/.github/loop/PRIORITIES.md

Priorities

The ranked work queue for the autonomous improvement loop. The architecture-review pass (the architect) owns this file: each run it turns the roadmap plus an internal scan (gaps in the services → agents → workflows lifecycle, API coherence, drift, tech debt, test and DX friction) into a single ordered list — highest-value first — and links each item to a tracking issue. The hourly continuous-improvement pass works the top item whose issue is still open. So the architect decides what, and the increment loop builds it.

Reading / editing. An item is done when its linked issue closes (the increment that builds it adds Closes #<issue>). Roadmap phase (Now → Next → Later) is the primary ordering; internal findings are interleaved by value, not kept in a separate list. The human can reorder this list — or the issues — at any time to redirect the loop; direction always wins.

Off-limits to the loop (the architect proposes these as notes, never as queue items the loop can auto-merge): brand/positioning copy, breaking public-API changes, architectural rewrites. Those go to the human.

Work queue (ranked)

1. Trace agent RunInfo into OpenTelemetry spans (#3867) — #3857/#3865 closed the streaming queue item, there are no open codex PRs in flight, and the remaining Next-phase gap with the strongest mission fit is operability of the services → agents → workflows lifecycle. The README, website, roadmap, and recent blog all promise that agents are services you can run, chat with, inspect, and trust under the same runtime; projecting run steps, tool calls, delegation, streaming, cancellation, and errors into OTel spans makes that lived path debuggable without a public-API rewrite. Keep this additive/no-op when tracing is disabled, with tests proving representative RunInfo events become trace data.
2. Add an AP2 mandate layer over A2A and x402 (#3552) — this remains a forward interop investment, not a Now/Next blocker: Go Micro already has A2A agents and x402 paid tools, so a small signed-mandate foundation can keep agent payments aligned with the open-protocol story without pulling the queue ahead of adoption, resilience, streaming, or durable agent operation. Keep it additive and opt-in while the AP2/FIDO work settles.

Seeded by Claude Code from the roadmap + open issues; thereafter maintained by the architecture-review pass.