# pql — improvement notes from a live session Feedback for [`postmeridiem/pql`](https://github.com/postmeridiem/pql), gathered while using pql as the planning backend for the `clide` repo. Everything below was observed first-hand, not inferred from docs. **Environment** - pql `1.5.0`, commit `ab191fb`, schema_version 1 (binary), DB schema_version 2. - Consumer: a single-dev repo using pql for decisions + tickets, with pql's installed git hooks (`.pql/hooks/post-checkout`, `post-merge`, `post-rewrite`, `pre-commit`) and a git-tracked `.pql/changelog/` + `.pql/pql-plan.json`. The core is genuinely good — structural queries, the decision/ticket model, exit codes, and the changelog-as-source-of-truth idea all worked. The notes below are where it bit us or surprised us, roughly in priority order. --- ## 1. CRITICAL — ticket mutations aren't persisted, and rebuild-on-checkout silently destroys them **Observed.** `pql ticket new` (and `ticket status` / `ticket block`) write only to `.pql/pql.db`, which is gitignored. Nothing writes through to the git-tracked `.pql/changelog/` automatically. Separately, pql's installed `post-checkout` and `post-merge` hooks run `pql plan rebuild`, which replays the **committed** changelog and overwrites `pql.db`. The two facts combine into silent data loss: 1. Created an 18-ticket tree (an initiative + 4 epics + tasks, with blockers and decision refs) via a series of `pql ticket new` calls. Verified present in `pql ticket list`. 2. A routine `git checkout` fired `post-checkout` → `pql plan rebuild` → `pql.db` was rebuilt from the changelog, which still ended at the previous max ticket. 3. All 18 tickets were gone. No warning, no prompt. **Impact.** Total, silent loss of un-exported planning work on an ordinary git operation. The user did nothing wrong — they switched branches. **Repro.** ```bash pql ticket new task "scratch ticket" # lands in pql.db only git checkout -b somebranch # post-checkout runs `pql plan rebuild` pql ticket list | grep "scratch" # gone ``` **Suggested fixes** (any one closes the hole; (a) is the principled one): - **(a) Write-through.** Have ticket/decision mutations append to the changelog at mutation time, making the changelog the log of record and `pql.db` a derived cache. Then rebuild is always safe. - **(b) Divergence guard.** `pql plan rebuild` (and the hooks that call it) should detect when `pql.db` holds rows not represented in the changelog and refuse or loudly warn instead of overwriting — e.g. *"pql.db has 18 un-exported rows; run `pql plan export` first, or pass --force."* - **(c) Non-destructive rebuild.** Merge the changelog into `pql.db` rather than replacing it. At an absolute minimum, the `post-checkout`/`post-merge` hooks should not discard local state without a word. --- ## 2. `pql plan export` writes the changelog, but docs/help say it writes a JSON snapshot **Observed.** `pql plan export` wrote: ``` {"files_written":[".pql/changelog/ticket_deps/2026-06.sql", ".pql/changelog/tickets/2026-06.sql"],"rows_written":23} ``` It did **not** touch `.pql/pql-plan.json`, which stayed frozen at an older date across every mutation and export this session. But the `--help` text and the bundled skill both describe export as *"Snapshot planning state to JSON (default: `pql-plan.json`)"* and recommend committing `pql-plan.json`. **Impact.** Users (and the bundled skill) commit `pql-plan.json` believing it is the durable artifact. It is stale. The actually-durable artifact is the changelog. This directly compounds #1 — people think they've versioned their planning state when they haven't. **Suggested fix.** Make `--help`, docs, and the embedded skill match real behavior. Clarify the role of `pql-plan.json` vs `.pql/changelog/`: is the JSON snapshot deprecated in favor of the changelog? If both exist, document which one `pql plan import` / `pql plan rebuild` prefer. --- ## 3. Schema upgrade is a hard break requiring multi-step manual recovery **Observed.** After a pql binary upgrade, every planning command failed: ``` $ pql decisions sync planning: decision_refs.created_at missing — pql.db is from an earlier schema. $ pql plan status planning: decisions.created_at missing — pql.db is from an earlier schema. ``` (exit 69). Recovery was manual and multi-step: delete `pql.db`, `pql plan rebuild`, then `pql decisions sync`. **Impact.