M4.3's block, with new triggers and a way out. A VM out of reach at the
check before a run, in a run (which ends there: the driver, a toolchain
step and a requested step), or while preparing the workspace blocks every
project on it; the item stays ready, waiting on no one. On the intake round
it is tried again every tuning.build_vm.retry_s (300), and once it answers
it must still answer settle_s (180) later; then the work a lost run left
there is parked (pushed), the VM unblocked, and that said once.
A changed host key, at the check or on a retry, blocks the VM too, until
the operator's `vm ready`, which trusts the new key: `trust new host key`
is retired, and the message says it's a key problem that may be an
impersonation. Questions are answered while a VM is blocked, without it.
Starting the agent with a VM down no longer fails.
The walk breaks the VM's SSH, now or partway through a run, and checks that
no model works on a VM that is down; loop.qnt models the VM going and
coming back (unblocked_only_when_up). Together they found: a lost run's
work set aside by the next item there; a question left behind a block; a
lost VM swallowed while the toolchain step checked or recorded it; and a
remark waiting to be answered that outlived its PR's merge. All fixed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01J5Utyfzw7gF7UhjRDEtjTk
The driver can request_reimage(reason) when its build VM is broken past the
usual fixes (before the go-ahead too: it asks, it doesn't act). The harness
parks the work in progress (pushed to Gitea), then blocks the VM in the state
store (schema 5, vm_blocks): no item on any project on it is taken up, across
restarts. The operator hears once at top level, with the command to clear it,
and each blocked item's thread gets a line. `vm ready <project>` lifts the
block and trusts the VM's new host key; a reimaged VM is set up again by the
toolchain step, and the item that found it goes first.
loop.qnt gains the block (blocked_vm_runs_nothing) and a scenario; it found
that a reimage lost work in progress, hence parking first. The walk requests
reimages and recovers them, reimaged or not. The unreachable case reuses the
block in #137. Architecture P5 is softer, and D3 describes the block.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01J5Utyfzw7gF7UhjRDEtjTk
nisse-dev now runs only the conversational loop. The gated state machine
it was built alongside is gone:
- Removed control.py, planner.py, executor.py, approvals.py, gates.py
(command_form moves to loop/reader.py), publish.py and poller.py, the
old assembly in agent.py (its shared helpers move to loop/build.py),
the store's state-machine view (get_state, transition), their tests,
the old end-to-end and live planning/milestone/gate tests, and
specs/orchestrator.qnt with its scenarios.
- Roles are driver, helper, expert and classifier; driver is required.
loop:, roles.planner, roles.executor and tuning.executor are refused
with what to use instead; tuning.driver takes the turn cap and failure
limit.
- The benchmark and the capability matrix measure the driver: the
loop's own system prompt and tools, the task's plan as the agreed
restatement. Task plans end with finish_milestone, so earlier runs
show as (old); stored runs' executor tuning reads as the driver's.
- A delegation on the loop records what its helper's alias resolved to
(L9), as the old path's did.
- The dump shows a work item's revision and what it waits for.
- Behaviour the old tests covered and the loop shares stays covered:
driver runs that fail on a model call, stop mid-turn, reset the
failure count; go-aheads ignoring case and punctuation; a request too
big to fit is never sent; the assembly tests, now on build_loop_agent.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
test_loop_properties.py walks the new loop with a seeded mix of operator
and Gitea actions (go-aheads, stale go-aheads, answers, comments, merges,
the comment-then-merge race, closes, abandon, a crash and restart) and an
adaptive scripted model, checking every loop.qnt property after every
step. It found two bugs, both fixed with regression tests: abandoning an
item left its open PR open (the model's fix 1, now in code), and after a
review fix became a follow-up PR, the next fix went to the merged branch.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
A Quint model of the design in docs/Architecture.md (PR #90): intake,
restatements and go-aheads, park-and-switch, blocked dependencies,
harness-owned milestones, waiting for merges, review follow-ups, record
issues, crashes and build VM wipes. It found five gaps; the model carries
the proposed fixes, and loop_scenarios.qnt keeps each counterexample.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
Development Plan M0.1. Every section reference in code, tests, specs/,
the example config, the tuning guide, and the CLAUDE.md and README files
now cites docs/Architecture.md (P, L, D, O, X, Q) instead of the old
spec's A-H, and docs/Architecture-Build-Spec.md is deleted (git keeps
it). The plan's old-to-new table goes with it.
