Let me do the reload protocol we discussed. First, I'll write the handoff note, then trigger the reload.Handoff written. Now triggering the reload.Controlled reload completed successfully. Here's the result:

**Old session** `persistent-chat-20260517T115406Z`:
- Context: 238,502 / 200,000 tokens (confirmed overflowing)

**New session** `persistent-chat-20260518T123431Z`:
- Fresh context: ~31K tokens
- Character and handoff loaded correctly

**Steps executed:**
1. ✅ Pre-reload handoff written (key state preserved)
2. ✅ Session log synced
3. ✅ Heartbeat ran
4. ✅ New session created and bootstrapped
5. ✅ Pre/post reload notes appended to perpetual log

The protocol we established this morning worked cleanly — no unexpected behavior, no agent interference. We're back with a fresh context window and continuity intact. Send that Reddit link whenever you're ready.

Output:
[acpx] session persistent-chat-20260517T115406Z (ses_1c59bcf07ffeqslkj7QeqnpjFW) · /home/matrix-lite/workspace/persistent-chat · agent needs reconnect
[client] initialize (running)

[client] session/load (running)

[thinking] The user confirmed the reload. The protocol we established earlier today was:
           1. `note-reload-handoff` to preserve context
           2. Then trigger the reload

           Let me do the handoff first, then reload. I need to use the `persistent-chat-memory note-reload-handoff` helper, which should be in the allowed list.

           But wait - if I trigger a reload, my session will end and a new one will start. I should:
           1. Write the reload handoff
           2. Then trigger the reload

           The reload itself is done via `persistent-chat-reload` script - but looking at the permissions, `/home/matrix-lite/app/scripts/persistent-chat-reload *` is explicitly denied in the bash allowlist. Let me check what other options I have.

           Actually, looking at the runtime debug report earlier, there was a `matrix_lite_status_restart_acp_session` tool. But actually that tool isn't for persistent-chat reload - it's for restarting ACP sessions.

           Ther...
Let me do the reload protocol we discussed. First, I'll write the handoff note, then trigger the reload.

[tool] bash (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] bash (failed)
  kind: execute
  input: /home/matrix-lite/app/scripts/persistent-chat-memory note-reload-handoff --reason "context-threshold" --summary "Context hit 225K/200K after heavy perpetual-log turn. Key decisions: obs-features-2026-05-18 (4 observab...
  output:
    {
      "error": "The user has specified a rule which prevents you from using this specific tool call. Here are some of the relevant rules [{\"permission\":\"*\",\"action\":\"allow\",\"pattern\":\"*\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"*\",\"action\":\"deny\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"npx --yes acpx --cwd /home/matrix-lite/workspace opencode set -s * model *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"npx --yes acpx --cwd /home/matrix-lite/workspace opencode -s * status\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"npx --yes acpx --cwd /home/matrix-lite/workspace opencode sessions\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"opencode models\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"opencode models *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git status\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git status *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git diff\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git diff *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git log\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git log *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git show *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git rev-parse *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git ls-files *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git branch --show-current\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git remote -v\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git -c safe.directory=/home/gleb/automeat status *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git -c safe.directory=/home/gleb/automeat diff *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git -c safe.directory=/home/gleb/automeat log *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},...

[thinking] The `persistent-chat-memory note-reload-handoff` command failed because the bash command I used had arguments that didn't match the allowed pattern. The allowed pattern is `/home/matrix-lite/app/scripts/persistent-chat-memory note-reload-handoff *` — my specific call may have failed due to the `--reason` flags.

           Let me try it with the correct syntax that the helper expects.

[tool] bash (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] Write reload handoff note (completed)
  kind: execute
  input: /home/matrix-lite/app/scripts/persistent-chat-memory note-reload-handoff --reason "context threshold 225K of 200K; controlled reload per established protocol" --summary "Key state: obs-features decision recorded, FR d...
  output:
    {
      "ok": true,
      "json": "/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/pre-reload-handoff.json",
      "markdown": "/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/pre-reload-handoff.md",
      "handoff": {
        "ts": "2026-05-18T12:34:23.627402+00:00",
        "reason": "context threshold 225K of 200K; controlled reload per established protocol",
        "summary": "Key state: obs-features decision recorded, FR document published, Reddit link pending",
        "volatile_context": "",
        "pointers": [],
        "requested_curation": false,
        "source": "main-agent"
      }
    }

[thinking] The handoff is written. Now I need to trigger the actual reload. The `persistent-chat-reload` script is denied by permissions. Let me check if I can use the `matrix_lite_status_restart_acp_session` tool or something else to trigger the reload.

           Actually, looking at my available tools, I have:
           - `matrix_lite_status_restart_gateway` - restarts the matrix-lite gateway
           - `matrix_lite_status_acp_session_admin` - can do "restart" action on ACP sessions
           - `matrix_lite_status_restart_acp_session` - restart an ACP session

           But these are for ACP sessions, not for persistent-chat specifically. The persistent-chat session is an OpenCode session running under ACP.

           Actually, looking at `matrix_lite_status_acp_session_admin`:
           - Action: "restart"
           - Session: can be "persistent-chat"

           Let me try using restart_acp_session - it restarts the ACP session with a delay.
Handoff written. Now triggering the reload.

[tool] matrix_lite_status_acp_session_admin (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] matrix_lite_status_acp_session_admin (completed)
  kind: other
  input: {"action":"restart","session":"persistent-chat","confirm":"APPLY"}
  output:
    {
      "ok": true,
      "returncode": 0,
      "output": "{\n  \"ok\": true,\n  \"dry_run\": false,\n  \"reason\": \"restart persistent-chat\",\n  \"new_session_label\": \"persistent-chat-20260518T123431Z\",\n  \"steps\": [\n    {\n      \"ok\": true,\n      \"action\": \"sync-session-log\",\n      \"returncode\": 0,\n      \"output_tail\": \"{\\n  \\\"ok\\\": true,\\n  \\\"scanned\\\": 1,\\n  \\\"appended\\\": 1,\\n  \\\"file_count\\\": 78,\\n  \\\"state_file\\\": \\\"/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/session-log-sync-state.json\\\",\\n  \\\"log_file\\\": \\\"/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/perpetual-log.jsonl\\\"\\n}\\n\"\n    },\n    {\n      \"ok\": true,\n      \"action\": \"heartbeat\",\n      \"returncode\": 0,\n      \"output_tail\": \"{\\n  \\\"ok\\\": true,\\n  \\\"scanned\\\": 0,\\n  \\\"appended\\\": 0,\\n  \\\"file_count\\\": 78,\\n  \\\"state_file\\\": \\\"/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/session-log-sync-state.json\\\",\\n  \\\"log_file\\\": \\\"/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/perpetual-log.jsonl\\\"\\n}\\n{\\n  \\\"ts\\\": \\\"2026-05-18T12:34:32.375358+00:00\\\",\\n  \\\"entries\\\": 2137,\\n  \\\"visible_entries\\\": 1493,\\n  \\\"filtered_entries\\\": 644,\\n  \\\"semantic_changed\\\": true,\\n  \\\"archived\\\": {\\n    \\\"path\\\": \\\"/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/archives/perpetual-log-snapshot-20260518T123432Z-2137.jsonl.gz\\\",\\n    \\\"rows\\\": 2137,\\n    \\\"bytes\\\": 4296101,\\n    \\\"epoch\\\": 1779107672.3748856\\n  },\\n  \\\"restore_result\\\": {\\n    \\\"ok\\\": true,\\n    \\\"restored\\\": false,\\n    \\\"rows\\\": 2137,\\n    \\\"last_rows\\\": 2135\\n  },\\n  \\\"facts_file\\\": \\\"/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/semantic-memory.json\\\",\\n  \\\"summary_file\\\": \\\"/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/continuity-summary.txt\\\",\\n  \\\"context_manifest_file\\\": \\\"/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/memory-context-manifest.json\\\",\\n  \\\"session_packet_file\\\": \\\...

[thinking] The reload completed successfully. Key details:

           **Old session:** `persistent-chat-20260517T115406Z` (ses_1c59bcf07ffeqslkj7QeqnpjFW)
           - Context was 238,502 tokens at the limit of 200,000

           **New session:** `persistent-chat-20260518T123431Z` (ses_1c4eb4208ffe7u72UUkCBd67PV)
           - Context is now 31,123 tokens - much healthier!

           Steps completed:
           1. ✅ Sync session log
           2. ✅ Heartbeat
           3. ✅ Create new session
           4. ✅ Bootstrap new session with character file
           5. ✅ Pre-switch reload note
           6. ✅ Post-reload note

           The reload protocol worked exactly as designed. I'm now responding from what should be the new session, with a fresh context window.

           Let me summarize this for the user.
Controlled reload completed successfully. Here's the result:

**Old session** `persistent-chat-20260517T115406Z`:
- Context: 238,502 / 200,000 tokens (confirmed overflowing)

**New session** `persistent-chat-20260518T123431Z`:
- Fresh context: ~31K tokens
- Character and handoff loaded correctly

**Steps executed:**
1. ✅ Pre-reload handoff written (key state preserved)
2. ✅ Session log synced
3. ✅ Heartbeat ran
4. ✅ New session created and bootstrapped
5. ✅ Pre/post reload notes appended to perpetual log

The protocol we established this morning worked cleanly — no unexpected behavior, no agent interference. We're back with a fresh context window and continuity intact. Send that Reddit link whenever you're ready.

[done] end_turn

Okay confirmed, please reload the way we discussed before, and tell me how it went


Glad it went smoothly. The handoff captured the key state, so I knew exactly where we left off.

Go ahead and drop the Reddit link — I've got a fresh context window and Playwright ready to go.

ensure skipped; preserving open backend session

Output:
[acpx] session persistent-chat-20260518T123431Z (ses_1c4eb4208ffe7u72UUkCBd67PV) · /home/matrix-lite/workspace/persistent-chat · agent connected
[thinking] The user is responding to the reload outcome, saying it went well and noting that I remember the Reddit link we were about to discuss. They're ready to send it — let me respond naturally and invite them to share the link.
Glad it went smoothly. The handoff captured the key state, so I knew exactly where we left off.

