Merge pull request #175 from fiddlerwoaroof/docs/wave-agent-rules

wave skill: agent standing rules move into the repo; one home for the brief checklist (improvise-1f8e)

.agents/skills/wave/SKILL.md

@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ description: Dispatch parallel agents to work through open beads and shepherd ea
 
 An orchestrator chunks the open backlog, fans agents out, reviews what comes
 back, and merges. `AGENTS.md` has the history; this is the operating procedure.
+This file is the brief checklist's one home, and `agent-rules.md` beside it
+holds the rules each agent follows.
 
 ## Every agent gets its own worktree. No exceptions.
 
@@ -17,9 +19,8 @@ here. If you discover it mid-wave, stop every agent, have each create a worktree
 and copy across **only files it can prove it touched**, then `git checkout --`
 those files in the primary tree.
 
-In the worktree: `direnv allow`, or `bd` reports a version *mismatch* rather than
+In the worktree `.envrc` must be allowed, or `bd` fails confusingly:
-failing cleanly. `direnv status` prints `Found RC allowed 0`, and `0` means
+`agent-rules.md`, "Discipline per ticket".
-allowed — it reads like the opposite.
 
 ## Partitioning
 
@@ -33,32 +34,41 @@ it must cross. Two agents adding a workspace member will still collide in
 
 ## What every brief must carry
 
+**Point the agent at [`agent-rules.md`](agent-rules.md) and tell it to read it in
+full first.** That file is the agent's standing rules: base and push mechanics,
+the gate list, the claim, the vacuity shapes, evidence, the files it must not
+write, GitHub conventions, the hand-back and disk cleanup. Do not restate them
+in the brief. A restated rule drifts from its source, and the brief is the copy
+nobody corrects. The brief adds only what varies per wave:
+
 1. **The expected base commit, by name.** Worktrees do not reliably branch from
-   HEAD — one was created three merges behind and only noticed because it was
+   HEAD. One was created three merges behind and was only noticed because it
-   told to check.
+   was told to check. The agent checks against it: `agent-rules.md` rule 1.
-2. **The baseline**, so "N passing" is checkable rather than asserted: Rust test
+2. **A reference baseline**, so "N passing" is checkable and a drop is
-   count, harness counts, node counts.
+   visible: Rust test count, harness counts, node counts, **and the machine**.
-3. **Its ground, and the ground that is not.**
+   The same commit once measured `improvise-io`'s binary at 1.4s on one machine
-4. **Never write** `.beads/**`, `prolog-sessions/kb.pl`, `context/repo-map.md`.
+   and 3.7–5.2s on another, so a figure with no machine is a claim about the
-   Agents read them freely and report proposed text; the orchestrator applies it.
+   suite, which it is not. The agent still measures its own.
-5. **The commit trailers and PR footer**, spelled out.
+3. **Its ground, and the ground that is not.** Name any orchestrator-only file
-6. **Do not push to `main`, do not merge.** The orchestrator merges.
+   it is exceptionally allowed to edit.
-7. **What to report**: branch and head SHA, PR number, what changed per ticket,
+4. **Its `BEADS_ACTOR` and its tickets.**
-   *what could not be verified and why*, proposed repo-map/kb text, and **what it
+5. **The attribution line, commit trailers and PR footer**, spelled out.
-   learned that the ticket did not predict** — consistently the most valuable
+   They name the agent (Claude's line opens `_Posted by Claude (<model>)…_`)
-   part, and omitted unless asked for explicitly.
+   and this session's URL, which is why the shared `agent-rules.md` cannot
+   hold them.
+6. **An explicit ask for what the ticket did not predict.** `agent-rules.md`
+   lists it in the hand-back. Say it in the brief anyway: it is consistently
+   the most valuable part of a hand-back, and agents omit it unless asked.
 
-## Method to require, because this repo's defect is a test that passes
+When a hand-back teaches a new rule, add it to `agent-rules.md` in the same
+wave, not to the next brief.
 
