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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)
1.2 Launch and supervise fresh general-purpose agent, opus alias, stamped claude-opus-5-5[1m] 009a252, 8f2c7d3 337,053 subagent tokens (harness total); harness duration 11,929 s
1.3 Phase tests, smoke the Athanor, claude-opus-5-5[1m], own Bash; no fallout agent needed this run-log commit smoke calls $0.49 client estimate (+ the killed fork, no result)

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.

Block 1.3 — Phase tests and live smoke

  • Model: claude-opus-5-5[1m] (the Athanor, own Bash)
  • Start / end: 2026-10-16 15:50:01 +0200 / 15:55:50 +0200 (date)
  • Done:
    • Gates after 1.2 (15:50): G-unit exit 0, Ran 69 tests in 52.065s, OK; G-where exit 0. Leftover-process check by command line (_supervise, the tests' temp prefix, stub): none.
    • Live smoke per plan §7 "Phase 1 tests and smoke", in the scratch clone (…\scratchpad\headless-forks-p0\clone, HEAD 9d3ddc1, clean), run log …\headless-forks-p0\smoke1\2026-10-16-15-smoke-run.md, state dir beside it. Every wait ran from Bash with timeout: 600000. Briefs in …\smoke1\brief-*.md.
      • init --model claude-opus-5-5 --cwd <clone> → exit 0; binary via CLAUDE_CODE_EXECPATH (2.1.299); admission "exact id in the clone's .claude/settings.json".
      • train --base B1 (read 3 Spire files, no edits) → wait --all exit 0: ok, 11.6 s, base context 23,676, cost $0.2129.
      • fork --block S1 (sequential; write, git diff --check, commit, note) → wait --all exit 0: cache: hit, fingerprint: ok, models_used: ["claude-opus-5-5"], note notes/S1.md, clone commit 38e2605, cost Δ $0.0878.
      • fork --block S2 → wait --all exit 0: hit, ok, same model, note notes/S2.md, commit 447b6cd, cost Δ $0.0953.
      • continue --job j0002 (append a line, commit) → wait --all exit 0: ok, commit a54bb59, cost Δ $0.0955 (= its raw total_cost_usd 0.39614 − S1's 0.30066).
      • fork --block K1 (long read loop) → wait j0005 --timeout 25 exit 3 (running, 5 turns) → kill --job j0005: snapshot supervisor python.exe 25952, conhost.exe 11208, claude.exe 29560, conhost.exe 5932; taskkill_rc 0; survivors: []. Independent check by pid + creation time: all four dead. Command-line sweep (smoke1, _supervise, the clone path): nothing. → wait --all exit 4 (killed, reason: kill, tokens and cost null).
      • list → …\smoke1\list-final.json.
    • First-request cache reads (raw streams): S1, S2, K1 each 23,674 of the base's 23,676 (0.9999); the continue 27,192 (the fork's own longer prefix).
    • All five streams ran claude_code_version 2.1.299. raw/j0002.env.json carries CLAUDE_CODE_EXECPATH (the 2.1.299 path) and SPIRE_FORKS_CHILD=1, and none of CLAUDE_CODE_MESSAGING_TOKEN, VIRTUAL_ENV, CLAUDE_EFFORT.
    • No visible window: checked during S1, the continue and K1 (supervisor + claude.exe + 2 conhost.exe each): no visible window of the tree, no visible console or Windows Terminal window on the desktop.
    • Ledger vs results (…\probes\smoke_ledger.py): 5 ledger lines, 5 result files; for every job, status, flags, tokens, cost_delta_usd, cache, fingerprint, models_used, session, parent_session, turns, kind, block, base are equal in both; every cost Δ equals the raw total_cost_usd difference.
    • Phase-end tests (15:55): G-unit exit 0, Ran 69 tests in 51.915s, OK; G-where exit 0.
  • Smoke results (from the ledger):
Job Kind Block Status Cache Fingerprint Models used in out cache write (1h) cache read Cost Δ Turns Wall s
j0001 train — ok — ok claude-opus-5-5 4 1,004 23,674 16,913 $0.2129 4 11.6
j0002 fork S1 ok hit ok claude-opus-5-5 12 1,452 3,518 152,790 $0.0878 6 18.6
j0003 fork S2 ok hit ok claude-opus-5-5 12 1,670 3,885 154,044 $0.0953 6 23.1
j0004 continue S1 ok hit ok claude-opus-5-5 12 1,777 3,263 168,958 $0.0955 8 20.1
j0005 fork K1 killed (kill) hit ok — — — — — — 6 26.0

Ledger file: …\headless-forks-p0\smoke1\2026-10-16-15-smoke-run-forks\ledger.jsonl (5 lines; not committed, it is scratch).

  • Deviations from plan: none in the smoke steps. The plan's "kill leaves no claude process behind" was checked by recorded pid + creation time (A18) and by a command-line sweep, not by process name.
  • Flagged for review:
    • jobs/<job>.json turns counts assistant message ids (2 for the training) while the result's turns is num_turns (4). Only the result/ledger value is reported; the job-file field is a progress counter. Harmless, but two meanings under one name.
    • The continue result's cache verdict is computed against the base context (27,192 / 23,676 → hit); its parent_session is the base session, not the fork it continues (1.2's documented choice).
    • Supervisor survival across the end of the Athanor's turn is still untested: every smoke job finished or was killed inside this turn (the procedure forbids hand-back with running jobs anyway).
    • The smoke base is small (23,676 tokens); the large-base behaviour was covered in P0.2, not re-run through the helper.
  • Left for later: Phase 2 (warmth inference, pings, rebase, usage, tick).
  • Expected broken: rebase, usage, tick exit 2 "not implemented" (Phase 2).
  • Commits: no code; only the run-log commit that adds this note and the Phase 1 close (📝 Headless forks Phase 1: smoke results and phase close).

