feat(loops): add observe and substrate loop proofs#194
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…loop The connective tissue that turns a one-way driver→worker pipe into a feedback loop. A worker can't see itself; observe() reads its TRACE and produces: - findings + an operator report (what to fix — split agent vs operator), fed back DOWN as a steer and OUT to the operator - durable corpus facts the NEXT run reads back (continuous self-improvement) Findings are trace-derived, never judge-derived (derived_from_judge:false) — the selector≠judge firewall. Harness-agnostic: reads a trace + output, so it watches opencode/codex/hermes/BYO identically. Built on agent-eval's ChatClient + AnalystFinding; persists to the existing Corpus. bench/src/fleet.mts: the whole vision end to end, runnable from a laptop — a thin local driver fans out N workers to CLOUD sandboxes, observes each trace, reports what to fix, banks learnings; run twice and the second run injects the first's learnings into the workers. Proven live (opencode × 2 cloud workers): the observer caught a real inefficiency (unbatched bash calls) and banked it.
The red-team flagged two FATAL design flaws: (1) parallel cloud workers share no filesystem, so accumulating loops (migration) integrate to nothing; (2) resume restores decisions, not the mutated workspace. This proves the fix — a git-backed durable workspace — on 3 dependency-ordered modules: - durable workspace = a bare git repo (models a remote branch); each worker is a FRESH clone (a fresh box's empty FS), torn down after commit+push. - PROVEN (a): worker b's fresh clone finds a.py ON DISK (git carried it, not a string of names); c finds b.py; the integration test imports a<-b<-c, links. - PROVEN (b): KILL after b, RESUME → a+b skipped (durable git has them), only c re-runs against a clone that already contains a+b's committed code, links. Verdict shift: migration moves from 'cut from the pitch' to 'buildable on a ctx.workspace handle'. The seam is git; the durable layer survives box teardown by construction. Next: a cloud variant uses a GitHub branch as the workspace.
drewstone
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Jun 8, 2026
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Approved after local release-gate verification: typecheck, tests, build, lint, package export verification, and merge-tree against origin/main. Runtime hook surface is additive; delegate harness/model support is covered by tests.
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Summary
observe()as the trace-derived third-person watcher that turns worker behavior into findings, reports, and optional corpus factsgitWorkspace/Shellport for clone/commit/push durable workspace loopsbench/src/observe-steer-workspace-loop.mts, the local substrate proof for: Supervisor/Scope -> coordination MCP tools -> git workspace ->observe()finding ->steer_worker/Scope.send-> corrective worker -> fresh-clone integration passScope, Supervisor,runLoop, validators, journals, MCP coordination, git workspace, andobservedefineLoopfacade/protocol, its exports, docs, example, and testsQuestion,QuestionDecision,QuestionPolicy,CoordinationEvent; no facade-eraLoopQuestiontypesAGENTS.md/CLAUDE.mdnow point to canonicaldocs/BUILDING.mdanddocs/ANTI_PATTERNS.mdloop-writer, the facade postmortem, and the docs index with the proof command and the "do not relocate protocol and call it simplification" guardrailDesign Notes
The post-audit API stance is deliberate: loops are not a new runtime grammar. They are ordinary agent code over the existing substrate.
observe()is the new load-bearing primitive;gitWorkspaceis the durable workspace seam; MCP coordination is the sandbox binding for the sameScopeverbs.The decisive local join is now proven by:
pnpm exec tsx bench/src/observe-steer-workspace-loop.mtsThat proof uses a mock
ChatClienttransport for the observer model call and local BYO worker executors so it is reproducible without cloud credentials. Honest remaining proof: run the same shape withopenSandboxRunworkers and a remote branch that a sandbox can clone and push.Docs placement is now explicit:
AGENTS.mdandCLAUDE.mdare bootloaders; durable build rules live indocs/BUILDING.md; named failure modes live indocs/ANTI_PATTERNS.md; evidence and postmortems stay underdocs/research/*/ memory.Validation
pnpm lintpnpm typecheckpnpm test -- --runInBand(67 files / 678 tests)pnpm exec vitest run tests/loops/workspace.test.ts tests/loops/coordination.test.ts --reporter=dotpnpm exec vitest run tests/loops/workspace.test.ts --reporter=dotpnpm exec tsx bench/src/observe-steer-workspace-loop.mts(INTEGRATION OK)pnpm buildpnpm verify:packagepython3 /home/drew/.codex/skills/.system/skill-creator/scripts/quick_validate.py skills/loop-writergit diff --checkgit fetch origin main && git merge-tree --write-tree origin/main HEADNotes
This PR remains draft. The next proof should be the cloud variant:
openSandboxRunworker plus remote git branch, without adding a new loop facade first.