** All planning surfaces are dead until the user performs a manual recovery they have to read out of the error text. Easy to get wrong (the error also offers a `--legacy pql-plan.json` path — see #4). **Suggested fix.** Auto-migrate the schema on open (additive column adds are cheap), or ship a single `pql plan repair` / `pql migrate` command that performs the safe delete-rebuild-sync sequence (with a backup of the old DB). --- ## 4. Schema-error recovery hint can point at the stale snapshot **Observed.** The schema error (see #3) lists recovery options including `pql plan import --legacy .pql/pql-plan.json`. Given #2 (that file is stale), a user following that branch restores an out-of-date snapshot. The correct path was the changelog rebuild. **Suggested fix.** In the recovery list, prefer/recommend `pql plan rebuild` when `.pql/changelog/` is present, and annotate the `pql-plan.json` option as potentially stale. --- ## 5. Scripting ergonomics — no id-only output from `pql ticket new` **Observed.** Building a ticket tree means capturing each created ticket's id to use as the next call's `--parent`/blocker. `pql ticket new` emits the full ticket JSON, so a creation script must parse `.id` out of every call. **Suggested fix.** A `--quiet` / `--id-only` (or `-o id`) flag that prints just the new `T-NNN`, so tree-creation scripts stay simple. (Determinism is already a strength: re-running the same `new` calls in order against a clean baseline reproduces the same ids — which is what let us recover from #1.) --- ## 6. Minor — bundled skill assumes binary features the installed version lacks **Observed.** The bundled `pql` skill documents `pql ticket show --tree`, `--leaf`, `--unblocked`, `--under`, and `pql ticket append` (annotated "pql ≥ 1.6.0"). The installed binary reports 1.5.0 as current (`pql doctor` / `pql skill status`), and rejects them: ``` $ pql ticket show T-65 --tree unknown flag: --tree # exit 64 ``` **Impact.** A consumer following the skill hits unknown-flag errors and has to discover the 1.5.0 fallbacks (`--with-children`, `--with-blockers`) by trial. **Suggested fix.** Keep the embedded skill's documented surface in lockstep with the binary it ships alongside, or have `pql skill install` stamp/gate version-specific sections so the skill never advertises flags the paired binary doesn't have. --- ## 7. Question-index regeneration drops the "Resolved questions" section **Observed.** The repo keeps a human-readable index of decisions/questions in `governance/README.md`, regenerated by `pql decisions sync` (run by the installed hooks). After a sync, the regenerated index moves every *resolved* question back into the main (open) list, in numeric order, and deletes the `## Resolved questions` heading entirely. Concretely, Q-6, Q-19, Q-21, Q-22 are all `status: resolved` per `pql decisions show`, yet the regenerated README lists them as if open. **Impact.** Two problems: (a) the index mislabels resolved questions as open, so the doc lies about project state; and (b) because a hook regenerates it on every sync/commit, it produces a persistent false-dirty diff — `git restore` it and the next pql operation brings it back, so the working tree never stays clean. **Repro.** ```bash pql decisions show Q-6 # -> status: resolved pql decisions sync # regenerates governance/README.md git diff governance/README.md # Q-6/19/21/22 moved into the open list; "## Resolved questions" section gone ``` **Suggested fix.** The index generator should key each question's section off its `status` (open vs resolved vs withdrawn) and keep resolved/withdrawn entries under their own heading — i.e. round-trip the same structure it parses, so a sync is idempotent and doesn't reclassify resolved questions. --- ## Summary The one that matters most is **#1** — a routine `git checkout` can silently erase planning work because mutations live only in a gitignored DB and the pql-installed hooks rebuild that DB destructively. **#2** makes it worse by pointing users at the wrong file to commit. Fixing write-through (or a divergence guard) plus aligning the export docs would remove a whole class of "where did my tickets go" incidents.