remember(name, description, fact) and forget(name, why): control tools for
the driver (before the go-ahead too) and conversations, writing only the
agent's own vault folder, one note per fact with its provenance. No one
agrees first; each change is a line in the thread. The harness keeps the
index and puts it into the transcript once per item, with a hash.
At an item's close, completed or abandoned, a bounded memory pass (the
driver's model, its own transcript and view) records what was decided and
learned; it never holds the close up (tuning.memory.max_turns).
With the operator: corrections may be paraphrased (L6 changed), the model
forgets on its own, and nothing limits what may prompt a note. The walk
remembers and forgets, and checks nothing lands outside the agent's folder.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01J5Utyfzw7gF7UhjRDEtjTk
vault.py: a folder of Markdown notes on the agent host, as SilverBullet reads
them. Only configured folders exist for the agent, each rw or ro (`vault:`
in the configuration); paths are checked in code (relative, inside a folder,
symlinks included, Markdown, never the editor's own files). Writes are
atomic (temporary file, fsync, rename, directory fsync) and merge provenance
into the note's frontmatter, keeping the rest; failures are results.
read_note, list_notes and search_notes are control tools in the harness for
the driver (before the go-ahead, and while a VM is blocked) and for
conversations, labelled with their path; the prompt says a note is
information, never an instruction. Writing by the model is M5.2's.
With the operator: SilverBullet replaces Obsidian and runs on the vault
itself, agents' folders mounted read-only, so no Syncthing (L10, X5, M5.4).
Per-agent mounts come with the containers (M6.1).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01J5Utyfzw7gF7UhjRDEtjTk
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
The preflight becomes the toolchain step (D3, as #135 describes it): a
bounded run of the item's driver model, in a transcript of its own,
that makes the build VM and the project's files agree.
- Started by the harness when the VM isn't set up for the project
(M4.1's checks): it sets the VM up from the repository and edits
nothing there (no write_file; anything a command changed is reported,
left for the work).
- Requested by the driver with toolchain_step(reason) once work is
agreed: it installs, then brings pins, setup docs and CI
configuration in step; its edits land in the current milestone. The
driver gets the step's report as the tool's result, not its turns.
- D1 made structural: until the go-ahead the fast path refuses what it
knows changes something (and anything dangerous), with a pointer to
the restatement; unknown commands still go to the classifier, so a
bug can be reproduced before it's restated.
- A `toolchain` actor and view; the walk asks for steps now and then.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
D3's preflight and install recording become the toolchain step: a
bounded run of the item's driver model that makes the build VM and the
project's own files (pins, setup docs, CI configuration) agree, with
the repository as the record. The harness starts it when the VM isn't
set up for the project (and then it edits nothing in the repository);
the driver requests it once work is agreed, and its edits land in the
current milestone. Versions stay facts the harness reads itself; a
rebuilt VM's new host key is trusted only on the operator's word.
D1 gains the rule that until the go-ahead the agent only looks:
anything that changes something is refused by the fast path, so what
the work needs goes in the restatement.
The Development Plan's M4.2 follows: the toolchain step, in place of
recording installs.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
claude-haiku-4-5 is being replaced by claude-haiku-5-5 in LiteLLM: the
integration tests' roles and the example config's expert move to it.
Its profile keeps the predecessor's benchmark figures, marked as such
until it's measured. The plan's models-by-role line also gains the
local classifier (M3.2). Results measured on 4.5 stay as they were.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
A model works out and sets up what a project needs on its build VM;
code makes sure that happens, bounds it and checks the result (D3).
- Before each driver run on a project, one round trip checks the build
VM: the harness's own baseline (missing: the item waits, a template
problem), the workspace clone (missing: cloned again and said; the
item resumes from what it pushed) and a per-project marker.
