fix: recognize frontend feature loaders

[hopehadfield]

Description

Patch @backstage/cli-node@0.3.4 so FrontendFeatureLoader entry points are recognized in generated feature metadata and Module Federation exposure detection. This allows the TechDocs addons dynamic-plugin /alpha entry point to be packaged as a supported frontend feature while the RHDH 2.1 branch still consumes the older Backstage release.

Test Plan

• yarn tsc
• Exported the TechDocs addons plugin and verified ./alpha is detected as @backstage/FrontendFeatureLoader
• Verified the generated manifest exposes . and alpha

Checklist

• Tests and type checking completed
• Documentation updated
• Screenshots attached

[sonarqubecloud]

Quality Gate passed

Issues
0 New issues
0 Accepted issues

Measures
0 Security Hotspots
0.0% Coverage on New Code
0.0% Duplication on New Code

See analysis details on SonarQube Cloud

[fullsend-ai-review]

🤖 Finished Review · ✅ Success · Started 2:41 PM UTC · Completed 2:56 PM UTC

Commit: af13b12 · View workflow run →

Runtime: claude · Model: sonnet → claude-sonnet-4-6 · Effort: high · Cost: $2.58

[fullsend-ai-review]

Risk Assessment: moderate (2/5)

Details

Small dependency-only change (3 files, 51 lines) adding a yarn patch for @backstage/cli-node with no protected paths or CI impact; elevated Tier 2 churn on package.json and yarn.lock reflects expected background noise on those shared files.

[fullsend-ai-review]

Review

Findings

Medium

• [logic-error] .yarn/patches/@backstage-cli-node-npm-0.3.4-b80a6a686e.patch:20 — The patch updates dist/monorepo/PackageGraph.cjs.js (CJS runtime) and dist/index.d.ts (type declarations) to add "@backstage/FrontendFeatureLoader", but contains no hunk for dist/monorepo/PackageGraph.js, which would be the ESM counterpart in a Rollup dual-build. If that file exists in the published @backstage/cli-node@0.3.4 tarball and is not patched, any ESM consumer that calls import { packageFeatureType } from '@backstage/cli-node' at runtime will still see a 4-element array without FrontendFeatureLoader, while TypeScript compilation succeeds because dist/index.d.ts is already patched — masking the gap.
  Remediation: Unpack the @backstage/cli-node@0.3.4 tarball (e.g. npm pack @backstage/cli-node@0.3.4 && tar -tzf backstage-cli-node-0.3.4.tgz | grep PackageGraph) and confirm whether dist/monorepo/PackageGraph.js exists. If it does, add a third hunk to the patch file targeting that file with the same "@backstage/FrontendFeatureLoader" addition to the packageFeatureType array.

---

Next steps:

• /fs-fix — agent addresses review findings automatically
• /fs-fix <your instruction> — agent fixes with your specific guidance
• Push commits directly — review re-runs automatically on push
• /fs-fix-stop — disable automatic fix runs for this PR

[fullsend-ai-review]

See the review comment for full details.

[fullsend-ai-review]

[medium] logic-error

The patch updates dist/monorepo/PackageGraph.cjs.js (CJS runtime) and dist/index.d.ts (type declarations) to add "@backstage/FrontendFeatureLoader", but contains no hunk for dist/monorepo/PackageGraph.js, which would be the ESM counterpart in a Rollup dual-build. If that file exists in the published @backstage/cli-node@0.3.4 tarball, ESM consumers will still see a 4-element packageFeatureType array without FrontendFeatureLoader at runtime while TypeScript compilation succeeds, masking the gap.

Suggested fix: Unpack the @backstage/cli-node@0.3.4 tarball and check for dist/monorepo/PackageGraph.js. If it exists, add a third hunk to the patch file targeting that file with the same "@backstage/FrontendFeatureLoader" addition to the packageFeatureType array.

[fullsend-ai-retro]

🤖 Finished Retro · ✅ Success · Started 3:55 PM UTC · Completed 4:03 PM UTC

Commit: af13b12 · View workflow run →

Runtime: claude · Model: opus → claude-opus-4-6 · Effort: high · Cost: $2.91

[fullsend-ai-retro]

Retro: PR #205 — fix: recognize frontend feature loaders

Timeline

1. 14:40 UTC — Human author hopehadfield opened PR #205 to patch @backstage/cli-node@0.3.4, adding FrontendFeatureLoader support. Three files changed: a new yarn patch file, package.json, and yarn.lock.
2. 14:41–14:56 UTC — Review agent ran (Sonnet, high effort, $2.58). Found one medium-severity logic-error about the patch covering CJS and type declarations but potentially missing the ESM counterpart (PackageGraph.js). Two other findings were correctly downgraded by the challenger process. Submitted CHANGES_REQUESTED.
3. CI failures — All 9 Verify Plugin Export jobs failed because package.json uses Yarn's patch: protocol for the @backstage/cli-node dependency, which npm install -g (used in the Verify workflow at line 97) cannot resolve.
4. PR closed without merging.

What went well

• The review agent's ESM hunk finding was legitimate and well-framed — conditional on whether the ESM file exists, with a clear verification step.
• The challenger process correctly filtered two lower-impact findings, keeping signal-to-noise high.
• Cost was reasonable ($2.58 for a high-effort review of a 3-file, 51-line diff).

Key gap: review missed the CI-breaking incompatibility

The review agent flagged a speculative ESM gap but missed the definite CI-breaking issue: the Yarn patch: protocol in package.json dependencies is incompatible with npm install -g in the verify-plugin-export.yaml workflow. All 9 Verify jobs failed immediately. This is a higher-impact finding because it's a guaranteed breakage (not conditional), affects CI directly, and would block merging.

The root cause is that AGENTS.md has no mention of the Verify Plugin Export workflow, the npm install -g installation step, or the constraint that package.json dependencies must use npm-compatible version specifiers.

Retro dispatch efficiency

This retro ran on a closed, unmerged human-authored PR where the only agent interaction was a single review. This pattern has limited retro value and is already covered by existing upstream issues: fullsend-ai/fullsend#2471 (skip retro for unmerged human PRs with only review-agent interaction) and fullsend-ai/fullsend#7197 (skip retro when no agent stages ran). This retro provides additional supporting evidence for those issues.

Existing issue evidence

• Skip retro for unmerged human PRs with only review-agent interaction fullsend-ai/fullsend#2471: This PR is another instance of the pattern — closed human PR, review-only agent interaction, retro dispatched with minimal value.
• Skip retro dispatch when no agent stages ran on the PR fullsend-ai/fullsend#7197: Related — only the review stage ran; code, fix, and triage were all skipped.

Proposals filed

• Add CI packaging constraints to AGENTS.md so review agent catches npm/Yarn incompatibilities (in redhat-developer/rhdh-cli)