reliquary/docs/workpad/reports/2026-10-16-08-headless-forks-run.md

Run log — Trained implementer, forked per block (spire:forks)

• Plan: docs/workpad/plans/2026-10-16-01-headless-forks.md · Build plan: docs/workpad/plans/2026-10-16-02-headless-forks-build.md
• Branch: headless-forks (worktree .claude/worktrees/headless-forks) · Start commit: d373689
• Trunk notes: docs/workpad/reports/2026-10-16-08-headless-forks-trunk-notes.md
• Athanor: claude-opus-5-5[1m] (installed Spire 0.2.2 shape) · Session journal: Igor's, docs/workpad/journals/2026-10-15-21-grotto-work.md (not touched by the Athanor)
• Forks: none yet (the helper does not exist until Phase 1)

Phase 0 — Preflight (STOP gate)

Block	Owner (model id)	Commit	Tokens (if known)
0 Preflight probes and report	the Athanor, claude-opus-5-5[1m], own Bash	7421d3a (+ this hash fill-in)	probe calls: $5.68 over 45 calls (client estimate, sum of per-call deltas); the Athanor's own tokens unknown

Block 0 — Preflight probes and report

• Model: claude-opus-5-5[1m]
• Start / end: 2026-10-16 08:16:26 +0200 / 2026-10-16 12:16 +0200 (last probe 10:13:01; date jumped from 10:13 to 12:16 across two consecutive commands, cause unknown, likely host suspend)
• Done: Worktree .claude/worktrees/headless-forks created on new branch headless-forks from d373689. Throwaway probes written and run from the Athanor's own Bash in the session scratchpad (…\scratchpad\headless-forks-p0\, not in git): P0.0–P0.8 in the build plan's amended order (P0.0, P0.1, start P0.6 detached via the P0.1 rung, P0.2–P0.5, P0.7, P0.8 while it ran, then collect P0.6). Preflight report docs/workpad/reports/2026-10-16-09-headless-forks-preflight.md with verdict, per-item results and the Phase 1 defaults. Nothing in plugins/ changed.
• Deviations from plan:
  • P0.6 was started once P0.1's rung 3 had passed (a), (b) and (d), before (c)'s 15 minutes were up, so the TTL clock started earlier. (c) passed later at 08:39–08:45; had it failed, P0.6 would have died with it and been restarted.
  • The scratch clone is git clone --local --no-hardlinks (hardlinks fail from G: to C:). Same content, same .claude/settings.json.
  • P0.5's model cases ran first in a copy of the project settings ($P0\p05-cwd), which turned out to be an untrusted workspace (project permissions.allow ignored). To get a trusted availableModels reading, five tool-less "Reply OK" calls ran with cwd = G:\dev\projects\reliquary (trusted) and one in the worktree (trust check). They cannot edit anything (--tools ""), but they are live calls outside the scratch clone, against plan decision 4's letter. They left transcripts under the reliquary project slug in ~/.claude/projects/. The unlisted-family case was run through --settings '{"availableModels":[…]}' instead, because reliquary lists all four family aliases.
  • P0.5's --agent test and P0.8 ran in separate scratch dirs (p05-cwd, p08-cwd) instead of the clone, so adding an agent and a skill could not change P0.2's prefix while it ran.
  • P0.1 (d): the Bash tool no longer kills a call at its timeout; it backgrounds it. (d) was produced with TaskStop on the backgrounded call, which kills the process tree. Recorded in the report.
  • The P0.5 effort-cache case ran inside the P0.2 probe (a --effort medium fork of the P0.2 base) instead of a separate base.
• Flagged for review:
  • The P0.1 verdict rests on the strict reading of (d) (launcher still alive when the Bash call is stopped). Rung 1 survives when the launcher has already exited (r1-dprime). Rung 3 is the ladder's answer; the reviewer may want to weigh rung 1 plus an exit-first launcher against rung 3's CIM env handling.
  • r3-main and r3-tkill ran PATH claude 2.1.283 (CIM env lacked CLAUDE_CODE_EXECPATH); survival evidence is unaffected, the binary is.
  • P0.8 ran in an untrusted workspace; the pre-approval "no" may differ in a trusted project.
  • Effort: a different effort did not miss the cache; whether --effort took effect is unobservable.
  • A fork that backgrounds a Bash command can leave an orphan process after claude exits (seen once on 2.1.283).
  • P0.6: the 50-min ping read only 0.916 of A's context (re-created 7,463 tokens, about the size of the shared system/tool prefix). Still a hit by C5 and the later fork read 1.0004; cause not isolated.
  • Visible windows (coordinator's message 09:52, user report): every rung-3 supervisor before the fix (P0.1 r3-*, the P0.2 and P0.6 probes) opened a visible console window (Windows Terminal) on the user's desktop. "No visible window" was added to P0.1's pass criteria and the surviving variant retested with Win32_ProcessStartup.ShowWindow=0 for the supervisor and CREATE_NO_WINDOW for every child: no window in 26 checks (plus 3 on an informational Popen CREATE_NO_WINDOW variant), including during claude → bash → PING; (a)–(d) and the tree-kill pass again. A positive control (r3-wincontrol, 15 s) showed the detector does see the old window. Recorded in the preflight report §P0.1.
  • $P0\raw\p01\ was not cleaned between runs; r3-kill2 finished unobserved during a 20-minute git clone (08:24–08:45).
• Left for later: the Phase 1 defaults listed at the top of the preflight report. Survival of a rung-3 supervisor across the Athanor's hand-back is untested (Phase 1 smoke).
• Expected broken: nothing (no product code yet).
• Commits: 7421d3a (report, run log, trunk notes), then a one-line follow-up filling in this hash. Probe commits in the scratch clone only (64dbefa, 9bfefb7, bb5514d, 0f72edb, 9d3ddc1), not in this repo.

