FAQ

What should I hand over?

Send as much suitable engineering work as possible. Good factory work has four things:

• A clear outcome — what should be different for a user or operator.
• A known repository or a deterministic repo: pin.
• Observable acceptance criteria and the checks that prove them.
• Product, clinical, security, and rollout decisions already settled by humans.

Keep shaping the work with humans first when the product behavior or owner decision is still open, there's an unresolved migration/compatibility/privacy/ rollout decision, it's an active incident needing real-time coordination, or it depends on raw PHI/secrets that shouldn't enter a ticket or PR.

How do I trigger a build?

Apply the AI FACTORY: READY TO BUILD label to a draft PR that carries the plan/spec, or comment /frankie on it. Either way, only Abridge GitHub org members can trigger, on any repo where the abridge-apex GitHub App is installed. The label is the API; the conversation is the interface.

Does Frankie ever merge my PR?

No. Frankie pushes and reports "ready for merge," but it never merges and never flips a draft to ready-for-review. Both are always a human action — this is hard-coded.

My agent shows old tool names (frankie_build, frankie_session)

The local frankie-* skills were removed — everything goes through the MCP now. Toggle the frankie-mcp connection off/on (or reload the editor once); the server version-stamps its tool surface, so a reconnect refreshes stale caches. You should see the current surface headed by frankie_handover, frankie_finish, and frankie_takeover.

Warnings that the Frankie MCP isn't available

Follow the MCP setup in Getting started. If you have an old HTTP frankie-mcp or a separate frankie-teleport entry, remove it first, then add the direct Teleport command as frankie-mcp. If your Teleport session expired, re-run tsh login --proxy=abridge.teleport.sh:443 — don't add another MCP.

PNPM can't find @abridge/frankie

Run pnpm login first. You need NPM access; file a Serval ticket if you don't have it.

I don't know why my build failed

The Apex Console can help. Find your PR in the list, click the trace button, and review the center console or ask questions in the right pane. Access needs the apex-dashboard-users Google Group — request it in #swat-factory.

Can I take a run local?

Yes. Say "take this over" → frankie_takeover cancels the remote build and returns the branch checkout recipe plus full session context, so your local agent continues from where the factory stopped. If the factory failed, please ping #swat-factory with the PR URL first — Frankie is in alpha and the team wants to inspect failure cases.

How do I get Slack notifications?

Configure your public email in GitHub (Settings → Public profile → choose your Abridge email). That lets Frankie's Slack bot map to your account and notify you when actionable status on your PR changes.