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Put work items in the state store, and bind the log to them (M1.1) 
Development Plan M1.1, as discussed.

- Schema v4: a work_items table (id, scope, title, status, outcome,
  position, data) and an agent row whose active_item points at one
  (NULL: idle). Canonical events and intents carry their work item, and
  events their actor. Older stores are refused with a clear message:
  there was no production data, so no migration (the mechanism stays).
- The log is reached through a Transcript bound to one work item and
  one actor: store.transcript(item, actor) reads only that item and
  writes with both. The planner, executor, delegation and expert desk
  get one per call from the orchestrator instead of holding the store,
  so a component can neither read another task's events (the planner
  read every earlier task's, #78) nor write without attribution.
  store.all_events() is kept for readers that span items (evaluation
  capture, dumps). Intents are begun through the transcript or with
  work_item=, so each belongs to its item.
- The orchestrator opens a work item on 'use', closes it with its
  outcome (completed or abandoned), and carries what the operator said
  while idle into the new item as copies with their origin, so a task
  sent before 'use' is still planned from (D1). control.py keeps its
  state machine through get_state()/transition(), now over the active
  work item, until M2.6 retires it.
- nisse_dev.dump shows work items and each event's item and actor.

Tests: test_work_items.py (scoping, attribution, intent ownership,
restart, outcomes, carried messages, a second task never seeing the
first); the suites updated for the per-call transcript.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PPQ14L3LikyefCMFBqEbKE
2026-10-01 23:20:29 +00:00

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# Nisse — Development Plan
**Status: proposed for discussion.** How to get from the code as it is to the full
architecture in `docs/Architecture.md`, in what order, and how each step is
accepted. The architecture says *what and why*; this document says *how and when*,
and is revised as work lands.
It follows the format the architecture asks agents to use (D2): phases of
milestones, each with a goal, scope and acceptance criteria, and each marked
**pre-approved** or **needs discussion**.
---
## 1. Where we are
A survey of the code on `main` (2026-09-30) against each architecture section.
**Done** means it exists and matches the architecture; **partial** means something
exists but needs changing; **none** means not started.
Only `nisse-dev` has real code (about 10,000 lines in `nisse-dev/src/nisse_dev/`).
`nisse-core` and `nisse-ops` are placeholder packages.
| Section | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| **P** Principles | — | Guidance; each milestone below applies them |
| **L1** Work model | partial | One work item at a time with a minted ID; but the state store is a single row (`agent_state`, `CHECK (id = 1)`), not a work-items table with an active pointer. No duties, parking or switching (only `nisse-ops` needs duties) |
| **L2** Agent loop | partial | `control.py`: a fixed state machine (arch → milestone gates → executing → PR open), with the no-stranding rule, `stop`, `abandon`, restart questions. To be replaced by the conversational loop |
| **L3** Authority | partial | Revision binding and arrival stamping are done (`gates.py`, #74). Approvals are gates, not permissions; no pre-approved milestones, no trust dial |
| **L4** Action classifier | none | |
| **L5** Conversation | partial | Matrix transport, mention handling, case-insensitive commands. Only the planner can ask (`ask_human`); no question handling, no explanations or progress prose, a misleading reply in `IDLE` |
| **L6** Context and memory | partial | Context fitting is done (`context.py`). The transcript isn't scoped per work item and has no attribution or orchestrator facts (#78). No scope or agent memory |
| **L7** Canonical log | partial | `canonical.py`: user, assistant, tool call/result, plan, gate, delegation, compaction events. Missing: work item and actor on every event, `fact`, `classifier_verdict`, `knowledge_retrieved` |
| **L8** Durability and recovery | mostly done | WAL store, intents, boot reconciliation, adopting a published PR (#75), comment cursors and redelivery (#68, #76), Quint model (`specs/`). Needs moving onto the new loop and the work-items schema |
| **L9** Models, roles, helpers | partial | LiteLLM client and catalog, context budgets, delegation with passthrough and caps, `ask_expert`, tool-choice handling, eval capture. Roles are executor/planner/delegate/consultant with a frontier planner; no `driver`, no capability profiles, no driver-chosen escalation |
| **L10** Knowledge store | none | |
| **L11** Prompt injection | partial | Operator allowlists on every channel; no classifier, no structured intake beyond Gitea's JSON |
| **L12** Secrets, identity, logging | partial | Structured state-change log (`oplog.py`); secrets from `.env` files; no Vaultwarden, no LLDAP identity |
| **D2** Documents as workflow | none | Plans are posted to a Gitea issue; no project `ARCHITECTURE.md` or build plans in the repo |
| **D3** Workspace | partial | Cloned once and reused as-is; no fetch, no fresh workspace, no preflight (#62, #27) |
| **D4** Git and PRs | partial | Idempotent publishing (#75), committed work published (#63); `git add -A` sweeps in artifacts (#80); branches cut at publish from whatever `HEAD` is (#62) |
| **D5** Review and merge | partial | Review loop on PR conversation comments; inline comments unseen (#69); watch stall (#70); operator merges; no trust dial (#65) |
| **D7** Deployment | none | Bring-up runs on this box as root; no VM, VLAN or egress policy |
| **O** `nisse-ops` | none | |
| **X** Deployment model | none | |
---
## 2. The environment today
**Supporting services** (X5) are installed and running: Matrix (Synapse), Gitea,
LiteLLM, Vikunja, Outline, Vaultwarden, LLDAP with Authelia. Per-agent accounts and
tokens are created as each agent needs them. So far `nisse-dev` has a Matrix test
identity and room, a Gitea test account and sandbox repo, and dedicated LiteLLM
keys.