Phase 1 close

  • Gate: G-where after 1.1, 1.2 and at phase end — exit 0 each time, one JSON object.
  • Tests: G-unit at phase end (15:55) — exit 0, 69 tests, 51.9 s. Live smoke — all plan §7 Phase 1 criteria met (above). No fallout block was needed, so no fix agent ran.
  • Flags for the reviewer (each with its block):
    • Phase 0 (handed over by Igor as flags for this review): every deviation and flag in "Block 0" and "Phase 0 close" above — P0.6 started before P0.1 (c) finished; --no-hardlinks clone; six tool-less calls outside the clone (main checkout, worktree); separate scratch dirs for --agent and P0.8; (d) produced with TaskStop because the Bash tool backgrounds at timeout; effort case run inside P0.2; rung-3 runs r3-main/r3-tkill on 2.1.283; P0.8 in an untrusted dir; effort unobservable; orphan background command; P0.6 ping read 0.916; visible windows before the fix and the retest; the 20-min clone; the clock jump.
    • 1.1: preamble.md written in 1.1 instead of 1.2 (the digest moved it: init hashes it).
    • 1.1: every deviation and "Flagged for review" line of its note — argparse sets declared early; N3 guard in the dispatch; --help as JSON; internal-error exit 2; extra init flags and nested thresholds; where --binary; two extra preamble lines; effort/permission-mode value sets (effort checked against claude --help 2.1.299 by the Athanor: match); per-run mcp path in the fingerprint hash; comma-splitting outside parentheses; stale-lock race window; invalid settings skipped, [] admits nothing; ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL kept and listed as unknown; access-denied treated as alive; /tmp-style paths; the permissive model regex.
    • 1.2: every deviation and "Flagged for review" line of its note — float --max-minutes; lost reaper before the cap and killing the leftover tree; immediate kill on the restriction warning; post-exit descendant sweep; no overrides on train; wait --all "settled" semantics; the reason vocabulary (timeout has reason: null); precedence of failure reasons; null usage without a result; train last_hit from its last event; continue without template, its parent session and cost basis; note detection; failed-base name reuse; kill of a finished job; the kill/finalise race (stale lock, possible duplicate ledger line); last_orchestrator_call_at at wait start/end only; stall on any stdout line; pid-reuse guard untested; spawn_failed only visible in wait.
    • 1.2: not tested — POSIX path, --agent drift, pid-reuse guard.
    • 1.3: the four flags in its note.
    • Phase 1 as a whole: the contract digest docs/workpad/plans/2026-10-16-12-headless-forks-phase1-contract.md (commit 670401d) is an Athanor-written brief that pins semantics the build plan left open (state layout, CIM command, scrub additions incl. CLAUDE_CODE_EXECPATH and SPIRE_FORKS_CHILD, reason fields, the init idempotency rule, C8 admission rule). The reviewer should check it against the build plan rather than take it as given.
  • Not run / untested: supervisor survival past the Athanor's hand-back; POSIX; a large base through the helper; stalled with a real claude (stub only); lost with a real claude (stub only).
  • Spend (Phase 1): live smoke $0.49 client estimate (total_cost_usd of the four completed calls' deltas; the killed fork reported none). Unit tests spend nothing (stub). Subagent tokens: 1.1 211,075; 1.2 337,053 (harness totals); the Athanor's own unknown.
  • Processes at hand-back: none from this phase (command-line sweep at 15:54, and the suite's own teardown check).
  • Status: provisional until review, fix pass and re-check close.

