docs(agents): tea 0.15 applies org labels; tea api still cannot write
ci / ci (pull_request) Canceled after 2m21s

Mirrors ShadowsOverWestgate/sow-topdata@8c5f4d8 into this repo's copy of the
shared agent docs.

nixpkgs now ships tea 0.15.1, so `tea issues edit --add-labels` applies
`Kind/*` and the rest of the org set. The 0.14 ceiling stays documented as
history for anyone on a pinned older tea.

Two things outlived the bump. `tea api` cannot write at all — any
`--method POST`/`PATCH` returns `{"message":"token is required"}`, while GETs
succeed anonymously because these repos are public. Both files prescribed a
`tea api` labels endpoint for labelling an existing issue; that recipe has
never worked. It now points at `tea issues edit`.

The read-back rule stays, with its reasoning corrected. The note had grown a
claim that `tea issues ls` returns stale labels for several seconds after a
successful edit, and warned against concluding failure from an immediate
read. That was the 0.14 silent no-op misread as replication lag — the
read-back was accurate both before and after the bump, and waiting it out
would convert a real failure into an assumed success.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
2026-08-05 17:46:34 +02:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5
parent 9e52a62e66
commit 335680889b
2 changed files with 30 additions and 25 deletions
+21 -22
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@@ -57,28 +57,27 @@ preference — move it.
so any non-interactive shell (every agent) hangs forever without
`</dev/null`. Same trap on `tea issues create --description` and
`tea pr create`.
- **Apply / remove labels**: `tea api --method PATCH` on the issue, or
`tea api repos/ShadowsOverWestgate/sow-tools/issues/<number>/labels` endpoints.
- **Org-level labels (`Kind/*`, `Priority/*`, `Reviewed/*`, `Status/*`)**: `tea
issues edit --add-labels` / `--remove-labels` do **not** apply these on tea
0.14.0, the version nixpkgs pins. Name resolution searches only this repo's
own label set, so an org label matches nothing and the command exits 0,
prints the issue, and changes nothing — no error, no warning. Repo-local
labels (`wayfinder:*`, `ready-for-agent`) are unaffected. PRs no-op the same
way. Upstream fixed it in v0.15 (`modules/task/labels.go` now also queries
`ListOrgLabels`), so this expires when tea is bumped; until then apply org
labels in the web UI. Note `tea labels` lists repo labels only, so it will
not show you the org set either — `tea api orgs/ShadowsOverWestgate/labels`
does.
- **Verify every label change by re-reading it.** `tea issues ls -o json` has a
`labels` field; use it. A label command exiting 0 is not evidence it applied,
and assuming otherwise has already cost one investigation several wrong turns.
`tea issues edit --add-labels` works too, org-level labels (`Kind/*`,
`Priority/*`) included, but a read-back straight afterwards can still show
the old set — `tea issues ls` has returned stale labels for several seconds
after an edit that succeeded. Never conclude an edit failed from a single
immediate list; re-read after a pause, or use the `labels` endpoints above,
whose response *is* the resulting label set and needs no second call.
- **Apply / remove labels**: `tea issues edit <number> --add-labels "Kind/Bug"`
(and `--remove-labels`). This handles org-level labels (`Kind/*`,
`Priority/*`, `Reviewed/*`, `Status/*`) from tea 0.15 onwards. On 0.14 it did
not: name resolution searched only this repo's own label set, so an org label
matched nothing and the command exited 0, printed the issue, and changed
nothing. Upstream fixed it in v0.15 (`modules/task/labels.go` also queries
`ListOrgLabels`). Note `tea labels` lists repo labels only and will not show
you the org set — `tea api orgs/ShadowsOverWestgate/labels` does.
- **`tea api` can read but not write.** Writing methods (`--method POST`,
`PATCH`, ...) return `{"message":"token is required"}`. GETs against these
public repos succeed anonymously, which makes the gap easy to miss: reads
work, writes do not. Use the `tea issues` / `tea pr` subcommands for anything
that changes state.
- **Verify every label change by re-reading it.** A label command exiting 0 is
not evidence it applied — that is exactly how the 0.14 silent no-op above hid
for so long, and assuming otherwise has already cost one investigation
several wrong turns. Read the resulting set back with
`tea api repos/ShadowsOverWestgate/sow-tools/issues/<number>` and check its
`labels` field, or `tea issues ls -o json`. The read-back reflects the write
immediately; if it comes back empty, the write genuinely failed. Do not
explain an empty read-back away as replication lag.
- **Close**: `tea issues close <number>`
`tea` infers the repo from the git remote when run inside the clone.
+9 -3
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@@ -24,11 +24,17 @@ this.
tea issues create --title "..." --description "..." --labels "Kind/Bug" </dev/null
tea pr create --title "..." --description "..." --labels "Kind/Feature" </dev/null
# add a label to something that already exists
tea api --method POST "repos/ShadowsOverWestgate/<repo>/issues/<n>/labels" \
--data '{"labels":["Kind/Bug","Priority/High"]}'
# add a label to something that already exists (needs tea >= 0.15 for org labels)
tea issues edit <n> --add-labels "Kind/Bug,Priority/High"
# read the result back — exit 0 is not evidence the label applied
tea api "repos/ShadowsOverWestgate/<repo>/issues/<n>"
```
`tea api` writes (`--method POST`, `PATCH`, ...) fail with
`{"message":"token is required"}`; only reads work anonymously. Label changes
go through `tea issues edit`.
## Kind — what this is (pick exactly one)
| Label | Use it when |