**Local inference:** an RTX 4090 host, `inference-4090.garrett-hall.com`, running
llama-swap (one model resident at a time), capped at 320 W. The executor benchmark
(PR #55) chose `qwen3.8-27b` for `nisse-dev`'s local work.
**Models by role today** (`nisse-dev.example.yaml`): executor `qwen3.8-27b`, planner
and delegate `claude-opus-5-5`, consultant `claude-haiku-4-5`. Phase 2 moves to the
architecture's roles (L9): driver local, helpers frontier.
**Bring-up runs** happen on this box, against test resources: the sandbox repo, the
test Matrix room, a budget-capped LiteLLM key; configuration in `~/nisse-e2e/`.
---
## 3. How we work
- **One PR per milestone,** usually. Every PR still starts with a short
implementation plan per `CLAUDE.md`. For a **pre-approved** milestone that plan is
a quick confirmation; a **needs discussion** milestone starts with a design
discussion before any plan.
- **Every change comes with tests,** per `CLAUDE.md`, and runs through
`scripts/check.sh` (lint, format, unit and integration tests).
- **The Quint model moves with the loop.** Any change to how the loop enters or
leaves a waiting point updates `specs/`, and every counterexample is reproduced
against the real code before it is fixed.
- **A bring-up run on this box ends each phase** where it can be run live. What it
finds is filed as issues and fixed before the next phase starts, or explicitly
deferred.
- **Bring-up runs on this development VM,** as root, like production. Guards: it
touches only test resources, and keeps today's structural gates on in its
bring-up configuration until the classifier and trust dial are proven (Phase 3).
- **This plan is revised as we go:** a milestone's scope may move once work shows
its real shape, recorded here in the same PR.
---
## 4. Phases
### Phase 0 — Housekeeping
**M0.1 Retire the old spec.** *Pre-approved.* **Done.**
- Update every section reference in code, tests, `specs/` and the `CLAUDE.md` and
`README.md` files from the old spec's A–H to the new letters.
- Delete `docs/Architecture-Build-Spec.md` (git keeps it), and the old-to-new
section table this plan carried for the purpose.
- Acceptance: `grep` finds no reference to the old spec or its section numbers.
**M0.2 A bring-up script.** *Pre-approved.* **Done.**
- `scripts/bringup.sh`: set aside the previous run's state, workspace and log;
export the ref under test; start the agent as a systemd unit, so it outlives the
shell that started it; collect the log and a readable transcript
(`python -m nisse_dev.dump`) afterwards.
- The agent runs as root on this development VM, as it will on its own VM in
production (D7), so installing packages works as it will there.
- Acceptance: a smoke run starts, answers `status`, stops cleanly, and `collect`
produces the log and transcript.
### Phase 1 — Foundations the new loop needs
These fix problems found in the live runs that **survive the loop change.** Issues
that only exist because of `control.py`'s state machine (#61, #79, #81) are folded
into Phase 2's design instead of being fixed twice.
**M1.1 Work items in the state store.** *Needs discussion* (schema). **Done.**
- A work-items table with an active pointer (L1); every canonical event carries its
work item and its actor (L7). A migration for existing stores.
- Acceptance: two work items back to back keep separate state and events; a
restart keeps both; migration tests.