Phase 1 fix pass

  • Model: claude-opus-5-5[1m] (fixer, own tools, no agents dispatched)
  • Start / end: Fri Oct 16 16:11:40 WEDT 2026 / Fri Oct 16 16:27:01 WEDT 2026 (date; this note and its commit followed)
  • Review: docs/workpad/reports/2026-10-16-16-headless-forks-phase1-review.md. Fixed: I1, I2, I3, M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M9. Not touched (deferred by the Athanor): M6, M7, M8, M10–M16.
  • Done, per finding (each test fails on the unfixed 20b049e helper; checked by running the new tests against it in a scratch copy: 18 failures, 11 errors, 0 passes):
    • I1 — _conclude: model_refused only on the restriction warning, or when models_used is non-empty and lacks the requested id. New api_error_reason(result) sets usage_limit (429, or "usage limit"/"rate limit"/"hit your limit"/"API Error: 429"), overloaded (529 / "overloaded"), prompt_too_long, api_error (any other status, or "API Error" text); reason_detail = api_error_status <n>: <first 200 chars of result/error text>. Precedence: model refused > no result > API error > is_error > non-zero exit. Stub: error now bills nothing (no assistant events, empty modelUsage delta); new apierr=<status> and errtext=<words_with_underscores>. Tests: RuleTests.test_api_error_reason, LaunchTests.test_api_errors_are_not_model_refused (each new reason end to end + substitution still model_refused), LaunchTests.test_failures_flags_and_drift (its error case is now the empty-delta path and still reads is_error).
    • I2 — process_tree(rec, alive_until): for a dead root, a direct child is taken only if its creation time is after the root's recorded one and at most alive_until + 1 s (the job-file times are whole-second ISO). No recorded ctime or no alive_until → a dead root claims nothing. Below a claimed (live, pid + ctime verified) child the old rule applies. The live-root path is unchanged. New epoch_to_ctime (Windows FILETIME; POSIX /proc/stat btime × CLK_TCK) and last_alive_at(rt) (later of heartbeat_at, ended_at). kill_tree passes alive_until through; reap_lost and kill_job pass the job file's last-alive time; the supervisor's own calls pass time.time(). Tests: ProcessTreeTests (fake process table, process_table/proc_ctime/pid_alive patched, nothing real touched): test_dead_root_claims_only_children_from_its_lifetime (reused-pid child after the heartbeat and a pre-job process with the dead pid as stale ppid are not claimed, the genuine child and its later child are), test_dead_root_without_bounds_claims_nothing, test_live_root_unchanged, test_reap_lost_bounds_by_heartbeat.
    • I3 — only a fork's first assistant event (supervisor, hit_written = kind != "fork") and the training's last event (_conclude) refresh the base's last_hit; a continue no longer does. Test: LaunchTests.test_continue_leaves_base_last_hit (also checks a following fork still refreshes it).
    • M3 — new SupClock: a tick gap > CLOCK_JUMP_S (60 s; the tick is 0.25 s) is a jump; gap minus one tick is left out of the max_minutes elapsed time, and the orphan watchdog counts from the later of the last orchestrator call and the jump (one more orphan_after). A jump is logged to sup.log (stderr) and adds flag clock_jump. Tests: RuleTests.test_sup_clock_jump; LaunchTests.test_clock_jump_not_orphaned_or_timed_out (a real Supervisor run in-process under an injected _now that jumps 2 h one second into a 3 s stub call, orphan_after 600, --max-minutes 1: ends ok with clock_jump, jump logged; the unfixed helper ends it timeout).
    • M2 — a lock is stale only when its holder pid + ctime is dead, or it is older than LOCK_ABANDONED_S = 300 s (every critical section is a few small JSON read-modify-writes: ms, at worst seconds of PermissionError retries; 300 s is two orders above that and only matters for a holder that cannot be judged). Breaking: rename the lock to a unique registry.<hex>.broken.lock, delete it only if its content is the one judged stale, else put it back without overwriting (Windows rename, POSIX link + unlink). A failed break falls through to the deadline check and the sleep. LOCK_STALE_S is gone. Tests: LockTests.test_unbreakable_stale_lock_respects_deadline (rename/remove of the lock raise PermissionError: returns "registry locked" within the 0.5 s deadline; the unfixed helper spins), test_fresh_lock_taken_during_break_survives (a fresh lock swapped in at the moment of the break survives; no .broken.lock left), test_dead_holder_lock_broken_at_once, test_abandoned_lock_broken_by_age.
    • M1 — finalize_job writes the result, then the registry (the once-only guard), then the ledger line; ledger_append skips a job that already has a line (under the lock) and starts a new line after a torn last line. Test: AtomicTests.test_ledger_append_dedupes_by_job.
    • M4 — CHILD_REFUSED adds kill, expire, init (exit 2, message names the command and "inside a fork"). stamp_orchestrator/touch_orchestrator do nothing when SPIRE_FORKS_CHILD is set (all five stamp sites go through them). Tests: CliTests.test_child_refuses_kill_expire_init, CliTests.test_child_does_not_stamp_orchestrator.
    • M5 — PERMISSION_MODES = acceptEdits, auto, bypassPermissions, manual, dontAsk, plan; plan still refused; default is now "unknown permission mode" (its allowed list omits plan). Test: InitTests.test_permission_modes_match_2_1_299.
    • M9 — ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL on SCRUB_KEEP. where always carries warnings (list); one entry when the variable is set and, trailing slash and case ignored, not https://api.anthropic.com; exit stays 0. Test: CliTests.test_where_warns_on_base_url (unset, default, default with slash, a gateway URL).
  • Behaviour changes to existing tests:
    • LockTests.test_stale_lock_broken → test_dead_holder_lock_broken_at_once: the lock is fresh but its holder is dead (a dead-holder lock is now broken at once, no 30 s wait). The old fixture's pid: 1 without ctime would be "alive" on POSIX.
    • test_garbage_stale_lock_broken_by_mtime and test_stale_under_injected_clock_and_safe_release: the age bound is LOCK_ABANDONED_S (300 s) instead of LOCK_STALE_S (30 s).
    • test_fresh_lock_not_broken: the holder is this live process (pid 1 is dead on Windows, which now means stale); it also checks a fresh garbage lock is not broken.
    • ScrubTests.test_unknown: ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL is no longer in scrub.unknown (it is keep).
    • Stub error directive: bills nothing (previously billed three turns to the requested model). test_failures_flags_and_drift expectations unchanged.
    • The timeout reason_detail reads "run time over max_minutes" (was "wall time"); no test asserts it.
  • Gates:
    • G-unit uv run plugins/spire/skills/forks/tests/test_forks.py → exit 0, Ran 86 tests in 68.942s / OK (16:25:33–16:26:42; was 69 tests / 52 s).
    • G-where uv run plugins/spire/skills/forks/forks.py where → exit 0, one line, one JSON object, ok: true, spawn: cim-hidden, binary 2.1.299 via CLAUDE_CODE_EXECPATH, warnings: [].
    • Leftover processes: none (16:27, Get-CimInstance Win32_Process by command line: the tests' temp prefix, _supervise, the scratch copy of the old helper); also the suite's tearDownModule.
    • No live claude calls (stub only).
  • Flagged for the re-check:
    • I2: children a dead root spawned in the last heartbeat interval (up to 10 s before it died) are not claimed. Missing a few is the price of never killing an unrelated process. The supervisor's post-exit sweep is unaffected (it passes time.time()).
    • I2: on POSIX without /proc/stat, epoch_to_ctime is None, so a dead root claims nothing there.
    • M2: one residual case. Waiter A renames a lock aside, finds a fresh lock L2 (not the stale one), and tries to put it back. If a third waiter C created a lock in that microsecond gap, the restore fails: L2 stays aside (logged, named registry.<hex>.broken.lock, matched by .gitignore's *.lock) and both L2's holder and C believe they hold the lock. The old code could delete a fresh lock outright in the two-waiter case. release is still check-then-remove (token read, then os.remove), as before; not in this pass.
    • M3: the stall measure (quiet) still uses the wall clock, so a suspend also sets stalled (a flag, no kill). wall_s in the result stays wall time, suspend included. A backwards clock jump is not treated as a jump.
    • M3: kill/expire still do not refresh the orchestrator stamp. That is for the Phase 3 text, as the review says.
    • I1: the text patterns are a heuristic over result/error/errors; the status code wins when present. A result with is_error: false and no api_error_status is never classified.
    • M9: an empty ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL counts as "set, not default" and warns.
  • Commits: 7b9b748 (code and tests), then this note's commit.