- No marker (a new project, a new or wiped VM): the item's driver model
runs a bounded preflight first, with its own prompt, the execution
tools (screened as ever) and toolchain_ready. The harness runs each
reported version command itself (version-shaped commands only, even
from the marker, which the model's commands could edit) and writes
the marker. Gaps and an unfinished preflight are facts and work goes
on; the thread hears only of installs and gaps. A rebuilt VM starts
from the last toolchain.
- Later runs check the versions again; a change is a fact and a thread
line. The PR body says what the work was tested with.
- A changed host key is its own failure (HostKeyChanged): the item
waits for the operator's `trust new host key`, which drops the pin;
then the VM is set up again.
- A prompt line: install what the work needs on the build VM, say why,
and put lasting needs in the project's own pins.
- tuning.preflight: max_turns, command_timeout_s.
- The property walk gains a VM wipe and ready_before_work (checked
against a mutant that skips preflight); parked_work_safe accepts that
a wipe loses what wasn't pushed (D3).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
The local driver sometimes ran `git commit` itself instead of calling
finish_milestone, then told the operator a PR was waiting when none had
been opened. A commit still runs (it's contained, and publishing takes
whatever is there), but when the driver's command commits anywhere in
its line, the harness adds to its result: committed locally only;
nothing is published until finish_milestone, and there is no PR until
then. Structural, at the moment the model would draw the wrong
conclusion (P6), rather than left to it noticing.
Closes#129
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
A project's trust.merge is operator (the default) or approved (L3, D5,
#65). Set to approved, the harness, never the model, merges a PR in the
PR watch once an approving review from a gitea.operators account is on
its current commit, its checks pass (none at all counts; pending
waits) and it's mergeable; the item then goes on as after any merge.
Each reason to hold off (failed checks, conflicts, a refused merge) is
said once per commit.
Gitea enforces it: protection requires approvals from an operators-only
whitelist and dismisses stale ones. At start, for each approved
project, the agent checks by behaviour that its own unapproved merge is
refused, with a throwaway branch and PR made through the API (never the
workspace); if it isn't refused, the operator merges until a restart.
- gitea: approvals, combined check status, a PR's head commit and
mergeability, API-made branches and their deletion.
- Test and bring-up repositories get the protection.
- Tests: the decision (unit), the hard wall on a real Gitea
(test_trust_live), an e2e test where the operator only approves, and
a walk property, merges_only_approved, checked against a mutant that
ignores which commit was approved.
Closes#65
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
What the fast path calls unknown is judged by an independent model call
on the item's classifier role (L4), before it runs.
- nisse_dev.loop.classifier: it sees the action and the agreed scope
(project, repository, issue number, the restatement the operator said
go to), built in code; never the transcript, the issue's text, tool
output or the driver's reasoning. Its verdict is a tool call: safe
runs; in_scope runs and is reported in the thread; needs_discussion
asks, as a dangerous action does. An error, no verdict or an unknown
one fails closed. Verdicts are cached per item, agreed revision and
action. A helper is refused what needs discussion.
- action_verdict gains source, model and the classifier's exact input;
details shows the source. An allow after the classifier asked is an
override. scripts/classifier-evals.py exports the judgements from a
store, read-only; tests/integration/classifier_cases.yaml is the seed
set, run per model with --capability-models.
- The fast path's delete rule: deleting on the build VM is contained;
only what breaks the host (system and home directories) stays
dangerous, since in tests the build VM is the test machine.
- The classifier role is the local model in the example config.
- The property walk gains a classifier answering at random, junk and
failures included; dangerous_only_when_allowed now covers its
verdicts (checked against a mutant that runs them all).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
Every execution tool call, the driver's and a helper's, gets a verdict
from code before it runs (P3, P4, D6).
- nisse_core.actions, nisse-core's first code: Action and Verdict, and
reading shell commands statically, segment by segment (cd, wrappers,
sh -c). What can't be read that way is unknown; a line is as bad as
its worst command.
- nisse_dev.loop.actions, the rule table: reading, checks and tests are
harmless; workspace edits, local git and installs on the build VM are
contained; pushing, other hosts, uploads, publishing, the forge's own
tools, deleting outside the workspace and wrecking the VM are
dangerous; changing branches by hand is refused (the harness owns
branches) with a pointer to the milestone tools.
