owner-boundary-triage

Owner Boundary Triage

Core Principle

Owner conclusions require both reproduction breadth and mechanism attribution. A shared-looking source file is not proof that every consumer belongs to the shared owner.

Required Signals

• Where the failure reproduces.
• Where it does not reproduce.
• Which mechanism appears responsible.
• Which owner controls that mechanism.
• Which consumers are affected.
• Which evidence is missing.

Triage Flow

1. Define the failing behavior in one sentence.
2. Map reproduction breadth:
   • single route or surface,
   • multiple consumers of one capability,
   • all consumers of a shared capability,
   • data-source-specific,
   • environment-specific.
3. Attribute mechanism:
   • feature composition,
   • shared component,
   • data schema,
   • permissions,
   • environment or harness,
   • acceptance wording.
4. Assign owner only when breadth and mechanism agree.
5. If they do not agree, return owner_boundary_unclear with the smallest next check.

Verdict Vocabulary

Verdict	Use When
feature_owner	Failure is isolated to a feature composition or route-specific integration.
shared_capability_owner	Failure reproduces across consumers and mechanism is in the shared capability.
data_owner	Failure depends on data schema, lifecycle, or seed shape.
environment_owner	Failure depends on setup, harness, browser, network, or fixture availability.
verifier_owner	Failure is in the evidence, receipt wording, or acceptance procedure.
owner_boundary_unclear	Reproduction breadth or mechanism attribution is insufficient.

Output Contract

verdict:
failure_summary:
reproduction_breadth:
mechanism_attribution:
excluded_owners:
missing_checks:
next_owner:
return_gate:
return_owner_on_fail:

Common Mistakes

• Assigning a shared owner because code lives in a shared folder.
• Assigning a feature owner because the bug was first seen on one page.
• Ignoring negative reproduction evidence.
• Treating verifier wording mistakes as runtime defects.
• Asking one owner to fix another owner's missing evidence.