Phase 1 fix pass — Athanor check and deferred Minors

  • Athanor claude-opus-5-5[1m], 2026-10-16 16:28 +0200 (date). Fixer: fresh general-purpose agent, opus alias, stamped claude-opus-5-5[1m], 258,611 subagent tokens (harness total).
  • Gates re-run by the Athanor: G-unit exit 0, Ran 86 tests in 67.444s, OK; G-where exit 0, one JSON object, ok: true, warnings: []. Leftover processes by command line (_supervise, the tests' temp prefix, smoke1): none.
  • Diff check of 20b049e..7b9b748 on tests/test_forks.py: one removed assertion line, scrub_unknown(...) == ["ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL", "CLAUDE_CODE_NEW_THING"], replaced by == ["CLAUDE_CODE_NEW_THING"]; that is M9's specified change. The lock tests were renamed or rebased on the new staleness rule, which is M2's specified change. No other assertion was removed or loosened.
  • Deferred Minors (not fixed in this pass; coordinator's instruction):
    • M6 (runtime fingerprint ignores skills, versionless plugins): drift detection is Phase 2 work (rebase_due/retrain_due inputs); fix it there with the drift reasons.
    • M7 (per-run mcp-empty.json path in the hash): no cache effect; hash content instead of path when the trial needs cross-run comparison (Phase 5).
    • M8 (visible-window unit check is tree-scoped, no positive control, fails without a desktop): the smoke used the global detector; widen the unit check in Phase 2's test pass.
    • M10 (train refuses launch-field overrides; plan §4.3 allows them): a contract decision for the Phase 2 plan (retrain_due needs an input path); not a Phase 1 defect.
    • M11 (note detection by existence only): low impact; compare mtime against job start in Phase 2.
    • M12 (kill report shapes killed:true,status:ok and ok:false with exit 0): Phase 3 text keys on ok and status.
    • M13 (Git Bash /tmp-style paths land on the cwd's drive): the Athanor always passes drive-form paths; cygpath or refusal in Phase 2.
    • M14 (POSIX kill misses claude; no /proc on macOS): POSIX is out of the tested scope; SKILL.md says "Windows-tested, POSIX untested" (Phase 3).
    • M15 (C8 admission is the union of three files; untrusted dirs untested): SKILL.md records "permissive at init, enforced at runtime" (Phase 3); the runtime warning check backstops it.
    • M16 (two meanings of turns; post-exit sweep breadth; continue brief without frame): rename the job-file field in Phase 2; the other two are Phase 3 text.
  • Status: fix pass done; re-check of I1–I3 by a fresh reviewer is Igor's call.
  • Igor, 2026-10-16: re-check clean (docs/workpad/reports/2026-10-16-17-headless-forks-phase1-recheck.md, 60fdea0); the fixer's residual flags accepted as Minor; Phase 1 closed. Phase 2 folds in R1 (new), M6, M7, M8, M10 (decision: follow plan §4.3, train takes overrides), M11, M13, M16 and a billed-error test.

Phase 2 — Bookkeeping

Intake 2026-10-16 16:41 +0200, Athanor claude-opus-5-5[1m]. Start commit 60fdea0. Contract digest for the block owners: docs/workpad/plans/2026-10-16-16-headless-forks-phase2-contract.md (Athanor-written; pins the ping, rebase, retrain and usage semantics left open, and the folded items).

Deviation from the build plan's block table: M8, M16 and the billed-error test go to 2.1; M6, M7, M10, M11, M13 to 2.2; R1 to 2.3 (each lands in the block that already touches that code). init may change config after bases exist (Phase 1 refused it) because, with M10, that is the input path for retrain_due: defining:<fields>. init --warm-margin-s is added as a tunable so the smoke can reach expiring without a 54-minute wait.

Block Owner (model id) Commit Tokens (if known)
2.1 Warmth and keep-warm fresh general-purpose agent, opus alias, stamped claude-opus-5-5[1m] fff43a0, db6f068 320,462 subagent tokens (harness total)
2.2 Rebase and re-train flags fresh general-purpose agent, opus alias, stamped claude-opus-5-5[1m] 5fda2e2, 9cd98b5 350,639 subagent tokens (harness total)
2.3 Usage rendering fresh general-purpose agent, sonnet alias, stamped claude-sonnet-5-5 4b92b51, 45b4c55 187,248 subagent tokens (harness total)

Gate after 2.1 (Athanor, 16:59): G-unit exit 0, Ran 102 tests in 84.544s, OK; G-where exit 0. Diff check 571a3d6..fff43a0 on the tests: three removed assertion lines; the window assertions moved into the widened test_no_visible_window (M8), and the running[] key set changed turns → messages (M16). Nothing loosened.

Gate after 2.2 (Athanor, 17:25): G-unit exit 0, Ran 112 tests in 120.036s, OK; G-where exit 0. Diff check 4446827..5fda2e2 on the tests: four removed assertion lines, all in the former test_changed_values_after_base_refused (now ..._allowed), the specified change of init after a base exists; the /tmp path case moved to the M13 tests. Nothing loosened.

Gate after 2.3 (Athanor, 17:36): G-unit exit 0, Ran 130 tests in 130.584s, OK; G-where exit 0. Diff check c2ce3f4..4b92b51 on the tests: the removed assertions are the usage "not implemented" test (specified: usage is now implemented); usage joined test_commands_need_init. Nothing loosened.

Test cadence (user instruction via Igor, received 17:36, effective from here on): no repeated full-suite runs. Between blocks a cheap gate only (uv run python -m py_compile on forks.py, plus at most the test classes the block touched); children do the same. The full suite (about 130 s now) runs once at phase end, and again only if that run fails and something is fixed. Live calls only where a criterion cannot be proven offline, batched at the end. Up to this point every block gate in Phases 1 and 2 had been a full G-unit run (the earlier default); the 17:36 run after 2.3 is the last code change of Phase 2 so far and serves as the phase-end full run unless the smoke forces a fix.

