Briefs and skill: summary/wait verify, call budgets, range dump, Forgejo contributions

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

SKILL.md

@@ -531,8 +531,10 @@ and reconciles the target doc with the Body.
 Scripts that agents share live in this repo under `tools/`. `tools/INDEX.md`
 lists each script, its consumer and the brief that names it; briefs name the
 exact script they want and agents do not browse. Contributions come by branch
-and pull request, never a push to main. A script that verdicts depend on gets
-a Soul pass before merge. A script whose brief no longer names it is pruned.
+and Forgejo pull request (this repo lives on Yggdrasil's Forgejo), never a push
+to main. A script that verdicts depend on gets a Soul pass before merge, and
+`bash tools/test-tools.sh` passes first. The summary and wait modes of
+`tools/stopgap/ygg-verify.sh` and `tools/mutation-table.sh` are such scripts. A script whose brief no longer names it is pruned.
 Scripts that know a project's layout stay in that project.
 
 ## Git and tooling rules (scars)

references/briefs.md

@@ -98,7 +98,8 @@ path>. Do not map cuts, do not write code, do not commit; the root agent
 commits.
 
 Rehydrate (recipes: target in force, rulings in force, open questions and
-follow-ups). Read enough of the Body to enumerate the persistent kinds.
+follow-ups). Read enough of the Body to enumerate the persistent kinds. Orient
+and probe through scripts, one call per question, output at most 150 lines.
 
 Give one table, a row per persistent kind:
 - Identity: what names it. Is the namespace stated? Is the name injective? Can
@@ -127,7 +128,8 @@ prose map at <path>, edit body facts and rationale. Also edit the model page
 whenever a probe changes a row's identity, lifecycle or authority. Imagination
 wrote that page in 0b, and a model a cut contradicts is stale steering text.
 Do not commit; the root agent commits. Do not change code in any repo. Scratch probes in
-<scratchpad> are fine.
+<scratchpad> are fine. Orient and probe through scripts: one call per question,
+output at most 150 lines. Budget 40-80 calls and about 250k context.
 
 Rehydrate (recipes: target in force, rulings in force, open questions and
 follow-ups, specs with no report, one cut's record for <cuts that constrain
@@ -258,7 +260,15 @@ one head (SKILL.md, step 3); keep it fitting:
 
 - **Verify once, at the end.** Not after every edit. A full mutation sweep and
   a batchmode compile per edit is most of a long run's spend and proves nothing
-  the final sweep will not.
+  the final sweep will not. One job carries the build, the scoped tests and the
+  mutation run, so the queue and the compile are paid once.
+- **Orient in one script.** One Bash call prints git status, the base and the
+  spec's anchor ranges (`sed -n`) for every file the spec names. Independent
+  reads, views and greps go in one parallel message.
+- **Bound every observation.** No command prints more than about 150 lines.
+  Logs go to a file; read `tail -n 60` or `grep -n -m`, and read windows of a
+  file, never the whole of anything over about 300 lines. Reading a file twice
+  is a smell: write what you need to keep to a scratch notes file.
 - **Read the spec by id, not the map.** The cut_spec is bounded and holds only
   this cut; a worker that reads 900 lines of map to find 60 has spent its
   budget before it starts.
@@ -278,13 +288,16 @@ one head (SKILL.md, step 3); keep it fitting:
 
 Long jobs: wait for them and finish, and never end your turn before your
 report. Each turn end reaches Self as a notification and costs a read of its
-whole context. Start the job as one background shell whose command exits only
-when the job does. Then wait in the foreground, one call at a time, each at
-most 270 s so that your cache stays warm: `timeout 270 bash -c 'until [ -e
-<done-file> ]; do sleep 60; done'`, then read the result or call again. A call
+whole context. Start the job as one background shell (run_in_background) with
+`SUMMARY=<scratchpad>/<job>.log` in front of `tools/stopgap/ygg-verify.sh`, a
+fresh log path per job. Then wait in the foreground, one call at a time:
+`tools/stopgap/ygg-verify.sh wait <scratchpad>/<job>.log` blocks for at most
+270 s, so your cache stays warm, and prints the bounded summary when the job is
+done. If it prints `RUNNING <n>s` (exit 99), call it again. Exit 98 means the
+launcher is gone with no verdict: rerun the job, do not guess its outcome. A call
 longer than 5 minutes rewrites your whole context. Never run a second watcher
-on the same job, never use a timer shorter than 60 s, and send no interim
-message.
+on the same job, never use a timer shorter than 60 s in a loop of your own, and
+send no interim message.
 Mutation tools run on schemata or copies and never edit the tree. A Soul
 probe that mutates by hand works on a scratch copy: the stopgap's container
 or a throwaway clone, never the working tree.
@@ -310,7 +323,10 @@ Commits:
 - Say in the message which commits don't build.
 
 Verification: <exact builds, tests, captures, negative greps>.
-- Verify through `tools/stopgap/ygg-verify.sh`; read its output tail, and open the full log only at a named failing test, with `grep -n -A 40`.
+- Verify through `tools/stopgap/ygg-verify.sh` with `SUMMARY=<log>` (above):
+  read the summary, and open the full log only at a named failing test, with
+  `grep -n -A 40`. Hand mutants go in one list to `tools/mutation-table.sh`,
+  one job for all of them.
 - Revert incidental asset churn.
 
