retro: Session 2 — Forgejo issues/milestones/project board, Gitea MCP setup

Session2.md

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+# Session 2
+
+**Date:** 2026-04-06
+**Focus:** Project planning infrastructure — Forgejo issues, milestones, project board, Gitea MCP setup
+**Duration estimate:** ~2 hours
+
+---
+
+## What Was Done
+
+### Forgejo Project Infrastructure
+
+Created the full issue/milestone/project structure on Forgejo to track the PLAN.md roadmap:
+
+**9 milestones** created (IDs 11–19), one per phase:
+- Phase 1: Confidence Tracking
+- Phase 2: Survey Pass
+- Phase 3: Investigation Planning
+- Phase 4: External Knowledge Tools
+- Phase 5: Scale-Tiered Synthesis
+- Phase 6: Multi-Level Synthesis
+- Phase 7: Hypothesis-Driven Synthesis
+- Phase 8: Refinement Pass
+- Phase 9: Dynamic Report Structure
+
+**36 issues** created (#1–#36), each with full descriptions drawn from PLAN.md:
+- #1–#3: Phase 1 (confidence fields, prompt updates, cache query)
+- #4–#7: Phase 2 (survey prompt, `_run_survey()`, wiring, size threshold)
+- #8–#11: Phase 3 (planning prompt, `_run_planning()`, dynamic turns, cache persistence)
+- #12–#17: Phase 4 (search API decision, `search.py`, package_lookup, fetch_url, ask_user, --no-external)
+- #18–#20: Phase 5 (tier classification, small-tier synthesis, depth prompts)
+- #21–#22: Phase 6 (grouping pass, two-level xlarge grouping)
+- #23–#24: Phase 7 (hypothesis synthesis prompt, think tool)
+- #25–#27: Phase 8 (refinement pass, --refine-depth, confidence prioritization)
+- #28–#29: Phase 9 (superset output fields, dynamic report renderer)
+- #30–#36: Backlog suggestions (config file, structured logging, --security, output formats, --model, watch+AI, PDF readers)
+
+**Project board** ("Agentic Investigation Engine") created via web UI simulation (the Forgejo 9.0.3 API doesn't expose a projects endpoint). Used login session + CSRF token to POST the form directly. Board has 4 columns: Backlog / To Do / In Progress / Done. All 36 issues added to Backlog.
+
+### Gitea MCP Setup
+
+Discovered the official `gitea-mcp` server (v1.1.0). Installed to `~/.local/bin/gitea-mcp`. Registered globally via `claude mcp add -s user` which writes to `~/.claude.json` (not `settings.json` — important distinction). Patched env vars (`GITEA_HOST`, `GITEA_ACCESS_TOKEN`) directly into `~/.claude.json` since `claude mcp add` doesn't accept `-e KEY=value` when `--` separator is used.
+
+Uses `forgejo_mcp_token` (the `claude-code` user's token), not the `archeious` personal token.
+
+Confirmed working: `claude mcp list` shows `gitea: ✓ Connected`. MCP tools verified live against Forgejo.
+
+---
+
+## Discoveries and Observations
+
+- Forgejo 9.0.3's REST API (`/api/v1/repos/{owner}/{repo}/projects`) returns 404 — project boards are UI-only in this version. Web simulation (login → CSRF → POST form) was the only path.
+- `claude mcp add` stores config in `~/.claude.json`, not `~/.claude/settings.json`. Manually editing `settings.json` with `mcpServers` is ignored by the CLI.
+- The `-e KEY=value` flag for `claude mcp add` breaks when a `--` separator is also present. Workaround: pass env vars in shell environment for the add command, then patch `~/.claude.json` directly.
+- Wiki operations stay file-based (`docs/wiki/`) per CLAUDE.md — `mcp__gitea__wiki_read/write` should not be used.
+
+---
+
+## Decisions Made
+
+- **forgejo_mcp_token for MCP, not archeious token** — the tfvars had a dedicated `claude-code` user token; using that keeps MCP operations under a distinct identity.
+- **Backlog issues have no milestone** — the 7 "Additional Suggestions" issues (#30–#36) are intentionally milestone-free so they don't inflate phase progress counts.
+- **4-column board kept as-is** — Basic kanban template gave Backlog/To Do/In Progress/Done, which is better than the originally planned 3 columns.
+
+---
+
+## Raw Thinking
+
+The project board issue was interesting — the API returning 404 while `has_projects: true` is a common Forgejo/Gitea gap. The web simulation approach (grab CSRF, POST form) is fragile but it worked. Worth noting that future Forgejo upgrades may expose the API properly.
+
+The MCP setup was messier than expected. The `claude mcp add` CLI has a flag parsing quirk where `-e KEY=value` conflicts with `--` separator. This is worth documenting for future setups. The fix (patch JSON directly) works but isn't ideal.
+
+Phase 1 (#1–#3) is genuinely the right starting point — it's pure instrumentation (add fields, update a prompt, add a cache method), no behavior change, and it unlocks the confidence-aware features in Phases 5 and 8. The 3 issues are each ~15–30 minute tasks, well-sized for a focused session.
+
+The hypothesis-driven synthesis change (Phase 7, #23) is probably the highest leverage single change in the whole plan — small prompt diff, large output quality difference. Worth considering doing it earlier than Phase 7 suggests, since it doesn't depend on any prior phase.
+
+---
+
+## What's Next
+
+- **Phase 1 is ready to start** — branch `feat/confidence-tracking`, work through #1 → #2 → #3 in order
+- After Phase 1: Phase 2 (survey pass) is the most architecturally interesting next step
+- Consider pulling Phase 7 (#23 hypothesis-driven synthesis) forward — it's self-contained and high-leverage

SessionRetrospectives.md

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 | Session | Date | Summary |
 |---|---|---|
 | [Session 1](Session1) | 2026-04-06 | Project setup, scan improvements, Forgejo repo, wiki, development practices |
+| [Session 2](Session2) | 2026-04-06 | Forgejo milestones, issues, project board (36 issues, 9 milestones), Gitea MCP setup |
 
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