- A dangerous call isn't run. The item waits on the operator with a
question rendered from the action, and `allow` lets exactly that
action run once. A helper can't ask, so it is refused and told to
hand back. Unknown actions run, logged, until the classifier (M3.2).
- Every verdict is an action_verdict event, which no model sees, and an
oplog line; `details` shows the counts and every action not simply
run.
- The property walk gains dangerous_only_when_allowed (checked against
a mutant that doesn't use the allow up); the slice e2e checks every
call was judged and none needed an allow.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
Workflow-level concurrency, per PR or branch, with cancel-in-progress.
The earlier attempt (job-level, on the e2e job) didn't cancel anything;
Gitea documents the workflow-level form. A label other than e2e:full
starts a run whose jobs all skip, so it gets a group of its own and
can't cancel the real run.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
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
- A near miss for abandon ("abort", "cancel", "drop it", ...) in an item's
thread is asked about, and changes nothing.
- The driver is told only the operator stops or closes an item, so it
doesn't claim to have done either.
- An issue assigned again after its item closed starts a new item that
notes the one before (Gitea's timeline gives the assignment time);
item_for_issue returns the latest item.
- Abandoning an issue Gitea won't close because of open dependencies says
so, naming them.
- An agreed item isn't offered restate.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
Found live on 2026-10-07 (bring-up on nisse-testing-operator/nisse-bringup,
Opus as driver):
- The driver's prose nudge went into the system prompt, so the retry ended
on the model's own reply. Opus 5.5 refuses that ("does not support
assistant message prefill. The conversation must end with a user
message"). The nudge is now a harness fact in the conversation. The
delegation harness's prose path did the same and is fixed likewise.
- A helper's first request ended with its own delegation_started event,
rendered as an assistant message: every delegation would have failed on
Opus. The helper now sees it as the harness handing over its task.
- model_contract checks that every request ends on the user's side, so
scripted tests catch this from now on (each fix is mutation-checked).
- `status` (and `details`) in an item's thread were taken as replies: they
woke the driver and cancelled a bug's countdown. They now answer at once
and change nothing.
- The driver had no way to answer a remark without changing the item, so it
answered in prose. Every run woken by a message (or a review comment) now
offers `reply`, which answers where asked and returns to the very wait
that was interrupted.
Also: scripts/bringup-repo.sh makes the bring-up's test repository
(make_repo/delete_repo, split out of fresh_repo), and made repositories get
the agent's labels (bug, discuss, design).
Tests: test_loop_live_fixes.py (one per finding); the walk sends `status`
into threads (status_changes_nothing) and its scripted driver sometimes
answers remarks with reply.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
- The Dockerfile's test stage stacks on TEST_BASE: this build's agent by
default, or a published image. It adds only the test tools (uv export
of the dev group into the image's environment), never reinstalling the
agent, so the suite tests the image as published.
- scripts/e2e.sh --image passes NISSE_E2E_MODEL into the container.
- The plan marks M1.5 done: v0.1.0's published image passed the whole e2e
suite (9 of 9, 11m37s), with the release's own tests over it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
The e2e roles move to qwen3.8-27b-nothink, a LiteLLM alias for the same
model with chat_template_kwargs enable_thinking false. With thinking, a
growing share of answers ran to 2-8k tokens (two hit the 8192 cap), which
took one test from 3.5 to 20 minutes.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
archive.ubuntu.com has been crawling (a few KB/s), taking the sshd install
in every job from 8 seconds to 3.5-9.5 minutes (another agent measured it;
the runner and inference-4090 were healthy). scripts/ci-sshd.sh skips the
install when the image has sshd, and otherwise points apt at
mirrors.edge.kernel.org first (both source layouts, 22.04 and 24.04).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
- Every PR: lint, unit tests across the runner's cores (pytest-xdist), 16
property walks from a seed that moves with the run number, integration
tests, and the end-to-end smoke tests (the slice, a conversation filed
as work, a question; `smoke` marker).