Block 2.1 — Warmth and keep-warm

  • Model: claude-opus-5-5[1m]
  • Start / end: Fri Oct 16 16:42:41 WEDT 2026 / Fri Oct 16 16:57:23 WEDT 2026 (date; the end is the code commit, this note followed)
  • Done (forks.py, tests/test_forks.py):
    • TTL inference (infer_ttl): after every call on a base that has a result (train, fork, continue, ping; failed calls that billed too), base.ttl_s = 3600 if it wrote ephemeral_1h, 300 if it wrote only ephemeral_5m, else the previous known value; base.ttl_from = that job. With nothing known, warmth uses the config's ttl_s. ttl_downgrade on a result whose call wrote 5m and no 1h tokens (any kind).
    • Warmth (base_warmth): ttl = the base's inferred TTL, else config; margin = init --warm-margin-s when set (new config key warm_margin_s, default null), else max(120, ttl/10). Output gains ttl_s, margin_s (so list base rows show them; fork's launch return keeps its fixed shape). list base rows also show ttl_from, ping_in_flight. cold_start (C5) now follows the inferred TTL through base_state_at_launch.
    • Ping rule (ping_decision): pings on → base active with a session → state expiring → no ping in flight → activity → pings_since_real_call < break_even; the first failing condition is the why (pings_off, status:<s>, state:<s>, in_flight:<job>, no_activity, cap:<n>/<be>). break_even in integer hundredths: 19 at 1 h, 11 at 5 min (floats give 18 for 1.9/0.1).
    • Pings (tick_pass): kind ping, own job id, --resume <base session> --fork-session --session-id <new> --max-turns 1, prompt PING_PROMPT = Reply OK, launch fields from launch_record(base, cfg), the same CIM hidden spawn, result and ledger line through the normal finaliser. Cache verdict as a fork's; ok + hit/partial refreshes last_hit to the ping's first assistant event (at finalise); a miss, a failed/killed/lost ping, or no assistant event adds ping_missed and leaves last_hit. Not in the cap (_running_capped already counts only fork/continue).
    • C3(d): the decision, the job entry and base.ping_in_flight = <job> are written in one locked registry write; the finaliser clears the mark (any status); a mark whose job is no longer running does not block.
    • Tick: in every supervisor every TICK_SUP_S = 60 s (first after 60 s); in wait at its start and every TICK_WAIT_S = 30 s (skipped inside a fork); tick --run R by hand (new command, N3-refused: tick added to CHILD_REFUSED; out of the not-implemented set). Tick failures inside wait/the supervisor are logged, never raised (safe_tick).
    • wait: stamps run.last_wait_at (start and end; not from a fork); --all excludes pings; naming a ping job is exit 2; pings = every finished ping result of the run not returned before (each once, also on exit 3); pings never enter done or the exit code.
    • M16: the job file's progress counter is messages; wait's running[] entries and list's running job rows carry messages too. Result, ledger and registry turns stay num_turns.
    • M8: new test_no_visible_window (Windows; skipped when EnumWindows sees no visible window): positive control = a CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE python with SW_SHOWMINNOACTIVE and a marker title, detected as a new ConsoleWindowClass/CASCADIA_HOSTING_WINDOW_CLASS window (or one with the marker title), then killed at once and its window checked gone; then, during a hanging fork with a grandchild, 5 samples of (a) no visible window owned by any pid of the job's tree, (b) no console/Terminal window that was not there before the launch. The old window lines left test_kill_tree_and_no_visible_window, now test_kill_tree (its kill and CIM-parent assertions unchanged).
    • Billed error: stub directive billed (with error or apierr=<n>: the requested model bills its turns, then the result is an error); test_error_after_requested_model_billed: failed/is_error and failed/api_error, models_used = the requested id, cost Δ > 0, never model_refused.
    • Stub also honours --max-turns and a ttl=5m directive (writes land in ephemeral_5m).
    • Tests: 16 new (102 total). WarmthTests (pure, injected clock): boundaries at 1 h and 5 min (inferred and configured), --warm-margin-s override at both TTLs; TTL inference 1h-only, 5m-only, both, read-only (prev 3600 / 300 / none), nothing; ttl_downgrade; break_even; eligibility per state, status, pings off; activity window (wait 599/601 s, running fork/continue, ended 590/610 s, train/ping do not count); caps 19 and 11 (failed pings count, other bases' do not, a real call resets); in flight and stale in-flight; pings not in the cap. TickTests (real state dir and lock, spawn and binary check stubbed): two concurrent tickers that both judged the base eligible launch exactly one ping (barrier inside the binary check), third ticker skips, finalise clears the mark, next tick pings again; tick command JSON and N3 refusal; nothing-to-do pass takes no lock; binary missing skips. LaunchTests: M8, billed error, TTL downgrade + cold_start against the inferred 300 s + back to 3600, ping end to end (launched by wait's tick, returned once in pings, argv, partial refreshes; tick by hand: miss and failed ping → ping_missed, last_hit unchanged; mark cleared; three ledger lines), tick cadence in wait (≥ 3 calls, none in a fork) and in an in-process supervisor (≥ 3 calls; job file has messages, not turns).
  • Gates:
    • G-unit uv run plugins/spire/skills/forks/tests/test_forks.py → exit 0, Ran 102 tests in 86.227s / OK (16:53:54); second run exit 0, Ran 102 tests in 84.680s / OK (16:55:42–16:57:07). No new test skipped on this host (M8 ran).
    • G-where uv run plugins/spire/skills/forks/forks.py where → exit 0, one line, one JSON object, ok: true, binary 2.1.299, warnings: [].
    • Leftover processes: none (Get-CimInstance Win32_Process by command line: the tests' temp prefix, _supervise, poscontrol; only the sweep itself matched); also the suite's tearDownModule.
    • No live claude calls (stub only).
  • Existing tests changed (none loosened):
    • CliTests.test_phase2_not_implemented: tick removed (implemented now); test_commands_need_init gains tick.
    • LaunchTests.test_kill_tree_and_no_visible_window → test_kill_tree without the window block; the window assertions moved, widened, into test_no_visible_window; assertGreater(len(all_windows), 0) became a skip (M8's specified change).
    • LaunchTests.test_wait_exit_codes: running[0] key set has messages instead of turns (M16).
    • Stub: error still bills nothing unless billed is given.
  • Deviations from plan (digest):
    • TTL after a read-only call (or one with no cache activity) keeps the previous known TTL, also when that was 300. The digest's literal rule gives the configured ttl_s there (3600). A read of a 5-minute entry keeps it a 5-minute entry, and reporting 3600 would show a 5-minute base as warm for an hour (no ping, an unannounced cold start). With nothing known, the configured ttl_s applies, as the digest says.
    • M16 goes beyond the job file: wait's running[] and list's running rows say messages, because they expose the same counter. This changes the Phase 1 digest's running: [{…, turns}] shape.
    • Pings read launch fields via launch_record(base, cfg) = base.launch if present, else cfg.launch. No base has its own record until 2.2 (M10); fork/continue still build from cfg.launch and are 2.2's to switch.
    • wait ticks at its start as well as every 30 s, so every wait call is a tick point (short waits would otherwise never tick).
    • wait refuses an explicit ping job id (exit 2) instead of silently routing it.
  • Flagged for review (semantics I chose):
    • Activity: a fork/continue job running now or ended within 600 s, or run.last_wait_at within 600 s. tick --run by hand is not activity and does not stamp last_orchestrator_call_at.
    • "Pings since the last real call" is by job number (launch times have whole seconds); every ping status counts.
    • break_even uses the 1 h write ratio for any TTL > 300, the 5 min one otherwise.
    • Ping job: PING_MAX_S = 300 s wall limit, block/phase null, cost and modelUsage basis = the base's cumulative (like a fork), cwd = the launch cwd, head_at_launch null.
    • The binary check for a ping runs before the lock (subprocess --version); a missing binary skips that base with why: binary_missing and records no job. A base that turns eligible between the unlocked look and the locked one waits for the next tick.
    • The supervisor's tick runs in its own loop, synchronously: a ping launch holds that loop for the CIM spawn (1–3 s). The supervisor's os.environ is the child env (SPIRE_FORKS_CHILD=1), so tick_pass has no N3 check of its own; N3 is enforced by the tick command and by wait skipping its tick in a fork.
    • A supervisor ticks first after 60 s: jobs shorter than that never tick from their supervisor (wait covers them).
    • last_hit from a ping is set at finalise, not as the first event arrives (the refresh depends on the final status and the verdict).
    • The TTL is inferred from every call with a result, failed ones included; killed/lost calls (no result) leave it.
    • M8: the positive control is minimised and not activated (SW_SHOWMINNOACTIVE, still IsWindowVisible) so it does not take focus. The desktop-wide diff fails the test if the user opens a console or Terminal window during the ~1 s sample window.
    • In-process supervisor test prints a ResourceWarning for the claude stdout pipe that Supervisor.run never closes (pre-existing, harmless in the real detached supervisor).
  • Not tested: a ping launched by a supervisor's own tick end to end (the supervisor's tick is tested with a recording tick_pass; the launch path is the same function, tested from wait's tick and tick --run); real claude with --max-turns 1 through the helper (P0.6 used it by hand); POSIX.
  • Left for later: rebase, rebase_due/retrain_due reasons, per-base launch records (2.2); usage (2.3).
  • Expected broken: rebase, usage exit 2 "not implemented" (2.2, 2.3).
  • Commits: fff43a0 (code and tests), then this note's commit.