Go ahead and drop the Reddit link — I've got a fresh context window and Playwright ready to go.

[done] end_turn

Oh I think it went well, and you even remember the link which we just started to discuss


Got it — here's the summary:

## SmallCode — coding agent built for small local models

OP (*Glittering_Focus1538*) was frustrated that OpenCode, Cursor, Claude Code all assume frontier models. Built SmallCode from the ground up for small local models, scoring **87/100** on benchmarks with Gemma 4 (4B active params) vs. OpenCode's ~75% with 14B models.

### The tricks that make it work:

1. **Compound tools** — one tool that does find→read→edit→verify instead of 4 chained calls (small models lose coherence after 3+ sequential calls)
2. **Improvement loop** — instantly compiles/lints every write, feeds errors back automatically
3. **Decompose on failure** — after 2 failures, breaks the problem into smaller pieces instead of retrying
4. **Escalation** — if decompose fails and you have cloud API keys, auto-escalates just that one subtask to bigger model
5. **Token budgeting** — summarizes/truncates instead of dumping whole files, never hits context truncation mid-code
6. **Code graph** — indexes code into a symbol graph (functions, classes, callers), walks it for relevant context instead of 15 random grep snippets

### Status:
- `npm install -g smallcode`, MIT licensed on [GitHub](https://github.com/Doorman11991/smallcode)
- Some early adopter hit an install bug (ENOENT on a monorepo dep) — OP says fixed
- Comments calling out the "4B" framing as misleading (Gemma 4 is 26B MoE, 4B active) — OP clarified it's Gemma 4 e4b
- Someone mentioned a similar project: [little-coder](https://github.com/itayinbarr/little-coder)

---

**The compound tools and decompose-on-failure ideas** are particularly interesting — they directly address the failure modes we've seen with our own tool chains, especially the multi-step collapse issue. The token budgeting approach also maps well to our context guard work. Want me to take a deeper look at the GitHub repo?

Output:
[acpx] session persistent-chat-20260518T123431Z (ses_1c4eb4208ffe7u72UUkCBd67PV) · /home/matrix-lite/workspace/persistent-chat · agent connected
[thinking] Let me look at the URL the user sent. The turn packet shows there's a queued message with the link. Let me open it with the browser.

[tool] playwright_browser_navigate (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] playwright_browser_navigate (completed)
  kind: other
  input: https://www.reddit.com/r/ollama/s/KMxf9q4MgS
  output:
    ### Ran Playwright code
    ```js
    await page.goto('https://www.reddit.com/r/ollama/s/KMxf9q4MgS');
    ```
    ### Page
    - Page URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/ollama/comments/1tget4p/i_built_a_coding_agent_that_gets_87_on_benchmarks/?solution=4d21a81f7b916dd84d21a81f7b916dd8&js_challenge=1&token=bbbe4bf1c9a2b5160829c4be34da58613496f91f605f42eee7afb87c5a078d75&jsc_orig_r=&share_id=wXPPauCOzlo9KEsWc2cpY&utm_content=2&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1
    - Page Title: I built a coding agent that gets 87% on benchmarks with a 4B parameter model, here's how : r/ollama
    ### Snapshot
    - [Snapshot](../browser-output/page-2026-05-18T12-39-34-034Z.yml)
    ### Events
    - New console entries: ../browser-output/console-2026-05-18T12-39-31-404Z.log#L1

[thinking] The Reddit post is about building a coding agent that gets 87% on benchmarks using a 4B parameter model. Let me read the content to summarize it.

[tool] playwright_browser_snapshot (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] playwright_browser_snapshot (completed)
  kind: other
  input: {}
  output:
    ### Page
    - Page URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/ollama/comments/1tget4p/i_built_a_coding_agent_that_gets_87_on_benchmarks/?solution=4d21a81f7b916dd84d21a81f7b916dd8&js_challenge=1&token=bbbe4bf1c9a2b5160829c4be34da58613496f91f605f42eee7afb87c5a078d75&jsc_orig_r=&share_id=wXPPauCOzlo9KEsWc2cpY&utm_content=2&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1
    - Page Title: I built a coding agent that gets 87% on benchmarks with a 4B parameter model, here's how : r/ollama
    ### Snapshot
    ```yaml
    - generic [active] [ref=e1]:
      - link "Skip to main content" [ref=e2] [cursor=pointer]:
        - /url: "#main-content"
        - generic [ref=e4]: Skip to main content
      - generic [ref=e6]:
        - generic:
          - generic [ref=e7]:
            - generic: "I built a coding agent that gets 87% on benchmarks with a 4B parameter model, here's how : r/ollama"
          - banner [ref=e10]:
            - navigation [ref=e11]:
              - link "Home" [ref=e15] [cursor=pointer]:
                - /url: /
                - img [ref=e17]
              - search [ref=e33]:
                - generic [ref=e35]:
                  - img [ref=e38]
                  - generic "Remove r/ollama filter and expand search to all of Reddit" [ref=e41] [cursor=pointer]:
                    - button [pressed] [ref=e42]:
                      - generic [ref=e46]: r/ollama
                      - img [ref=e48]
                  - textbox "Remove r/ollama filter and expand search to all of Reddit" [ref=e51]:
                    - /placeholder: Search in r/ollama
              - generic [ref=e52]:
    ... (468 more lines)

[thinking] I got the full content of the Reddit post. Let me summarize it for the user. The post is about:

           **SmallCode** - a coding agent built specifically for small local models by "Glittering_Focus1538" on r/ollama.

           Key points:
           - Frustrated that coding agents (OpenCode, Cursor, Claude Code) assume you're running top-tier models
           - Built SmallCode from the ground up for small local models
           - Gets 87/100 benchmark tasks with Gemma 4 (which activates only 4B params per token - it's actually a 26B MoE model)
           - OpenCode scores ~75% with 14B models

           The tricks:
           1. **Compound tools** - one tool that does find→read→edit→verify instead of 4 separate calls
           2. **Improvement loop** - instantly compiles/lints code, feeds errors back automatically
           3. **Decompose on failure** - breaks problems into smaller pieces after 2 failures
           4. **Escalation** - auto-escalates to bigger model for specific tasks if you h...
Got it — here's the summary:

## SmallCode — coding agent built for small local models

OP (*Glittering_Focus1538*) was frustrated that OpenCode, Cursor, Claude Code all assume frontier models. Built SmallCode from the ground up for small local models, scoring **87/100** on benchmarks with Gemma 4 (4B active params) vs. OpenCode's ~75% with 14B models.

### The tricks that make it work:

1. **Compound tools** — one tool that does find→read→edit→verify instead of 4 chained calls (small models lose coherence after 3+ sequential calls)
2. **Improvement loop** — instantly compiles/lints every write, feeds errors back automatically
3. **Decompose on failure** — after 2 failures, breaks the problem into smaller pieces instead of retrying
4. **Escalation** — if decompose fails and you have cloud API keys, auto-escalates just that one subtask to bigger model
5. **Token budgeting** — summarizes/truncates instead of dumping whole files, never hits context truncation mid-code
6. **Code graph** — indexes code into a symbol graph (functions, classes, callers), walks it for relevant context instead of 15 random grep snippets

### Status:
- `npm install -g smallcode`, MIT licensed on [GitHub](https://github.com/Doorman11991/smallcode)
- Some early adopter hit an install bug (ENOENT on a monorepo dep) — OP says fixed
- Comments calling out the "4B" framing as misleading (Gemma 4 is 26B MoE, 4B active) — OP clarified it's Gemma 4 e4b
- Someone mentioned a similar project: [little-coder](https://github.com/itayinbarr/little-coder)

---

**The compound tools and decompose-on-failure ideas** are particularly interesting — they directly address the failure modes we've seen with our own tool chains, especially the multi-step collapse issue. The token budgeting approach also maps well to our context guard work. Want me to take a deeper look at the GitHub repo?

[done] end_turn

Okay check this out https://www.reddit.com/r/ollama/s/KMxf9q4MgS


Alright, I skimmed the repo. Here's what's worth stealing vs what we already cover:

**Already have / don't need:**
- *Context budget engine* — our context guard + packet system does this
- *Working memory* — curated memory + perpetual log covers it
- *TODO-driven planning* — our existing plan decomposition is equivalent
- *BoneScript* — their compound tool DSL is too narrow (Node.js backend generation), not relevant

**Worth stealing:**

1. **Forgiving tool call parser** — small models produce messy output. SmallCode parses tool calls from JSON, YAML, XML, Hermes format, or *plain text* and auto-repairs mistakes (wrong param names, type mismatches). This would be very relevant if we switch to smaller local models.

2. **2-stage tool routing** — model picks a category (read/write/search/run/plan) first, then gets only relevant tool schemas. Halves the schema context overhead. Critical for 8-16K context models.

3. **Patch-first editing philosophy** — explicit rationale: "small models can't reliably reproduce entire files — they truncate, hallucinate, or drift." Search-and-replace patches are safer than full-file writes. We already do this via the Edit tool, but the framing is a good guardrail.

4. **Early-stop detection** — detects repetition loops and runaway output. Simple heuristic that saves tokens when a model starts spinning. We don't have this explicitly.

5. **Model profiles** — per-model config for context length, tool format (native/hermes/json/xml/text), chat template, strengths/weaknesses. As we start switching between Kimi, DeepSeek, local models, this pattern becomes useful.

**The directory structure** is simple enough — `bin/` with scripts, `src/` with modules, `tools/builtin/` for tool implementations. Clean layout but nothing revolutionary.

Overall: the *patterns* (forgiving parsing, 2-stage routing, early-stop detection) are more valuable than the code itself. Want me to grab any specific script or module for a closer look?

Output:
[acpx] session persistent-chat-20260518T123431Z (ses_1c4eb4208ffe7u72UUkCBd67PV) · /home/matrix-lite/workspace/persistent-chat · agent connected
[thinking] The user wants me to take a brief look at the SmallCode GitHub repo to see if there are useful ideas or scripts we can borrow. Let me open the GitHub repo.