Phase 0 close

• Gate: none named for Phase 0 (probes only, no code in the repo). Every STOP item checked against its criterion in the report.
• Tests: not applicable (no product code). Probe results and raw paths in the report.
• Flags for the reviewer:
  • Block 0: every deviation and flag above, one by one.
  • Block 0: check the report's numbers against $P0\raw\ (summaries *.summary.json, p03-usage.json, p02\state.json, p06\state.json, p07\p07.json, p08\p08.json, p01\<tag>\check-*.json).
• Not run / untested: survival past the end of the Athanor's turn; what effort changes; a trusted-workspace P0.8.
• Spend: $5.68 client estimate over 45 calls (trigger $25 not hit), plus three killed calls without a result (cents).
• Leftover processes: none. Swept at 10:13–12:16 by command line (headless-forks-p0, p01_sup, p01_sleeper, p06_ttl, p02_base) and by name (PING, sleep); the only hits were the Athanor's own Bash. One orphan was killed by hand earlier (sleep.exe pid 31372, from r3-kill).
• Open questions (for Igor and the user; none blocks Phase 1):
  • U4 is moot for reliquary: the sonnet/haiku aliases in availableModels admit their full ids. An unlisted model is substituted silently, not refused; C8's runtime model_refused must key on the system/informational warning or a modelUsage mismatch.
  • The Bash tool backgrounds instead of killing at its timeout. C2's timeout: 600000 rule stays, but A2's failure mode ("killed with no JSON") is now "backgrounded, notification to the subagent". Does the Phase 3 text want a line on it?
  • Rung 3 adds a PowerShell dependency (about 0.3 s per launch) and an env hand-off file. Rung 1 with a launcher that exits first would avoid both but dies if its launcher is in a stopped tree (e.g. pings launched from wait). The plan's ladder picks rung 3; the reviewer may weigh it.
  • P0.8: injection works in a subagent preload, pre-approval does not (untrusted dir). SKILL.md needs the allow-rule note; the trusted-project case is for Phase 4.
  • Forks that background a Bash command leave orphans after claude exits. Suggested default: a preamble line forbidding run_in_background in forks; Phase 1 decides.
• Verdict: GO (see the preflight report header).
• Status: provisional until review, fix pass and re-check close. Igor makes the GO/STOP call.
• Igor, 2026-10-16 ~12:18: Phase 0 accepted, GO, no separate review; the Phase 0 deviations go to the Phase 1 reviewer as handoff flags. Coordinator decisions: rung 3 hidden is the launch default (rung 1 only with a documented clean case); the fork preamble forbids run_in_background; kill/expire also sweep the fork's process tree; the model check keys on the warning event / modelUsage mismatch; "no visible window" is a permanent acceptance criterion in unit and smoke gates where testable; the binary is always the fingerprinted absolute path, and the env passed via CIM carries CLAUDE_CODE_EXECPATH or the explicit binary path.

