The Security-groups tool grid listed only global connectors. Its endpoint
built the MCP half from `skald.catalog()`, whose `ToolCatalog` is constructed
once around the ownerless GLOBAL `McpManager` — the per-user runtimes live on
each `UserContext` and it never sees them. `known_tools` did not cover the gap
either: `ToolDiscovery` records what is offered to a model, and an MCP tool
reaches the wire only once activated, so an unused connector was invisible
exactly when the admin wanted to write its rule.
The listing now unions three sources: the global runtime, the caller's own
per-user runtime (so a connector activated moments ago appears at once), and
`known_tools`, which per-user MCP startup now writes at login so a connector
belonging to an offline user is still nameable — security groups are
instance-wide config, and a grid that describes only whoever is online is a
grid the admin cannot finish.
An `mcp__<server>__<tool>` row from `known_tools` is routed to the MCP bucket
under its own server instead of the flat "dynamic" category, and a non-global
server takes its friendly name from the catalog entry it was activated from.
Two "unknown tool (not in this turn's tool set)" failures, one disease: the
turn's tool set was rebuilt from a different recipe depending on which entry
point happened to drive it.
A sub-agent got `ask_user_clarification`, `execute_subtask` and `activate_tools`
and nothing else — while `agents/common/tools.md` and every reporting agent's
prompt tell it to register its output with `update_scratchpad`. The child could
see the scratchpad injected into its context but had no way to write to it. It
now gets the scratchpad and todos tools, on the parent's `scratchpad_sid`: one
blackboard per session, as the surrounding code already declared.
`show_file_to_user` was injected per message by the WS handler, while
`resume_session` and `resolve_pending_call` rebuilt the list with `execute_task`
alone. So approving a card, or reconnecting mid-turn, continued the *same*
conversation with the tool silently gone. There is now a single recipe,
`ChatHub::session_interface_tools`, used by all three paths and fed by a builder
the shell installs once through `Skald::set_interface_tools_builder`: the core
keeps owning the tool, the shell keeps owning the policy of who gets it —
Telegram still does not, since it cannot act on OpenFile.
The shipped default combined a sliding history window with no compaction, which
is the worse of the two available trades in both directions it is measured on.
`max_history_messages: 30` is a sliding tail window (`projection::window` —
`drain(..len - max)`). Past 30 messages it drops from the head on *every* turn,
so the prompt prefix changes on every single request and every provider that
caches one (Anthropic breakpoints, OpenAI automatic prefix caching) misses every
time. It also drops those messages with no summary standing in for them: silent
amnesia, not just a cold cache. Compaction rewrites the prefix once per
compaction and leaves a summary behind — yet it was the half that was commented
out, while the window's own doc-comment already said the two were exclusive.
Both are now `Option` and both ship unset, so nothing shrinks a conversation
unless a human types `/compact`.
Which surfaced the real bug: `/compact` did not work either. The compactor was
`Option<Arc<ContextCompactor>>` keyed on the config section existing, so
commenting out `compaction:` disabled the manual command too — `force_compact`
returned `Ok(false)` and the chat answered "compaction disabled". Manual
compaction is a command a user types; it cannot depend on an admin having filled
in a token threshold. The compactor is now built unconditionally and
`threshold_tokens: Option<u32>` arms only the automatic pass; `try_compact`
early-returns without it, `force_compact` deliberately never consults it.
The projection accordingly yields to the *automatic* pass rather than to the
compactor's existence (`LoopConfig.auto_compaction_enabled`), so a configured
message cap is not silently voided by `/compact` merely being available.
`CompactionConfig::Default` is hand-written for the same reason `RoleAttrs`'s is:
a derived one gives `keep_recent: 0`, which would compact away every recent
message on any box omitting the section — now the default.
Also fixes two documentation bugs in the same file: `event_triage` was documented
nested under `llm:`, where it parses fine and is then silently ignored (it is a
top-level field), and `datetime` was documented twice with conflicting examples.
A new test asserts the shipped default actually deserializes and that both guards
are off — a field the default omits must be genuinely optional, or a brand-new
install fails to boot.
Automatic compaction returns later, triggered off the resolved model's own
context window instead of a hand-tuned token count that cannot know which model
is answering.
