bcquality/standalone-runner.md

Build a lightweight standalone review runner

BCQuality contains review knowledge, routing, execution instructions, and structured output contracts. It intentionally does not choose models, schedule agents, retry failures, or collect usage telemetry. A standalone runner can add those host-specific capabilities without copying Business Central rules out of BCQuality.

Use the built-in standalone plugin when the host's default execution is sufficient. Build a runner when you need explicit control over cost, latency, concurrency, or integration with another review surface.

Keep BCQuality current

Install or update the plugin with GitHub Copilot CLI:

copilot plugin install microsoft/BCQuality
copilot plugin update bcquality

A runner that reads BCQuality from a checkout should pin a commit or release and upgrade it deliberately. Do not copy knowledge files or action-skill prose into the runner; doing so creates a second, drifting quality policy.

Review a complete app folder

For a committed app, generated fixture, or source tree that has no meaningful diff, supply the app's root directory as folder-path. The review scope is every relevant file below that directory, including app.json and AL source. The folder does not need to be a Git repository.

With the standalone plugin installed, start a fresh Copilot session in the app folder and ask:

Use the installed al-code-review skill to review the complete Business Central app in this folder. Execute every dispatched review domain and return the complete BCQuality findings report.

The adapter maps this request to folder-path; Entry routes it to the broad review super-skill. Because a folder is a current-state snapshot, the review must not invent a previous app version when evaluating comparison-only rules.

Minimal runner flow

1. Give the agent the review input and a task context containing the user's actual goal, available input types, and any known BC applicability dimensions.
2. Invoke skills/entry.md. Entry prepares the knowledge index and returns the action skills to run. Do not reproduce its routing logic.
3. Execute every dispatched action skill with the exact input subset in its dispatch record. Read skills/read.md and skills/do.md on demand.
4. When an action skill declares sub-skills, execute every relevant leaf as a discrete invocation. Leaves are independent and may be scheduled serially or concurrently.
5. Collect each complete findings-report into sub-results in the declared sub-skills order, not completion order. Run the super-skill self-review only after all leaves have finished.
6. Apply the DO composition, failure, deduplication, reference-integrity, and outcome rules. Return strict JSON before rendering it for people or another system.

The runner must never inspect the diff to skip a review domain. A leaf decides its own task-level applicability and reports not-applicable or no-knowledge.

Runner-owned choices

Keep these settings and behaviors outside BCQuality:

• coordinator and leaf models;
• serial or concurrent scheduling and maximum concurrency;
• retries, timeouts, and rate-limit handling;
• token, cost, duration, and actual-concurrency telemetry;
• conversion of the findings report into Markdown, annotations, or PR comments.

Model selection and requested concurrency are deployment choices, not review rules. Evaluate them against representative applications before making them a default. Report actual usage and concurrency only when the host exposes native evidence; do not infer them from the requested profile.

Failure and output checklist

A compatible runner:

• invokes every worklisted leaf exactly once unless a documented retry replaces a failed attempt;
• keeps leaf contexts isolated and passes only the inputs they declare;
• preserves every leaf report, including failed reports, in sub-results;
• excludes unreliable findings from failed leaves and returns partial when only part of the review is reliable;
• orders sub-results by the declared worklist and orders rendered findings deterministically;
• calculates top-level severity counts from deduplicated top-level findings, not by summing leaf counts;
• preserves knowledge paths verbatim and verifies references before publishing;
• records the BCQuality commit or release used for the run.

BC-ALAgents, AL-Go, a Copilot custom agent, or a small host-native plugin can all implement this runner contract. They remain optional consumers: BCQuality's knowledge and skills stay independent of their orchestration choices.