Fix: Stop PRB Door B auditor over-reaching on scope-exclusive policies (#2511)

[anatolykoyfman]

Summary

Fixes rossoctl/rossoctl#2511 — the PRB (Policy Rules Builder) Door B auditor over-reached on scope-exclusive policies, rejecting a correct empty deny proposal to exhaustion and returning HTTP 422.

When a scope-exclusive policy named a different role (e.g. "Only developers may read source") while onboarding a non-grantee focal role (rossoctl-admin), Door B (build_role_denies, focal = user role, DENY-only) demanded a focal-role deny that does not belong to this pass. The complement deny is the scope-focal pass's job (rules 4 & 6), not Door B's. The proposer was always correct; only the auditor over-reached, burning the retry budget → PolicyRulesBuilderError → 422.

The fix (auditor-only)

A MISSING-PROHIBITION guardrail in _AUDITOR_SYSTEM tells the auditor not to reject a proposal for a missing focal deny when the restriction names a different entity (rule 4). An absent focal prohibition is a defect only when the scenario policy is exclusive/restrictive about the focal entity itself (rule 6) or explicitly prohibits it (rule 5).

The shared proposer/auditor rules are byte-identical to baseline — _PROPOSER_SYSTEM, _SAFETY, _MAPPING_RULES, _DENY_RULES unchanged. An earlier attempt that carried the reassurance in the shared rule-4 text regressed the proposer's legitimate description-driven denies; moving it to the auditor alone fixes both. The change can therefore only make Door B denies more conservative — grant behavior cannot change.

Files (3)

• aiac/src/aiac/agent/policy_rules_builder/prompts.py — _AUDITOR_SYSTEM guardrail only
• aiac/test/agent/policy_rules_builder/test_graph_live_llm.py — slice 7 repro relaxed to the real requirement
• aiac/CONTEXT.md — scope-exclusivity / role-exclusivity glossary entries

Verification

• -m llm (real LLM, no cluster): full PRB live-LLM suite 7/7. Slice 7 repro test_door_b_no_overreach_on_scope_exclusivity green 3/3 across model variance (no raise / no ALLOW / denies ⊆ {source-read, source-write}). Slice 6 exclusivity safety net (Testers may access only issues → DENY source-read/write) intact. Slice 4 description-driven-deny regression guard green.

Notes

• Standalone PR: #2511 depends on the Door B code introduced by Feat: Unify policy-conflict detection on /apply, retire /policy/check (#2500-#2504) #842 (now merged to main), so this branches off current main and applies as a single clean commit.
• #2511 is tracked on rossoctl/rossoctl, not this repo — hence the explicit cross-repo reference above.

Assisted-By: Claude (Anthropic AI) noreply@anthropic.com

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes

  • Corrected policy handling so scope-exclusive language about another role does not incorrectly create a denial for the focal role.
  • Prevented unrelated roles or scopes from receiving unintended restrictions.
  • Allowed valid policies with no focal-role prohibitions to process successfully instead of returning an error.

• Documentation

  • Added glossary definitions clarifying scope-exclusive and role-exclusive language and how each is evaluated.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Team

Run ID: f3647709-2cb0-4680-9b78-27fd10f89d2e

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 26799ac and 4a0ea5d.

📒 Files selected for processing (3)

• aiac/CONTEXT.md
• aiac/src/aiac/agent/policy_rules_builder/prompts.py
• aiac/test/agent/policy_rules_builder/test_graph_live_llm.py

Included review availability: Your plan provides up to 1 included review per hour; 0 remain after this review.

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The auditor prompt now permits empty Door B prohibition lists when restrictions target another entity. Documentation defines scope- and role-exclusivity. A live-LLM test verifies that unrelated roles do not receive scope-exclusive denies.

Changes

Door B scope-exclusivity handling

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Clarify exclusivity ownership aiac/CONTEXT.md, aiac/src/aiac/agent/policy_rules_builder/prompts.py	The glossary distinguishes scope-exclusivity from role-exclusivity. The auditor accepts empty prohibitions unless exclusivity or an explicit prohibition targets the focal role.
Validate unrelated-role handling aiac/test/agent/policy_rules_builder/test_graph_live_llm.py	A live-LLM test verifies that scope-exclusive source access for developers does not produce ALLOW results or denies for the unrelated issues scope.

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 4a0ea

This localized fix prevents valid scope-exclusive policies from failing with a 422 while preserving existing deny-only and conflict safeguards; no actionable merge-blocking risk remains beyond normal checks and review.

Suggested reviewers: abigailgold

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 0.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 2 functions across 2 files. (1 skipped: 1 …	Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly identifies the main change: preventing the Door B auditor from over-reaching on scope-exclusive policies.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The prompt change addresses issue #2511 by allowing an empty Door B deny list when exclusivity names a different role. The added live-LLM test checks that the focal unrelated role does not receive an …
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	The changes are within scope. They modify the Door B auditor prompt, add the issue-specific regression test, and document the scope-exclusivity and role-exclusivity distinction needed to explain the f…

Full details: Linked Issues check

Explanation

The prompt change addresses issue #2511 by allowing an empty Door B deny list when exclusivity names a different role. The added live-LLM test checks that the focal unrelated role does not receive an invalid deny or ALLOW result. The provided context also reports that the full live-LLM suite passes, which supports preservation of focal-role exclusivity behavior.

Full details: Out of Scope Changes check

Explanation

The changes are within scope. They modify the Door B auditor prompt, add the issue-specific regression test, and document the scope-exclusivity and role-exclusivity distinction needed to explain the fix.

Full details: Docstring Coverage

Explanation

Docstring coverage is 0.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 2 functions across 2 files. (1 skipped: 1 unsupported.)

• Fix all pre-merge checks with AI

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests

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[huang195]

@anatolykoyfman this PR has been opened for a week. Just wanted to check if this is still in a draft status and not yet ready for review.

[anatolykoyfman]

@huang195 This is still a draft. I still work out some details that were flagged after this PR was created. Should I close it, and open when my solution finally works out ?

[anatolykoyfman]

I was decided not to proceed with this PR. The problem will be reevaluated, and PR will be opened for it.