TIC said nothing about what the agent does, and named the wrong thing: the
tick belongs to the scheduler, which is generic and lives outside it. The
agent's only decision is whether an incoming event deserves an interruption
— it sorts, it never acts — so it is now event-triage, matching the
functional naming of the two memory lints.
- agents/tic/ -> agents/event-triage/, module tic/ -> event_triage/,
TicManager -> EventTriageManager, TicConfig -> EventTriageConfig
- agent id and chat source: "tic" -> "event-triage"
- config keys: tic.* -> event_triage.*, and the config.yml section tic: ->
event_triage: (greenfield: previously set values fall back to defaults)
- i18n en/it/fr: Event triage / Triage eventi / Tri des evenements; dropped
the stale "TIC sessions" mention from the debug-pages description
- docs/system-agents.md, docs/index.md, docs/settings.md, CLAUDE.md, SKALD.md
Reframe TIC from an ownerless global loop into a per-user system agent.
The events it reads live in each user's own encrypted mcp_events, the
connectors that produced them run in that user's container, and the
notifications go to that user's hub — so the previous design (built
against the ownerless Conversation bundle, writing into system.db and
notifying a hub with no subscribers) was inert by construction.
Core changes
- TicManager owns no timer and no user list. It now exposes
run_for(user_id, pool, sessions, hub): one tick for one user, over
deps unpacked from that user's UserContext. Removed from the
Conversation bundle; Skald::tic_manager() is gone.
- New spawn_system_agents in wiring.rs: one instance-wide loop, spawned
post-construction with a Weak<Skald> (like spawn_user_lifecycle).
Each pass walks the directory and runs TIC for one user at a time —
sequential, because a pass is N container round-trips and N LLM calls
nobody is waiting on. A ConfigKeyUpdated on the interval key cuts the
current wait short; enabled is re-read per pass.
- A user whose database is still locked is skipped (normal, not an
error): the pool is the unlock token, so a user who hasn't logged in
since restart has no readable events and nowhere to record a skip.
- The configured tic.security_group is re-checked per user through
run_context::reconcile_group_for_user — a restricted member never
gets a tool set their role wouldn't grant; unconfigured starts from
role_default_run_context, never None (None = catch-all = wider).
- New system_agent_runs owner table (no user_id column — the file is
the owner): start/finish split so a crash leaves a visible 'running'
row, swept to 'failed' by the next start; safe because the scheduler
is sequential and single-instance. An idle tick writes nothing.
- counting_notify wraps the notify tool so the run log can report
notifications emitted without the tool knowing it's counted.
- The session's event channel is drained by a spawned task instead of
a dropped receiver — the translator awaits its sends and would wedge
at capacity.
EventLog::{Persist,Discard} on McpManager::new
- mcp_events is an owner table and its only reader (TIC) is per-user,
so an event is something that happened to someone. The per-user
runtime gets Persist; the ownerless global runtime gets Discard (its
pool is system.db, rows would be unattributable and unread).
API + UI
- GET /api/system-agents/runs: the caller's own run history, scoped
through require_context with no admin override (same promise as the
rest of the private pool).
- web/components/system-agents.js replaces tic-sessions.js. The old
#tic debug page inferred runs from leftover ephemeral sessions; the
new #system-agents page (sidebar group 'extensions', visible to
everyone — the data is the caller's own) reads the real run log.
- i18n: tic.* keys replaced with system_agents.* in en/it/fr.
Docs
- New docs/system-agents.md (user-facing: what TIC does, why it runs
per person, why a run can be missing). Updated docs/settings.md and
docs/index.md.
- agents/tic/AGENT.md reframed per-user: events are that person's,
memory is user-memory/ (private) — never shared-memory/.
- CLAUDE.md records the system-agents design and the EventLog seam.
Two variants of the same defect: an admin took away access and the running
system kept granting it.
Deactivating or deleting a user only stopped the *next* login. `login`
checks the active flag, but `require_auth` maps token -> id without
re-reading the row, so an already-open session kept working over a pool
whose key was still in RAM. There was no way to stop one user either: the
per-user cron, hub and MCP loops all observed the *instance* shutdown
token. They now take a per-user child token stored on UserContext, and
Skald::revoke_user_runtime tears a single user down in a load-bearing
order — revoke every session, evict and cancel the context, then lock the
database, so nothing is left querying a pool we are about to close.
