sorry

sorry marks unfinished Python code as structured debt that CI can find and refuse to ship.

It is not a productivity aid. It is a nagging conscience for the build pipeline. Standard TODO comments are a graveyard of good intentions. sorry makes them load-bearing: structured metadata, an AST scanner, and a calendar.

Install

pip install pysorry

The distribution is pysorry. The import is sorry.

Mark the hole

Two markers. Use whichever fits the shape of the unfinished thing.

Runtime marker

from sorry import sorry


def reconcile_authority(step):
    return sorry(
        "corrective monotonicity not discharged",
        issue="AG-27",
        owner="agent-gov",
        expires="2026-06-01",
    )

sorry(...) always raises UnprovenObligation (an AssertionError subclass). The return type is NoReturn, so type checkers treat anything after it as unreachable.

Decorator marker

from sorry import unfinished


@unfinished(
    "corrective monotonicity not discharged",
    issue="AG-27",
    expires="2026-06-01",
)
def corrective_never_mints_authority(step) -> bool:
    ...

The decorator runs cleanly at import time. The wrapped function raises UnprovenObligation when called.

Scan the hole

sorry list src tests

Lists every obligation. Always exits 0.

sorry check src tests

Exits 1 if any obligation exists. No warn-only mode. No per-path policy file. The tool is binary by design: either the debt is discharged, or the build is broken.

Metadata

All fields are optional except the reason. All values must be string literals when scanned — non-literal metadata is reported as invalid.

Status

Each obligation lands in one of three buckets:

• OPEN — unresolved, not yet expired
• EXPIRED — today > expires
• INVALID — non-literal metadata, malformed expires, missing reason, etc.

sorry check fails on any non-empty bucket. Expired and invalid are visually separated in output, but they fail the same gate.

Scanner limitations

The V0 scanner is import-aware but not scope-aware. It tracks from sorry import … and import sorry [as …] at the module level, but it does not model lexical scope. Two consequences:

• A function-local import (def f(): from sorry import sorry as s) leaks its alias to the rest of the module — calls to s(...) in sibling functions will be reported as obligations.
• A parameter or local variable named sorry (or matching an alias) shadows the import at runtime, but the scanner will still flag calls to it.

In practice this means: keep sorry imports at the top of the file and don't shadow them with locals. Scope-aware resolution may land in a later release; until then, the limitation is documented and the false-positive shape is predictable.

Non-goals

• No --warn-only flag.
• No pyproject.toml policy section.
• No per-path config.
• No pytest plugin.
• No "discharge" subcommand. To discharge an obligation, delete the call.

The tool is meant to stay tiny. If you need governance, build it elsewhere.

License

Licensed under Apache-2.0. See LICENSE and NOTICE.