Phase 1 — Helper core

Intake 2026-10-16 12:18 +0200, Athanor claude-opus-5-5[1m]. Start commit 83f6bac.

Block	Owner (model id)	Commit	Tokens (if known)
1.1 Skeleton, state, where, init	fresh general-purpose agent, opus alias, stamped claude-opus-5-5[1m]	d36ac2f, 85d1e14	211,075 subagent tokens (harness total)

Gate after 1.1 (Athanor, 12:29): G-unit Ran 52 tests … OK, exit 0; G-where exit 0, one JSON object. --effort values checked against claude --help 2.1.299 (low, medium, high, xhigh, max): match.

Block 1.1 — Skeleton, state, where, init

• Model: claude-opus-5-5[1m]
• Start / end: Fri Oct 16 12:20:48 +0200 2026 / Fri Oct 16 12:28:49 +0200 2026 (date; tests and gates finished by the end time, the note and commit followed)
• Done: New plugins/spire/skills/forks/forks.py (plan §2 PEP 723 header, stdlib only, LF): argparse dispatch for all 13 commands; exit codes 0/2/3/4 as constants; stdout = exactly one JSON object per call (argparse errors, --help and uncaught exceptions included); path normalisation (relative, G:\, G:/, /g/…, /c/…; POSIX abspath); state dir <run without .md>-forks with .gitignore (raw/, *.lock), mcp-empty.json, jobs/ briefs/ notes/ results/ logs/ raw/; registry.json "schema": 1; RegistryLock (create-exclusive, stale after 30 s, token-checked release); atomic temp-then-os.replace with PermissionError retries (40 × 50 ms) for writers and readers; ledger_append (caller holds the lock); _now() / _iso(); pid_record / pid_alive / proc_ctime (Windows OpenProcess + GetProcessTimes, POSIX /proc/<pid>/stat); git() always git --no-optional-locks; scrub constants (SCRUB_DROP, SCRUB_DROP_PATTERNS, SCRUB_KEEP, SCRUB_PINNED + CLAUDE_CODE_EXECPATH) and scrubbed_env(binary); supervisor_interpreter() (C6); SPAWN_METHOD (cim-hidden / setsid); where; init (all launch fields and defaults, fingerprint sha256 of canonical JSON, config extras incl. orphan_after 1200 and pings on, idempotency, C8 admission, all validation before any write). Launching and Phase 1 commands return {"error":"not implemented","block":"1.2"}, Phase 2 ones {"phase":2}, exit 2. New preamble.md (digest content, short). New tests/test_forks.py (PEP 723 + unittest, imports forks.py by path, 52 tests: path forms, state-dir derivation, scrub, lock contention in-process and across processes, stale-lock recovery by at, by mtime and under an injected _now, safe release after takeover, replace while a reader holds the target (retried, attempts > 1 asserted on Windows), registry schema, ledger, pid + ctime, init defaults / idempotency / change before and after a fake base / bad model ids / plan / unknown mode and effort / missing binary / agent, C8 exact / [1m] strip / family alias / no list / unlisted → exit 2 naming the files with settings untouched, where via uv run with a stub and with the host binary, error-case stdout invariant via uv run, unknown command, not implemented, --help, internal error, N3 guard). Stub binary generated at test runtime in tempfile (.cmd on Windows); USER_SETTINGS_PATH monkeypatched to a temp file, so no test reads ~/.claude.
• Gates:
  • G-unit uv run plugins/spire/skills/forks/tests/test_forks.py → exit 0, Ran 52 tests in 3.173s / OK.
  • G-where uv run plugins/spire/skills/forks/forks.py where → exit 0; stdout 1 line, a JSON object, ok: true (binary CLAUDE_CODE_EXECPATH 2.1.299, Python 3.13.1, uv 0.5.13, git 2.34.1.windows.1, spawn: cim-hidden). uv's Reading inline script metadata… line goes to stderr.
• Deviations from plan (digest):