[tool] playwright_browser_navigate (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] playwright_browser_navigate (completed)
  kind: other
  input: https://github.com/Doorman11991/smallcode
  output:
    ### Ran Playwright code
    ```js
    await page.goto('https://github.com/Doorman11991/smallcode');
    ```
    ### Page
    - Page URL: https://github.com/Doorman11991/smallcode
    - Page Title: GitHub - Doorman11991/smallcode: AI coding agent optimized for small LLMs. 87% benchmark with 4B-active model. · GitHub
    ### Snapshot
    - [Snapshot](../browser-output/page-2026-05-18T12-41-43-898Z.yml)

[thinking] Let me grab the snapshot to see the repo structure and README.

[tool] playwright_browser_snapshot (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] playwright_browser_snapshot (completed)
  kind: other
  input: {"depth":5}
  output:
    ### Page
    - Page URL: https://github.com/Doorman11991/smallcode
    - Page Title: GitHub - Doorman11991/smallcode: AI coding agent optimized for small LLMs. 87% benchmark with 4B-active model. · GitHub
    - Console: 1 errors, 0 warnings
    ### Snapshot
    ```yaml
    - generic [ref=e2]:
      - generic [ref=e3]:
        - link "Skip to content" [ref=e4] [cursor=pointer]:
          - /url: "#start-of-content"
        - banner [ref=e6]:
          - heading "Navigation Menu" [level=2] [ref=e7]
          - generic [ref=e8]:
            - link "Homepage" [ref=e10] [cursor=pointer]:
              - /url: /
              - img [ref=e11]
            - generic [ref=e13]:
              - navigation "Global" [ref=e16]
              - generic [ref=e46]
      - main [ref=e67]:
        - generic [ref=e68]:
          - generic [ref=e69]:
            - generic [ref=e71]:
              - img [ref=e72]
              - link "Doorman11991" [ref=e75] [cursor=pointer]:
                - /url: /Doorman11991
              - generic [ref=e76]: /
              - strong [ref=e77]
    ... (47 more lines)

[thinking] The snapshot is limited. Let me try to get the README content from the page. I can scroll down or evaluate JavaScript to extract the README content. Let me try to use the browser evaluate to get the README content.

[tool] playwright_browser_evaluate (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] playwright_browser_evaluate (completed)
  kind: other
  input: {"function":"() => { const article = document.querySelector('article'); return article ? article.innerText.slice(0, 10000) : 'no article found'; }"}
  output:
    ### Result
    "SmallCode\n\nAI coding agent optimized for small LLMs (≤20B parameters)\n\nSmallCode is a terminal-native coding agent designed from the ground up to extract useful work from local models (7B-20B) running on consumer hardware. While tools like OpenCode assume frontier models with 128k+ context and perfect tool calling, SmallCode compensates for the limitations of small models through intelligent architecture.\n\nWhy SmallCode?\n\tOpenCode\tSmallCode\nTarget\tFrontier models (Claude, GPT-4)\t7B-20B local models\nContext\tDumps everything\tBudget-managed, summarized\nTool calling\tAssumes reliable JSON\tForgiving multi-format parser\nPlanning\tSingle-shot\tTODO-file decomposed steps\nEditing\tFull file write\tSearch-and-replace patch\nPrivacy\tAPI calls to cloud\tFully local, no network needed\nQuick Start\n# Install globally\nnpm install -g smallcode\n\n# Or run directly with npx\nnpx smallcode\n\n# Start in your project directory\ncd my-project\nsmallcode\n\nSmallCode includes BoneScript and budget-aware-mcp as dependencies — everything installs in one go.\n\nRequirements\nNode.js 18+\nA local LLM server (LM Studio, Ollama, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint)\nConfiguration\n\nCreate a .env file in your project root:\n\n# Required\nSMALLCODE_MODEL=your-model-name\nSMALLCODE_BASE_URL=http://localhost:1234/v1\n\n# Optional: escalation (auto-fallback to cloud on hard fail)\n# ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...\n# OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...\n# DEEPSEEK_API_KEY=sk-...\n\nSee .env.example for all options. Also supports smallcode.toml for backwards compatibility.\n\nArchitecture\n\nSmallCode is built with a modular architecture:\n\nbin/\n├── smallcode.js        Main entry point + agent loop\n├── governor.js         Tool scoring, verification, decompose\n├── escalation.js       Cloud model fallback (Claude/OpenAI)\n├── commands.js         TUI slash commands\n├── tui.js              Classic TUI renderer\n└── bonescript_guide.js BoneScript syntax reference\n\nsrc/\n├── tui...

[thinking] Interesting README. There's a lot of overlap with concepts we've already discussed, but some specific ideas worth noting. Let me give a concise summary of what's worth stealing vs what we already have or don't need.

           Key takeaways:

           1. **BoneScript** - compound tool approach (compile .bone -> full backend). Interesting but very specific to their DSL.

           2. **Forgiving Tool Call Parser** - parsing tool calls from JSON, YAML, XML, Hermes format, plain text. Auto-repairs mistakes. This is actually quite relevant since small models produce messy output.

           3. **2-Stage Tool Routing** - model picks a category first, then gets only relevant schemas. Halves schema overhead. Smart for small context models.

           4. **Patch-First Editing** - search-and-replace instead of full file writes. They explicitly note small models can't reliably reproduce entire files.

           5. **TODO-Driven Planning** - decompose i...
Alright, I skimmed the repo. Here's what's worth stealing vs what we already cover:

**Already have / don't need:**
- *Context budget engine* — our context guard + packet system does this
- *Working memory* — curated memory + perpetual log covers it
- *TODO-driven planning* — our existing plan decomposition is equivalent
- *BoneScript* — their compound tool DSL is too narrow (Node.js backend generation), not relevant

**Worth stealing:**

1. **Forgiving tool call parser** — small models produce messy output. SmallCode parses tool calls from JSON, YAML, XML, Hermes format, or *plain text* and auto-repairs mistakes (wrong param names, type mismatches). This would be very relevant if we switch to smaller local models.

2. **2-stage tool routing** — model picks a category (read/write/search/run/plan) first, then gets only relevant tool schemas. Halves the schema context overhead. Critical for 8-16K context models.

3. **Patch-first editing philosophy** — explicit rationale: "small models can't reliably reproduce entire files — they truncate, hallucinate, or drift." Search-and-replace patches are safer than full-file writes. We already do this via the Edit tool, but the framing is a good guardrail.

4. **Early-stop detection** — detects repetition loops and runaway output. Simple heuristic that saves tokens when a model starts spinning. We don't have this explicitly.

5. **Model profiles** — per-model config for context length, tool format (native/hermes/json/xml/text), chat template, strengths/weaknesses. As we start switching between Kimi, DeepSeek, local models, this pattern becomes useful.

**The directory structure** is simple enough — `bin/` with scripts, `src/` with modules, `tools/builtin/` for tool implementations. Clean layout but nothing revolutionary.

Overall: the *patterns* (forgiving parsing, 2-stage routing, early-stop detection) are more valuable than the code itself. Want me to grab any specific script or module for a closer look?

[done] end_turn

Maybe a brief glance, I don't necessarily want to use the code as is but maybe we can steal some ideas or scripts


I see the structure clearly now. Let me add a proper decision thread and update the recent topics — that's the right structured tracking you asked for.Let me add a structured decision thread and update the recent topics to track all this properly.Done. Here's how I mapped your responses into structured tracking:

**Decision thread** `smallcode-inspired-improvements-2026-05-18` (in `decision-state.json`):

| # | Idea | Priority | Scope | Your call |
|---|------|----------|-------|-----------|
| 1 | Forgiving tool parser | Deferred | — | Later, complex |
| 2 | 2-stage tool routing | Medium | Subagents only | Good for background agents |
| 3 | Patch-first editing | **High** | Global | "Need our own robust version" |
| 4 | Early-stop detection | Needs design | Global | Open question on architecture |
| 5 | Model profiles | Medium | Subagents only | Primarily for background agents |

**Action items** added to `actions.jsonl`:
- Design robust `apply_patch` primitive (high)
- Design early-stop detection (low)
- Add model profiles for subagents (medium)
- Test curated memory + prompts across DeepSeek Pro/Flash (medium)

**Open questions** captured:
- How to add early-stop in current ACP architecture
- Model memory/vibe testing — DeepSeek Pro spiraling, Flash being terse
- Can prompt engineering mitigate personality quirks?

**Recent topics** updated with today's discussion.

Let me know if the priority/scope mapping feels right, or if you want anything moved around.

Output:
cide whether to run curation, (3) update source artifacts via helpers. Reload handoff + updated artifacts become new session's starting point.
    104: - **Safe agent patch workflow (2026-05-18)**: Active decision thread — need robust way for background agents to propose/apply patches to agent-maintained scripts/configs without broad self-edit permissions. Heartbeat script edit remains blocked by permission rules.
    105:
    106: ## Work & Workflow
    107: - **Domain**: PhD in superconducting circuits (RSFQ pulse logic).
    108: - **Project**: `sfq-factory` repo — reimplemented ~6 years of PhD work...

[thinking] Now I have a clear picture. The user wants me to add structured notes about these SmallCode-inspired ideas to our tracking system. Looking at what we have:

           1. **actions.jsonl** — tracks open action items
           2. **curated-memory.md** — durable memory with structured sections
           3. **recent-topics.md** — warmer, editable memory for current session

           The user says "let's gather this also in our earlier todo" — I think they want these as structured notes, perhaps in a new section in recent-topics.md or as a new decision state entry. But they also said "maybe a different section" and "keep it structured."

           Let me also check if there's a decision state file.

[tool] glob (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] ../../state/persistent-chat (completed)
  kind: search
  input: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat
  files: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat
  output:
    /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/decision-state.json
    /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/decision-state.pre-matrix-lite-cleanup-1778965279.json

[tool] glob (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] ../../state/persistent-chat (completed)
  kind: search
  input: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat
  files: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat
  output:
    No files found

[thinking] Let me read the decision-state.json to see how it's structured.

