T-7NTU-task-close-out-force-teardown-flag

Status: closed/done · Impact: low · Complexity: small

Auto-generated from a /sdlc:task-work post-mortem. Review and promote to open/ready before picking up.

Goal

When a task file is status: closed/done but its worktree and feat branch were never torn down, /sdlc:task-close-out emits ALREADY-CLOSED and exits without doing teardown — by design, orphan recovery belongs to /sdlc:project-cleanup. But the ALREADY-CLOSED early-exit prose doesn’t say that, so the user is left guessing. The implementer of T-G834-move-plugin-runtime-state-to-sdlc-dir hit this during pre-flight and had to fall back to manual git worktree remove + branch -d. Close the gap by either extending task-close-out with a --force-teardown flag for closed-but-orphaned tasks, or by routing the ALREADY-CLOSED exit through clearer prose that points at /sdlc:project-cleanup.

Today

Verbatim post-mortem evidence:

A leftover worktree from a previously-merged task (2026-05-19-task-ensure-ready-accepts-in-progress) was discovered during pre-flight. Its task file was status: closed/done but the worktree + branch had never been torn down. /sdlc:task-close-out against an already-closed task emits ALREADY-CLOSED and exits without doing teardown (by design — orphan recovery belongs to /sdlc:project-cleanup). This left manual git worktree remove + branch -d as the only way forward. Suggests: either /sdlc:task-close-out should accept a --force-teardown flag for closed-but-orphaned tasks, or the ALREADY-CLOSED early-exit prose should explicitly point at /sdlc:project-cleanup.

plugin/skills/task-close-out/SKILL.md defines the ALREADY-CLOSED exit but does not, in the user-facing message, name the recovery skill.

Proposed

Lowest-friction shape, in order of preference:

1. Doc-only: the ALREADY-CLOSED exit message names /sdlc:project-cleanup as the next-step skill for orphaned worktrees, with a one-line example invocation. No new flags, no behaviour change.
2. Flag-based: task-close-out grows --force-teardown which, when the task is already closed/done, still tears down the worktree and feat branch. Useful if orphan-cleanup-via-task-close-out is a recurring desire-path, but adds a divergent recovery path from project-cleanup.

Strong default is (1) unless evidence shows users prefer finishing the close-out call rather than switching skills.

Approach

1. Edit plugin/skills/task-close-out/SKILL.md so the ALREADY-CLOSED early-exit prose (and the matching stdout marker) names /sdlc:project-cleanup as the orphan-recovery path, with a one-line example like /sdlc:project-cleanup --task <basename>.
2. If implementing the flag variant: extend plugin/skills/task-close-out/SKILL.md (and any argparse in the close-out script, if applicable) with --force-teardown, gated such that it only applies when the task file is already closed/done.
3. Add a fixture covering the ALREADY-CLOSED + orphan case so future drift on the message gets caught.
4. Cross-reference from plugin/skills/project-cleanup/SKILL.md so the inverse path (project-cleanup → task-close-out) is discoverable.

Files to touch

Location	Kind	Change
plugin/skills/task-close-out/SKILL.md	modify	adopt the clearer
plugin/skills/project-cleanup/SKILL.md	modify	cross-reference

Acceptance criteria

• AC-1: When /sdlc:task-close-out exits with ALREADY-CLOSED against a task whose worktree still exists, the message names /sdlc:project-cleanup (with at least the skill slug, ideally an example invocation).
• AC-2: If --force-teardown is implemented, a fixture exercises the closed-but-orphaned case end-to-end and the worktree + feat branch are gone afterwards.

Out of scope

• Refactoring project-cleanup’s orphan-detection logic itself.
• Auto-detecting orphans during task-work start.

Dependencies

• none

Discovery context

Spawned by /sdlc:task-work post-mortem of T-G834-move-plugin-runtime-state-to-sdlc-dir on 2026-05-22.

Dedup search (spawn-from-post-mortem)

Bullet: A leftover worktree from a previously-merged task (2026-05-19-task-ensure-ready-accepts-in-progress) was discovered during pre-flight. Its task file was status: closed/done but the worktree + branch had never been torn down. /sdlc:task-close-out against an already-closed task emits ALREADY-CLOSED and exits without doing teardown (by design - orphan recovery belongs to /sdlc:project-cleanup). This left manual git worktree remove + branch -d as the only way forward. Suggests: either /sdlc:task-close-out should accept a —force-teardown flag for closed-but-orphaned tasks, or the ALREADY-CLOSED early-exit prose should explicitly point at /sdlc:project-cleanup. Keywords searched: task-ensure-ready-accepts-in-progress, closed-but-orphaned, previously-merged, project-cleanup, task-close-out, already-closed, force-teardown, discovered Excluded: 2026-05-22-move-plugin-runtime-state-to-sdlc-dir Top candidates (score / status / headline):

• 34 / closed/done / 2026-05-19-extract-task-close-out-skill — Extract task-work Step 11 into /sdlc:task-close-out skill
• 14 / closed/done / 2026-05-20-task-close-out-verifies-pr-on-main — task-close-out verifies merged PR’s mergeCommit is reachable from origin/main
• 13 / closed/done / 2026-05-20-task-close-out-dry-run-flag — Add —dry-run to /sdlc:task-close-out for safe rehearsal
• 10 / open/ready / 2026-05-20-orchestrator-tick-race-fixture — Integration fixture for concurrent orchestrator tick race on task-close-out
• 6 / closed/done / 2026-05-19-add-orchestrate-skill — Add /sdlc:orchestrate skill — one-tick reconcile + dispatch loop Decision: SPAWNED

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