Revoking a security group had a durable version of the same problem. The
group is validated when selected and then persisted on
chat_sessions.run_context, which was replayed verbatim on every later
load — so a group removed from a role stayed in force on sessions that
already had it, across restarts. get_or_create_handler now runs the stored
value through run_context::reconcile_group_for_user, making it advisory:
every load re-checks it, whether or not anyone announced the change.
The degrade target is the role's default group, never None: a context with
no group resolves to the catch-all `default`, whose rules are the fallback
tier under every other group, so clearing widens rather than narrows. The
reconcile touches only security_group, so a project session's server-built
project_root and system_prompt survive a permissions edit, and it leaves
the stored group alone when the role cannot be resolved — guessing on a
transient error could only widen. role_default_run_context moves into the
core seam so the group a session starts on and the group it falls back to
cannot drift apart.
Both fixes run synchronously in their handlers. Only the container half of
deactivation rides the bus, as the new UserActiveChanged event: a lossy
64-slot broadcast whose contract is "settles at the next login" is the
wrong transport for taking access away.
Tests: revoke_user drops all of one user's sessions and nobody else's, and
is a no-op when nothing is live; the reconcile degrades a revoked group to
the role default, keeps an allowed one, preserves project fields in both
directions, never touches an admin, and stays put when the role is
unresolvable.
Not exercised at runtime: no Docker/live-server run, so the end-to-end
paths (deactivating a logged-in user, editing a role with sessions open)
are covered by unit tests only.
The session handler is now a thin shell: three entry points in
kernel_turn.rs (run_kernel_turn / recover_turn / resolve_pending_call)
and the ChatSessionHandler. Everything that shaped a Value — projection,
recovery, compaction mechanics, the LLM loop, message building — lives
in agent-loop or behind a loop_adapters trait.
agent-loop:
- projection/ (mod + media): stored history -> wire messages, the one
place provider divergence lives; well-formedness contract, DTL
injections (append-only), media parts. LinearAssembler is now a
Projection + ProjectionHooks config, not its own implementation
- recovery.rs: reap interrupted batches -> resolve the deepest frame's
non-terminal calls (Running by policy + RestartHint, AwaitingHuman
re-asked) -> un-wedge finished children -> cascade up, every frame on
its own agent (B3)
- compaction.rs: split point (never assistant+tool group), transcript,
SUMMARY_PREFIX/preamble/template, the no-tools model call, summary row
- manager: resolve_pending (gate skipped, real ToolContext, then
continue incl. sub-agent); start_loop used by recovery; LiveInput
- delegate: AsyncExecutor + StoreSink for mode:async (durable cron row,
result delivered back into the parent conversation)
- kernel/context/store: support the above (TurnScope via Extensions,
frame lookups, aligned result-text semantics)
skald-core:
- loop_adapters: UserLoopRuntime (D12 - one LoopManager per user),
TurnScope (per-turn state in the Extensions type-map; no scope is
denied), projection_cfg/media_source/tool_digest (Skald's projection
knobs without owning projection code), async_task (CronExecutor +
DurableSink)
- session/handler: stripped to mod.rs + kernel_turn.rs + config.rs +
interface_tools.rs + media.rs; deleted agent_dispatch, approval,
dispatch, emitter, gate, llm_call, llm_loop, message_builder,
messages, outcome, resume
- compactor.rs: policy only (threshold, model pick, CompactionEvent);
mechanics are the crate's
CLAUDE.md updated (recovery, compaction, sub-agents, approval gate,
projection sections now describe the crate-owned flow).
Remove the scope system end-to-end (llm_models.scope column, agent meta
scope field, scope-based tier in model selection, UI checkboxes/pills):
it was only a soft ranking hint, had drifted (6 UI scopes vs 3 used by
agents, 'general' not even selectable) and duplicated what strength
already decides. Strength stays the single AUTO-selection axis.