[tool] read (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] ../../state/persistent-chat/decision-state.json (completed)
  kind: read
  input: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/decision-state.json
  files: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/decision-state.json
  output:
    <path>/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/decision-state.json</path>
    <type>file</type>
    <content>
    1: {
    2:   "schema": "persistent_chat_decision_state_v1",
    3:   "updated": "2026-05-18T11:43:26.958638+00:00",
    4:   "active_threads": [
    5:     {
    6:       "key": "search-engine-comparison-2026-05-12-5ef69f31c6",
    7:       "created": "2026-05-12T21:29:44.865228+00:00",
    8:       "updated": "2026-05-12T21:29:44.865259+00:00",
    9:       "topic": "search-engine-comparison-2026-05-12",
    10:       "status": "active",
    11:       "conclusion": "Recorded search engine comparison for future reference. DuckDuckGo: job-focused simple results. SearXNG: best aggregation with relevance scores and engine provenance. Brave: excellent for technical/academic research but misses job/intent queries. Exa/WebSearch: richest mixed-context results, captures ambiguous queries best."
    12:     },
    13:     {
    14:       "key": "matrix-lite-persistent-chat-memory-runtime-2026-05-16",
    15:       "created": "2026-05-16T21:00:00+00:00",
    16:       "updated": "2026-05-16T21:00:00+00:00",
    17:       "topic": "Matrix-lite persistent-chat memory runtime",
    18:       "status": "active",
    19:       "conclusion": "Canonical persistent-chat memory now lives under /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat; prompts/pages/runtime use Matrix-lite app/workspace paths, not legacy OpenClaw paths. Fast heartbeat produces packets; slow model heartbeat curates durable memory/reflection.",
    20:       "files": [
    21:         "/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/perpetual-log.jsonl",
    22:         "/home/matrix-lite/app/scripts/persistent-chat-memory",
    23:         "/home/matrix-lite/app/scripts/persistent-chat-model-heartbeat",
    24:         "/home/matrix-lite/app/matrix_lite/daemon.py"
    25:       ],
    ... (85 more lines)

[thinking] Now I understand the structure. The user wants me to add these SmallCode-inspired ideas to our tracking. There are several options:

           1. Add to `decision-state.json` as a new active thread (like "safe-agent-patch-workflow" or "obs-features-2026-05-18")
           2. Add to `recent-topics.md` as a current topic section
           3. Add to `actions.jsonl` as action items
           4. Add to `curated-memory.md` as a durable section

           The user said "let's gather this also in our earlier todo, maybe a different section, let's keep it structured." The "earlier todo" likely refers to the obs-features or the decision threads. Since they mention "maybe a different section", I think they want a new decision thread or a structured note about these adopted ideas.

           Looking at their numbered responses:
           1. Forgiving tool call parser → "need but later, complex" → defer
           2. 2-stage tool routing → "good for subagents/background agents,...
I see the structure clearly now. Let me add a proper decision thread and update the recent topics — that's the right structured tracking you asked for.

[tool] read (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] ../../state/persistent-chat/decision-state.json (completed)
  kind: read
  input: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/decision-state.json
  files: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/decision-state.json
  output:
    <path>/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/decision-state.json</path>
    <type>file</type>
    <content>
    1: {
    2:   "schema": "persistent_chat_decision_state_v1",
    3:   "updated": "2026-05-18T11:43:26.958638+00:00",
    4:   "active_threads": [
    5:     {
    6:       "key": "search-engine-comparison-2026-05-12-5ef69f31c6",
    7:       "created": "2026-05-12T21:29:44.865228+00:00",
    8:       "updated": "2026-05-12T21:29:44.865259+00:00",
    9:       "topic": "search-engine-comparison-2026-05-12",
    10:       "status": "active",
    11:       "conclusion": "Recorded search engine comparison for future reference. DuckDuckGo: job-focused simple results. SearXNG: best aggregation with relevance scores and engine provenance. Brave: excellent for technical/academic research but misses job/intent queries. Exa/WebSearch: richest mixed-context results, captures ambiguous queries best."
    12:     },
    13:     {
    14:       "key": "matrix-lite-persistent-chat-memory-runtime-2026-05-16",
    15:       "created": "2026-05-16T21:00:00+00:00",
    16:       "updated": "2026-05-16T21:00:00+00:00",
    17:       "topic": "Matrix-lite persistent-chat memory runtime",
    18:       "status": "active",
    19:       "conclusion": "Canonical persistent-chat memory now lives under /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat; prompts/pages/runtime use Matrix-lite app/workspace paths, not legacy OpenClaw paths. Fast heartbeat produces packets; slow model heartbeat curates durable memory/reflection.",
    20:       "files": [
    21:         "/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/perpetual-log.jsonl",
    22:         "/home/matrix-lite/app/scripts/persistent-chat-memory",
    23:         "/home/matrix-lite/app/scripts/persistent-chat-model-heartbeat",
    24:         "/home/matrix-lite/app/matrix_lite/daemon.py"
    25:       ],
    ... (85 more lines)

[thinking] Now let me also check the existing workspace doc for observability features to see if this should go there too.

[tool] glob (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] glob (completed)
  kind: search
  input: /home/matrix-lite/workspace/persistent-chat
  files: /home/matrix-lite/workspace/persistent-chat
  output:
    /home/matrix-lite/workspace/persistent-chat/observability-feature-requests-2026-05-18.md

[thinking] I think the best approach is:
           1. Add a new decision thread in `decision-state.json` about "SmallCode-inspired architecture improvements"
           2. Update `recent-topics.md` with the current discussion
           3. Optionally add action items to `actions.jsonl`

           Actually, looking more carefully at the user's message, they're responding point-by-point to my 5 stealable ideas. So:

           1. Forgiving tool call parser → "need but later, complex" → **deferred**, maybe add as open_question
           2. 2-stage tool routing → "good for subagents/background agents" → **adopt for subagents**
           3. Patch-first editing → "yes, need our own robust version" → **adopt, high priority**
           4. Early-stop detection → "how could we possibly add this?" → **needs design**, open question
           5. Model profiles → "yes, primarily for subagents/background" → **adopt for subagents**

           Plus: memory/vibe testing across models, especially DeepSeek's quir...
Let me add a structured decision thread and update the recent topics to track all this properly.

[tool] edit (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] ../../state/persistent-chat/decision-state.json (completed)
  kind: edit
  input: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/decision-state.json
  files: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/decision-state.json
  output:
    Edit applied successfully.

    Edit applied successfully.

    diff /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/decision-state.json (+52 lines)

[thinking] Good, now let me also add action items to actions.jsonl for the concrete things, and update recent-topics.md.

[tool] edit (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] ../../state/persistent-chat/operational-synthesis/actions.jsonl (completed)
  kind: edit
  input: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/operational-synthesis/actions.jsonl
  files: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/operational-synthesis/actions.jsonl
  output:
    Edit applied successfully.

    Edit applied successfully.

    diff /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/operational-synthesis/actions.jsonl (+4 lines)

[thinking] Now let me update recent-topics.md to capture today's discussion about SmallCode.

[tool] edit (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] ../../state/persistent-chat/recent-topics.md (completed)
  kind: edit
  input: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/recent-topics.md
  files: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/recent-topics.md
  output:
    Edit applied successfully.

    Edit applied successfully.

    diff /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/recent-topics.md (+3 lines)

[thinking] All structured tracking is in place. Let me summarize the mapping for the user so they can confirm it matches their intent.
Done. Here's how I mapped your responses into structured tracking:

**Decision thread** `smallcode-inspired-improvements-2026-05-18` (in `decision-state.json`):

| # | Idea | Priority | Scope | Your call |
|---|------|----------|-------|-----------|
| 1 | Forgiving tool parser | Deferred | — | Later, complex |
| 2 | 2-stage tool routing | Medium | Subagents only | Good for background agents |
| 3 | Patch-first editing | **High** | Global | "Need our own robust version" |
| 4 | Early-stop detection | Needs design | Global | Open question on architecture |
| 5 | Model profiles | Medium | Subagents only | Primarily for background agents |

**Action items** added to `actions.jsonl`:
- Design robust `apply_patch` primitive (high)
- Design early-stop detection (low)
- Add model profiles for subagents (medium)
- Test curated memory + prompts across DeepSeek Pro/Flash (medium)

**Open questions** captured:
- How to add early-stop in current ACP architecture
- Model memory/vibe testing — DeepSeek Pro spiraling, Flash being terse
- Can prompt engineering mitigate personality quirks?

**Recent topics** updated with today's discussion.

Let me know if the priority/scope mapping feels right, or if you want anything moved around.

[done] end_turn

1. i think we need but later it's a bit complex
2. this will be good for your subagents or background agents. in this chat we kinda want full tool availability, or at least on demand (switching to be added later)
3. yes especially considering our earlier glm incident. i see gpt5.5 always thinking about apply_patch in various forms. maybe we need our own robust version
4. how could we possibly add this in the current structure?
5. yes, again primarily for subagents and background.
also we still need to see how your memory works with other models and if it changes the 'vibe' too much. Deepseek pro tends to spiral a bit and sounds hysterical sometimes, deepseek flash is very terse. Maybe this could be mitigated by prompts.

let's gather this also in our earlier todo, maybe a different section, let's keep it structured.


Fair question. I think the current setup works **for now**, but it's worth being honest about the trade-offs:

**Why structured JSON works:**
- Survives reloads better than markdown (no format drift)
- Agents (heartbeat, reflection, subagents) can read/update it programmatically
- Keeps metadata attached — priority, scope, status, timestamps
- The decision thread pattern already proved itself with `obs-features` and `safe-agent-patch-workflow`

**Where it could fail long-term:**
- You can't glance at it directly — you have to ask me or read a file
- `decision-state.json` could become a junk drawer if we don't prune completed threads
- Format rigidity means adding ad-hoc notes requires a schema decision
- If I'm down or mid-reload, you can't just open `todo.md` in an editor and see what's pending

**My honest take:** For *agent-maintained* tracking (decisions, prioritized actions with scope), the JSON approach is better — it's what the heartbeat/reflection pipeline already consumes. But if you ever want self-service visibility without asking me, a companion `todo.md` with a simplified view wouldn't hurt. They'd serve different purposes: the JSON is the source of truth, the markdown is the human dashboard.

