re-switch

This commit is contained in:
Ian Gulliver
2026-10-16 13:10:44 -07:00
parent 1296abcf4b
commit 7951b73030
4 changed files with 39 additions and 1 deletions
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@@ -197,6 +197,7 @@ Each user has one long-running lead agent, shown in the left pane. It is not tie
- **Tools.** `list_tasks` (each project's active tasks with their state, each subtask noting its parent, then a line listing the titles of its `TODO.md` items on the default branch that no active task was started from), `read_transcript` (a task's events in brief, the last `limit` or those after `after_seq`; closed tasks too), `search_closed_tasks` (see "Closing a task"), `read_inbox`, `answer_question` (an `option`, `other` or `dismiss` response recorded as the user, through the same checks as `POST /api/inbox/responses`), `send_message` (starts the task's agent if it has none; refused while it is mid-turn), `create_task` and `start_todo` (each with an optional `workflow` to freeze and run), `interrupt`, `compact_task`, `merge_task` (optional `target`: `main`, or `parent` for a subtask, see "Subtasks"), `discard_task`, `show`, `compact_self`, the note tools (see "Notes") and the workflow tools (see "Workflows"). The lead also has Claude Code's own tools and reads worktrees by path. Messages it sends task agents have actor `<login> (lead)`, so they don't make the user a participant; tasks, merges, discards and answers are done as the user. Its guidance says to answer a question only when the answer is clear or the human gave it, and to merge or discard only when the human asks.
- **Focus.** `users.focus` holds what the user's right pane shows: `project_id`, `task_id`, `tabs` (the tabs put first, in order) and `tab` (the selected one). With a `task_id`, `project_id` is always that task's project, filled in by the server; with only a `project_id`, the pane shows that project with no task, which only the Project tab has anything for. `GET /api/me/focus` reads it; `PUT /api/me/focus` and the lead's `show` set it, refusing an unknown tab, a task that isn't active or an unknown project, and record a `focus.updated` event owned by the user. The page applies the focus on load and on every `focus.updated` it didn't cause itself; the human's own changes (⌘K, the right pane's task picker, clicking a tab, a task link, a notification) are sent with `PUT /api/me/focus`. The URL follows the focus: `#/task/<id>`, `#/project/<id>`, or `#/` for neither.
- **Pane lock.** A `show` of what the pane already shows (the same task, or the same project with no task, on the same selected tab; `sameView`) tells the lead so and applies only its `tabs` order, whether or not the human is in the pane, so the human's selected tab stays selected. Otherwise, while the human is working in the right pane, the lead's `show` is refused with an error telling it to say in chat what it would have shown, unless its selected tab is `project` (the fallback the lead shows when nothing needs the human, so the human being there doesn't hold it) or the pane is finished (`Manager.paneFinished`): its task is merged, discarded or merging (`merging_by` or `finalizing` set), or its selected tab is `inbox` and the task has no open items, or the human is waiting on the task's agent (`Manager.paneWaiting`): the selected tab is `transcript`, the task's implementer session is running, the page reports no unsent text in the pane, and either the `user.message` that started the running turn came from the user after the pane last moved, or the pane last moved 10 seconds ago or more (`watchHold`). The pane's last move is the last `PUT /api/me/focus` or `show` that set it (`Manager.paneMoved`, in memory, so a restart counts as long ago). For the user's own message, unsent text reported before the turn started doesn't count, since the page's report of the composer emptying on send can arrive after the message does. A `user.message` on a task from a human (not `byre`, an agent or a lead) signals every lead "<actor> sent <task> a message; its agent is working on it.", and the sender's own lead, when its pane shows that task and is waiting that way, also gets "Your right pane is free: the human is waiting on <task>'s agent." Each `PUT /api/me/focus` from the user starts a 10-second timer (`endWatchHold`); when it fires, if the pane hasn't moved since, the page still reports the human in it, the user hasn't messaged the task since the move (that already freed it, above), and the pane is waiting that way, the lead gets the signal "Your right pane is free: the human has watched <task>'s agent work for 10 seconds without typing." The lead's own `show` starts no timer. When an `inbox.updated`, `task.merge_started`, `task.merged` or `task.discarded` event leaves a user's focused task finished that way, that user's signal for it gets a line "Your right pane is free: <task> has nothing left in its inbox." (or "is merging."/"is merged."/"is discarded."), even when the event itself makes no signal, such as a dismissed error; `inbox.updated` on a task that is no longer active adds none. The lead's guidance tells it to show the next thing that needs the human on that line, or, when nothing does, the project's Project tab with a short status in chat: one line per active task, then up to three TODO items it would start next, each with a reason, starting one only when the human picks it. It writes each item as a link to `#/todo/<project_id>/<URL-encoded title>`; Markdown views draw that (`web/src/todolink.ts`) as the title followed by small accent-coloured `start · discuss` text links (borderless buttons) that call `POST /api/projects/{id}/todo/tasks` with the first model, as the Project tab's do, or, once an active task was started from that item, the task's colour, dot and state, linking to it. A chat view refills them whenever its transcript grows or tasks or sessions change. When that status says nothing new since its last one, it replies `NO_REPLY` instead. The page sends `PUT /api/me/pane-focus` with `focused` and `drafting` whenever either changes: `focused` is true while the browser window has focus and the focused element is inside the right pane, and `drafting` while any textarea in the right pane (other than xterm's helper) holds non-blank text, checked on focus changes, `input` and `submit`. The pane itself is focusable (`tabIndex` -1), so a click anywhere in it counts, not only on inputs and buttons; a re-render that removes the focused element hands focus back to the pane rather than counting as leaving. The page sends false on `pagehide` (with `keepalive`) and resends true when its event stream reconnects. byre keeps both flags and the time of the last report in memory per user (`Manager.paneFocus`, `Manager.paneReported`), so they start false after a restart until the page resends them.
