Rename events from imperative commands to past-tense notifications

Context and Problem Statement

The system-bus event names are a mix of two styles:

Imperative/RPC (“do this”): agent/loop.implement, agent/loop.review, pipeline/video.download, content/summarize

Past-tense/notification (“this happened”): agent/loop.story.passed, pipeline/video.downloaded, content/summarized

The pipeline events already follow both patterns — a command triggers work, a notification announces completion. But the agent loop chain uses only imperative names: plan → test → implement → review → judge. These read as commands to a subordinate rather than facts about what occurred.

Events should describe what happened, not issue orders. This is a core event-driven architecture principle: the emitter announces a fact, and any number of consumers can react to it. RPC-style names couple the emitter to the consumer — “implement” implies a specific handler must exist. Past-tense names decouple: “tests.written” is a fact that implement, metrics, logging, or a dashboard could all independently consume.

The pipeline already proved this: pipeline/video.downloaded triggers both transcript.process AND system/log — multiple consumers of one fact. The agent loop should follow the same pattern.

Related: ADR-0015 (TDD loop architecture), ADR-0005 (durable multi-agent coding loops).

Decision

Rename all imperative event names to past-tense notification style. The emitter describes what just completed; the next function triggers on that fact.

Current → New mapping

Wait — that’s wrong for the chain.

The chain events describe what JUST HAPPENED, and the next function triggers on that fact:

Non-goals

• Not renaming pipeline notification events that are already past-tense (*.downloaded, *.processed, *.summarized)
• Not changing Redis key schemas or PRD structure
• Not changing the igs CLI command interface (still igs loop start)

Consequences

• Good, because events read as facts about the system, enabling multiple consumers per event
• Good, because naming is consistent across pipeline and agent-loop subsystems
• Good, because new events like agent/loop.story.dispatched are self-documenting — you can read the event stream as a narrative
• Bad, because every emit and every trigger annotation must be updated (coordinated change across 8 files + igs CLI)
• Bad, because Inngest function IDs change if we rename function slugs (need to ensure no in-flight runs)

Implementation Plan

• Affected paths:
  • src/inngest/functions/agent-loop/plan.ts — emit names
  • src/inngest/functions/agent-loop/test-writer.ts — trigger + emit
  • src/inngest/functions/agent-loop/implement.ts — trigger + emit
  • src/inngest/functions/agent-loop/review.ts — trigger + emit
  • src/inngest/functions/agent-loop/judge.ts — trigger + emit
  • src/inngest/functions/agent-loop/complete.ts — trigger
  • src/inngest/functions/agent-loop/retro.ts — trigger
  • src/inngest/functions/agent-loop/utils.ts — isCancelled key check
  • ~/Code/joelhooks/igs/src/commands/loop.ts — emit agent/loop.started and agent/loop.cancelled
• Dependencies: none
• Patterns to follow: pipeline events already use past-tense (pipeline/video.downloaded). Match that grammar.
• Patterns to avoid: Don’t use gerunds (implementing, reviewing) — use past participles or result nouns (implemented, checks.completed). Don’t rename function IDs (keep agent-loop-judge etc.) — only event names change.

Migration steps

1. Create a constant map of old → new event names in utils.ts
2. Update all inngest.send({ name: ... }) calls in all 7 function files
3. Update all trigger annotations [{ event: "agent/loop.X" }]
4. Update igs CLI to emit agent/loop.started and agent/loop.cancelled
5. Update isCancelled() to check for new cancel key name
6. Update all tests that reference event names
7. Ensure no in-flight loops before deploying (cancel + nuke)

Verification

• grep -r '"agent/loop\.' src/ | grep -v '\.test\.' shows only past-tense event names
• grep -r '"pipeline/' src/ | grep -v '\.test\.' shows no imperative names (except legacy aliases if kept)
• All tests pass: bun test
• TypeScript compiles: bunx tsc --noEmit
• Fire a loop end-to-end and verify all steps execute (plan → test → implement → review → judge → pass)
• Inngest dashboard shows new event names in run traces

More Information

• ADR-0015: Loop architecture TDD roles (defines the chain)
• ADR-0005: Durable multi-agent coding loops (original event design)
• Principle: “Events describe what happened, not commands” — Joel’s standing rule