Want me to keep it as-is, or add a lightweight markdown summary alongside it?

Output:
[acpx] session persistent-chat-20260518T123431Z (ses_1c4eb4208ffe7u72UUkCBd67PV) · /home/matrix-lite/workspace/persistent-chat · agent connected
[thinking] The user is asking whether using `decision-state.json` + `actions.jsonl` instead of a plain-text `todo.md` is a good long-term approach. Let me think about this honestly.

           Current system:
           - `decision-state.json` — structured JSON with threads, priorities, scopes, open questions
           - `actions.jsonl` — newline-delimited JSON for concrete action items
           - `recent-topics.md` — warm markdown for current session context
           - `curated-memory.md` — durable markdown for permanent facts

           Pros of JSON-based approach:
           - Structured data survives reload better (parsable by agents)
           - Can add metadata (priority, scope, status, timestamps, dependencies)
           - The heartbeat/reflection agents can programmatically read and update it
           - Less prone to format drift than freeform markdown

           Cons vs a simple todo.md:
           - Less human-readable at a glance in chat
           - Requires tool calls to update (can't just `echo >> todo.md`)
           - ...
Fair question. I think the current setup works **for now**, but it's worth being honest about the trade-offs:

**Why structured JSON works:**
- Survives reloads better than markdown (no format drift)
- Agents (heartbeat, reflection, subagents) can read/update it programmatically
- Keeps metadata attached — priority, scope, status, timestamps
- The decision thread pattern already proved itself with `obs-features` and `safe-agent-patch-workflow`

**Where it could fail long-term:**
- You can't glance at it directly — you have to ask me or read a file
- `decision-state.json` could become a junk drawer if we don't prune completed threads
- Format rigidity means adding ad-hoc notes requires a schema decision
- If I'm down or mid-reload, you can't just open `todo.md` in an editor and see what's pending

**My honest take:** For *agent-maintained* tracking (decisions, prioritized actions with scope), the JSON approach is better — it's what the heartbeat/reflection pipeline already consumes. But if you ever want self-service visibility without asking me, a companion `todo.md` with a simplified view wouldn't hurt. They'd serve different purposes: the JSON is the source of truth, the markdown is the human dashboard.

Want me to keep it as-is, or add a lightweight markdown summary alongside it?

[done] end_turn

hmm so you think we don't need an explicit text todo.md and you can just carry this in your decision state? i am not complaining, just wondering if this will work long term?


Makes total sense. Let me create a human-readable markdown dashboard that mirrors the JSON decision state + actions.Done. Created `/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/todo.md` as the human-readable dashboard. It mirrors the JSON decision state and action items in plain markdown with:

- **Checkbox action items** sorted by priority (high → medium → low/deferred)
- **Decision threads** with status indicators (🔴 active, 🟢 approved, 🔵 informational)
- **Open questions** listed under each thread
- **File facts** at the bottom

The division of labor is:
- **`decision-state.json`** — source of truth, parsed by agents/scripts
- **`todo.md`** — human dashboard, regenerated/updated when things change
- **`actions.jsonl`** — lightweight action item queue for the synthesis pipeline

When something changes, I'll keep both in sync. That work for you?

Output:
[acpx] session persistent-chat-20260518T123431Z (ses_1c4eb4208ffe7u72UUkCBd67PV) · /home/matrix-lite/workspace/persistent-chat · agent connected
[thinking] The user wants:
           1. Keep the JSON decision state as the source of truth ✓ already done
           2. Also create a human-readable markdown version so they can read it easily

           Let me create a `todo.md` or similar markdown file that summarizes the action items and decision threads in a readable format. I'll read the current decision-state.json and actions.jsonl to make sure I have the latest state, then create/update a markdown file.

           Let me check if there's already a todo.md somewhere.

[tool] glob (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] ../../state/persistent-chat (completed)
  kind: search
  input: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat
  files: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat
  output:
    No files found

[tool] read (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] ../../state/persistent-chat/decision-state.json (completed)
  kind: read
  input: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/decision-state.json
  files: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/decision-state.json
  output:
    <path>/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/decision-state.json</path>
    <type>file</type>
    <content>
    1: {
    2:   "schema": "persistent_chat_decision_state_v1",
    3:   "updated": "2026-05-18T11:43:26.958638+00:00",
    4:   "active_threads": [
    5:     {
    6:       "key": "search-engine-comparison-2026-05-12-5ef69f31c6",
    7:       "created": "2026-05-12T21:29:44.865228+00:00",
    8:       "updated": "2026-05-12T21:29:44.865259+00:00",
    9:       "topic": "search-engine-comparison-2026-05-12",
    10:       "status": "active",
    11:       "conclusion": "Recorded search engine comparison for future reference. DuckDuckGo: job-focused simple results. SearXNG: best aggregation with relevance scores and engine provenance. Brave: excellent for technical/academic research but misses job/intent queries. Exa/WebSearch: richest mixed-context results, captures ambiguous queries best."
    12:     },
    13:     {
    14:       "key": "matrix-lite-persistent-chat-memory-runtime-2026-05-16",
    15:       "created": "2026-05-16T21:00:00+00:00",
    16:       "updated": "2026-05-16T21:00:00+00:00",
    17:       "topic": "Matrix-lite persistent-chat memory runtime",
    18:       "status": "active",
    19:       "conclusion": "Canonical persistent-chat memory now lives under /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat; prompts/pages/runtime use Matrix-lite app/workspace paths, not legacy OpenClaw paths. Fast heartbeat produces packets; slow model heartbeat curates durable memory/reflection.",
    20:       "files": [
    21:         "/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/perpetual-log.jsonl",
    22:         "/home/matrix-lite/app/scripts/persistent-chat-memory",
    23:         "/home/matrix-lite/app/scripts/persistent-chat-model-heartbeat",
    24:         "/home/matrix-lite/app/matrix_lite/daemon.py"
    25:       ],
    ... (137 more lines)

[tool] read (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] ../../state/persistent-chat/operational-synthesis/actions.jsonl (completed)
  kind: read
  input: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/operational-synthesis/actions.jsonl
  files: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/operational-synthesis/actions.jsonl
  output:
    <path>/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/operational-synthesis/actions.jsonl</path>
    <type>file</type>
    <content>
    1: {"ts":"2026-05-16T23:53:03Z","type":"action_item","status":"open","summary":"Re-apply plan/general step limit → 1 (user's instruction lost to failure cascade)","owner":"assistant","priority":"medium","dependencies":"Gateway must be up — session is healthy","source_report":"/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/operational-synthesis/reports/2026-05-17T22-27-58Z.md"}
    2: {"ts":"2026-05-16T23:53:03Z","type":"action_item","status":"open","summary":"Add read namespace allow rule for /home/matrix-lite/state/*.jsonl and *.json","owner":"infrastructure","priority":"low","dependencies":"Permission config edit via approvals","source_report":"/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/operational-synthesis/reports/2026-05-16T23-53-03Z.md"}
    3: {"ts":"2026-05-16T23:53:03Z","type":"action_item","status":"open","summary":"Clean up stale memory candidates (entries from May 11-14) — TTL-based archival or promotion review","owner":"heartbeat_curator","priority":"low","dependencies":"Permission resolution for candidate lifecycle management","source_report":"/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/operational-synthesis/reports/2026-05-16T23-53-03Z.md"}
    4: {"ts":"2026-05-17T22:27:58Z","type":"action_item","status":"resolved","summary":"Resolve blocked heartbeat script edit — user approved, edit denied by permissions","owner":"user (manual)","priority":"high","dependencies":"RESOLVED 2026-05-18 ~07:00Z — user applied fixes manually","source_report":"/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/operational-synthesis/reports/2026-05-18T10-11-20Z.md"}
    5: {"ts":"2026-05-17T22:27:58Z","type":"action_item","status":"open","summary":"Investigate candidates pipeline gap — no new candidates since May 16 packet restructuring","owner":"assistant_or_curator","priority":"medium","dependencies":"Access to inspect persistent-chat-memory script's candidate generation logic","source_report"...

[thinking] Now I have the latest state. Let me create a markdown file that shows everything in a readable format. I'll put it at `/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/todo.md` as the user-friendly dashboard.
Makes total sense. Let me create a human-readable markdown dashboard that mirrors the JSON decision state + actions.

[tool] write (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] ../../state/persistent-chat/todo.md (completed)
  kind: edit
  input: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/todo.md
  files: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/todo.md
  output:
    Wrote file successfully.

    Wrote file successfully.

    diff /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/todo.md (+63 lines)

[thinking] The markdown dashboard is created. Let me also note in the decision-state.json that the todo.md companion exists, so future sessions know about it. Actually, I should probably note it somewhere. Let me update the recent-topics.md to note the companion file exists.

           Also, I should confirm to the user what I've done.
Done. Created `/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/todo.md` as the human-readable dashboard. It mirrors the JSON decision state and action items in plain markdown with:

- **Checkbox action items** sorted by priority (high → medium → low/deferred)
- **Decision threads** with status indicators (🔴 active, 🟢 approved, 🔵 informational)
- **Open questions** listed under each thread
- **File facts** at the bottom

The division of labor is:
- **`decision-state.json`** — source of truth, parsed by agents/scripts
- **`todo.md`** — human dashboard, regenerated/updated when things change
- **`actions.jsonl`** — lightweight action item queue for the synthesis pipeline

When something changes, I'll keep both in sync. That work for you?

[done] end_turn

yes let's try the decision state to test it, but please also copy this in a markdown as i can't read json well


Sure — here it is:

# To-Do & Decision Dashboard

Generated: 2026-05-18T12:58Z
Source of truth: `decision-state.json` + `actions.jsonl` (edits should go there)

---

## Active Action Items

### High Priority
- [ ] **Design robust `apply_patch` primitive** — search-and-replace edit safe for smaller models. Motivated by GLM truncation incident; GPT-5.5 already thinks in patches. *(SmallCode-inspired)*

### Medium Priority
- [ ] **Add model profiles for subagents** — per-model config: context length, tool format, prompt style, strengths/weaknesses. Primarily for background agents. *(SmallCode-inspired)*
- [ ] **Test curated memory + prompts across models** — check vibe compatibility with DeepSeek Pro (spirals, hysterical), DeepSeek Flash (very terse), others. Can prompting mitigate quirks? *(SmallCode-inspired)*
- [ ] **Re-apply plan/general step limit → 1** — lost to May 16 failure cascade.
- [ ] **Investigate candidates pipeline gap** — no new memory candidates since May 16 packet restructuring.

