Volva's contract paraphrase round (thread 01KS4B3B0Y62) surfaced three
real contract-time ambiguities — addressing each here before applying
ready-for-agent.
1) reconnect_turn body was a punt. STEP 2 literally said "json={'content':
''} OR with no body (TBD per spec — confirm during implementation)".
The spec §Reconnect flow example shows POST with Content-Type:
application/json and a body shaped {"content": "..."} — the wire schema
requires content; the server identifies the resume target via the
Last-Event-ID header and does NOT re-process content (spec line 732:
"agent's tools and LLM call run exactly once regardless of disconnects/
reconnects"). reconnect_turn now takes content: str explicitly; STEP 2
sends json={"content": content}. Caller convention: pass the original
content sent to stream_turn. POST-002 added to assert byte-for-byte
body shape; new test body_threads_content covers it.
2) _parse_sse_id allowed turn_id and seq ≥ 0 — too loose. Spec §SSE id
format line 705 says seq starts at 1 (resets per turn); turn_id is
from SQLite turns.id (autoincrement, ≥1). Tightened POST-001 to require
both ≥1; STEP 5 raises ValueError on either < 1. Test happy_zero_seq
flipped to adversarial zero_seq; added zero_turn_id and negative_seq.
INV-002 tightened to reflect the same range.
3) INV-003 (TurnIdFlip) had a subtle wording gap between stream_turn
(first event ESTABLISHES turn_id; cannot be a flip) and reconnect_turn
(expected turn_id parsed FROM last_event_id BEFORE connect; first event
is already a flip-candidate). Volva noticed the reconnect test said
"first event was not yielded" while stream_turn semantics depend on
the first event being yielded unconditionally. Spelled out both entry
points in INV-003 as a numbered sub-list. reconnect_turn STEP 4 and
test turn_id_flip_on_first_event reworded to match.
Volva flags #3 (MalformedSseId-vs-ValueError split) and #5 (exactly-
one-terminal as server-assumed, not client-verified) reviewed and kept
as-is — both intentional. Drift check unchanged: amending the contract
does not touch the pinned issue body, so prd: hashes remain valid.
11 KiB
Persistent memory — ratatoskr
This file captures durable intent and supporting evidence (goals, decisions,
foot-gun warnings, in-flight state) across context resets. Read it at session
start; treat it as one input alongside CLAUDE.md and the auto-memory system,
not as the single source of truth.
When durable state shifts enough to warrant capture, run /snapshot and
commit alongside the next commit per the persistent-memory commit-along rule
in CLAUDE.md.
Repo purpose
Ratatoskr is a dev-grade debug-observability TUI for Worldtree's Conversation API. The product IS the observability surface; chat is the input mechanism. Devs run Ratatoskr against a local Worldtree to watch a turn flow through every layer of the system, side-by-side, in one terminal: agent SSE stream, persona/Vili affect dispatch, tool calls, Bifrost handshake state, admin lifecycle events, optional raw server log.
Named after the squirrel that runs up and down Yggdrasil carrying messages between layers. On-the-nose Worldtree resonance (Yggdrasil = the World Tree).
Origin: althing ask from worldtree-dev (thread 01KS3R34XD3N6HMK91VXESHGW7,
2026-05-20) for the shape of a TUI Conversation API consumer. brokkr-smithy
ran the shape pass; operator's reframe routed it as a new repo with a
separate dev team rather than an in-tree Worldtree tool.
Current state / in-flight
Status: scaffold verified + first contract authored. Design is locked;
implementation begins next, TDD against sse_client.contract.md.
What's in the repo:
docs/design-brief.md— the locked design (copy frombrokkr-smithy/docs/ratatoskr-design-brief.md).docs/SPEC-PIN.md— Worldtree spec pin documentation + bump procedure.docs/conversation-api-spec.md— vendored Worldtree spec at the pinned SHA.docs/conversation_api.contract.md— vendored Worldtree server-side contract at the pinned SHA.docs/contracts/issues/1.contract.md— issue-scoped contract for issue #1 (#1). v2.1, complexity=high.target_module: ratatoskr.sse_client.prd:block pins to issue body SHAabcbc49467e86f1dat2026-05-21T03:57:37+00:00. Four FN blocks:stream_turn,reconnect_turn,cancel_turn,_parse_sse_id. Drift check (scripts/contract_drift_check.py) returns clean.pyproject.toml— Python 3.12, hatchling, uv-managed. Deps: httpx, httpx-sse, textual. Dev deps: pytest, pytest-asyncio, respx, ruff, mypy, textual-dev, pyyaml (consumed bydocs/contracts/contract_parser.py+scripts/contract_drift_check.py).src/ratatoskr/__init__.py+cli.py— stubs.tests/test_no_worldtree_imports.py— boundary smoke test (passes; verified 2026-05-20).tests/snapshots/README.md— recording/replay convention for SSE snapshot tests.
