Azure DevOps — Bug Lifecycle

Owns state transitions on ADO work items. Every bug set to Active must end in either a merged PR or an explicit rollback to New — no orphans.

Hard rule — store PREV_ASSIGNEE first

Before changing state, capture the existing assignee. You need it to roll back cleanly.

PREV_ASSIGNEE=$(az boards work-item show --id <WORK_ITEM_ID> --output json \
  | jq -r '.fields."System.AssignedTo".uniqueName // ""')

If PREV_ASSIGNEE is empty (bug was Unassigned), the rollback should leave it unassigned — pass an empty string to --assigned-to.

Pick up — set Active and assign to self

az boards work-item update --id <WORK_ITEM_ID> \
  --state "Active" \
  --assigned-to "$AZURE_ASSIGNEE_EMAIL"

--assigned-to accepts email or display name. Email is more reliable. Do not pass a GUID.

Write session state — immediately after pickup

This protects against session token limits or crashes mid-session.

cat > /tmp/bug-session-state.json <<EOF
{
  "activeBugs": [
    { "id": <WORK_ITEM_ID>, "prevAssignee": "$PREV_ASSIGNEE" }
  ]
}
EOF

If multiple bugs are being picked up in a triage session, append to activeBugs rather than overwriting.

On session resume: the orchestrator (bug-triage-session) reads this file first and either finishes or rolls back any in-progress bug before starting new work.

Abandon / rollback — restore state and assignee

If a bug cannot be finished:

az boards work-item update --id <WORK_ITEM_ID> \
  --state "New" \
  --assigned-to "$PREV_ASSIGNEE"

After rollback, remove the bug from /tmp/bug-session-state.json.

Valid states

New, Active, Resolved, Closed. The triage flow only ever transitions between New and Active — Resolved/Closed are set by the team after PR merge.

Custom fields (rare) use --fields "FieldName=value" — space-separated key=value pairs.

Hard rules

• Never change state without storing PREV_ASSIGNEE first.
• Every Active pickup ends in a PR or a rollback. If you set a bug to Active and the work doesn't ship, roll it back before ending the session.
• Use email, not GUID, for --assigned-to.