[sergo] Magic time.Sleep literals in production pkg/cli/ (#aw_sg17a2)

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Summary

Six production code paths in pkg/cli/ call time.Sleep with hardcoded literal durations instead of the project's established named-constant pattern. This breaks the consistency model that R8 (HTTP timeouts → constants) and the existing APICallCooldown / backupCleanupRetryDelay / timestampDifferentiationDelay named constants set up.

This is #aw_sg17a2, identified in Sergo Run 17.

Evidence

Magic-literal sites (prod code)

File:Line	Sleep	Purpose (from inline comment)
pkg/cli/trial_repository.go:153	2 * time.Second	"Give GitHub a moment to fully initialize the repository"
pkg/cli/run_workflow_execution.go:571	1 * time.Second	"Add a small delay between workflows to avoid overwhelming GitHub API"
pkg/cli/mcp_inspect_inspector.go:157	2 * time.Second	"Give servers a moment to start up"
pkg/cli/mcp_inspect_inspector.go:201	100 * time.Millisecond	"Give each process a chance to clean up"
pkg/cli/mcp_inspect_mcp_scripts_server.go:62	200 * time.Millisecond	(startup-pace gate)
pkg/cli/mcp_inspect.go:134	500 * time.Millisecond	(startup-pace gate)

Comparison: established named-constant pattern (good citizens)

• pkg/cli/logs_rate_limit.go:87, 97, 110, 121 — uses APICallCooldown (a typed Duration constant). Four sites, one symbol.
• pkg/cli/update_extension_check.go:386 — uses backupCleanupRetryDelay.
• pkg/workflow/compiler_skip_write_test.go:58, 126 — uses timestampDifferentiationDelay.
• pkg/cli/run_workflow_tracking.go:73 — uses a delay variable derived from caller context (also acceptable: not a magic literal).

The pattern is clear and adopted across pkg/cli/: when a sleep duration encodes a policy decision (rate-limit pacing, GitHub propagation lag, IPC startup wait), it lives in a named time.Duration constant near the code that uses it.

Severity

Medium (consistency / maintainability). No correctness bug today. But:

1. Tuning these durations means hunting through call-site code instead of editing one symbol.
2. New contributors learn the wrong pattern by copy-paste.
3. Tests that mock time (or want to run faster) cannot inject a smaller value.
4. The "why this number" justification lives in adjacent comments, not the symbol name.

Recommendation

Replace each literal with a package-level const (or var if it should be overridable in tests). Suggested names:

// pkg/cli/trial_repository.go
const trialRepoInitDelay = 2 * time.Second

// pkg/cli/run_workflow_execution.go
const betweenWorkflowsDelay = 1 * time.Second

// pkg/cli/mcp_inspect_inspector.go
const (
    mcpStdioServerStartupDelay = 2 * time.Second
    mcpProcessCleanupDelay     = 100 * time.Millisecond
)

// pkg/cli/mcp_inspect_mcp_scripts_server.go
const mcpScriptsServerStartupDelay = 200 * time.Millisecond

// pkg/cli/mcp_inspect.go
const mcpInspectorStartupDelay = 500 * time.Millisecond

Group related constants (the two mcp_inspect_inspector.go sleeps) into a single const ( ... ) block.

Validation

• Replace 6 literals with named constants in the 5 files listed.
• Run go vet ./pkg/cli/... and go test ./pkg/cli/....
• Verify no other call site exists for any of the new constants (i.e. don't accidentally create shared constants for unrelated waits).
• Optional: add a comment on each constant explaining the empirical basis (e.g. "GitHub propagation lag observed up to ~1.5s in practice; 2s gives a safety margin").

Related

• R8 #aw_sg8a2 (HTTP timeout literals → constants, FIXED R12, 4 sites) — exact same refactor shape.
• R8 #aw_sg8a1 (file-mode octal literals, FIXED R9, 57 sites) — same "magic literal → named constant" theme.
• Established pattern in pkg/constants/constants.go for Default* symbols.

References:

• §26352428711

Generated by 🤖 Sergo - Serena Go Expert · ● opu47 18.5M · ◷

• expires on May 31, 2026, 5:13 AM UTC

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