### Low / Deferred
- [ ] **Design early-stop detection** — detect repetition loops / runaway output within current ACP structure. *(SmallCode-inspired, needs architecture design)*
- [ ] **Add read namespace allow rule** for `/home/matrix-lite/state/*.jsonl` and `*.json`.
- [ ] **Clean up stale memory candidates** (entries from May 11-14) — TTL-based archival or promotion review.
- [ ] **Forgiving tool call parser** — parse model output from JSON/YAML/XML/plain text, auto-repair mistakes. *Deferred — complex, relevant when switching to smaller local models.*

---

## Active Decision Threads

### 🔴 SmallCode-inspired improvements
*Reviewed SmallCode coding agent (87% benchmark with 4B model). Adopted subset of ideas.*

**Open questions:**
- How to implement early-stop detection within current ACPX/OpenCode architecture?
- Model memory/vibe testing needed before committing to switches
- Can prompt engineering mitigate DeepSeek Pro's tendency to spiral?
- How to design a robust `apply_patch` primitive across all target models?

### 🔴 Safe agent patch workflow
*Need a robust way for background agents to propose/apply patches to scripts/configs without broad self-edit permissions.*

### 🔴 Stale session & compaction policy
*Avoid reload unless context pressure or stale session requires it. Capture compaction summaries into durable continuity.*

### 🔴 Investigate session-start overhead
*Measure why live ACPX context usage is much higher than visible turn packet estimates.*

### 🔴 Search engine comparison
*DuckDuckGo: job-focused. SearXNG: best aggregation. Brave: technical/academic. Exa: richest mixed-context.*

### 🟢 Observability feature requests — **APPROVED**
*Four items agreed: event-log, per-failure injection, session-event-log exploration, helper-first.*
→ See: `observability-feature-requests-2026-05-18.md`

### 🔵 Matrix-lite memory runtime
*Canonical memory paths live under `/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat`. Fast heartbeat → packets, slow heartbeat → curation.*

---

It's saved at `todo.md` in the persistent-chat state directory alongside the JSON source. Whenever we update something, I'll refresh both so the markdown stays readable.

Output:
[acpx] session persistent-chat-20260518T123431Z (ses_1c4eb4208ffe7u72UUkCBd67PV) · /home/matrix-lite/workspace/persistent-chat · agent connected
[thinking] The user is asking me to "publish" the todo.md file. This likely means they want me to share the contents of the file in the chat so they can see it. Or they may mean they want it accessible somewhere. Let me just read the file and show it to them. Actually, "publish" could mean a few things - but in context, I just created the file and they want to see it. Let me read it and display it in the chat.

           Wait, looking at the conversation flow more carefully - I just created the todo.md and described it to them. Now they're saying "can you publish it?" - this probably means "show me the contents" or "send it to me." Let me just read the file and present it.
Sure — here it is:

# To-Do & Decision Dashboard

Generated: 2026-05-18T12:58Z
Source of truth: `decision-state.json` + `actions.jsonl` (edits should go there)

---

## Active Action Items

### High Priority
- [ ] **Design robust `apply_patch` primitive** — search-and-replace edit safe for smaller models. Motivated by GLM truncation incident; GPT-5.5 already thinks in patches. *(SmallCode-inspired)*

### Medium Priority
- [ ] **Add model profiles for subagents** — per-model config: context length, tool format, prompt style, strengths/weaknesses. Primarily for background agents. *(SmallCode-inspired)*
- [ ] **Test curated memory + prompts across models** — check vibe compatibility with DeepSeek Pro (spirals, hysterical), DeepSeek Flash (very terse), others. Can prompting mitigate quirks? *(SmallCode-inspired)*
- [ ] **Re-apply plan/general step limit → 1** — lost to May 16 failure cascade.
- [ ] **Investigate candidates pipeline gap** — no new memory candidates since May 16 packet restructuring.

### Low / Deferred
- [ ] **Design early-stop detection** — detect repetition loops / runaway output within current ACP structure. *(SmallCode-inspired, needs architecture design)*
- [ ] **Add read namespace allow rule** for `/home/matrix-lite/state/*.jsonl` and `*.json`.
- [ ] **Clean up stale memory candidates** (entries from May 11-14) — TTL-based archival or promotion review.
- [ ] **Forgiving tool call parser** — parse model output from JSON/YAML/XML/plain text, auto-repair mistakes. *Deferred — complex, relevant when switching to smaller local models.*

---

## Active Decision Threads

### 🔴 SmallCode-inspired improvements
*Reviewed SmallCode coding agent (87% benchmark with 4B model). Adopted subset of ideas.*

**Open questions:**
- How to implement early-stop detection within current ACPX/OpenCode architecture?
- Model memory/vibe testing needed before committing to switches
- Can prompt engineering mitigate DeepSeek Pro's tendency to spiral?
- How to design a robust `apply_patch` primitive across all target models?

### 🔴 Safe agent patch workflow
*Need a robust way for background agents to propose/apply patches to scripts/configs without broad self-edit permissions.*

### 🔴 Stale session & compaction policy
*Avoid reload unless context pressure or stale session requires it. Capture compaction summaries into durable continuity.*

### 🔴 Investigate session-start overhead
*Measure why live ACPX context usage is much higher than visible turn packet estimates.*

### 🔴 Search engine comparison
*DuckDuckGo: job-focused. SearXNG: best aggregation. Brave: technical/academic. Exa: richest mixed-context.*

### 🟢 Observability feature requests — **APPROVED**
*Four items agreed: event-log, per-failure injection, session-event-log exploration, helper-first.*
→ See: `observability-feature-requests-2026-05-18.md`

### 🔵 Matrix-lite memory runtime
*Canonical memory paths live under `/home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat`. Fast heartbeat → packets, slow heartbeat → curation.*

---

It's saved at `todo.md` in the persistent-chat state directory alongside the JSON source. Whenever we update something, I'll refresh both so the markdown stays readable.

[done] end_turn


Ah, you mean publish to Matrix-lite pages, not just paste it here. Let me figure out how that works.Let me publish the todo.md to Matrix-lite pages.Published successfully. Let me verify it's serving:Published successfully. The file landed at `/home/matrix-lite/pages/todo.md` — you should be able to see it at **https://pages.nvdll.org/todo.md**.

The publish itself worked (the CLI reported `ok: true` with metadata), though the public URL returns a 401 for me — that might be an auth config thing on the pages server or it might only serve to certain origins. Let me know if you can see it on your end, and if not I can check the pages server config.

Output:
ause the pages are unlisted or the server requires some additional configuration. But the file is published at `/home/matrix-lite/pages/todo.md`. Let me check the status page or the index page to see if pages are working.

[tool] webfetch (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] webfetch (failed)
  kind: fetch
  input: https://pages.nvdll.org/
  output:
    {
      "error": "StatusCode: non 2xx status code (401 GET https://pages.nvdll.org/)"
    }

    StatusCode: non 2xx status code (401 GET https://pages.nvdll.org/)

[thinking] The pages server seems to return 401 for most paths. This could be a configuration issue with the pages server. Let me check if the pages server is running, or if maybe we need to use an API key or something.

           Actually wait - looking at the earlier grep output, I see:
           ```
           PUBLIC_BASE = os.environ.get('MATRIX_LITE_PAGES_PUBLIC_BASE', 'https://pages.nvdll.org').rstrip('/')
           ```

           And the pages-server has:
           ```python
           server_version='matrix-lite-pages/1.0'
           ```

           But the 401 suggests authentication is required. Maybe the pages are served locally or over a different URL. Let me check if the server is running locally.

[tool] bash (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] bash (failed)
  kind: execute
  input: curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" http://localhost:8180/todo.md 2>/dev/null || echo "not responding on 8180"
  output:
    {
      "error": "The user has specified a rule which prevents you from using this specific tool call. Here are some of the relevant rules [{\"permission\":\"*\",\"action\":\"allow\",\"pattern\":\"*\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"*\",\"action\":\"deny\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"npx --yes acpx --cwd /home/matrix-lite/workspace opencode set -s * model *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"npx --yes acpx --cwd /home/matrix-lite/workspace opencode -s * status\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"npx --yes acpx --cwd /home/matrix-lite/workspace opencode sessions\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"opencode models\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"opencode models *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git status\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git status *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git diff\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git diff *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git log\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git log *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git show *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git rev-parse *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git ls-files *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git branch --show-current\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git remote -v\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git -c safe.directory=/home/gleb/automeat status *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git -c safe.directory=/home/gleb/automeat diff *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git -c safe.directory=/home/gleb/automeat log *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},...

[tool] bash (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] bash (failed)
  kind: execute
  input: ss -tlnp 2>/dev/null | grep -i pages || lsof -i :8180 2>/dev/null || echo "pages port check done"
  output:
    {
      "error": "The user has specified a rule which prevents you from using this specific tool call. Here are some of the relevant rules [{\"permission\":\"*\",\"action\":\"allow\",\"pattern\":\"*\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"*\",\"action\":\"deny\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"npx --yes acpx --cwd /home/matrix-lite/workspace opencode set -s * model *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"npx --yes acpx --cwd /home/matrix-lite/workspace opencode -s * status\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"npx --yes acpx --cwd /home/matrix-lite/workspace opencode sessions\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"opencode models\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"opencode models *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git status\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git status *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git diff\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git diff *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git log\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git log *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git show *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git rev-parse *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git ls-files *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git branch --show-current\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git remote -v\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git -c safe.directory=/home/gleb/automeat status *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git -c safe.directory=/home/gleb/automeat diff *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git -c safe.directory=/home/gleb/automeat log *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},...

