Vuong Hoang
1240212ff2
Codex's CWD when invoked by the Volva daemon. Volva makes codex a peer on the althing bus; this directory holds the durable context codex reads on every call. Seeded with: - AGENTS.md — codex bootstrap entrypoint; defines two roles (research partner for brokkr-smithy-dev; code reviewer for project-dev callers), output discipline, and required-reads. - CONTEXT.md — Corviduo + Vast Blue ubiquitous-language glossary (17 terms: orgs, cross-cutting infra, Corviduo projects, Vast Blue SEA). Mirrors the user-level CONTEXT.md baseline. - INVENTORY.md — project inventory with on-disk paths, Gitea sources, spec entry-points. Drawn from brokkr-smithy/docs/improvement-targets. - PRINCIPLES.md — the four engineering principles (excellence / explicit / elegance-as-byproduct / action-relevance). - REVIEW-GUIDE.md — code-review discipline. Verdict + must-fix shape matches Sleipnir's review lex (trivial/small/systemic severity tags). Project-specific patterns for Sleipnir, Worldtree, Skaldsong. - RESEARCH-PARTNER-GUIDE.md — research-partner discipline. Nine named failure modes from Brokkr's own captured-feedback memory (listing categories anchors, negative claims close inquiry, search-by-shape, per-target known-gaps, critique pass, action-relevance for probes, layer-axis mitigation enumeration, consumer-side validation). - transient/ — per-call ephemera convention; caller drops transient/<slug>.md before the althing message references it. Gitignored except for the README. Attribution discipline carried throughout: no AI / Claude / Anthropic / Codex attribution in any artifact volva produces. Operator is Vuong Hoang.
transient/ — per-call context
This directory holds call-specific context files that callers drop in before sending an althing message to Volva. Codex reads these on demand when the message body references them.
When to use
Drop a transient context file when:
- The call needs to review a specific diff, contract draft, or hypothesis file — and the file would be larger or more sensitive than belongs in the althing message body.
- The caller has already gathered prior-art (search results, paper abstracts, prior probe data) that Volva should treat as authoritative for this call without re-deriving.
- The call is part of a thread where Volva needs context from earlier turns that aren't in the bus's thread history.
Don't use transient files for:
- Durable context that should live in
CONTEXT.md/INVENTORY.md— extend the durable file instead. - One-line questions where the message body is sufficient.
- Context that's already in a project repo at a known path — point Volva at the path; she can read the repo.
Convention
File naming
transient/<slug>.md
<slug> is short, kebab-case, distinctive enough that the althing message can reference it unambiguously: r07-h04-substrate-question, sleipnir-pr-42-review, worldtree-issue-177-spec-draft.
If multiple files are needed for the same call, use a directory: transient/<slug>/{diff.patch, contract-draft.md, prior-art.md}.
File format
Plain markdown for prose; raw text / patch format / JSON for non-prose payloads. No required frontmatter. If frontmatter helps the caller organize, the convention is:
---
caller: <handle>
call_id: <althing-msg-id-if-known>
shipped_at: <ISO-8601>
expires_after: <call-completion | YYYY-MM-DD | never>
---
expires_after: call-completion is the default — the caller is responsible for cleanup after Volva replies.
Referencing from the althing message
In the message body:
Load transient context: <slug>
Or, more naturally inline:
Please review the diff in transient/sleipnir-pr-42-review.md — verdict + must-fix only.
Both forms work. Volva looks for the file at the cited path, reads it, treats it as authoritative for the call.
If the message references a transient slug that doesn't exist, Volva surfaces that rather than guessing.
Cleanup
Transient files are caller-owned. The caller is responsible for removing the file after Volva replies — either immediately, after they've consumed the response, or on a TTL.
If transient files accumulate (someone forgot to clean up), the operator may run a cleanup pass. A .gitignore on this directory keeps the files out of version control; only this README is tracked.
What's tracked vs ignored
transient/README.md— this file, version-controlled.transient/*(everything else) — gitignored.
The directory is a working surface, not a durable archive. If a call produces context that turns out to be durable (a pattern Volva should know about long-term), promote it: extend CONTEXT.md / INVENTORY.md / one of the role guides, then delete the transient file.