What's NOT in the repo yet:
- Implementation of
ratatoskr.sse_client— next move, TDD per the contract's tracer tests. - Gitea remote — operator provided
git@gitea.phasefinal.com:vh/ratatoskr.giton 2026-05-20; about to be added + first push at the same commit as this update. - CLAUDE.md customization — currently using the canonical template's generic CLAUDE.md. The dev team may want to add Ratatoskr-specific conventions on first substantive work.
Branch: main. Remote: origin → git@gitea.phasefinal.com:vh/ratatoskr.git (added 2026-05-20).
Next natural moves:
- Implement
ratatoskr.sse_clientvia TDD perdocs/contracts/sse_client.contract.md. Vertical slice — start with_parse_sse_id(the foundation; tracer testhappy_simple), thenstream_turn(tracer testhappy_one_text_done), thenreconnect_turn(tracer testhappy_resume_from_seq_3), thencancel_turn(tracer testhappy_cancel). Each FN's tracer test gets RED → GREEN before any other test in that FN. - Record real SSE snapshot fixtures from a running Worldtree (per
tests/snapshots/README.md) oncestream_turnis GREEN against mocks — gives version-skew detection per design-brief §2. - Build presenters:
--sendstdout presenter first (simplest consumer ofstream_turn); Textual TUI second. Both consume the sameEventiterator.
Recent decisions
Chronological log of decisions with [YYYY-MM-DD] prefix. One line per
decision. Captures rationale that won't be obvious from code alone.
[2026-05-20]Project name Ratatoskr (squirrel on Yggdrasil — runs up and down carrying messages). Earlier candidate Andvari demoted on the cursed-ring association.[2026-05-20]Separate repo, separate dev team. Operator's call; the in-tree-at-Worldtree/tools/ alternative was considered and rejected to dogfood the API boundary.[2026-05-20]No Worldtree-source imports. Spec-only dependency. Triple version-skew mitigation: spec-pin in pyproject.toml + recorded-SSE snapshot tests + conformance smoke. Initial pin:55101e909abcd2219833266b6f905c5bc956e0f0(Worldtree v0.19.0). Seedocs/SPEC-PIN.md.[2026-05-20]Textual (not rich+prompt_toolkit). Driver: debug observability is the primary purpose, and a multi-pane dashboard with persistent side panes + independent scrollback is structurally application-shell-shaped. Volva consulted via cross-frontier second-opinion and converged on the same call.[2026-05-20]httpx-ssefor SSE consumption. The server emits composite{turn_id}:{seq}id:lines (Worldtree INV-014) load-bearing for SSE-resume; hand-rolleddata:-only parsing (the skaldsong pattern) silently drops these. Ratatoskr becomes the reference Python SSE-resume implementation.[2026-05-20]Persona-pane PII posture: label-don't-refuse.persona.logis process-wide; pane title flips between[Persona — PROCESS-WIDE]and[Persona — session <id>…]based on whether log lines carry session_id. Refuse-against-non-local was considered and rejected as paternalistic.[2026-05-20]Server-stdout pane: opt-in via--server-log <path>. No auto-detection of well-known paths.[2026-05-20]Two-stage Ctrl-C. First cancels in-flight turn server-side; second exits app. Ctrl-D bound to immediate exit.[2026-05-20]Single-session-per-launch + startup picker. No in-app/switch. CLI flags--session <id>and--newfor scripted use. Session identity always visible in Textual footer.[2026-05-20]Markdown rendering default-on;--rawopt-out. Don't pre-design--no-stream-formatting(Volva: add only if streaming-markdown rendering is empirically ugly).[2026-05-20]Non-interactive--sendmode. Single SSE consumer module, two presenters (TUI + stdout). Keeps Ratatoskr honest as an API consumer; useful for CI / scripted probes.[2026-05-20]First contract:ratatoskr.sse_client. Bundlesstream_turn+reconnect_turn+cancel_turn+ private_parse_sse_idinto one module — the SSE-resume flow is coupled (cancel needsturn_idfrom the SSE wireid:, reconnect re-uses the same parsedSseId), so they share a contract. Hard invariant INV-002 makes the composite{turn_id}:{seq}id:parsing load-bearing — closes the foot-gun the design-brief §3 names (hand-rolleddata:-only parsing silently drops theid:). v2.1 test categoriesadversarial/scenario/traceused freely; parser warns but format spec §2.1.E permits them.