Template-Derived Date — Stale Recompute (Liquid / Computed Fields)

Platform note: The questionnaire does re-run computation on value changes via #runComputation → Liquid then Specter. For “derived date wrong after edit”, consider both template/Liquid issues (1–4) and whether the app build includes #15092 for (5) — do not assume template-only root cause when the symptom matches SPD-42840.

Distinguish from:

Available MCP Tools

Slack / Jira

• Search the incident channel for computation text, before/after field slugs, and confirmations from template owners.
• Jira: SPD-42840 (Dream11 end date — example backlog link; use for regression and fix tracking).

BigQuery — Optional ContractData inspection

Run BQ queries one at a time — parallel execute_sql calls often return 500 errors.

To confirm persisted blanks after repro (adjust dataset per cluster — same mapping as contract-computation-null-propagation):

SELECT id, source, is_completed, data, modified
FROM `spotdraft-prod.prod_india_db.public_contracts_v3_contractdata`
WHERE contract_id = {contract_id}
ORDER BY modified DESC
LIMIT 5

Look for sd_expiration_date (or the customer’s slug) unchanged in data while sd_effective_date / sd_term_length did change — supports stale-assign / conditional-skip theory.

Groundcover / product docs

• Use Groundcover for API errors only if the symptom is backed by failed requests — pure derivation issues are usually silent wrong values in blanks.
• SpotDraft Help — workflow / questionnaire behavior expectations.

When to Use / Not Use

Use when:

• Derived date (end, expiry, renewal) wrong after editing effective date, term length, or similar dependency.
• Template uses Liquid assign + plus/minus on duration objects and date filters for comparisons.
• Legal/support reports “worked at first setup, breaks when they change fields.”

Do not use when:

• Field is blank from the start on some contracts → contract-computation-null-propagation.
• Currency defaults / times on money → conditional-default-currency-questionnaire-triage.
• Report/email expiry reminders wrong → expiry-report-missing-contracts or recurring-reports-post-offboarding.

Step-by-Step Investigation Workflow

Step 1 — Capture identifiers

From Slack or the ticket:

• {workspace_id}, {cluster}, {contract_id} (if any), {template_id} / workflow manager link
• Exact slugs for effective date, term, derived end date (example: sd_effective_date, sd_term_length, sd_expiration_date)

Example (Dream11, Mar 2026): WSID 456675, cluster IN, workflow manager path referenced in incident: .../workflow-manager/8516/details.

Step 2 — Reproduce in app

1. Create or open a contract on the same template / workflow.
2. Set effective date + term → record derived end date.
3. Change effective date or term → confirm whether derived date updates.

If it does not update, continue — triage template computation and frontend merge behavior (Step 3 and Step 3b).

Step 3 — Export and read the template computation

Pull the full template computation (Django Admin questionnaire / Metabase by template_id — URLs as in contract-computation-null-propagation).

Checklist on the Liquid:

• Is derived date assigned only inside {% if ... %} with no {% else %} that sets the slug to nil when guards fail?
• Are there two {% assign same_slug = ... %} lines in a row where the second reads the slug assigned on the previous line? Try temp variable pattern (see Mitigation).
• Search for date: " and verify no stray spaces in format strings (must be "%Y-%m-%d", not "%Y-%m -%d").
• Is the derived field a computed field in product configuration with explicit dependencies, or only Liquid text?

Step 3b — Confirm frontend fix for date merge (SPD-42840 class)

If the ticket references SPD-42840 or the same symptom as Dream11 (NDA TPP / effective + term → end date):

• Check whether the environment’s angular-frontend release includes PR #15092 (mergeBlanks: replace-only when source or existing value is a date object).
• Before that fix: wrong or stuck dates can be platform corruption on merge, not only Liquid. After deploy: if the issue persists, rely on the Step 3 template checklist and Step 4.

Step 4 — Confirm / disprove

Step 5 — Mitigation and escalation

• Platform (SPD-42840): Ship / verify angular-frontend#15092 so date-shaped blanks are replaced, not recursively merged, in mergeBlanks (questionnaire-form.service.ts).
• Immediate template mitigation (Liquid — pattern from incident engineering review):
  • Wrap main derivation in if with {% else %} assigning nil to the derived slug when prerequisites are missing.
  • Use temp_expiration (or similar) for intermediate plus/minus, then one assign into the customer-visible slug.
  • Use "%Y-%m-%d" consistently for string compares against now.
• Structural fix: Convert derived date to a computed field with explicit dependencies on effective date and term (effective_date + term_length - 1 day or product-equivalent).
• Escalate to template pod / frontend if product does not expose computed dependencies, if computation not firing on field change (network traces + #runComputation), or if post-#15092 repro still shows corrupt date objects in blanks after merge.

Known-Good Liquid Pattern (Example — Adapt Slugs)

Illustrative only; confirm against your template’s types and tags:

{% if sd_effective_date and sd_term_length and sd_term_length.value and sd_term_length.type %}
  {% parseAssign one_day = '{"value": 1, "type": "DAYS", "days": 1}' %}
  {% assign temp_expiration = sd_effective_date | plus: sd_term_length %}
  {% assign sd_expiration_date = temp_expiration | minus: one_day %}
{% else %}
  {% assign sd_expiration_date = nil %}
{% endif %}

{% if sd_effective_date %}
  {% assign parse_sd_effective_date = sd_effective_date | date: "%Y-%m-%d" %}
  {% assign current_date = "now" | date: "%Y-%m-%d" %}
  ...
{% endif %}

Do not copy blindly: variable names, duration shape, and additional blocks (sd_date_of_request, etc.) must match the live template.

Angular Code Path (Orientation)

• Liquid + Specter computation in questionnaire: libs/questionnaire/questionnaire-form/src/lib/questionnaire-form.service.ts — #runComputation, #getValuesPostComputation.
• Blanks merge (SPD-42840 / #15092): same file — private mergeBlanks. Used when combining persisted vs unsaved values and computation output; date objects must be replace-only so derived dates stay valid after dependency edits.
• Liquid engine entry: libs/liquid-ng/src/lib/utils.ts — getBlanksAsObservable / parseAndRender mutates scope after render.
• Specter computed formulas: libs/specter-langium/src/lib/specter-evaluator.ts — evaluateSpecter skips when dependencies missing (returns null); relevant when migrating from Liquid to computed fields.

Use these when correlating “does the client re-run computation?” and “are date fields intact after merge?” with observed behavior; they complement template correctness.

Related Incidents / Links

Connections to Other Skills

• contract-computation-null-propagation — null / missing operand chains.
• conditional-default-currency-questionnaire-triage — currency + computation order.
• edit-template-questionnaire-contractdata-split — if confusion is edit template vs contract questionnaire state.