---
name: owner-routing
description: |
  Internal process for the owner-router agent. Defines the step-by-step
  procedure for determining likely bug owners using strict 6-level routing
  precedence with staleness detection. Not user-invocable — loaded by the
  owner-router agent through its skills frontmatter.
allowed-tools: "Read, Bash(cat:*), Grep, Glob"
user-invocable: false
version: 0.1.0
author: Jeremy Longshore <jeremy@intentsolutions.io>
license: SEE LICENSE IN LICENSE
model: inherit
effort: medium
compatibility: "Designed for Claude Code; internal agent-loaded skill (not user-invocable)"
tags: [triage, routing, ownership, precedence, internal-agent-skill]
---

# Owner Routing Process

Step-by-step procedure for determining the most likely owner/team for each bug cluster using strict 6-level precedence with staleness detection and override memory.

## Overview

Loaded by the `owner-router` agent inside the `x-bug-triage` plugin. Walks each open bug cluster through a deterministic six-level routing precedence (service-owner → oncall → CODEOWNERS → recent assignees → recent committers → fallback mapping), applies confidence modifiers, detects stale signals, and produces a ranked routing recommendation. Honors prior routing overrides recorded in cluster memory before consulting any signal source.

## Prerequisites

- Cluster table populated upstream by the bug-clustering stage
- Routing config available at `config/routing.json` (precedence modifiers, staleness threshold)
- Triage MCP server reachable for `mcp__triage__lookup_*` tool calls
- Repos in the cluster's product_surface have a configured surface→repo mapping

## Instructions

### Step 1: Check Overrides First

For each cluster, check if a routing_override exists from a prior run:
- If found: use the override (confidence 1.0, source "routing_override"), skip precedence lookup
- Log the override application to audit

### Step 2: Query Sources in Precedence Order

For each cluster without an override, query sources strictly in order:

| Level | Source | Tool | Base Confidence |
|-------|--------|------|----------------|
| 1 | Service owner | `mcp__triage__lookup_service_owner` | 1.0 |
| 2 | Oncall | `mcp__triage__lookup_oncall` | 0.9 |
| 3 | CODEOWNERS | `mcp__triage__parse_codeowners` | 0.8 |
| 4 | Recent assignees (30d) | `mcp__triage__lookup_recent_assignees` | 0.6 |
| 5 | Recent committers (14d) | `mcp__triage__lookup_recent_committers` | 0.5 |
| 6 | Fallback mapping | Config lookup | 0.3 |

Stop at the first level that returns a valid team or assignee.

### Step 3: Apply Confidence Modifiers

Multiply each result's confidence by the precedence modifier from routing_config.

### Step 4: Detect Staleness

Flag any routing signal older than the staleness threshold (default 30 days):
- Mark the result as stale with the number of days
- Reduce confidence accordingly
- Stale signals are still usable but should be noted in output

### Step 5: Build Recommendation

Using `lib.buildRoutingRecommendation()`:
- Rank valid results by level (lowest level = highest priority)
- Set top_recommendation to the best result
- If no valid results: set uncertainty=true with reason "Routing: uncertain — no routing signals available. Manual assignment required."

## Output

- `cluster_routing` rows with ranked candidates (team/assignee, source level, confidence, staleness flag)
- `top_recommendation` field set on each cluster (or null with uncertainty=true if no signals)
- Audit-event rows recording every override application, source query, and stale-signal flag

## Error Handling

- Source query failure (transient API error): log, skip that level, fall through to next
- All six levels return empty: emit uncertainty=true with the standard reason, do not raise
- Override exists but references a non-existent team: log warning, fall back to precedence walk
- Staleness detection unavailable (missing timestamp): treat signal as fresh, flag as "unknown_age"

## Examples

Triggered automatically by the owner-router agent after clusters are produced. Typical run output for a 12-cluster batch: "12 clusters routed — 1 via override, 4 via service-owner, 3 via oncall, 2 via CODEOWNERS, 2 via recent committers, 0 via fallback (1 stale signal flagged)".

## Resources

Load routing precedence rules:

```
!cat skills/x-bug-triage/references/routing-rules.md
```

Load escalation trigger definitions:

```
!cat skills/x-bug-triage/references/escalation-rules.md
```