[2026-05-21]Contract converted to issue-scoped (issue #1). Moveddocs/contracts/sse_client.contract.md→docs/contracts/issues/1.contract.md. Frontmatter shape switched from module-scoped (module:/purpose:) to issue-scoped (target_module:/scope:/prd:) per CONTRACT-FORMAT §2.1.I.prd:block pins to issue #1's body hash (abcbc49467e86f1d).scripts/contract_drift_check.pyreturns clean. Known parser stale-ness:contract_parser.py --validateERRORs on issue-scoped frontmatter (missingmodule:/purpose:) — this is CONTRACT-FORMAT §2.1.L H10, a documented Brokkr-side follow-up. Parser is a canonical sync, so we do NOT patch it locally (would drift from canonical). Treat parser ERROR-on-issue-scoped as expected until the canonical bumps.[2026-05-21]Default issue-tracker labels seeded (17 total). Sleipnir gating (ready-for-agent,blocked-needs-contract,blocked-needs-dependency), triage (needs-triage,needs-architect-decision,needs-info), type (bug,enhancement,task,documentation), resolution (duplicate,wontfix,invalid), Ratatoskr-specific area (sse-client,tui,cli,observability).[2026-05-21]Volva paraphrase round ondocs/contracts/issues/1.contract.md. Volva flagged 5 ambiguities; operator approved amendments to 3 of them. (1)reconnect_turnSTEP 2 punt resolved: signature now carriescontent: str; STEP 2 body isjson={"content": content}matching spec §Reconnect flow example verbatim. Spec line 732 makes the agent's tools+LLM run "exactly once regardless of disconnects/reconnects" — thecontentis a wire-schema requirement, not re-processed server-side. (2)_parse_sse_idtightened:turn_id ≥ 1ANDseq ≥ 1(was≥ 0); spec §SSE id format line 705 explicitly statesseqstarts at 1, andturn_idis SQLite autoincrement (≥1). Testhappy_zero_seqflipped tozero_seq [adversarial]; newzero_turn_id+negative_seqadversarial tests added. (3) INV-003 clarified to spell out the two-entry-point semantics:stream_turnestablishesturn_idfrom the first event (first event always yields);reconnect_turnparses the expectedturn_idFROMlast_event_idBEFORE the connection opens, so the first server event is already a flip-candidate and is NOT yielded on mismatch. Volva flags #3 (MalformedSseId-vs-ValueError split) and #5 (exactly-one-terminal as server-assumed) noted but kept as-is — deliberate distinctions. Drift check still clean against issue #1 (amending the contract doesn't touch the pinned issue body).
Tried and abandoned
Log of approaches that were tried and rejected, with rationale. Future-self defense against re-attempting the same cul-de-sac.
[2026-05-20]rich + prompt_toolkit framework choice. Considered first (during initial shape draft). Volva flagged that §1 and §5 pulled in opposite directions: a real side-panel observability surface would silently become a widget framework reimplementation. Operator's debug-observability reframe sealed the flip to Textual. Don't re-attempt rich+pt unless the scope shrinks to transcript-first REPL (which would also flip back §5 to inline-log-presenter).[2026-05-20]In-tree at Worldtree/tools/ratatoskr/. Earlier draft committed to in-tree-with-import-direction-smoke-test. Rejected at operator-routing — separate dev team forces separate repo.[2026-05-20]New/persona/logSSE endpoint on Worldtree. Considered as alternative to file-tailingpersona.log. Rejected — contract amendment + Vor round + AFK dispatch loop is weeks of consumer-side spec work for a debug feature file-tail handles in a day. Documented follow-up trigger indocs/design-brief.md§5: if a Worldtree-on-server / TUI-on-laptop debug case appears, the contract cost becomes worth paying.[2026-05-20]Cross-process Last-Event-ID resume. Considered — would require persisting per-session Last-Event-ID to~/.config/ratatoskr/. Deferred to v2 if/when it turns out to matter; v1 ships "reconnect, not resume-across-process."