- **Move hold.** Each `PUT /api/me/focus` from the user (switching task or tab, by any means: the switcher, a tab, a link, a notification, or the page's own switch to Inbox when a question arrives) records the time in `Manager.humanMoved`, and for 10 seconds after it (`moveHold`) every `show` that would change the view is refused, whatever the pane lock above would allow, with an error giving how long ago the move was. A `show` of what the pane already shows still applies its tab order. When the 10 seconds pass without another move by the user (`endMoveHold`, on a timer), byre clears it and sends the lead the signal "The move hold is over: …", every time, whether or not a `show` was refused; its guidance tells it to show what it held back if the pane's other rules allow, or reply `NO_REPLY`. It is in memory, so a restart clears it.
- **Start hold.** Start on a TODO item in the Project tab leaves the pane where it is. When the user starts one themselves (`StartTodo` with the user as actor, not the lead's `start_todo`), byre records the time in `Manager.startedTodo` for them, and for 10 seconds after it (`startHold`), while the pane's selected tab is `project`, every `show` that would change the view is refused, focused or not, with an error telling the lead the human is likely to start more. The user's own `PUT /api/me/focus` (switching task or tab) or a message to the lead clears it. The refusal and the `show` tool's description both tell the lead the hold lasts 10 seconds. When the 10 seconds pass without it being cleared or restarted by another Start (`endStartHold`, on a timer), byre clears it and, if the pane's selected tab is still `project`, sends the lead the signal "The start hold is over: …" so it can show what it held back; its guidance tells it to reply `NO_REPLY` when nothing was. It is in memory, so a restart clears it.
- **Compaction.** The pane's **Compact** button asks the lead for a handoff (`leadHandoffPrompt`). The lead can't see its own context size, so the first time one of its turns ends (other than a handoff or a `compact_self` turn) with the latest `session.context` `used` at half its `window` or more, byre holds a signal for it giving the percentage and asking it to call `compact_self` at the next logical point (`warnLeadContext` in `internal/agents/lead.go`); it is sent once per live process, so a byre restart can send it again once the window is known. The lead calls `compact_self`; when that turn ends normally, byre sends the same request. The handoff turn ends the session, and a new lead session starts from `leadHandoffPreamble` plus the handoff; held input follows once that turn ends.
- **Notes.** The lead keeps notes on how its user works (priorities, preferences, the reasoning behind choices) in `lead_notes`, one row per note keyed by `owner`, through its `remember` (add, or replace the text of an `id`), `forget` and `list_notes` tools (`internal/agents/leadnotes.go`). Each change records a `lead.note_saved` or `lead.note_deleted` event owned by the user. When a lead's agent process starts, `notesText` lists every note with its id after `leadGuidance` in the session's instructions (`--append-system-prompt` for Claude, which keeps what the session's first request carried; `developerInstructions` for Codex), but not in the per-turn guidance reminder, so a new or compacted lead session starts from the current notes and notes written mid-session are already in its context. The guidance tells the lead when to write a note (an answer that departs from a recommendation, a correction, a stated preference), to cite a note's id when it shapes a recommendation, and that it may answer a task agent's question itself when a note settles it outright. `GET /api/me/lead/notes` lists the caller's notes and `DELETE /api/me/lead/notes/{noteId}` deletes one (`Manager.DeleteLeadNote`), and, when the user has a live lead session, holds a message for it from `byre` naming the note's id and text and telling it to stop applying it, since the running session still has the note in its instructions. It is held as a message, not a signal, so it keeps its place in line with the human's own messages: it goes out ahead of any message they send after the delete, as its own turn (drawn like a signal batch's, and folded away on `NO_REPLY`) or mid-turn after the lead's next tool call; the Settings tab lists them with a delete link each, refetching on either event. `sqlite3 byre.db "SELECT owner, id, text FROM lead_notes ORDER BY created_at"` shows them.