-- Failing test first, then the fix.
+## Method to require
-- Every guard proved by **injecting the fault it names** and watching it fail
+
-  **by name**. An injection that does not compile reads as a clean run, so
+`agent-rules.md`, "Discipline per ticket" and "Gates": failing test first, a
-  require a positive signal the build ran.
+rival injected and watched failing by name, `--no-fail-fast`, and test *names*
-- `cargo test --workspace` is **fail-fast**; `--no-fail-fast` for any claim about
+diffed after any merge. Hold the hand-back to it. This repo's characteristic
-  blast radius.
+defect is a test that passes.
-- A textually clean merge can **delete tests** with no conflict marker, and
-  `cargo check` will not notice. After any merge that moves a test module, diff
-  test **names** — a count is masked by the other side's additions.
 
 ## Shepherding
 
@@ -72,7 +82,9 @@ it must cross. Two agents adding a workspace member will still collide in
   commit reads as a pass.
 - Merge on GitHub, then `git fetch gh && git merge --ff-only gh/main`.
 - Anything posted to GitHub goes out under the owner's account: open every
-  comment with a line saying a Codex agent wrote it.
+  comment with a line naming the model and saying an agent wrote it. That
+  wording is agent-neutral because this one file serves Claude and Codex
+  (`.claude/skills/wave` is a symlink to `.agents/skills/wave`).
 