  • Argument sets for the 1.2 commands are already declared in argparse from the digest (train --base --brief [--block --phase], fork --base --block --brief [--phase --mode --paths --max-minutes --max-budget-usd --force], continue --job --brief [--max-minutes], wait [jobs] --all --any --timeout, expire --base|--all, kill --job, _supervise --job). 1.2 may change them.
  • The N3 guard is already in the dispatch for train, fork, continue, rebase (exit 2 before "not implemented" when SPIRE_FORKS_CHILD is set); tick left for Phase 2.
  • --help returns {"help": …, "commands": […]} on stdout with exit 0 (keeps the invariant). Unknown extra arguments are a usage error (exit 2), except on the Phase 2 stubs, which tolerate them until Phase 2.
  • Uncaught exceptions: exit 2, {"error":"internal error","type","detail"}, traceback on stderr (the digest defines no code for it).
  • init takes more flags than the digest lists: --ttl-s, --stall-after-s, and one per threshold (--rebase-commits, --rebase-lines, --rebase-delta-tokens, --max-base-tokens, --max-rebases). Thresholds sit nested under config.thresholds. Config also carries binary_resolved_by and model_admission (how, not what; ignored by the change comparison).
  • where takes an optional --binary (tests use a stub) and also reports python.supervisor_interpreter, platform, scrub.drop_patterns; on failure it carries both reason and error.
  • preamble.md adds two lines beyond the digest: "nobody can answer a question mid-run" and "never push, rebase or reset" (mirrors the deny list).
• Flagged for review:
  • --effort is restricted to low|medium|high|xhigh|max and --permission-mode to default|acceptEdits|dontAsk|bypassPermissions|auto (plan refused). Both sets are assumed, not checked against claude --help.
  • Fingerprint launch dict: model, effort, permission_mode, tools, allowed_tools, disallowed_tools, mcp {strict, config path}, append_system_prompt {path, sha256}, agent {name, path, sha256} | null, cwd, binary {path, version, size, mtime}, env.pinned (only the two TTL/autoupdater vars; SPIRE_FORKS_CHILD and CLAUDE_CODE_EXECPATH are added at launch by scrubbed_env, outside the hash). The mcp config path is per run, so the hash differs between runs by construction.
  • --allowed-tools / --disallowed-tools are repeatable lists and each value is also split on commas outside parentheses (Bash(a,b) stays one rule).
  • Stale-lock breaking re-reads the lock and removes it only if unchanged; two breakers racing still have a narrow window. Release removes the lock only if its token is still ours. Lock wait is 45 s (longer than the 30 s stale age).
  • C8: an unreadable or invalid settings file is skipped with a stderr note; availableModels: [] counts as a list that admits nothing.
  • Host env has ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL; it is on neither list, so it is kept for the child and listed under scrub.unknown by where (the P0 probes kept it too and auth worked). The coordinator may want it on a list.
  • pid_alive treats ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED from OpenProcess as alive with an unverifiable creation time.
  • Git Bash paths whose first segment is not a single letter (/tmp/x) are treated as rooted on the cwd's drive, not mapped to Git's install dir.
  • The model regex is the digest's; it admits ids like claude-sonnet with no version.
• Left for later: everything the digest assigns to 1.2 (templates, launch, supervise, results, ledger lines, wait/list/expire/kill, no-visible-window test, run.last_orchestrator_call_at); Phase 2 commands.
• Expected broken: train, fork, continue, wait, list, expire, kill, _supervise exit 2 "not implemented" (block 1.2); rebase, usage, tick (Phase 2).
• Commits: d36ac2f (code, tests, preamble, this note), then a one-line follow-up filling in this hash.

