Bug Clustering Process

Step-by-step procedure for transforming raw XPost objects into structured, clustered bug candidates with PII redaction and reliability scoring.

Instructions

Step 1: Parse

For each XPost, produce a BugCandidate with all 33 fields using

lib/parser.ts

:

• Extract product_surface, feature_area, symptoms, error_strings, repro_hints
• Extract urls, media_keys, language, conversation references
• Determine source_type (mention, reply, quote_post, search_hit)

Step 1.5: Deduplicate

Before classification, run content-similarity deduplication using

lib/dedupe.ts

:

• Call

  deduplicateCandidates()

  with parsed candidates and the

  candidate_dedup.hybrid_similarity_threshold

  from

  config/cluster-matching-thresholds.json

  (default 0.70)
• Uses char-trigram + token-Jaccard hybrid similarity
• Does NOT remove posts — tags them as duplicate groups with a canonical post (highest engagement)
• Only canonical posts and non-duplicates (

  forward_ids

  ) proceed to classification
• Log dedup stats:

  "{n} posts ({m} unique, {k} duplicate groups)"

Step 2: Classify

Run

lib/classifier.ts

on each candidate:

• Assign one of 12 classifications with confidence score (0.0-1.0) and rationale
• Sarcastic bug reports get classified separately — still treated as signal

Step 3: Redact PII

Run

lib/redactor.ts

on each candidate:

• Detect 6 PII types: email, API key, phone, account ID, media flag, URL token
• Replace with

  [REDACTED:type]

  tags
• Set pii_flags array and raw_text_storage_policy

Step 4: Score Reliability

Run

lib/reporter-scorer.ts

on each candidate:

• 4 dimensions: report quality, independence, account authenticity, historical accuracy
• Composite reporter_reliability_score (0.0-1.0)

Step 5: Tag Reporter Category

Match author against approved_accounts config:

• Categories: public, internal, partner, tester

Step 6: Cluster

Using

lib/clusterer.ts

and

lib/signatures.ts

:

• Generate deterministic bug signature from error_strings + symptoms + feature_area
• Match against active_clusters at >=70% signature overlap
• Family-first guard: different ClusterFamilies NEVER cluster together
• New match: create cluster (initial severity "low")
• Existing match: update report_count, last_seen, sub_status
• Resolved match: reopen with sub_status "regression_reopened"
• Suppressed match: skip, log to audit

Step 7: Persist

• Insert candidates to DB via

  lib/db.ts

• Insert/update clusters and cluster_posts junction
• Write audit events for each classification, redaction, and cluster action

References

Load evidence tier definitions for proper cluster evidence assessment:

!cat skills/x-bug-triage/references/evidence-policy.md

Load data model reference for BugCandidate fields and cluster schemas:

!cat skills/x-bug-triage/references/schemas.md