Block 2.2 — Rebase and re-train flags

  • Model: claude-opus-5-5[1m]
  • Start / end: Fri Oct 16 17:01:30 WEDT 2026 / Fri Oct 16 17:23:20 WEDT 2026 (date; the end is the code commit, this note followed)
  • Done (forks.py, templates/rebase.md (new), tests/test_forks.py):
    • rebase --run R --base B --as NEW --brief FILE [--phase N] [--max-minutes] [--max-budget-usd]: a fork of B (--resume <B session> --fork-session --session-id <new>, B's launch record), prompt templates/rebase.md (absorb the listed notes and diffs, do not change code or commit, update the trunk notes if the brief names a path, reply READY) + delta header + brief. Returns {job, base: NEW, parent: B, session_id}. On ok the finaliser creates NEW (active, parent, lineage_rebases = B's + 1, base_commit = HEAD at the end, context_tokens from the last assistant message, launch = B's record with the binary it ran under, fingerprint, overrides inherited, phase = --phase, last_hit = the call's last assistant event, runtime_fingerprint of the call, cost cumulative, rebase_job) and sets B superseded (superseded_by). Any other status: B stays active, NEW is never created. Counts toward parallel_cap (CAPPED_KINDS), N3-refused, refuses launch-field overrides, a non-active B, an existing (non-failed) NEW, a NEW a running rebase will create, a B already being rebased; train also refuses a name a running rebase will create. Cache verdict and cold_start as a fork's (against B's context); its first event refreshes B's last_hit.
    • rebase_due reasons (due_flags): phase_boundary, commits:<n> (git rev-list --count <base_commit>..HEAD > rebase_commits), lines:<n> (git diff --shortstat <base_commit> insertions + deletions > rebase_lines), delta_tokens:<n> ((delta header + listed notes) chars // 4 > rebase_delta_tokens), binary_drift, runtime_drift:<fields>. retrain_due reasons: defining:<fields>, max_base_tokens:<n>, rebases:<n> (≥ max_rebases), binary_missing. On fork's launch return (fixed shape, reasons = rebase reasons then retrain reasons) and per active base in list. fork, continue and rebase refuse binary_missing with exit 2 (the refusal carries reason, retrain_due: true, reasons: ["binary_missing"]), train refuses with reason: binary_missing when its binary is gone, and a tick skips the base (why: binary_missing, as in 2.1).
    • init after bases exist is allowed (replaces Phase 1's refusal): the config is replaced, the output gains bases; a base without its own record (from before 2.2) first gets the old config as its record. This is the input path of defining:.
    • M10: train takes --model --effort --permission-mode --tools --allowed-tools --disallowed-tools --agent --cwd --binary as overrides, validated by the same build_launch as init (alias refusal, plan refusal, C8 admission, agent file, binary). The base stores launch (its record), fingerprint (hash of it) and overrides (sorted field names given). fork, continue, rebase and pings build their command line, cwd, delta header and model_requested from launch_record(base).
    • M6: the runtime fingerprint adds sorted skills; a plugin without a version is name@path:<last path segment> (name@ with no path). A reference without skills (a pre-M6 base) is not compared on it. Drift shows as runtime_drift:<fields>.
    • M7: fingerprint_hash hashes fingerprint_view(launch): the mcp entry becomes its content {"strict": true, "servers": {}}; the path stays in the config. Same launch → same hash in any run.
    • M11: entries record created_ts (precise); a result's note is set only when the note's mtime ≥ created_ts − 2 s (NOTE_MTIME_SLACK_S, for coarse Windows file times).
    • M13: a /-rooted path that is not a drive form (/tmp/x, /usr/...) goes through cygpath -w (find_cygpath(), patchable); no cygpath or a failing one → exit 2 naming the path. Native \x keeps its Windows meaning; //server/... is untouched.
    • Stub: the init event carries a versionless skill-creator plugin and skills; directives nover=<segment>, skill=<name>.
    • Tests: 10 new (112 total). PathTests: M13 without cygpath (refusals, drive forms unaffected, init --run /tmp/... exit 2 with nothing on the cwd's drive) and with a fake cygpath (called with -w, drive forms skip it, failing cygpath refused, the real cygpath on this host does not give G:\tmp\x). InitTests: M7 (two runs, different mcp paths, equal hash; same hash from a second process; content counts). RuleTests: M6 (versionless path segment, skills, order-insensitive, pre-M6 reference), M11 boundaries. LaunchTests: every reason alone through fork's launch return (clones of a trained base, spawn stubbed for the fork launches; runtime_drift from a real stub fork; max_base_tokens from the stored context and from a synthetic transcript with a 64-byte tail window; binary_missing refusal) and the base-level ones in list; train overrides recorded and used by fork and continue, init model change → defining:model only on the base that did not override it, override validation; M11 end to end (old note, note written during the job, continue); rebase end to end (phase boundary → rebase → new base active / old superseded → fork of the new base hit against the new context → failed rebase leaves the base active, nothing created → refusals, N3 → binary drift recorded by the next rebase); rebase in the cap, blocking a second rebase and a train of its name, killed → base active, nothing created.
  • Gates:
    • G-unit uv run plugins/spire/skills/forks/tests/test_forks.py → exit 0, Ran 112 tests in 119.326s / OK (17:18); final run exit 0, Ran 112 tests in 120.043s / OK (17:21:09–17:23:10), after the phase_boundary change below. No test skipped on this host.
