## Thinking Path
> - Paperclip orchestrates AI agents for zero-human companies.
> - The heartbeat/productivity review subsystem detects when assigned
work is likely stuck or churning.
> - Productivity reviews are useful, but repeated reconciliation can
create noisy refresh comments or repeated review issues around the same
source issue.
> - That makes manager follow-up harder because the signal can get
buried under duplicate review activity.
> - This pull request bounds productivity review refreshes and creation
loops while preserving the existing escalation path.
> - The benefit is a quieter recovery loop that still surfaces stuck or
high-churn work for manager attention.
## What Changed
- Added refresh throttling for open productivity review issues,
including a one-hour default interval and a maximum of three refresh
comments per open review.
- Added a rolling 24-hour creation cap so completed/closed reviews
cannot immediately recreate review issues indefinitely for the same
source issue.
- Excluded cancelled productivity reviews from the creation cap so
manager cancellations do not silently suppress future legitimate
reviews.
- Preserved productivity review timestamps in deterministic test paths
and added targeted coverage for immediate refresh suppression, refresh
caps, creation caps, and cancelled-review exclusion.
## Verification
- `pnpm run preflight:workspace-links && pnpm exec vitest run
server/src/__tests__/productivity-review-service.test.ts`
- `pnpm exec vitest run
server/src/__tests__/productivity-review-service.test.ts`
- Greptile Review: 5/5 on commit
`bcf25832d0ffae25890b2ee7eed112d1c2d114fe` with review threads resolved.
- GitHub PR checks passed on the latest head: `policy`, `verify`, `e2e`,
`Greptile Review`, and `security/snyk (cryppadotta)`.
- Verified the branch is rebased onto `public-gh/master` with no
conflicts.
- Verified the diff does not include `pnpm-lock.yaml`, database schema
changes, or migrations.
## Risks
- Low-to-medium risk: this changes automation cadence for productivity
reviews. A truly stuck issue may receive fewer repeated refresh
comments, but the original review issue remains open and assigned for
manager action.
- No migration risk: this is server logic and tests only.
> Checked [`ROADMAP.md`](ROADMAP.md) for overlapping planned core work;
this is a targeted recovery-loop fix and does not add a new roadmap
feature.
## Model Used
- OpenAI Codex coding agent, GPT-5 model family, tool-using software
engineering mode. Exact context window is not exposed in this runtime.
## Checklist
- [x] I have included a thinking path that traces from project context
to this change
- [x] I have specified the model used (with version and capability
details)
- [x] I have checked ROADMAP.md and confirmed this PR does not duplicate
planned core work
- [x] I have run tests locally and they pass
- [x] I have added or updated tests where applicable
- [x] If this change affects the UI, I have included before/after
screenshots (not applicable; server-only change)
- [x] I have updated relevant documentation to reflect my changes (not
applicable; no user-facing docs or commands changed)
- [x] I have considered and documented any risks above
- [x] I will address all Greptile and reviewer comments before
requesting merge
---------
Co-authored-by: Paperclip <noreply@paperclip.ing>
Dotta
42a299fb9d