 ## Between waves
 

.agents/skills/wave/agent-rules.md

@@ -0,0 +1,198 @@
+# Standing rules for a wave agent
+
+Every work-unit agent reads this **in full before its first command**. A brief
+points here and adds only what is specific to its wave: the expected base
+commit, the agent's ground, its `BEADS_ACTOR`, and its tickets. Every rule below
+was bought by a failure.
+
+This file holds each agent-side rule **once**. The brief checklist is
+`SKILL.md` beside it. Where `AGENTS.md` ("The Wave Workflow") carries a longer
+history, the rule here points there. Change a rule here, not in a brief, and
+not in a second copy.
+
+## Base, branch, push
+
+1. **Verify your base against the commit your brief names, first.** Run
+   `git log --oneline -1` and compare. Worktrees do not reliably branch from
+   the orchestrator's HEAD: one was created three merges behind, and it was
+   only noticed because the agent was told to look.
+2. **Branch from `gh/main`, never `main` or `origin/main`.** `git fetch gh &&
+   git checkout -b <branch> gh/main`. A worktree handed to you may already sit
+   on unpushed commits. Why: `AGENTS.md`, "Shipping a wave" (the two remotes
+   both spelled `main`, and the worktree-base vector).
+3. **Before opening a PR, check `git diff --numstat gh/main...<branch>`.** Do
+   not use `gh pr view --json files`: that is the union of your commits' files,
+   not the effective diff.
+4. **Push with an explicit refspec:** `git push gh HEAD:refs/heads/<branch>`. A
+   branch cut from `gh/main` tracks `gh/main`, so a bare push targets `main` and
+   is refused.
+5. **Before pushing a fix to an existing PR, check `gh pr view <n> --json
+   state`.** GitHub deletes a merged PR's branch. A push to it then prints
+   `* [new branch]` and lands nowhere. Why: `AGENTS.md`, "Shipping a wave".
+6. **The "Session Completion" block near the end of `AGENTS.md` does not apply
+   to you.** It says `git merge origin/main` and then a bare `git push`. On a
+   wave branch the first is the #145 trap and the second is refused (rule 4).
+   Rules 1–5 replace it. The block sits between bd's generated
+   `BEGIN/END BEADS INTEGRATION` markers, so it is not edited by hand
+   (improvise-x1uk).
+
+## Commit early: a worktree is not durable storage
+
+Commit a WIP as soon as your first test run is green, and again after every
+meaningful step. Push your branch (rule 4) once it is worth keeping. An agent
+finished a whole ticket with every gate green and lost all of it, uncommitted,
+when its worktree was deleted in a disk cleanup. A local commit survives a
+deleted worktree. Tidying history before the PR is fine; losing it is not.
+
+## Gates
+
+```
+direnv exec . cargo test --workspace --no-fail-fast
+direnv exec . cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings
+direnv exec . ./scripts/fmt-workspaces.sh          # NOT cargo fmt --all; exit 2 = the gate did not run
+direnv exec . python3 scripts/check-comment-runs.py --check-evidence
+direnv exec . ./scripts/checkers.sh
+direnv exec . ./scripts/node-test.sh 'web/tests/*.test.js'
+```
+
+- **Never `cargo fmt --all`.** It reaches only **one** of this repo's two
+  workspace roots, because `harness/opfs-contract` declares its own
+  `[workspace]`. The obvious repair is worse: `cargo fmt -p opfs-contract` from
+  the repo root exits **1**, *"not a member of the workspace"*, which looks
+  exactly like a real formatting failure (improvise-b4ks). Both spellings fail
+  in the direction that looks like success.
+- **Run every gate under `direnv exec .`.** `./scripts/checkers.sh` scrubs the
+  environment to an allowlist, so a bare run drops `tpl` off `PATH` and reports
+  spurious failures.
+- **Never pipe a gate.** `$?` must be the gate's own. And
+  `check-comment-runs.py --check-evidence` prints two lines with the comment
+  cap **first**, so `| tail -1` silently drops half of it.
+- **`--no-fail-fast`**, because plain `cargo test --workspace` stops at the
+  first failing binary. Use it for any claim about blast radius.
+- If you touch a browser-bundle crate (core, formula, io, protocol, command,
+  wasm-client, worker-server), also run
+  `cargo check --target wasm32-unknown-unknown -p <crate>` **for each crate**.
+  CI checks each one separately, so feature unification cannot hide a leak.
+- If you touch `web/` or `harness/`, run the Playwright suite in `harness/`.
+- **Measure your own baseline** before changing anything, and report it with
+  the machine it was measured on. A figure from the brief is a reference, not
+  your baseline.
+- **Merge `gh/main` and re-run every gate before calling a PR green.** Then
+  check that no test *disappeared*. Diff test **names**, not counts: a
+  textually clean merge can delete a test module with no conflict marker, and
+  the other side's new tests mask the loss in a count.
+- **The shell guard refusing a compound command means NEITHER part ran.** Split
+  the command. After a refusal, re-check the state it was meant to produce.
+- **Re-run the full suite after reverting an injected fault.** A revert applied
+  to the wrong occurrence once shipped two faults past every other gate.
+
+## Discipline per ticket
+
+- **Claim first:** `export BEADS_ACTOR=<your actor>` in every shell, then
+  `bd update <id> --claim`. Exit 13 means another actor holds it. Pick another;
+  do not retry.
+- **`bd` needs `.envrc` allowed in your worktree.** Without it you get a
+  **version mismatch**, not a clean failure. Run `direnv allow` in the worktree,
+  or rely on the `[whitelist] prefix` in `~/.config/direnv/direnv.toml`.
