[ai] fix(ci): remove unimplemented stale batch from Branch Cleanup dispatch

[github-actions]

Caution

Protected files were modified in this change.
This pull request is in request_review mode and requires explicit human scrutiny before merge.

Protected files: .github/workflows/branch-cleanup.yml

Canonical issue

Canonical issue: “Branch Cleanup workflow_dispatch batch=stale always fails (exit 2)” (created alongside this PR).

Outcome

Branch Cleanup's workflow_dispatch and push-sentinel trigger paths no longer offer a stale batch option that branch-cleanup-delete.sh cannot execute. Both trigger paths now only expose safe/review, matching what the script (and docs/branch-cleanup-matrix.csv, which has no STALE verdict) actually supports.

Scope

• Included:
  • .github/workflows/branch-cleanup.yml: removed stale from workflow_dispatch.inputs.batch.options, from the push-sentinel grep/sed regex, and from the header comment documenting the sentinel syntax.
• Explicitly excluded:
  • No changes to scripts/maintenance/branch-cleanup-delete.sh (safe/review logic untouched).
  • No changes to the branch verdict matrix or audit data.

Risk

• Risk level: low
• Failure mode: none expected — stale was never a working option; removing it only prevents users from selecting an input that always failed.
• Rollback: revert this commit.

Verification

• Reproduced the failure signature from the real failing run: usage: scripts/maintenance/branch-cleanup-delete.sh {safe|review} / exit 2, confirming stale was unimplemented.
• python3 -c "import yaml; yaml.safe_load(open('.github/workflows/branch-cleanup.yml'))" → parses cleanly.
• grep -n "stale" .github/workflows/branch-cleanup.yml → no matches remain.
• Simulated sentinel regex logic: [run-cleanup:safe] still matches and extracts batch=safe; [run-cleanup:stale] is now correctly rejected instead of reaching the script.
• DRY_RUN=1 scripts/maintenance/branch-cleanup-delete.sh safe → exits 0, unaffected by this change.

Production evidence

Not applicable — CI/workflow-definition-only change; no runtime or deploy impact.

Agent handoff

• One canonical issue is linked
• No competing PR implements the same issue
• Acceptance criteria are satisfied (unimplemented option removed from both trigger paths)
• Required checks pass on the current head
• Human decision is requested only for product, security, irreversible infrastructure, or production approval

---

Note

This was originally intended as a pull request, but the git push operation failed.

Original error: The process '/usr/bin/git' failed with exit code 1

Workflow Run: View run details and download bundle artifact

The bundle file is available in the agent artifact in the workflow run linked above.

Create the pull request manually

# Download the artifact from the workflow run
gh run download '34389768878' -n agent -D '/tmp/agent-34389768878'

# Resolve the bundle source ref, fetch it into a temporary ref, then create the local branch
bundle_path='/tmp/agent-34389768878/aw-fix-branch-cleanup-stale-batch-crash.bundle'
temp_ref='refs/bundles/create-pr-pr-iteration-fix-branch-cleanup-stale-batch-crash-c30c713d'
target_ref='refs/heads/pr-iteration/fix/branch-cleanup-stale-batch-crash'
bundle_source_ref=$(git bundle list-heads "$bundle_path" | awk '$2 ~ /^refs\/heads\// { print $2 }')
if [ -z "$bundle_source_ref" ]; then
  bundle_source_ref=$(git bundle list-heads "$bundle_path" | awk '$2 == "HEAD" { print $2 }')
fi
if [ "$(printf '%s\n' "$bundle_source_ref" | sed '/^$/d' | wc -l | tr -d ' ')" != "1" ]; then
  echo "Expected exactly one bundle source ref, found: $bundle_source_ref" >&2
  exit 1
fi
git fetch "$bundle_path" "${bundle_source_ref}:${temp_ref}"
git update-ref "$target_ref" "$temp_ref"
git checkout 'pr-iteration/fix/branch-cleanup-stale-batch-crash'
# Ensure the working tree matches the updated branch
git reset --hard
# Remove the temporary bundle ref
git update-ref -d "$temp_ref"

# Push the branch to the target remote
git push 'origin' 'pr-iteration/fix/branch-cleanup-stale-batch-crash'

# Create the pull request
gh pr create --title '[ai] fix(ci): remove unimplemented stale batch from Branch Cleanup dispatch' --base 'main' --head 'pr-iteration/fix/branch-cleanup-stale-batch-crash' --repo 'groupthinking/EventRelay'

Generated by pr-iteration-loop · copilot · auto · 165.9 AIC · ⌖ 9.04 AIC · ⊞ 12.1K · ◷

• expires on Sep 16, 2026, 7:04 PM UTC

[linear-code]

GRV-515