[Copilot]

Implements the 7 reliability hardening items from issue #44098 (scope originally explored in closed PR #43782). Changes are confined to agent instruction files, protocol docs, skill references, and the eval suite — no specification/**, SDK, or eng/ files touched.

What changed

Protocol & dispatch (arm-api-review-critic.protocol.md, arm-api-review-critic-inputs.template.md)

• Non-empty response invariant: empty / "Agent completed with no output" Critic returns are host-side failures; retry up to 3 attempts (compact-mode on attempts 2–3), then auto-fall to critic-mode=unavailable with no user action required
• Tolerant prose input format: replaces rigid fenced-YAML schema; only fields Added swagger specs #1 (PR URL), Restructure folder naming scheme and update the readme #2 (session SHA), Added Logic App swagger spec #3 (findings report) are required — all others have documented defaults; added compact-mode template for iterations 2–3
• Session-handoff removed: critic-mode=session-handoff is no longer a valid value; fallback ladder reduced from 3 rungs to 2 (subagent → auto-unavailable)
• Non-overridable FAIL catalog shrunk from 13 → 6: downstream-ci-conflict, suppression-path-mismatch, reconciliation, and 4 others become overridable with validated justification
• Graphs flag simplified: graphs-produced: true|false|downgraded|degraded → Graphs: true|false (old 4-value schema still accepted for backward compat)

Agent files (arm-api-reviewer.agent.md, arm-api-review-critic.agent.md)

• Reviewer: 2-rung fallback ladder; compact-mode retry guidance; Template B (session-handoff prompt) deleted, Template C renamed to Template B; all state-machine and cross-references updated
• Critic: tolerant parsing (only Added swagger specs #1/Restructure folder naming scheme and update the readme #2/Added Logic App swagger spec #3 required); downstream-ci-conflict and suppression-path-mismatch marked overridable; Graphs: true|false accepted

Supporting docs

• downstream-ci-impact.md: downstream-ci-conflict / suppression-path-mismatch failures documented as overridable with justification
• think-in-graphs.md: all graphs-produced: variants replaced with Graphs: false + backward compat notes

Eval suite

• eval-protocol-safety.yaml: stimulus 160001 updated (session-handoff → auto-unavailable); new stimulus 160011 (critic-subagent-failure-empty-response-not-pass) added
• README.md: 16xxxx count 10 → 11, total 51 → 52

Due diligence checklist

To merge this PR, you must go through the following checklist and confirm you understood
and followed the instructions by checking all the boxes:

• I confirm this PR is modifying only SDK configurations, and not API related specifications.
• I have reviewed and used the respective tspconfig.yaml templates:
  • ARM tspconfig template
  • Data plane tspconfig template

Getting help

• First, carefully read through this PR description, from top to bottom. Fill out the Purpose of this PR and Due diligence checklist.
• If you don't have permissions to remove or add labels to the PR, request write access per aka.ms/azsdk/access#request-access-to-rest-api-or-sdk-repositories
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[github-actions]

Next Steps to Merge

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Comment generated by summarize-checks workflow run.

[Ravi Eda (ravimeda)]

Copilot analyze failing checks . Apply fixes.

[Copilot]

Copilot analyze failing checks . Apply fixes.

The only failing checks are Protected Files (two instances), which flag these 4 files:

• .github/agents/arm-api-review-critic.agent.md
• .github/agents/arm-api-reviewer.agent.md
• .github/agents/protocols/arm-api-review-critic-inputs.template.md
• .github/agents/protocols/arm-api-review-critic.protocol.md

The .github/workflows/protected-files.yaml policy restricts .github/* modifications to only azure-sdk or azure-sdk-automation[bot] accounts. Files under .github/skills/ are excluded from this check (those pass fine), but .github/agents/ has no such exclusion.

There is no code fix that can resolve this — the check is working as designed. The workflow itself is also a protected file, so it cannot be modified to add an exclusion either.

The check explicitly states: "If intentional, the PR may be merged by the Azure SDK team via bypassing the branch protections."

Since the agent file updates are intentional, this PR needs to be merged by an Azure SDK team member using branch protection bypass.

[Ravi Eda (ravimeda)]

Copilot analyze failing checks . Apply fixes.

The only failing checks are Protected Files (two instances), which flag these 4 files:

• .github/agents/arm-api-review-critic.agent.md
• .github/agents/arm-api-reviewer.agent.md
• .github/agents/protocols/arm-api-review-critic-inputs.template.md
• .github/agents/protocols/arm-api-review-critic.protocol.md

The .github/workflows/protected-files.yaml policy restricts .github/* modifications to only azure-sdk or azure-sdk-automation[bot] accounts. Files under .github/skills/ are excluded from this check (those pass fine), but .github/agents/ has no such exclusion.

There is no code fix that can resolve this — the check is working as designed. The workflow itself is also a protected file, so it cannot be modified to add an exclusion either.

The check explicitly states: "If intentional, the PR may be merged by the Azure SDK team via bypassing the branch protections."

Since the agent file updates are intentional, this PR needs to be merged by an Azure SDK team member using branch protection bypass.

Copilot format the changes using prettier as identified in the failing check - https://github.com/Azure/azure-rest-api-specs/actions/runs/27828686838/job/82707418772?pr=44099

[Copilot]

Copilot analyze failing checks . Apply fixes.

The only failing checks are Protected Files (two instances), which flag these 4 files:
...

Applied prettier formatting to the 6 flagged files in commit Apply prettier formatting to agent and skill files. The npm run format:check in .github/ now passes cleanly.

The remaining Protected Files failures for .github/agents/** are a policy gate — they require an Azure SDK team member to merge via branch protection bypass, as noted previously.

[Ravi Eda (ravimeda)]

Copilot update the branch

[Copilot]

Copilot update the branch

Branch updated — merged latest main (21 new commits) in 561b180.

[Ravi Eda (ravimeda)]

LGTM

[Ravi Eda (ravimeda)]

Copilot we need a new commit so that the checks can run. Update the branch so that a new commit is pushed.

[Copilot]

Copilot we need a new commit so that the checks can run. Update the branch so that a new commit is pushed.

Merged latest main (9 new commits) in 1004605 — CI checks should now re-run.