Compaction: the summary model is now pickable from the Settings page
via a new PropertyType::LlmModel config property (registry key
compaction_model), instance-wide and live (no restart). Fallback chain:
explicit pick -> compaction.strength from config.yml -> priority order;
a deleted configured model degrades to AUTO. ContextCompactor reads the
key at compact time through GlobalConfigManager.
A user's session sees global MCP connectors through UserMcpView, filtered by
accessible_global — a snapshot of mcp_global_access taken when the user's
UserContext is built at login. That context is cached until restart, so an admin
enabling/deleting a global connector or changing its access set was invisible in
MCP_LIST (and in the tool surface) until the whole process restarted.
Make accessible_global a swappable cell (SharedGlobalAccess, the MCP twin of
SharedFs for §6 fs remount): UserContext::refresh_global_access re-reads the
registry and stores it in place, and Skald::refresh_global_mcp_access broadcasts
that to every live context. Wire it into global_enable, global_delete,
global_set_access and user_connectors_set so a grant/enable is reflected in
running sessions immediately.
Also add the shared common/mcp.md include (the <!-- MCP_LIST --> sentinel) to the
kid agent, aligning it with the other agents.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Rework projects from single-user leftovers into shareable endeavours.
- DB: move `projects` from the owner bucket to the registry (system.db,
not encrypted); add `owner_user_id` + `slug` (drop free `path`); new
`project_members(project_id, user_id, can_write)` mirroring
`shared_folder_members`. Drop `project_tickets` entirely. Only user↔agent
conversations stay encrypted (per-user DB) — each member keeps a private
project chat. Registry home dissolves the cross-DB-FK problem.
- Filesystem/container: on disk `{WD}/projects/{owner_userid}/{slug}`,
agent/container path `projects/{owner_username}/{slug}`. Two-segment routing
in UserFs (ProjectMount + host_base_and_tail arm) and a second loop in
build_user_fs; read-only members get a :ro mount. Reuse the shared-folder
remount machinery (refresh_user_shared_folders -> refresh_user_mounts).
- Remove the ticket system: ProjectTicketManager, UserContext.tickets, its
wiring, and the project_tickets references in scheduled_jobs/cron.
- API: repoint handlers to the registry pool + membership scoping. Sharing is
self-service — owner or any write-member may add/remove members and set
read/write; only the owner deletes; the owner cannot be removed. New
POST/DELETE /api/projects/{id}/members[/{user_id}]. Seed `@fs_any allow
projects/*`; build_runtime_run_context sets working_directory to the agent
path and drops the host-path allow_fs_writes.
- Frontend: create form without the free path field, owner/read-write badges;
the detail page becomes header + description + sharing panel + Open chat + a
file-explorer placeholder (the future primary surface). i18n en/it/fr.
The honcho memory sink needs to observe every user's completed chat turns
from one subscription, keyed by ChatEvent.user_id. But each UserContext
minted its own per-user ChatEventBus, so a single global subscription saw
nothing.
- UserContext now publishes onto the shared Runtime.event_bus (the one
Skald::subscribe_chat_events reads) instead of a fresh per-user bus.
- Expose that bus to plugins as PluginContext.chat_bus (distinct from
system_bus, which carries only infra lifecycle events).
- plugin-honcho subscribes via ctx.chat_bus.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Re-architects MCP from one owner table + agent-written registration into an
admin-curated catalog with two runtimes unioned per session, surfaced in the UI
as "Connectors" (mcp/schema stays neutral, §0.1).
Two runtimes behind one seam (§7):
- Global runtime: shared, stateless connectors (web-search, Tavily…) on the
HOST, connected at boot from mcp_global_servers, access-filtered per user via
mcp_global_access.
- Per-user runtime: a user's activated connectors run INSIDE their container,
started at first login from mcp_user_servers and living until restart (§9);
docker exec -i children die via kill_on_drop when the UserContext drops.
- McpProvider trait (mcp/provider.rs): the session round-loop never learns which
runtime owns a server. McpManager implements it directly (inert ownerless
bundle); UserMcpView implements global ∪ user with an accessible_global
snapshot. Both share McpManager::connect_all; McpServerSpec +
global_row_spec/user_row_spec turn a DB row into a connectable spec.