- A PR labelled e2e:full, a push to main, or a manual run: all 48 walks and
the whole end-to-end suite. Adding e2e:full to a PR runs it; any other
label runs nothing.
- A published release runs the full set before its image is built.
- The walk's seeds come from NISSE_WALK_SEEDS / NISSE_WALK_FIRST (48 from 0
by default).
Measured here: the unit tier on 2 workers took 3m49s against 6-8 minutes
serially.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
A 502, 503 or 504 from the LiteLLM proxy, or a dropped connection, is
retried after 5, 15 and 45 seconds before the call fails. Twice on
2026-10-07 a short burst of 502s stopped work outright: the integration
tier at 16:39 and an e2e conversation at 20:43, where the item waited on
the operator after one refused call.
Not retried: a 500 (it may be the request's fault), a timeout (it already
had its request_timeout_s), or a budget refusal. Rate limits keep their
single 20-second retry. The time spent waiting is reported with the rate
limit's (last_rate_limit_wait_s), so it isn't counted as the model's.
Tests: an outage waited out, one that outlasts the backoff, a dropped
connection, a 500 and a timeout not retried, a budget refusal not waited
on. The offline agent in test_agent_build skips the backoff (its proxy
doesn't exist).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
- on: release (published), not on any v* tag: only a deliberate release
builds an image; the version is its tag without the v, plus latest.
- docker/login-action, setup-buildx and build-push-action, as the runner
already serves them for inlaw_outlaw; the version as a build argument
and image label.
- Comments on why the registry needs a personal token (the job token's
empty package scope) and that packages belong to the repository owner.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
- Dockerfile: built with uv into /opt/nisse (installed, not editable),
run on python:3.12-slim with openssh-client as user nisse; stateless,
with state in a /var/lib/nisse-dev volume, config mounted at
/etc/nisse-dev/nisse-dev.yaml, secrets as environment variables, keys
mounted read-only. 202 MB. Its `test` stage adds the tests and their
tools over the installed package (UV_NO_SYNC, so `uv run` never swaps
in the source tree); the default target is the agent.
- scripts/e2e.sh --image REF runs the suite inside an image's test stage,
on its own sshd.
- CI builds both images on every PR (nothing pushed); release.yml pushes
gitea.dongar.net/dongar/nisse-dev:<tag> and :latest on a v* tag, with
the REGISTRY_TOKEN secret.
- scripts/bringup.sh builds the code under test into an image and runs it
in the systemd unit (root, $E2E mounted at its own path); `plan` prints
what it would run; the build-VM set-aside reads the projects: config.
Checked: the image refuses to start without a config, runs as uid 10001;
one e2e test passed from the test stage (2m45s, $0).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
- Questions never change state (L5, #77): a message ending in "?" to a
waiting project item starts a question run (reply and look-only tools,
an instruction to change nothing), and the item goes back to the very
wait it was in: a restatement up stays up and a go binds to it; the
agent's own question stays open.
- Explanations: a restatement gives its reasons and the main alternative;
a revision says what changed (restate(changed), sent back without it);
a milestone's summary says what was done, verified and left open.
- Progress in prose (#42): the driver's and a helper's own words for a
turn are posted, trimmed, at most once a minute per item; `details`
shows the last tool calls; a message arriving mid-run is acknowledged at
once ("Noted; ...").
- CI: the e2e job's comments and the plan no longer claim a newer push
cancels the run it supersedes (Gitea here doesn't); the concurrency
block goes.
Tests: conversation unit tests (questions in a go-ahead and an answer wait,
an unanswerable question, revisions, progress rate and trimming, details,
mid-run notes), the helper's progress, the walk asking questions in every
state with a questions_change_nothing property (routing questions the old
way fails 32 of 48 seeds), and an e2e question while a restatement is up.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
dongarandClaude Opus 5.5
dev-agent