**M1.2 Transcript views.** *Needs discussion* (rendering).
- Per-role rendering (L6): a role sees only its work item, attributed entries, and
orchestrator `fact` events; never another role's raw turns as its own (#78).
- Acceptance: the second live run's confusion can't happen (a planning call after
a milestone contains the milestone fact and PR, and no executor turns).
**M1.3 A fresh workspace at `use`, and harness-owned branches.** *Pre-approved.*
- Fetch; clean checkout of the latest base; set aside anything left over and report
it (D3). Milestone branches cut by the harness from the task's workspace;
"changes to publish" counted from the milestone's start (D4). Covers #62 and the
clone-on-use half of #27.
- Acceptance: a leftover branch, uncommitted change and stale `origin` are each
handled and reported; a second milestone's PR contains only its own commits.
**M1.4 Publish only the work.** *Pre-approved.*
- Standard excludes in the clone, and commit only what the work changed (D4, #80).
- Acceptance: a milestone that ran pytest publishes no `.pyc`; excluded files are
reported.
**M1.5 Review intake.** *Pre-approved.*
- Inline review comments and review bodies (#69); no stall when a watch is
replaced from its own callback (#70); replies in the thread where the comment was
made (D5).
- Acceptance: tests for each; inline comments work in the phase's bring-up run.
**Phase 1 acceptance:** a bring-up run on the current loop with two milestones and
a review comment, including inline ones.
### Phase 2 — The conversational loop
Built **alongside** `control.py`, reusing the state store, canonical log, context
fitting, publisher, pollers and recovery; `nisse-dev` switches over when the new
loop passes its tests and a bring-up run, and `control.py` is retired.
**M2.1 Loop design and its model.** *Needs discussion.*
- A short design note (in the PR, then folded into the architecture where it
settles something): the loop's turns, waiting points, pending questions,
permissions it checks, and recovery. A new Quint model for it before code, with
the no-stranding, approval-binding and at-least-once properties carried over.
**M2.2 The loop core.** *Needs discussion.*
- The driver-driven turn loop (L2): conversation, tool calls, pending questions,
`stop`, `abandon`, intents and boot recovery on the work-items schema.
- **Questions never change state** (L5): the recognition rule is decided here (Q).
- Acceptance: the new Quint model's scenarios reproduced as tests; no-stranding
under injected faults, as `test_no_stranding.py` does today.
**M2.3 Roles and capability profiles.** *Pre-approved.*
- Roles become `driver`, `helper`, `expert`, `classifier` (L9); capability profiles
in configuration, filled from the benchmark; the driver's prompt encourages asking
for help; observable escalation triggers; delegation and `ask_expert` wired to the
new loop. Supersedes #46 (separate architect and planner roles).
**M2.4 Conversation.** *Pre-approved* (the behaviour is set by L5).
- Explanations with plans and revisions, finished-work summaries, progress in prose
(#42), handling messages that can't be acted on yet, asking mid-work (#77).
**M2.5 Documents as the workflow.** *Needs discussion.*
- Project `ARCHITECTURE.md` and build plans in the repo, discussed and landed by PR;
milestones marked pre-approved or needs discussion and whether they change code;
permissions derived from them (L3, D2).
- Milestones and projects end properly: the plan declares its milestones; a
no-change milestone that wasn't meant to change code is done; moving on checks the
PR's state; finishing closes the issue (D4, D5). Supersedes #61, #79, #81.
**M2.6 Switch over and retire `control.py`.** *Pre-approved, after acceptance.*
- `nisse-dev` runs the new loop; `control.py`, its tests and the old Quint model are
removed.
**Phase 2 acceptance:** a bring-up run: a new small project from conversation to an
agreed `ARCHITECTURE.md` and build plan, two milestones (one pre-approved), a review
comment answered, a question asked by the agent mid-milestone, and a crash
mid-review.
### Phase 3 — Authority
**M3.1 Action classes and the fast path.** *Needs discussion.*
- Every tool action classified by effect (P3); static fast-path rules per agent
(D6); the scope each class-2 action is checked against.
**M3.2 The action classifier.** *Needs discussion.*
- L4, including the model choice (Q), fail-closed behaviour, logged verdicts, and
operator overrides as an evaluation set.
**M3.3 Permissions and the trust dial.** *Needs discussion.*
- Approvals as scoped permissions, the operator-set trust dial, and agent merging
behind branch protection the agent can't satisfy, verified by a test (L3, D4, D5,
#65).
