gitlore/docs/plan-expose-discussion-ids.feedback-3.md

1. **Make `gitlab_note_id` explicit in all note-level payloads without breaking existing consumers**
Rationale: Your Bridge Contract already requires `gitlab_note_id`, but current plan keeps `gitlab_id` only in `notes` list while adding `gitlab_note_id` only in `show`. That forces agents to special-case commands. Add `gitlab_note_id` as an alias field everywhere note-level data appears, while keeping `gitlab_id` for compatibility.

```diff
@@ Bridge Contract (Cross-Cutting)
-Every read payload that surfaces notes or discussions MUST include:
+Every read payload that surfaces notes or discussions MUST include:
   - project_path
   - noteable_type
   - parent_iid
   - gitlab_discussion_id
   - gitlab_note_id (when note-level data is returned — i.e., in notes list and show detail)
+  - Back-compat rule: note payloads may continue exposing `gitlab_id`, but MUST also expose `gitlab_note_id` with the same value.

@@ 1. Add `gitlab_discussion_id` to Notes Output
-#### 1c. Add field to `NoteListRowJson`
+#### 1c. Add fields to `NoteListRowJson`
+Add `gitlab_note_id` alias in addition to existing `gitlab_id` (no rename, no breakage).

@@ 1f. Update `--fields minimal` preset
-"notes" => ["id", "author_username", "body", "created_at_iso", "gitlab_discussion_id"]
+"notes" => ["id", "gitlab_note_id", "author_username", "body", "created_at_iso", "gitlab_discussion_id"]
```

2. **Avoid duplicate flag semantics for discussion filtering**
Rationale: `notes` already has `--discussion-id` and it already maps to `d.gitlab_discussion_id`. Adding a second independent flag/field (`--gitlab-discussion-id`) increases complexity and precedence bugs. Keep one backing filter field and make the new flag an alias.

```diff
@@ 1g. Add `--gitlab-discussion-id` filter to notes
-Allow filtering notes directly by GitLab discussion thread ID...
+Normalize discussion ID flags:
+- Keep one backing filter field (`discussion_id`)
+- Support both `--discussion-id` (existing) and `--gitlab-discussion-id` (alias)
+- If both are provided, clap should reject as duplicate/alias conflict
```

3. **Add ambiguity guardrails for cross-project discussion IDs**
Rationale: `gitlab_discussion_id` is unique per project, not globally. Filtering by discussion ID without project can return multiple rows across repos, which breaks deterministic write bridging. Fail fast with an `Ambiguous` error and actionable fix (`--project`).

```diff
@@ Bridge Contract (Cross-Cutting)
+### Ambiguity Guardrail
+When filtering by `gitlab_discussion_id` without `--project`, if multiple projects match:
+- return `Ambiguous` error
+- include matching project paths in message
+- suggest retry with `--project <path>`
```

4. **Replace `--include-notes` N+1 retrieval with one batched top-N query**
Rationale: The current plan’s per-discussion follow-up query scales poorly and creates latency spikes. Use a single window-function query over selected discussion IDs and group rows in Rust. This is both faster and more predictable.

```diff
@@ 3c-ii. Note expansion query (--include-notes)
-When `include_notes > 0`, after the main discussion query, run a follow-up query per discussion...
+When `include_notes > 0`, run one batched query:
+WITH ranked_notes AS (
+  SELECT
+    n.*,
+    d.gitlab_discussion_id,
+    ROW_NUMBER() OVER (
+      PARTITION BY n.discussion_id
+      ORDER BY n.created_at DESC, n.id DESC
+    ) AS rn
+  FROM notes n
+  JOIN discussions d ON d.id = n.discussion_id
+  WHERE n.discussion_id IN ( ...selected discussion ids... )
+)
+SELECT ... FROM ranked_notes WHERE rn <= ?
+ORDER BY discussion_id, rn;
+
+Group by `discussion_id` in Rust and attach notes arrays without per-thread round-trips.
```

5. **Add hard output guardrails and explicit truncation metadata**
Rationale: `--limit` and `--include-notes` are unbounded today. For robot workflows this can accidentally generate huge payloads. Cap values and surface effective limits plus truncation state in `meta`.

```diff
@@ 3a. CLI Args
-    pub limit: usize,
+    pub limit: usize, // clamp to max (e.g., 500)

-    pub include_notes: usize,
+    pub include_notes: usize, // clamp to max (e.g., 20)

@@ Response Schema
-  "meta": { "elapsed_ms": 12 }
+  "meta": {
+    "elapsed_ms": 12,
+    "effective_limit": 50,
+    "effective_include_notes": 2,
+    "has_more": true
+  }
```

6. **Strengthen deterministic ordering and null handling**
Rationale: `first_note_at`, `last_note_at`, and note `position` can be null/incomplete during partial sync states. Add null-safe ordering to avoid unstable output and flaky automation.

```diff
@@ 2c. Update queries to SELECT new fields
-... ORDER BY first_note_at
+... ORDER BY COALESCE(first_note_at, last_note_at, 0), id

@@ show note query
-ORDER BY position
+ORDER BY COALESCE(position, 9223372036854775807), created_at, id

@@ 3c. SQL Query
-ORDER BY {sort_column} {order}
+ORDER BY COALESCE({sort_column}, 0) {order}, fd.id {order}
```

7. **Make write-bridging more useful with optional command hints**
Rationale: Exposing IDs is necessary but not sufficient; agents still need to assemble endpoints repeatedly. Add optional `--with-write-hints` that injects compact endpoint templates (`reply`, `resolve`) derived from row context. This improves usability without bloating default output.

```diff
@@ 3a. CLI Args
+    /// Include machine-actionable glab write hints per row
+    #[arg(long, help_heading = "Output")]
+    pub with_write_hints: bool,

@@ Response Schema (notes/discussions/show)
+    "write_hints?": {
+      "reply_endpoint": "string",
+      "resolve_endpoint?": "string"
+    }
```

8. **Upgrade robot-docs/contract validation from string-contains to parity checks**
Rationale: `contains("gitlab_discussion_id")` catches very little and allows schema drift. Build field-set parity tests that compare actual serialized JSON keys to robot-docs declared fields for `notes`, `discussions`, and `show` discussion nodes.

```diff
@@ 4f. Add robot-docs contract tests
-assert!(notes_schema.contains("gitlab_discussion_id"));
+let declared = parse_schema_field_list(notes_schema);
+let sample = sample_notes_row_json_keys();
+assert_required_subset(&declared, &["project_path","noteable_type","parent_iid","gitlab_discussion_id","gitlab_note_id"]);
+assert_schema_matches_payload(&declared, &sample);

@@ 4g. Add CLI-level contract integration tests
+Add parity tests for:
+- notes list JSON
+- discussions list JSON
+- issues show discussions[*]
+- mrs show discussions[*]
```

If you want, I can produce a full revised v3 plan text with these edits merged end-to-end so it’s ready to execute directly.