Block 1.2 — Launch and supervise

• Model: claude-opus-5-5[1m]
• Start / end: Fri Oct 16 12:31:01 WEDT 2026 / Fri Oct 16 15:48:45 WEDT 2026 (date; the host clock read 12:31 at my first call and 15:42 at the first manual run, so the span includes a jump like the one Phase 0 saw; the gates ran 15:47:38–15:48:30)
• Done: forks.py gains train, fork, continue, wait, list, expire, kill, _supervise. Launch writes the job (registry index, status created) under the lock, briefs/<job>.md (template + brief) and raw/<job>.env.json (scrubbed env with CLAUDE_CODE_EXECPATH = stored binary and SPIRE_FORKS_CHILD=1), then spawns <base interp> -I forks.py _supervise --run --job through powershell (CREATE_NO_WINDOW) → CIM Win32_Process.Create with ShowWindow=0, command line and cwd passed in SPIRE_FORKS_CMD/SPIRE_FORKS_CWD; ReturnValue ≠ 0 ends the job failed/spawn_failed. The supervisor redirects its stdio to raw/<job>.sup.log, starts claude with exactly the env file and CREATE_NO_WINDOW (stored absolute binary path, full fingerprinted command line every call, --session-id on train and fork, --resume … --fork-session on fork, --resume only on continue, --max-budget-usd passed through), feeds the prompt on stdin, parses the stream (StreamState: init, message ids, first/last assistant usage, system/informational restriction warning, result), and is the only writer of jobs/<job>.json (heartbeat every 10 s). Watchdogs: max_minutes → kill tree, timeout; stall_after_s of no stdout → flag stalled; N1 orphan check every 1 s → kill tree, killed + orphaned; restriction warning → kill tree, failed/model_refused. Finalising (finalize_job, once, under the lock): results/<job>.json (plan §4.2 fields + paths, reason, model_requested), ledger line (design §6 + status, flags, reason), registry update (status, cumulative cost and modelUsage for the session, base last_hit; on train: base active with base_commit, context tokens, training cost, cumulative modelUsage, runtime fingerprint). Usage rule, usage_mismatch, cache verdict, cold_start, C1 warmth, fingerprint ok|drift:<fields> (launch: binary, append_system_prompt, agent; runtime: tools, permissionMode, plugins, agents, apiKeySource against the base's init). wait per C4, list (all bases with warmth, all jobs, running info), lost reaper (heartbeat > 120 s and supervisor pid + ctime dead), kill (Toolhelp32 tree snapshot with ctimes → taskkill /T /F → sweep with TerminateProcess by pid + ctime → verify up to 10 s), expire (retire, kill running jobs of the base, flag expired). Refusals: N2, N3, cap, launch-field overrides on fork/continue (each field accepted by the parser only to be refused), base not active without --force, continue of a running or non-fork job, missing binary (reason: binary_missing), base name taken. New templates/train.md and templates/fork.md (stale-snapshot sentence, delta header from git --no-optional-locks log --oneline <base_commit>..HEAD and diff --shortstat <base_commit>, commit rule per mode, note path, logs dir). preamble.md unchanged. Tests: 17 new (69 total): a generated stream stub claude (stub/claude.cmd → base interpreter -I stub.py, behaviour per call from @stub … lines in the brief, sessions kept beside it so resume/fork report cumulative modelUsage and total_cost_usd), real CIM launches with the stub as --binary, RuleTests on the real P0.2 seq-1 numbers, and a module-end check that no process whose command line contains the tests' temp prefix survives.
• Gates:
  • G-unit uv run plugins/spire/skills/forks/tests/test_forks.py → exit 0, Ran 69 tests in 52.001s / OK (suite wall 52 s; two earlier full runs at 68 tests: 51.7 s each, OK).
  • G-where uv run plugins/spire/skills/forks/forks.py where → exit 0, stdout one line, a JSON object, ok: true, spawn: cim-hidden, binary 2.1.299.
  • Leftover processes after the gates: none. Checked by command line (forks-test-, _supervise, my manual scratch run b12-manual) via Get-CimInstance Win32_Process, not by name; also asserted by the suite's tearDownModule.
  • Manual check (scratch run in the session scratchpad, stub binary): the supervisor's parent is WmiPrvSE.exe; its tree is python → conhost, cmd (claude) → conhost, python stub → python grandchild; kill snapshot 6 pids, taskkill_rc 0, no survivors.
• Deviations from plan:
  • fork --max-minutes and continue --max-minutes take a positive float (the tests use 0.06 min); init --max-minutes stays an integer.
  • fork/continue also run the lost reaper before the cap check (the digest names wait and list), so a dead supervisor cannot block the cap.