    • G-where uv run plugins/spire/skills/forks/forks.py where → exit 0, one line, one JSON object, ok: true, binary 2.1.299, warnings: [], spawn: cim-hidden.
    • Leftover processes: none (Get-CimInstance Win32_Process by command line: the tests' temp prefix, _supervise, poscontrol; only the sweep's own shell matched); also the suite's tearDownModule.
    • No live claude calls (stub only).
  • Existing tests changed (none loosened; each is a specified change):
    • InitTests.test_changed_values_after_base_refused → test_changed_values_after_base_allowed: the digest lets init change config after a base exists, so the exit-2 / "base exists" / bytes-unchanged assertions became: exit 0, changed, launch.effort in changed_fields, bases == ["B1"], config updated, the record-less base got the old config as its record. The "identical values → unchanged" check stays (now also bytes-equal).
    • PathTests.test_windows_forms: the case /tmp/x → G:\tmp\x removed (M13 forbids it); the two new M13 tests cover that input.
    • CliTests.test_phase2_not_implemented: rebase removed (implemented); test_commands_need_init gains rebase.
    • LaunchTests.test_train_fork_continue_end_to_end: the note notes/1.1.md is now written right after the fork launches (the fork gets sleep=1), because M11 counts only notes written during the job; its assertions are unchanged.
    • LaunchTests.test_refusals: the launch-field override loop also covers rebase.
  • Deviations from plan (digest):
    • The new base always records the binary the rebase ran under (current version/size/mtime). Without drift that equals B's record, so this is the digest's rule written once.
    • rebase returns train's shape plus parent.
    • None against the build plan.
  • Flagged for review (semantics I chose):
    • phase_boundary: the literal "or" — the fork's phase > the highest phase of the base's forks, or > the base's own phase; a side that is unknown does not count; integer phases only. So forks of phase 2 from a base of phase 1 keep reporting it until a rebase. Fork jobs of any status count; continues and rebases do not. A rebased base's phase is rebase --phase, else null (not inherited).
    • delta_tokens: "notes listed in the brief" = every *.md token in the brief that resolves to an existing file (absolute; else under the base's cwd; else under the state dir), each once; the brief itself is not counted. list (no brief) counts the delta header only.
    • lines is the working tree against base_commit (uncommitted changes count), as git diff --shortstat <base_commit> gives.
    • runtime_drift: "the last call on this base" = the highest job number with this base that reported an init event, any kind but train (forks, continues, pings, rebases); calls without an init event (killed early, spawn failed) are skipped. Stored per job as runtime_drift (null when no init).
    • defining: field names: model, cwd, tools, permission_mode, agent, append_system_prompt (the preamble is reported as append_system_prompt, as the existing launch drift names it), comma-joined in one reason. Effort, allowed/disallowed tools and binary are not defining (the digest's list). The agent is re-hashed from <cwd a launch would use>/.claude/agents/<name>.md; a missing file differs.
    • max_base_tokens: transcript <~/.claude/projects>/<cwd with non-alphanumerics → '-'>/<session>.jsonl (CLAUDE_PROJECTS_DIR overridable), read from the tail (256 KiB, growing ×4); stored context when absent. Only tested with a synthetic transcript.
    • list computes the flags for active bases only (others false / []); per active base 4 git calls, plus one --version per distinct binary path.
    • train: a field not given comes from the config at train time; the whole record is rebuilt and re-validated even without overrides (C8 admission runs again; the binary's current version/size/mtime are recorded). --tools alone does not re-derive allowed_tools. There is no way to clear the config's agent on train. Train results no longer report drift:binary against the init config (the base records the binary it trained with).
    • A rebase that ends ok after its NEW name was taken by another base (only possible through a failed-name train) creates nothing, leaves B active and notes rebase_conflict on the job entry. Untested.
    • A rebase's first event refreshes B's last_hit also when the rebase then fails (it read B's prefix). NEW's training_cost_usd is the rebase's cost delta; its forks' cost basis is the rebase's cumulative total.
    • Rebase jobs are not "activity" for the ping rule (2.1's rule unchanged: fork/continue running or ended in 10 min, or a wait).
    • M11's 2 s slack: a note written up to 2 s before the job was created still counts.
    • M7: the hash view uses the constant empty server set (the helper always writes mcp-empty.json itself). Registries from before 2.2 get a new fingerprint value on the next changed init.
    • M13: paths in a brief that would need cygpath and cannot be converted are skipped by delta_tokens, not refused.
  • Not tested: the rebase_conflict path; defining: for agent, append_system_prompt, cwd, tools, permission_mode (only model is tested end to end; the comparison code is shared); train --cwd/--agent/--binary overrides; a base from before 2.2 in list/fork; a real transcript; rebase with a real claude; POSIX.
  • Left for later: usage (2.3).
  • Expected broken: usage exits 2 "not implemented" (2.3).
  • Commits: 5fda2e2 (code, template and tests), then this note's commit.

