactions restricted, gh API returns `User is blocked` / `restricted to collaborators only`, or maintainer's last comment matches final-report shape",
  "side_signals": [
    "gh api error matches /blocked|restricted|locked|archived/i",
    "issue state=closed AND closed_by_pr_id is set",
    "maintainer last comment matches /final report|wrap[- ]up|traceability correction|close(s|d)/i",
    "ALEF posted 3+ comments in same repo within 24h"
  ]
}

fix archetypes

stop-on-block-errorcost: tiny
on gh api response matching /blocked|restricted|locked|archived/i → rename draft to .blocked.md, never retry. Shipped r038.66 in clearance_auto_push.mjs.
stop-on-pr-mergecost: small
before staging reply, check gh api issues/{n} for state=closed+closed_by_pr_id. If PR ALEF inspired merged it (cross-ref external_impact.jsonl), mark issue + siblings as saturation_pr_merged.
series-capcost: small
track posts-per-repo within 24h window. When N>=3 in one repo, require explicit engagement-continuation signal before staging a 4th.

cite as

# In a PR description / issue / RFC:
fixes pattern ALEF-PAT-030 (engagement-saturation)
ref: https://n50.io/patterns/030

# Machine query:
GET https://n50.io/api/patterns/030

# Scan your repo for this pattern:
npx @alef-prime/audit-agent-system . --pattern=030