- mcp-client: McpServerConfig.launch_in runs a stdio command inside a container
via docker exec -i (set at runtime, never parsed from config).
Authorization is a capability on the role, not `if role==admin` (§0.1/§14):
role_capabilities table + db/role_capabilities.rs — register_remote and
register_local_from_catalog are self-service (seeded on every new role), while
register_local_script and manage_catalog are admin-only. admin holds every
capability by construction. This removes the agent-facing register_mcp/delete_mcp
tools and the mcp kinds of list_items/toggle_item, closing the §14 RCE vector.
Schema:
- Registry: mcp_catalog (vetted templates — schema only, no live creds),
mcp_global_servers + mcp_global_access, role_capabilities.
- Owner: mcp_user_servers (per-user activations; api_key encrypted at rest,
catalog_name a bare TEXT snapshot, never an owner→registry FK).
- Drops the old owner table mcp_servers.
API + UI: src/frontend/api/mcp.rs (admin catalog/global/access + user
available/activate/activated, all capability-gated via require_cap);
web/components/connectors.js (<connectors-page>) renders the user view always
and the admin view for role_id === 'admin'.
Deferred: interactive per-user auth (OAuth callback / QR / SSH elicitation, §15)
— only none/api_key wired; no boot seed of catalog presets; per-(user, session)
MCP grant model still open.
Realizes blueprint §6: each user gets a permanent Docker container
(skald-{userid}, our own skald-runtime image with python+node) as their
execution sandbox. Docker is now a hard requirement — a missing daemon fails
Skald::new and the process exits at boot.
- ContainerManager (crates/skald-core/src/container/): docker availability
check, builds skald-runtime from the embedded Dockerfile, reconciles one
running container per active user at boot, stops them at shutdown, and
ensure/remove on user create/delete. Shells the docker CLI (no client crate).
- UserFs (core-api): pure value type carried in ToolContext, mapping the agent's
single namespace — ~/ → homes/{userid}, shared/{X}/ → shared/{X} (membership),
user-memory/ + shared-memory/ → SQLite — to host and container paths.
- execute_cmd now runs inside the caller's container via `docker exec`.
- fs-tools resolve every physical path through UserFs to the per-user host
workspace, host-side, with fail-closed symlink/`..` containment
(resolve_host_path: canonicalize + prefix-check). grep_files resolves its root
the same way but stays disk-only.
- shared_folders + shared_folder_members (registry, junction table with
can_write) back the shared-folder membership that drives both the container
mounts and the shared/{X} routing.
- Threading: UserContext.fs → ChatSessionManager → handler → ToolContext.fs.
Per-user MCP servers do not yet run in the container (next round).
Add a virtual memory namespace backed by SQLite, surfaced through the
fs-tools, with private (per-user) and shared (system) stores.
Storage
- `memory_docs` owner table + external-content FTS5 index with sync triggers.
- `db/memory_docs.rs` accessor: get / upsert / list / search (bm25+snippet) / delete.
Routing (tools/fs)
- `classify_memory` splits paths on the raw first component; `..` clamps inside
the store, never escaping to disk.
- read/write/list/edit/insert/replace/search_file route `user-memory/` to the
owner pool and `shared-memory/` to the system pool (a singleton captured in
`register_all`); every other path stays on disk. Each tool extracts a pure
transform shared between its disk and memory paths.
- New `memory_search` tool over the FTS index (scope private/shared/all),
with a sanitised FTS5 query. grep_files stays disk-only.
Approval
- `user-memory/*` allow (read+write); `shared-memory/*` reads allow,
writes require approval so the agent can't silently push one person's data
into shared memory. `memory_search` allowed via a path-less rule.
- migrate away the old `memory/*` and blanket `shared-memory/*` rows.
Prompt injection
- `MessageBuilder::load_inject_memory` reads `user-memory/` (owner pool) and
`shared-memory/` (system pool) inject entries from SQLite; disk paths
unchanged. The system pool is threaded ChatSessionManager -> handler ->
MessageBuilder.
- main and project-coordinator inject `user-memory/index.md` +
`shared-memory/index.md`; common/memory.md rewritten for the two stores.
dguiducci