Block 2.3 — Usage rendering

  • Model: claude-sonnet-5-5
  • Start / end: Fri Oct 16 17:27:48 WEDT 2026 / Fri Oct 16 17:35:17 WEDT 2026 (code commit; this note follows)
  • Done: usage --run R [--block ID | --phase N] [--format json|md] in forks.py (the "not implemented" stub is gone; --block and --phase are mutually exclusive; PHASE2_COMMANDS is now empty, so usage no longer tolerates unknown arguments).
    • R1: reconcile_ledger runs first in every usage. It lists results/*.json; when every one has a ledger line it returns without taking the lock. Otherwise, under the registry lock, it re-reads the ledger and appends a line for each result without one (ledger_append dedupes on job id). The line is rebuilt from the result plus its registry entry (started, ended, binary, cost_cumulative_usd; None when there is no entry) and carries "reconciled": true. Corrupt result files are skipped with a stderr note. The json output lists the job ids appended in reconciled.
    • json: kinds (all five, zeros when unused: calls, input, output, cache_creation, cache_creation_1h, cache_creation_5m, cache_read, cost_usd), total, cold_starts, cache_hits, cache_verdicts, cache_hit_ratio (hits / fork+continue+rebase calls with a verdict; null when none), rows = the ledger lines in scope in job order, scope, reconciled.
    • md --block: one table with the fixed header, one row per call of the block (fork, its continues); thousands separators, $0.0000, session first 8 chars, null usage renders —. md --phase (and no scope): the per-kind table (kinds with calls only) plus a total row, then three bullets: cold starts, cache-hit ratio h/n (p%), priced total.
    • Commit column: the short hashes (7) of git rev-list --reverse <head_at_launch>..<head_at_end> in the job's cwd, comma-joined; — for a parallel fork, for no commits, or when either HEAD or git is unavailable.
    • head_at_end: new registry job field. The supervisor passes _git_head(cwd) to finalize_job(head_at_end=...) after claude exits (all kinds); finalize_job reads HEAD itself for a fork/continue that is killed or lost.
    • --format md stdout is written as UTF-8 bytes on sys.stdout.buffer (the header's Δ is not in cp1252); errors stay one JSON object, exit 2. usage is allowed under SPIRE_FORKS_CHILD.
  • Tests (new UsageTests, 18; one added to LaunchTests): md --block and --phase against a fixed ledger fixture (exact text), parallel Commit —, null usage —, unknown block (header only), json totals per kind and overall and by scope, errors stay JSON, N3, UTF-8 under PYTHONIOENCODING=ascii:strict, R1 (one line for a result without one, none for a result that has one, none on a second usage; no registry entry; torn ledger tail; waits for a held lock; no lock when nothing is missing; corrupt result), and head_at_end end to end with the stub (a commit made during a sequential fork shows in the Commit cell).
  • Existing tests changed (none loosened): CliTests.test_phase2_not_implemented removed (its only case was usage, now implemented); test_commands_need_init gains three usage cases (it asserts exit 2, one JSON line, and no state dir created).
  • Gates: G-unit uv run plugins/spire/skills/forks/tests/test_forks.py — exit 0, 130 tests, 131 s; G-where forks.py where — exit 0, one JSON line; leftover-process check by command line (forks-test- prefix, _supervise) — none.
  • Deviations from plan: none against the build plan or the digest. The Commit column lists hashes (build plan: "lists the commits"); the digest says "commits between", which I read the same way.
  • Flagged for review (semantics I chose):
    • A whole-run usage --format md (no scope) renders the phase layout (table + three bullets).
    • Call counts include calls with null usage (killed, lost): they add to calls and nothing to the sums. The cache-hit denominator counts only calls that have a verdict.
    • The md phase table omits kinds with zero calls; the json kinds always has all five.
    • ledger_from_result for a reconciled line takes ended from the registry entry, else from the result file's mtime; cost_cumulative_usd is None when the entry has no cost_cum_usd. R1 also reconciles a result whose registry entry still reads running (kill between the result write and the registry write); the later finaliser/reap_lost then finds its ledger line present and appends none.
    • usage stamps last_orchestrator_call_at like list (via touch_orchestrator; a fork's call does not).
    • head_at_end is HEAD of the job's cwd when the call ended, so with several forks on one tree it can include another fork's commit; only a sequential fork's Commit column is shown for that reason.
  • Not tested: usage over a ledger with rebase calls (same code path as the other kinds); a real claude run; POSIX.
  • Left for later: none for 2.3.
  • Expected broken: none.
  • Commits: 4b92b51 (code and tests), then this note's commit.