Mostly mechanical, with a per-site choice where one old section split:
A4 became L2 where it meant stop/abandon/the loop and L3 where it meant
approvals; A10 became L6 in the context-budget code and L7 elsewhere; B2
became D4 for outbound Gitea and publishing and D5 for review intake;
'A3 step N' became the matching step of L8's boot sequence. Comments
describing behaviour the architecture drops (planning always escalating,
thresholds tuned at an old build step) now describe the current code and
point at the Development Plan.
docs/Architecture.md gains one line the rewrite missed: intake outages
delay but never fail work (old B2), now in L5, where the poller and
Matrix code cite it.
Comments and docs only; no behaviour change.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
Fixes counterexamples 6 and 7 from specs/orchestrator.qnt, the last two.
6. A crash while the executor answered a review comment lost it: its
cursor is saved before the work (at most once), and a restart in
PR_OPEN resumed quietly. Now pr.reviewing marks the comment until
the executor returns (every way it returns, but not a crash), and
boot resumes the watch just before it, with a notice. The mark stays
until it is answered, so a second crash cannot lose it either.
7. 'project complete' left the plan issue open. It now closes it with a
note, after IDLE is saved, as abandon does (shared helper).
The model marks and redelivers, and closes the issue; scenarios 6 and 7
now expect their properties to hold. A mutant without redelivery fails
scenario 6. All eight properties held together over 300,000 traces.
No xfail reproductions remain.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
Fixes counterexample 5 from specs/orchestrator.qnt. A crash after the
PR was opened but before PR_OPEN was recorded left the agent in
EXECUTING; the restart question's 'continue' and 'start' then published
again, Gitea refused a second PR, and there was no way back to PR_OPEN.
On the live run the executor model happened to notice the existing
work; recovery must not depend on that.
- Boot (A3 step 4): in EXECUTING, if Gitea shows the milestone's PR
open, adopt it, watch it from the start, and resume in PR_OPEN with a
notice. Gitea unreachable or the PR closed: the restart question, as
before.
- MilestonePublisher.publish is idempotent: after pushing, an open PR
for the branch is adopted (and so updated) rather than a second one
opened. This also covers a PR opened whose response was lost.
- The model adopts too, gains the lost-response outcome, and now counts
PRs opened per milestone (one_pr_per_milestone was a flag the fixed
model could never set). A mutant without adoption fails the new
scenario; the properties held over 200,000 traces each.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
Fixes counterexamples 1-4 from specs/orchestrator.qnt: a repeated
'approve', 'approve rev-1' meant for the architecture, approving on both
channels, and 'approve' plus an afterthought all landed on the next
plan, one the operator had not seen.
- Revisions are numbered across the work item (A4 already required
monotonic tags; the code numbered per gate), so rev-N names one plan.
- Each reply is stamped on arrival with the revision that was up: in
Matrix the one whose approval request had been sent (a plain value
the transport thread reads, restored on boot), in Gitea the latest
plan comment older than the reply (board.posts).
- Gate.evaluate applies a reply that names no revision only if its stamp
is the current revision. Otherwise an approval is not applied and
feedback rejects nothing (it is still in the transcript), and the
agent says which revision is up. 'approve rev-N' binds by its number.
- Spec A4 states both rules. The model applies them; scenarios 1-4 now
expect the properties to hold, and both held over 200,000 random
traces and Apalache's exhaustive check to depth 8.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
specs/orchestrator.qnt models control.py: states, gate, pending
questions, comment cursors, publish intents and the worker queue, with
operator messages, Gitea comments, work outcomes (exceptions included)
and a crash at any point interleaving freely. Eight properties.
Seven counterexamples, each written out as a trace in
specs/orchestrator_scenarios.qnt and reproduced against the real code in
nisse-dev/tests/test_quint_counterexamples.py (xfail, strict, until
fixed):
1-4 an approval or feedback lands on a plan the operator had not seen:
a double 'approve', 'approve rev-1' meant for the architecture,
approving on both channels, and 'approve' plus an afterthought;
5 a crash after the PR opens but before PR_OPEN publishes again and
cannot get back to PR_OPEN;
6 a crash while answering a review comment loses it silently;
7 'project complete' leaves the plan issue open.
no_stranding, await_input_has_a_question and execution_needs_approval
held over 200,000 random traces of 40 steps, and under Apalache's
exhaustive check to depth 8, which does find counterexample 1 at that
depth. No behaviour changes here.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
dongarandClaude Opus 5.5