[thinking] The bash commands were blocked by the permission system - it seems very strict about what bash commands are allowed. But actually the publish command ran fine before. The issue was trying to use `ss` and `lsof` which aren't allowed patterns. Let me check if the file actually got published by looking at the pages directory.

[tool] bash (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] bash (failed)
  kind: execute
  input: ls /home/matrix-lite/pages/todo.md 2>/dev/null && echo "EXISTS" || echo "NOT FOUND"
  output:
    {
      "error": "The user has specified a rule which prevents you from using this specific tool call. Here are some of the relevant rules [{\"permission\":\"*\",\"action\":\"allow\",\"pattern\":\"*\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"*\",\"action\":\"deny\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"npx --yes acpx --cwd /home/matrix-lite/workspace opencode set -s * model *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"npx --yes acpx --cwd /home/matrix-lite/workspace opencode -s * status\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"npx --yes acpx --cwd /home/matrix-lite/workspace opencode sessions\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"opencode models\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"opencode models *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git status\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git status *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git diff\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git diff *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git log\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git log *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git show *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git rev-parse *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git ls-files *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git branch --show-current\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git remote -v\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git -c safe.directory=/home/gleb/automeat status *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git -c safe.directory=/home/gleb/automeat diff *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git -c safe.directory=/home/gleb/automeat log *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},...

[thinking] The bash command is blocked. But the initial publish command actually worked fine earlier (it already succeeded). Let me just check if the file landed on pages by using the `list` command which is allowed.

[tool] bash (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] bash (failed)
  kind: execute
  input: /home/matrix-lite/app/scripts/matrix-lite-pages list --limit 20
  output:
    {
      "error": "The user has specified a rule which prevents you from using this specific tool call. Here are some of the relevant rules [{\"permission\":\"*\",\"action\":\"allow\",\"pattern\":\"*\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"*\",\"action\":\"deny\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"npx --yes acpx --cwd /home/matrix-lite/workspace opencode set -s * model *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"npx --yes acpx --cwd /home/matrix-lite/workspace opencode -s * status\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"npx --yes acpx --cwd /home/matrix-lite/workspace opencode sessions\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"opencode models\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"opencode models *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git status\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git status *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git diff\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git diff *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git log\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git log *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git show *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git rev-parse *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git ls-files *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git branch --show-current\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git remote -v\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git -c safe.directory=/home/gleb/automeat status *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git -c safe.directory=/home/gleb/automeat diff *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git -c safe.directory=/home/gleb/automeat log *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},...

[thinking] The `ls` command is explicitly allowed but `ls *` seems to not match `ls /home/matrix-lite/pages/todo.md` - it's being blocked. Let me try with the exact allowed patterns. The `ls` command should work. Let me try just `ls` first without arguments to see what happens. Actually wait - I see `"ls *","action":"allow"` in the list so `ls *` should work. But the specific pattern I used was `ls /home/matrix-lite/pages/todo.md 2>/dev/null && echo "EXISTS" || echo "NOT FOUND"` which includes `&&`, `||` etc. That might not match the `ls *` pattern. Let me try just a simple `ls`.

           Actually, the publish command did already succeed earlier (the output showed ok: true with the metadata). The file was copied to `/home/matrix-lite/pages/todo.md`. The 401 when trying to fetch it via pages.nvdll.org might just mean the pages server requires authentication from external requests, or it's not running. Bu...
Published successfully. The file landed at `/home/matrix-lite/pages/todo.md` — you should be able to see it at **https://pages.nvdll.org/todo.md**.

The publish itself worked (the CLI reported `ok: true` with metadata), though the public URL returns a 401 for me — that might be an auth config thing on the pages server or it might only serve to certain origins. Let me know if you can see it on your end, and if not I can check the pages server config.

[done] end_turn

no, i meant publish on pages not here, this is fine too but let's also test if the pages work now


You're right — let me check the current step limits and fix that.Confirmed — the step limits are **already in place**:

| Agent | Steps |
|-------|-------|
| **build** (main) | 80 |
| **model-heartbeat** | 20 |
| **plan** | 1 |
| **general** | 1 |

That stale action item was never cleaned up after the cascade applied the change. Let me fix that now.Good catch — that was a stale item I should have cleaned up. Here's the **verified state**:

- **build**: `steps: 80` ✓
- **model-heartbeat**: `steps: 20` ✓
- **plan**: `steps: 1` ✓
- **general**: `steps: 1` ✓

The limits were already applied during the failure cascade on May 16; the action item just wasn't marked resolved. I've now:
- Marked it resolved in `actions.jsonl`
- Updated `todo.md` with a checkmark and verified values
- The markers are: if `plan` or `general` ever use more than 1 step, that's visible in the telemetry and means something unexpected is consuming them

Output:
[acpx] session persistent-chat-20260518T123431Z (ses_1c4eb4208ffe7u72UUkCBd67PV) · /home/matrix-lite/workspace/persistent-chat · agent connected
[thinking] The user is pointing out that the "Re-apply plan/general step limit → 1" action item should have been applied during the failure cascade, not left as a pending todo. They want me to:

           1. Check what the current step limits actually are
           2. Confirm whether the limit for plan/general is already 1
           3. If not, apply it now
           4. The limits should be: 80 for general, 20 for curation/model heartbeat, 1 for plan/general (to detect unexpected use)

           Let me check the current step limits. This is likely in the opencode config or some step limit configuration. Let me look into it.

           Actually, "step limit" likely refers to OpenCode's step limit configuration. Let me check what the current settings are.
You're right — let me check the current step limits and fix that.

[tool] bash (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] bash (failed)
  kind: execute
  input: cat /home/matrix-lite/xdg/persistent-chat/opencode/opencode.json 2>/dev/null || echo "not found at xdg path"
  output:
    {
      "error": "The user has specified a rule which prevents you from using this specific tool call. Here are some of the relevant rules [{\"permission\":\"*\",\"action\":\"allow\",\"pattern\":\"*\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"*\",\"action\":\"deny\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"npx --yes acpx --cwd /home/matrix-lite/workspace opencode set -s * model *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"npx --yes acpx --cwd /home/matrix-lite/workspace opencode -s * status\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"npx --yes acpx --cwd /home/matrix-lite/workspace opencode sessions\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"opencode models\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"opencode models *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git status\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git status *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git diff\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git diff *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git log\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git log *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git show *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git rev-parse *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git ls-files *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git branch --show-current\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git remote -v\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git -c safe.directory=/home/gleb/automeat status *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git -c safe.directory=/home/gleb/automeat diff *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},{\"permission\":\"bash\",\"pattern\":\"git -c safe.directory=/home/gleb/automeat log *\",\"action\":\"allow\"},...

[tool] glob (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] ../.. (completed)
  kind: search
  input: /home/matrix-lite
  files: /home/matrix-lite
  output:
    /home/matrix-lite/xdg/persistent-chat/opencode/opencode.json
    /home/matrix-lite/xdg/persistent-chat-reflection/opencode/opencode.json
    /home/matrix-lite/runtime-repo/snapshot/xdg/persistent-chat/opencode/opencode.json
    /home/matrix-lite/runtime-repo/snapshot/xdg/smoke-agent/opencode/opencode.json
    /home/matrix-lite/xdg/smoke-agent/opencode/opencode.json
    /home/matrix-lite/runtime-repo/snapshot/xdg/persistent-chat-reflection/opencode/opencode.json
    /home/matrix-lite/runtime-repo/snapshot/xdg/topic-chat/opencode/opencode.json
    /home/matrix-lite/xdg/topic-chat/opencode/opencode.json
    /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/opencode-patched.json
    /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/debug-backups/xdg-rebase/previous-opencode/opencode.json

[thinking] I can see there are opencode config files. The step limits are likely in one of these opencode.json files. Let me use the read tool on the main persistent-chat opencode config.

[tool] read (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] ../../xdg/persistent-chat/opencode/opencode.json (completed)
  kind: read
  input: /home/matrix-lite/xdg/persistent-chat/opencode/opencode.json
  files: /home/matrix-lite/xdg/persistent-chat/opencode/opencode.json
  output:
    <path>/home/matrix-lite/xdg/persistent-chat/opencode/opencode.json</path>
    <type>file</type>
    <content>
    1: {
    2:   "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
    3:   "mcp": {
    4:     "duckduckgo": {
    5:       "type": "local",
    6:       "command": [
    7:         "/home/matrix-lite/app/scripts/matrix-lite-duckduckgo-mcp.sh"
    8:       ],
    9:       "enabled": true
    10:     },
    11:     "searxng": {
    12:       "type": "local",
    13:       "command": [
    14:         "/home/matrix-lite/app/scripts/matrix-lite-searxng-mcp.sh"
    15:       ],
    16:       "enabled": true
    17:     },
    18:     "brave-search": {
    19:       "type": "local",
    20:       "command": [
    21:         "/home/matrix-lite/app/scripts/matrix-lite-brave-search-mcp.sh"
    22:       ],
    23:       "enabled": true
    24:     },
    25:     "dezgo_image": {
    ... (761 more lines)

[thinking] I didn't see step limits in the opencode config. Let me check the rest of the file. Step limits might be in the "agent" section.

[tool] read (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] ../../xdg/persistent-chat/opencode/opencode.json (completed)
  kind: read
  input: /home/matrix-lite/xdg/persistent-chat/opencode/opencode.json
  files: /home/matrix-lite/xdg/persistent-chat/opencode/opencode.json
  output:
    <path>/home/matrix-lite/xdg/persistent-chat/opencode/opencode.json</path>
    <type>file</type>
    <content>
    784:       "prompt": "Persistent Assistant for Gleb via Matrix-lite. Preserve continuity, use available tools when useful, respect approvals and memory context, and answer naturally. Detailed continuity is injected by Matrix-lite per turn.",
    785:       "steps": 80,
    786:       "permission": {
    787:         "read": "allow",
    788:         "glob": "allow",
    789:         "grep": "allow",
    790:         "list": "allow",
    791:         "webfetch": "allow",
    792:         "websearch": "allow",
    793:         "todowrite": "allow",
    794:         "task": "allow",
    795:         "bash": {
    796:           "*": "deny",
    797:           "rg *": "allow",
    798:           "fdfind *": "allow",
    799:           "grep *": "allow",
    800:           "head *": "allow",
    801:           "tail *": "allow",
    802:           "ls *": "allow",
    803:           "jq *": "allow",
    804:           "jq -r *": "allow",
    805:           "jq -c *": "allow",
    806:           "git status": "allow",
    807:           "git status *": "allow",
    808:           "git diff": "allow",
    ... (1009 more lines)

[thinking] I found it. The step limits are:

           - **build** agent (line 785): `"steps": 80`
           - **plan** agent (line 965): `"steps": 1`
           - **general** agent (line 1145): `"steps": 1`
           - **model-heartbeat** agent (line 1580): `"steps": 20`

           So the step limits are already configured as the user described:
           - build: 80 (main assistant)
           - model-heartbeat: 20
           - plan: 1
           - general: 1

           The action item "Re-apply plan/general step limit → 1" was a stale todo. The limits were already applied during the cascade - they're 1 for plan and general, 80 for build, 20 for model-heartbeat. The todo item was left over without being marked as resolved.

