# AO And Discourse Issues

## Goal

Handle externally reported issues without misclassifying scope or over-claiming regression.

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## Stable Patterns

- AO and Discourse reports are often incomplete or partially reproducible.
- External reports should be treated as external behavior until verified.
- Many issues only reproduce with authenticated users or in consumer-specific contexts.
- Some historical reports turned out to be service/configuration issues, environment issues, or existing behavior rather than new regressions.

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## Investigation Rules

- Always clarify:
  - authenticated vs non-authenticated
  - reproducibility
  - entry point
  - whether the issue exists in main
  - whether the behavior is external, existing, or regression
- Do not use vague comparison phrases like "same behavior" without scope.

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## Historical Signals From Slack

- Historical reports around button visibility, analytics, slot updates, and consumer validation repeatedly required deeper reproduction work before scoping a fix.
- Slack history shows multiple examples where the original ticket or report was not enough to define the real root cause.