+  `direnv status` reports `Found RC allowed 0`, and `0` means **allowed** (the
+  enum is 0=Allowed, 1=NotAllowed). It reads like the opposite.
+- **Reproduce at HEAD before fixing.** A dozen tickets were stale-open in one
+  campaign, one fixed two days before it was filed. If it does not reproduce,
+  find the fixing commit, confirm with `git merge-base --is-ancestor <sha> HEAD`,
+  report the SHA, and close nothing.
+- **Write a failing test first, then inject a rival and watch it fail.** Run
+  it; do not reason about it. Report *where* it failed, by case name. An
+  injection that does not compile reads as a clean run, so get a positive
+  signal that the build ran.
+- **Check your test against every vacuity shape seen here:**
+  - an assertion the default state already satisfies;
+  - `f(x) == f(x)`: calling a pure `Cmd` twice against one immutable context;
+  - a disjunctive assertion whose other branch is the bug's own symptom;
+  - a rival that fails the *setup*, which proves the neighbouring question
+    (e.g. setup and subject share an `EffectKind`);
+  - a fixture that is right by accident (expected value 1, group at row 0,
+    bystander already on the relayed value);
+  - a fixture or stub that lacks the structure the hazard needs, or fails in a
+    wider shape than the real fault;
+  - hand-picked fixture cases where the set could be **enumerated**: four
+    vacuities in `fmt-workspaces-test.sh` were each a case nobody thought of
+    (improvise-90ea);
+  - a rendered-output test at a width where the thing asserted is never drawn;
+  - a fold test that batches differently from the real producer (a
+    `Binding::Sequence` is ONE effect vec);
+  - **the cursor at index 0**: "the item under the cursor" and "the first item"
+    are indistinguishable there, and that was four of five findings in one
+    review. Seat the cursor at a nonzero index of a list with at least two
+    elements;
+  - a determinism check against ONE context instance: every `HashMap` iterates
+    the same way twice. Build two equal contexts independently
+    (improvise-hzjo);
+  - two derivations of one fact where the fixture makes them agree (drawn vs
+    committed, edit text vs value, `1200` vs `1.23456789`). Use a value where
+    they disagree.
+- **Record each bug in `context/test-evidence/<area>.md`**, keyed by test name
+  (module-qualify the name when the leaf is not unique). It is append-at-EOF, so
+  **expect a conflict**. Keep both sides and verify line by line against both
+  parents: `--check-evidence` cannot see a dropped entry.
+- **Comment runs are at most two lines.** Reasoning goes in `context/`, not in
+  comments (`context/design-principles.md` §6).
+- **If the acceptance criteria look wrong, argue it** rather than following
+  them silently. Three agents inverted theirs in one campaign, and all three
+  were right.
+
+## Files you must not write
+
+`.beads/**` (never commit `issues.jsonl`, never `git checkout` it),
+`prolog-sessions/kb.pl`, `context/repo-map.md`: `AGENTS.md`, "Who owns what".
+Also `AGENTS.md`, unless your brief grants you a named section. Report proposed
+text for any of these in your hand-back.
+
+## GitHub
+
+- `gh` is shell-aliased to a different tool. Use
+  `nix shell nixpkgs#gh --command gh …`, and pass bodies with `-F body=@file`.
+- **Everything posted goes out under the repository owner's account.** Open
+  every PR body and comment with the attribution line your brief gives you,
+  verbatim. It names your agent and model, which is how our posts are told
+  apart from an automated Codex review (`AGENTS.md`, "Shipping a wave").
+- The attribution line, commit trailers and PR footer all come from your brief.
+  They name the agent and the session, so this shared file cannot hold them.
+- Read reviews with `./scripts/pr-reviews <n>`, and do not pipe it. How to tell
+  a ChatGPT Codex review from ours, and why Copilot is not coming: `AGENTS.md`,
+  "Shipping a wave". Answer each Codex review on its thread.
+- **Do not merge, and do not close beads.** Avoid stacked PRs. If you must
+  stack, never let the base branch be deleted.
+
+## Hand-back, per ticket
+
+Report:
+
+- your branch, head SHA and PR number. Review is dispatched against the SHA;
+- what changed, per ticket;
+- the claim result;
+- your measured baseline;
+- whether the ticket reproduced (the SHA if it did not);
+- the rival and where it failed;
+- what you could not verify, and why;
+- proposed repo-map and `kb.pl` text;
+- **what the ticket did not predict**, consistently the most valuable part.
+
+## Disk
+
+Each worktree's `target/` grows to 3–6G, and a full disk (ENOSPC) once stopped
+every agent. **When you hand back, delete your own build output, and only
+yours.**
+
+Run `pwd` and `git rev-parse --show-toplevel` first, and read the answer. Then
+delete by **literal absolute path**, typed out:
+`rm -rf /Users/.../.claude/worktrees/agent-<you>/target`.
+
+**Never interpolate a computed path into `rm -rf`.** One agent's worktree had
+been removed, so `$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)` printed nothing and the
+command became `rm -rf "/target"`. A guarded one-liner was tried, but the
+worktree shell guard refuses it as too complex, which pushed agents back to an
+unguarded form. A literal path is the version that is both allowed and safe.
+
+Keep your branch and any uncommitted work. Delete only `target/` (and
+`harness/opfs-contract/target` if you built it). If you see ENOSPC, stop and
+report rather than deleting anything outside your worktree.