  • The lost reaper kills the job's leftover claude tree (from the job file) before marking it lost; the digest only says to mark it.
  • On the restriction warning the supervisor kills claude at once instead of letting the substituted model finish (saves the spend; the result still reads failed/model_refused).
  • After claude exits, the supervisor sweeps any descendants of it that are still alive (the "backgrounded sleep 240" trap); logged in sup.log.
  • train takes no launch-field overrides (the design's table allows them; the plan's invariant and the digest do not); they are usage errors there.
• Flagged for review (semantics the digest left open):
  • wait --all = every job not yet settled; a job is settled when it was in the condition of a wait that returned 0 or 4. done holds only results not delivered before. So the mixed case gives 3 (failed result in done), then 4 when the rest finish (the failed job stays in the condition without being returned again), then 0 on an empty set. Explicit job lists use the same delivery marks. --any: met when any member has finished (or the set is empty); exit 4 if any finished member is not ok. wait with neither jobs nor --all is a usage error; --timeout > 570 is refused (exit 2).
  • reason vocabulary: model_refused, is_error, exit_code, no_result, spawn_failed, launch_error, supervisor_error (failed); kill, expire, orphaned (killed); supervisor_dead (lost). timeout has reason: null (the digest: null unless failed/killed/lost). Details go to the registry's reason_detail (shown by list), not into the result or ledger.
  • Precedence when deciding a finished call: model refused > no result (exit_code if non-zero, else no_result) > is_error > non-zero exit. A model is "refused" when the warning appeared or the requested id (with [1m]) is not among the modelUsage keys that grew; extra models do not count.
  • Without a result event (killed, lost, died): tokens are all null, cost_delta_usd null, models_used [], turns = distinct assistant message ids seen; cache verdict still from the first assistant event if one arrived.
  • last_hit for a train is the time of its last assistant event (the full prefix is written there); for fork/continue the first, written to the base as soon as it arrives. A continue refreshes its base's last_hit.
  • base_state is null for train jobs; cold_start is only computed for fork/continue (a train is always cold).
  • continue sends the brief as given (no template; there is no templates/continue.md). Its parent_session is the fork's parent (the base session); its cost and modelUsage "before" are the fork session's last cumulative totals (updated by every continue), falling back to the base's when the fork has none (a killed fork: the delta then includes the killed fork's spend).
  • note = notes/<block>.md (block sanitised) if that file exists when the job ends, else null; fork.md tells the fork that path. Train jobs have note: null.
  • A failed training leaves the base failed; train may reuse a name only when that base is failed.
  • kill of a job that is no longer running exits 0 with killed: false and its status; survivors after the 10 s sweep give ok: false (exit still 0).
  • A kill that lands while the supervisor holds the registry lock to finalise leaves a stale lock (broken after 30 s) and, in a narrow window, a duplicate ledger line. kill marks kill_requested first; a supervisor that finalises after that records killed unless the call ended ok.
  • wait updates last_orchestrator_call_at at its start and end only (a 570 s wait stays under the 1200 s orphan_after).
  • Stall is measured on any stdout line, not only parsed JSON events.
  • process_tree follows parent pids through dead processes (so orphans of a dead claude are found) but stops at a node whose pid now belongs to a process with another creation time; this reuse guard is not exercised by a test.
  • spawn_failed shows up in wait, not in the launch return (the launch return is C1's fixed shape).
• Not tested: the POSIX path (setsid spawn, process-group kill, /proc tree) — written, never run; --agent drift (only the code path, no test); a real claude (no test spends tokens; Phase 1.3 smoke); supervisor survival across the end of the orchestrator's turn (1.3).
• Left for later: warmth inference, pings, rebase, rebase_due/retrain_due reasons, usage, tick (Phase 2); SKILL.md (Phase 3).
• Expected broken: rebase, usage, tick exit 2 "not implemented" (Phase 2).
• Commits: 009a252 (code, tests, templates, this note), then a one-line follow-up filling in this hash.