fix(validate): require marker punctuation after a leading TBD/TODO

[Tyagiquamar]

Closes #1897.

Root cause: LEADING_MARKER in src/core/validation/purpose-placeholder.ts was case-insensitive with a negative lookahead that a plain space satisfies, so the Spanish/Portuguese sentence opener Todo followed by prose matched the TODO placeholder marker and validate --strict failed an authored Purpose.

Fix: keep the existing word-boundary lookahead and add a second lookahead requiring end of Purpose, a line break, or marker punctuation after TBD/TODO. This is the issue's suggested option 2, refined so every existing pinned behaviour still holds: lowercase tbd - / todo - , TODO:, TODO(owner):, TBD. and bare TBD/TODO are still reported, while Todo el... / Todo o... prose is not.

Tests: added Spanish and Portuguese regression cases plus a marker-alone-on-its-line case to test/core/purpose-placeholder.test.ts. New test failed before the fix ({line: 4} instead of null) and passes after. Added .changeset/purpose-marker-punctuation.md (patch).

Validation in Docker (node:22-bookworm, pnpm 10.34.5): pnpm build exit 0; vitest test/core 117 files / 4441 passed / 1 skipped; tsc --noEmit exit 0; eslint exit 0. Full pnpm test was not run to completion: cli-e2e/prompts suites stall in this sandbox; all unit suites under test/core pass.

Assisted by Muse Spark; the change was verified with the Docker runs above.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes
  • Improved strict validation of Purpose text to avoid incorrectly flagging ordinary prose beginning with “Todo,” including Spanish and Portuguese sentences.
  • Placeholder markers such as TODO and TBD are now recognized only when followed by valid boundaries or marker punctuation.
  • Continued detection of standalone placeholder markers above placeholder content.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Path: .coderabbit.yaml

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Advanced

Run ID: 7a3cbbd5-19d6-4419-a643-045f378526ac

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between bae58cf and 2a43341.

📒 Files selected for processing (3)

• .changeset/purpose-marker-punctuation.md
• src/core/validation/purpose-placeholder.ts
• test/core/purpose-placeholder.test.ts

Included review availability: Your plan provides up to 10 included reviews per hour; 9 remain after this review.

---

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The purpose validator now avoids treating “Todo” followed by prose as a placeholder marker. It still detects standalone TODO or TBD markers and documented punctuation forms. Regression tests and a patch changeset were added.

Changes

Purpose validation

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Leading marker validation src/core/validation/purpose-placeholder.ts, test/core/purpose-placeholder.test.ts, .changeset/purpose-marker-punctuation.md	The leading marker pattern now requires valid marker termination or punctuation. Tests cover Spanish and Portuguese prose and standalone TODO markers. The changeset records the patch release.

Priority: ➖ Normal

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes

Change: Bug fix · Severity of issue fixed: Medium

Suggested reviewers: alfred-openspec

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 2a433

The change addresses the stated false positives and no supported regression remains blocking merge.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly describes the main validation change: leading TBD/TODO markers must use valid termination, including marker punctuation. It is concise and directly related to the false-positive fix.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Issue #1897 requires authored Spanish and Portuguese prose that starts with Todo to avoid PURPOSE_IS_PLACEHOLDER, while genuine leading TBD and TODO markers remain detected. The updated `LEADI…
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	The changeset, validator update, and regression tests directly support Issue #1897. No unrelated implementation or test changes appear in the reviewed pull-request diff.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 0 functions across 2…

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create a new PR

---

Thanks for using CodeRabbit! It's free for OSS, and your support helps us grow. If you like it, consider giving us a shout-out.

❤️ Share

• X
• Mastodon
• Reddit
• LinkedIn

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands.}