.claude/skills/wave

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+../../.agents/skills/wave

.claude/skills/wave/SKILL.md

@@ -1,83 +0,0 @@
----
-name: wave
-description: Dispatch parallel agents to work through open beads and shepherd each to a merged PR. Use when an orchestrator is running a wave, partitioning the backlog, or writing a brief for a work-unit agent.
----
-
-# Running a wave
-
-An orchestrator chunks the open backlog, fans agents out, reviews what comes
-back, and merges. `AGENTS.md` has the history; this is the operating procedure.
-
-## Every agent gets its own worktree. No exceptions.
-
-Dispatch with `isolation: "worktree"`. Without it every agent edits the **same**
-working tree: one `git status` shows four agents' half-finished files, any commit
-sweeps up the others' work, and any `git checkout` destroys it. This has happened
-here. If you discover it mid-wave, stop every agent, have each create a worktree
-and copy across **only files it can prove it touched**, then `git checkout --`
-those files in the primary tree.
-
-In the worktree: `direnv allow`, or `bd` reports a version *mismatch* rather than
-failing cleanly. `direnv status` prints `Found RC allowed 0`, and `0` means
-allowed — it reads like the opposite.
-
-## Partitioning
-
-By **crate or directory**, never by ticket count. **Tickets that share a file go
-to one agent**, to be done sequentially — four widget migrations all touching
-`src/draw.rs` are a guaranteed conflict split four ways. Group first, then count.
-
-Tell each agent what ground is *not* theirs, and to report rather than guess when
-it must cross. Two agents adding a workspace member will still collide in
-`Cargo.toml`/`Cargo.lock`; keep both sides.
-
-## What every brief must carry
-
-1. **The expected base commit, by name.** Worktrees do not reliably branch from
-   HEAD — one was created three merges behind and only noticed because it was
-   told to check.
-2. **The baseline**, so "N passing" is checkable rather than asserted: Rust test
-   count, harness counts, node counts.
-3. **Its ground, and the ground that is not.**
-4. **Never write** `.beads/**`, `prolog-sessions/kb.pl`, `context/repo-map.md`.
-   Agents read them freely and report proposed text; the orchestrator applies it.
-5. **The commit trailers and PR footer**, spelled out.
-6. **Do not push to `main`, do not merge.** The orchestrator merges.
-7. **What to report**: branch and head SHA, PR number, what changed per ticket,
-   *what could not be verified and why*, proposed repo-map/kb text, and **what it
-   learned that the ticket did not predict** — consistently the most valuable
-   part, and omitted unless asked for explicitly.
-
-## Method to require, because this repo's defect is a test that passes
-
-- Failing test first, then the fix.
-- Every guard proved by **injecting the fault it names** and watching it fail
-  **by name**. An injection that does not compile reads as a clean run, so
-  require a positive signal the build ran.
-- `cargo test --workspace` is **fail-fast**; `--no-fail-fast` for any claim about
-  blast radius.
-- A textually clean merge can **delete tests** with no conflict marker, and
-  `cargo check` will not notice. After any merge that moves a test module, diff
-  test **names** — a count is masked by the other side's additions.
-
-## Shepherding
-
-- Wait on checks with `scripts/pr-watch <pr> --expect <sha>`. Never hand-roll a
-  poll; see the `pr-watch` skill for the three ways they report green while wrong.
-- Review before merging. Copilot's quota may be exhausted and its request is a
-  **silent no-op**; an absent review and an unrequested one both read as
-  "pending". Dispatch an adversarial reviewer and give it the head SHA, the base,
-  and a test-merge, so it reviews the tree that will exist.
-- A re-review is of the **delta**, at a named SHA. A review of a superseded
-  commit reads as a pass.
-- Merge on GitHub, then `git fetch gh && git merge --ff-only gh/main`.
-- Anything posted to GitHub goes out under the owner's account: open every
-  comment with a line saying a Claude agent wrote it.
-
-## Between waves
-
-Run the code-review skill on the merged range. The characteristic find here is
-not a wrong line, it is **a test that passes while the thing it names is
-broken** — a vacuous fold test, a one-category fixture, a helper that fabricates
-what the code under test needs. Ask the reviewer to inject the fault and watch
-the check fail.

