Lesson Learned 011: Missing Function Imports Blocked Trading (Dec 11, 2025)

ID: LL-011 Date: December 11, 2025 Severity: CRITICAL Category: CI/CD, Imports Impact: 0 scheduled trades executed for the entire day

Incident Summary

Root Cause: Missing functions in mental_toughness_coach.py that were imported by debate_agents.py Resolution Time: ~2 hours (discovered late in trading day)

What Happened

  1. PR #384 added psychology integration including debate_agents.py which imports:
    • get_prompt_context() from mental_toughness_coach.py
    • get_position_size_modifier() from mental_toughness_coach.py

  2. A force push (b6d46345 feat: consolidate valuable changes) overwrote main and lost the functions

  3. The scheduled trading workflow ran but failed at “Execute daily trading” step with ImportError

  4. Because debate_agents.py was imported during orchestrator initialization, the entire trading script crashed

Technical Details

# debate_agents.py imports (lines 24-26):
from src.coaching.mental_toughness_coach import get_position_size_modifier
from src.coaching.mental_toughness_coach import (
    get_prompt_context as get_psychology_context,
)

When these functions don’t exist, Python raises ImportError before any trading code runs.

Why It Wasn’t Caught

  1. No import verification test: CI didn’t explicitly test that all inter-module imports resolve
  2. No pre-merge import gate: PRs weren’t required to pass import verification
  3. Force push overwrote changes: Git rebase/force push silently discarded the psychology functions
  4. Scheduled run failures not monitored: Many consecutive failures didn’t trigger alerts

Prevention Measures Implemented

1. Import Verification Test (tests/test_critical_imports.py)

def test_all_critical_imports():
    """Verify all inter-module imports resolve correctly."""
    # Test psychology integration imports
    from src.coaching.mental_toughness_coach import get_prompt_context, get_position_size_modifier
    from src.agents.debate_agents import DebateModerator, BullAgent, BearAgent
    from src.coaching.reflexion_loop import ReflexionLoop

    # Test orchestrator can be imported (catches all downstream import errors)
    from src.orchestrator.main import TradingOrchestrator

2. Pre-Merge Import Gate (.github/workflows/ci.yml)

- name: Verify Critical Imports
  run: |
    python3 -c "
    from src.orchestrator.main import TradingOrchestrator
    from src.agents.debate_agents import DebateModerator
    print('✅ All critical imports verified')
    "

3. Import Dependency Graph (scripts/verify_imports.py)

Static analysis tool that:

  • Parses all Python files for import statements
  • Builds dependency graph
  • Verifies all imported symbols actually exist
  • Runs in CI before merge

Key Learnings

  1. Inter-module dependencies are fragile: When Module A imports from Module B, changes to B can silently break A
  2. Force pushes are dangerous: They can silently discard commits without warning
  3. Import errors are silent killers: They crash the entire application before any logic runs
  4. Scheduled workflow failures need monitoring: Multiple consecutive failures should alert immediately

RAG Query Keywords

  • import error
  • missing function
  • ModuleNotFoundError
  • ImportError
  • debate_agents
  • mental_toughness_coach
  • get_prompt_context
  • get_position_size_modifier
  • psychology integration
  • scheduled workflow failure
  • force push
  • rebase
  • consolidate

Prevention Rules

  1. Apply lessons learned from this incident
  2. Add automated checks to prevent recurrence
  3. Update RAG knowledge base
  • LL_009: CI syntax failure (Dec 11) - Similar “import time failure” pattern
  • LL_010: Dead code and dormant systems (Dec 11) - Code exists but isn’t connected

Checklist for Future PRs

  • Run python3 -c "from src.orchestrator.main import TradingOrchestrator" locally
  • If adding new imports, verify the symbols exist in target module
  • Never force push to main without verifying all imports still work
  • Check CI “Verify Critical Imports” step passed before merging