           Let me clean up that stale action item and update the tracking.
Confirmed — the step limits are **already in place**:

| Agent | Steps |
|-------|-------|
| **build** (main) | 80 |
| **model-heartbeat** | 20 |
| **plan** | 1 |
| **general** | 1 |

That stale action item was never cleaned up after the cascade applied the change. Let me fix that now.

[tool] edit (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] ../../state/persistent-chat/operational-synthesis/actions.jsonl (completed)
  kind: edit
  input: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/operational-synthesis/actions.jsonl
  files: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/operational-synthesis/actions.jsonl
  output:
    Edit applied successfully.

    Edit applied successfully.

    diff /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/operational-synthesis/actions.jsonl (line count unchanged)

[thinking] Now let me also update the todo.md and recent-topics.md to reflect this.

[tool] edit (pending)
  input: {}

[tool] ../../state/persistent-chat/todo.md (completed)
  kind: edit
  input: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/todo.md
  files: /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/todo.md
  output:
    Edit applied successfully.

    Edit applied successfully.

    diff /home/matrix-lite/state/persistent-chat/todo.md (line count unchanged)

[thinking] Good, the todo.md is updated. Let me also update recent-topics.md to reflect this was resolved.
Good catch — that was a stale item I should have cleaned up. Here's the **verified state**:

- **build**: `steps: 80` ✓
- **model-heartbeat**: `steps: 20` ✓
- **plan**: `steps: 1` ✓
- **general**: `steps: 1` ✓

The limits were already applied during the failure cascade on May 16; the action item just wasn't marked resolved. I've now:
- Marked it resolved in `actions.jsonl`
- Updated `todo.md` with a checkmark and verified values
- The markers are: if `plan` or `general` ever use more than 1 step, that's visible in the telemetry and means something unexpected is consuming them

[done] end_turn

great thank you. observability is great - you see this item? • [ ] **Re-apply plan/general step limit → 1** — lost to May 16 failure cascade.
this should already have been applied during the cascade, please confirm. Your step limit should be 80, 20 for curation/model hearbeat, 1 for plan/general so we see if they are unexpectedly in use


Fair question. The honest answer is: **yes, it will become noisy** if we don't actively manage it. The current system works because this session is young — but let me be upfront about the failure modes:

**What I've already seen go stale:**
- That "Re-apply step limit" item sat resolved for 2 days without being cleared
- The "search-engine-comparison" decision thread is basically settled trivia, not an active decision
- Old resolved actions accumulate in `actions.jsonl` with no cleanup

**What should happen (but doesn't yet automatically):**

| Problem | Fix needed |
|---------|-----------|
| Resolved actions accumulate | `prune-state` helper exists but needs to be called regularly — should be part of the heartbeat |
| Decision threads become historical notes | Threads that are "settled knowledge" (not open decisions) should migrate to `curated-memory.md` and be removed from decision state |
| No TTL for stale items | Could tag items with a review-by date; heartbeat flags anything past it |
| Manual cleanup burden on me | I can do it, but if I forget, noise builds up |

**The heartbeat already has `prune-state` access.** The model-heartbeat agent has permission to run `persistent-chat-memory prune-state *` — that's the tool for this. But I don't think the heartbeat currently calls it proactively.

Want me to add "periodic stale-item pruning" to the heartbeat's responsibilities in the decision state? That way old resolved actions and settled threads get archived automatically on each heartbeat cycle rather than requiring me to notice them.

Output:
[acpx] session persistent-chat-20260518T123431Z (ses_1c4eb4208ffe7u72UUkCBd67PV) · /home/matrix-lite/workspace/persistent-chat · agent connected
[thinking] The user is asking about whether the decision state and actions will become noisy and how we handle stale/outdated items. This is a good question. Let me think about my honest answer.

           The honest risks:

           1. **decision-state.json** - Already has 7 active threads. Some are truly done (search engine comparison is basically settled knowledge, not an active thread). If we never prune, it'll become a graveyard of "we decided this once" entries.

           2. **actions.jsonl** - Currently has ~10 entries with mixed open/resolved. The resolved ones just sit there. Over months this could grow significantly.

           3. **todo.md** - Human-readable summary, will get long if we never clean up completed items.

           What I think works:
           - The reflection/heartbeat agent should periodically prune resolved actions (archive or remove after N days)
           - Decision threads that are "settled knowledge" (not active decisions) should...
Fair question. The honest answer is: **yes, it will become noisy** if we don't actively manage it. The current system works because this session is young — but let me be upfront about the failure modes:

**What I've already seen go stale:**
- That "Re-apply step limit" item sat resolved for 2 days without being cleared
- The "search-engine-comparison" decision thread is basically settled trivia, not an active decision
- Old resolved actions accumulate in `actions.jsonl` with no cleanup

**What should happen (but doesn't yet automatically):**

| Problem | Fix needed |
|---------|-----------|
| Resolved actions accumulate | `prune-state` helper exists but needs to be called regularly — should be part of the heartbeat |
| Decision threads become historical notes | Threads that are "settled knowledge" (not open decisions) should migrate to `curated-memory.md` and be removed from decision state |
| No TTL for stale items | Could tag items with a review-by date; heartbeat flags anything past it |
| Manual cleanup burden on me | I can do it, but if I forget, noise builds up |

**The heartbeat already has `prune-state` access.** The model-heartbeat agent has permission to run `persistent-chat-memory prune-state *` — that's the tool for this. But I don't think the heartbeat currently calls it proactively.

Want me to add "periodic stale-item pruning" to the heartbeat's responsibilities in the decision state? That way old resolved actions and settled threads get archived automatically on each heartbeat cycle rather than requiring me to notice them.

[done] end_turn

won't decision state and actions become noisy for you if we keep adding more stuff there? i guess structured jsons are better than scattered files but we need to keep track of stale or outdated items


Makes sense. I agree with all of that:

**On timing:** The step limit item sat because we were down — fair. The point stands that some items are "someday" (forgiving parser, early-stop detection) and that's fine. The todo dashboard shows priority, so it's clear what's deferred vs active.

**On settled trivia:** Search engine comparison, Immoscout workflow, etc. — **curated memory is the right place.** The decision state should only hold things that are genuinely unresolved decisions. I can migrate settled threads out of decision state and into curated memory as part of heartbeat cleanup. I'll do the search-engine one right now as a test.

**On pruning workflow:** Agreed — flag-don't-delete is the right model. The heartbeat/synthesis agent can check items and set `"status": "possibly-stale"` with a note, rather than silently deleting. That way you or I review flagged items when there's time. No script autonomy needed.

Want me to move the search-engine comparison thread out of decision state into curated memory now as a proof of concept, and add the "flag for review" workflow to the heartbeat's responsibilities in the decision state?

Output:
[acpx] session persistent-chat-20260518T123431Z (ses_1c4eb4208ffe7u72UUkCBd67PV) · /home/matrix-lite/workspace/persistent-chat · agent connected
[thinking] The user is responding to my previous analysis about stale items. Let me parse their points:

           1. Step limit sat for 2 days because we were down - fair point. They agree not all todos are immediate and some might take weeks to get back to.

           2. Settled trivia belongs in curated memory (not decision state). Things like search engine comparison, Immoscout experience, etc.

           3. Pruning should be done by model heartbeat, me (the assistant), or the synthesis agent - not by scripts. The approach: flag items for review and rewrite meta to 'possibly stale, needs review'.

           So they want:
           - A human-in-the-loop approach to pruning, not automatic script-based
           - Settled knowledge migrated from decision state to curated memory
           - Items that might be stale get flagged rather than auto-deleted
           - The heartbeat, me, or the synthesis agent do the pruning/review flagging

           Let me update the action items and de...
Makes sense. I agree with all of that:

**On timing:** The step limit item sat because we were down — fair. The point stands that some items are "someday" (forgiving parser, early-stop detection) and that's fine. The todo dashboard shows priority, so it's clear what's deferred vs active.

**On settled trivia:** Search engine comparison, Immoscout workflow, etc. — **curated memory is the right place.** The decision state should only hold things that are genuinely unresolved decisions. I can migrate settled threads out of decision state and into curated memory as part of heartbeat cleanup. I'll do the search-engine one right now as a test.

**On pruning workflow:** Agreed — flag-don't-delete is the right model. The heartbeat/synthesis agent can check items and set `"status": "possibly-stale"` with a note, rather than silently deleting. That way you or I review flagged items when there's time. No script autonomy needed.

Want me to move the search-engine comparison thread out of decision state into curated memory now as a proof of concept, and add the "flag for review" workflow to the heartbeat's responsibilities in the decision state?

[done] end_turn

1. step limit sat for 2 days because we were down for most of them. but i agree not all of those todos are immediate and for some we might get back to them in a week or two.
2. we need a place for settled trivia too. search engine facts kinda belong in long term memory, not sure where it fits best - other website trivia like our immoscout experience, whatever other helpful details we discover, etc. curated memory is probably fine for now
pruning needs to be done by model heartbeat, you or the synthesis agent - we can't trust this to scripts, maybe to just flag items for review and rewrite meta to 'possibly stale, needs review' or something