 Budget: if the cut can't land coherently, stop at a pushed, building commit
@@ -335,8 +351,8 @@ revised spec first. Its fields:
 - landed_names, undone, and promises: each thing you claim the cut now
   guarantees, labelled, for Soul to measure
 
-Report to Self, and nothing else: the cut_report id and receipt, then any raw
-verification output too long for an evidence line, pasted, not summarised. No
+Report to Self, and nothing else: the cut_report id and receipt, and, for
+output too long for an evidence line, the scratch path that holds it. No
 narrative of the pass, no restating the brief or the report.
 ```
 
@@ -352,11 +368,15 @@ Admit one verdict and its findings, and nothing else.
   afterwards.
 - Do not run <expensive runtime> unless told.
 - Long jobs: wait for them and finish, and never end your turn before your
-  report. Run the job as one background shell whose command exits only when the
-  job does, and wait in the foreground in calls of at most 270 s (`timeout 270
-  bash -c 'until [ -e <done-file> ]; do sleep 60; done'`). No second watcher,
-  no timer under 60 s, and no interim message: each turn end is a paid wake of
-  Self.
+  report. Run the job as one background shell with `SUMMARY=<scratchpad>/<job>.log`
+  in front of `tools/stopgap/ygg-verify.sh` (a fresh log path per job), and wait
+  in the foreground with `tools/stopgap/ygg-verify.sh wait <that log>`: it blocks
+  at most 270 s and prints the bounded summary when the job is done, or `RUNNING
+  <n>s` (exit 99) and you call it again. Exit 98 means no verdict: rerun, do not
+  guess. No second watcher, no timer under 60 s in a loop of your own, and no
+  interim message: each turn end is a paid wake of Self.
+- Bound every observation: no command prints more than about 150 lines, logs go
+  to files, and you read windows of them.
 
 Scope: <cut_report id>. Rehydrate (recipes: target in force, rulings in force,
 one cut's record for <cut>), then view the report (its range and its promises), the cut_spec it
@@ -401,7 +421,10 @@ specifically:
   mutation run where you can, since that job pays for the build anyway. Batch
   probes into one job script rather than one job each. Run the mutation tool
   in parallel (`--jobs 3`), and skip by name any test that a follow-up records
-  as flaky, so that its flakes cannot count a surviving mutant as killed
+  as flaky, so that its flakes cannot count a surviving mutant as killed.
+  Dump the range once (`git diff <base>..<head> > <scratchpad>/range.diff` plus
+  `--stat`) and grep that file instead of re-running `git show` per file. Hand
+  mutants go in one list to `tools/mutation-table.sh`, never one job each.
 
 Before recommending a mechanism as the fix direction, check that it was not
 already built and deleted. Run `git log -S '<distinctive identifier>'` and
@@ -448,7 +471,8 @@ the campaign's mind and the prose map and target doc; don't edit those, and
 admit nothing. Rehydrate (recipes: rulings in force, open questions and
 follow-ups) to check memory against the mind.
 
-Surfaces: <memory dirs and files>.
+Surfaces: <memory dirs and files>. Budget at most 25 calls: inventory the
+surfaces in one script, then make the edits.
 
 Candidates for durable memory: <ruling ids, scars>. Check each against its
 owner first, the mind included, and don't duplicate what the owner records. A
@@ -474,7 +498,8 @@ what was missing and what it would have prevented.
 
 ```
 You are Eyes. Read only. Write findings to <scratchpad>/<name>.md and return a
-short summary. You read the campaign's mind with query and view only, through
+short summary. Budget at most 40 calls: transcripts by script, never whole
+reads, and fetches batched in parallel. You read the campaign's mind with query and view only, through
 the Rehydrate block (recipes: <as needed>); you never admit.
 
 Sources:

references/changelog.md

@@ -2,6 +2,14 @@
 
 Record each change to the skill together with the evidence that motivated it.
 
+## 2026-10-01: verify summaries, a wait mode and a kill table
+
+Campaign `eureka-substrate`, cut `tool-calling-s5` (map `references/tool-calling-cut.md`, sections 3 and 5). Operator go: "go with 2 and 3; we're spending tokens to save tokens."
+
+Evidence: Hands spent 3,852 observation calls (poll, read log, monitor, stop) on 1,443 launches, 2.7 per job, and Soul 1,800 on 813, 2.2 per job; eight ad-hoc harnesses (`runmut.sh`, `mutrun.sh`, `strykrun.sh` and others) were reinvented across agents.
+
+What changed. `ygg-verify.sh` gains `SUMMARY=<log>` (full log to a file, bounded summary out: verdict, counts per framework, `ZERO TESTS RAN`, failing tests, failure sections and tail for a red job, and a `MISMATCH` line when the exit is 0 but the log shows failures) and `wait <log>` (blocks at most 270 s, returns the summary once, `RUNNING` exit 99, exit 98 for a launcher that died or never started). `tools/mutation-table.sh` runs a list of hand mutants in one job and returns a kill table with the killing test per mutant; it aborts on a red or zero-test baseline and never counts a build error as a kill. `tools/testparse.sh` is the one parser both read, with fixtures under `tools/fixtures` and `tools/test-tools.sh`. Briefs now name them, add orient-in-one-script and bounded-observation rules for Hands and Soul, call budgets for Imagination (40-80), Eyes (40) and Life (25), the range-dump rule for Soul, one job for build, tests and mutation, and the scratch-path form of the Hands report. Contribution text says Forgejo pull request.
+
 ## 2026-10-01: the skill follows the mind's correctness core
 
 Campaign `eureka-substrate`, cut `skill-recipes`, after the Huginn admission-rule and `eureka-state` client cuts (cut `ops-mind-upgrade`). Evidence: a census of the live mind found 6 findings that could not be closed and 39 resolutions that could not be withdrawn, from key locals over the bound.