**Phase 3 acceptance:** a bring-up run with the classifier active and gates first
on, then deliberately loosened in the bring-up configuration.
### Phase 4 — The environment
**M4.1 Toolchain preflight.** *Pre-approved.* Detect what the project needs, check
it, and install what's missing before planning; toolchain facts in the transcript
(D3).
**M4.2 Recording installs.** *Pre-approved.* Every package or toolchain the agent
installs is recorded as a fact and in the project's scope memory, so the
environment can be rebuilt; recurring ones are noted for the VM image (D3, X4).
**M4.3 Environment repair.** *Pre-approved.* The driver may clean caches and
reinstall project dependencies within a task, and reports it (D3).
### Phase 5 — Memory and knowledge
**M5.1 The Outline client.** *Pre-approved.* Per-agent Outline user and token,
collections and documents by ID, revision reads, one writer per document (L10).
**M5.2 Agent memory.** *Needs discussion.* When notes are written and read, the
index, verbatim corrections (L6).
**M5.3 Scope memory for repositories.** *Pre-approved.* Project documents read at
work-item start and snapshotted; summaries at close (L6).
### Phase 6 — `nisse-dev` in production
**M6.1 The VM, VLAN and egress policy.** *Needs discussion.* D7, X1, X2.
**M6.2 Secrets and identity.** *Pre-approved.* Vaultwarden machine accounts, LLDAP
principal, secrets out of `.env` files (L12).
**M6.3 Images and delivery.** *Pre-approved.* Gitea Actions → OCI registry →
Watchtower, restarts gated on an idle flag (X4).
**M6.4 The browser tool.** *Pre-approved.* Playwright on the internal test network
only (D7).
### Phase 7 — `nisse-core` and `nisse-ops`
**M7.1 Extract `nisse-core`.** *Pre-approved.* A package split within the monorepo:
what both agents use moves into `nisse-core`.
**M7.2 MCP servers.** *Needs discussion.* Per (service, site, privilege) instances,
tool profiles, configuration (X3, #37).
**M7.3 Approved step sequences.** *Needs discussion.* The ops plan format, matcher,
policy file, expiry (O2).
**M7.4 Tickets and duties.** *Needs discussion.* Vikunja intake and approvals,
scheduled checks and alert intake as duties (O5, #33).
**M7.5 `nisse-ops` deployment.** *Needs discussion.* O6.
### Not yet scheduled
From the architecture's open questions (Q) and older issues, to be placed when
their trigger arrives:
- more than one active work item per agent;
- vision for 3D design and video work;
- one local model for every agent, or agents taking turns on the inference host;
- several forges and projects (#26); a Matrix room per project (#28); creating a
project from scratch and who owns it (#29); one agent instance per project (#30);
- infrastructure as code for agent VMs.
---
## 5. Open issues and where they land
All 19 open issues, as of 2026-09-30:
- **11 land in a milestone** and stay open until it is done.
- **4 are superseded** by the new loop's design. They only exist because of
`control.py`'s state machine, so fixing them there would be thrown away. They are
closed, with a pointer to their milestone, when this plan is agreed.
- **4 are not yet scheduled** and stay open until their trigger arrives.
| Issue | Status | Lands in |
|---|---|---|
| #26 multiple forges | Not yet scheduled | |
| #27 per-project state, clone on use | Milestone | M1.1 (state), M1.3 (clone) |
| #28 room per project | Not yet scheduled | |
| #29 create a project from scratch | Not yet scheduled | Ownership decision first |
| #30 agent instance per project | Not yet scheduled | |
| #33 Vikunja tickets | Milestone | M7.4 |
| #37 MCP servers | Milestone | M7.2 |
| #42 per-turn commentary | Milestone | M2.4 |
| #46 architect and planner roles | **Superseded** | M2.3 (one driver, helpers) |
| #61 simpler milestone gating | **Superseded** | M2.5 |
| #62 branch at execution start | Milestone | M1.3 |
| #65 agent merges approved PRs | Milestone | M3.3 |
| #69 inline review comments | Milestone | M1.5 |
| #70 watch stall | Milestone | M1.5 |
| #77 conversational agent | Milestone | M2.2 (questions), M2.4 |
| #78 transcript scoping and attribution | Milestone | M1.1, M1.2 |
| #79 ending projects and milestones | **Superseded** | M2.5 |
| #80 build artifacts in PRs | Milestone | M1.4 |
| #81 no-change milestones | **Superseded** | M2.5 |
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