AGENTS.md

@@ -100,52 +100,19 @@ Two agents each adding a workspace member will still collide in
 
 ### Every wave agent's brief must include
 
-1. **Verify your base commit first.** Worktrees do **not** reliably branch from
+The wave skill holds both halves, each in one place (improvise-1f8e):
-   the orchestrator's HEAD — one was created three merges behind and only
-   noticed because it was told to look. `git log --oneline -1` against a named
-   commit, reset onto `main` if behind. Name the expected commit in the brief.
-2. **The baseline test count**, so "1090 passing" is checkable rather than
-   asserted, and a drop is visible. Tell the agent to **measure its own** and
-   cite the machine: the same commit measured `improvise-io`'s binary at 1.4s on
-   one machine and 3.7–5.2s on another, so a figure with no machine is a claim
-   about the suite, which it is not.
-3. **The gate list, and it must not say `cargo fmt --all`.** That reaches only
-   **one** of this repo's two workspace roots — `harness/opfs-contract` declares
-   its own `[workspace]` — and the obvious repair is worse: `cargo fmt
-   -p opfs-contract` from the repo root exits **1**, *"not a member of the
-   workspace"*, which is indistinguishable from a real formatting failure
-   (improvise-b4ks). Both spellings fail in the direction that looks like
-   success. The gate is:
 
-   ```
+- **The brief checklist** — what an orchestrator must put in a brief — is
-   direnv exec . ./scripts/fmt-workspaces.sh   # exit 2 = the gate did not run
+  `.agents/skills/wave/SKILL.md`, "What every brief must carry".
-   ```
+- **The agent's standing rules** — base and push, gates, claim, vacuity shapes,
+  evidence, forbidden files, GitHub, hand-back, disk, commit early — are
+  `.agents/skills/wave/agent-rules.md`. A brief points there rather than
+  restating them.
 
-   Every gate goes through `direnv exec .` — `./scripts/checkers.sh` scrubs the
+`.claude/skills/wave` is a symlink to `.agents/skills/wave`, so Claude and Codex
-   environment to an allowlist, so a bare invocation drops `tpl` off `PATH` and
+read the same files. A new rule goes into one of those two files, not here and
-   reports spurious failures. And **never pipe a gate**: `$?` must be the gate's
+not into the next brief: a restated rule is the copy nobody corrects, and this
-   own, and `check-comment-runs.py --check-evidence` prints two lines with the
+list was once a third copy that drifted from the skill's.
-   comment cap **first**, so `| tail -1` silently drops half of it.
-4. **Commit frequently, so the work is safe in git.** A WIP commit after the
-   first green test, and again after every meaningful step. A worktree is not
-   durable storage: an agent finished a whole ticket with every gate green and
-   lost all of it, uncommitted, when its worktree was deleted during a disk
-   cleanup. Tidying the history before the PR is fine; losing it is not.
-5. **Do not merge to `main`.** The orchestrator merges. Pushing the agent's own
-   branch (`git push gh HEAD:refs/heads/<branch>`) is encouraged once it is
-   worth keeping.
-6. The commit-message trailers, spelled out.
-7. **What to report**: branch and commits, what changed per ticket, *what could
-   not be verified and why*, and proposed repo-map/`kb.pl` text. Ask explicitly
-   for the thing the agent learned that the ticket did not predict — that is
-   consistently the most valuable part of a hand-back, and agents omit it unless
-   asked.
-
-`bd` works in any worktree, but `.envrc` must be allowed there or you get a
-**version mismatch** rather than a clean failure — `direnv allow` in the
-worktree, or rely on the `[whitelist] prefix` in `~/.config/direnv/direnv.toml`.
-Note `direnv status` reports `Found RC allowed 0`, and `0` means **allowed**
-(the enum is 0=Allowed, 1=NotAllowed). It reads like the opposite.
 
 ### Between waves