vh
a6e6c1bbd8
Volva's contract paraphrase round (thread 01KS4DTCW8CV) surfaced five
ambiguities; three are real contract-text gaps and addressed here.
1) tags/archived/name defaulting was inconsistent across prose, INV-002,
and STEP 6. open_questions said "defaulting to sensible None/empty",
INV-002 said "populated from the response item shape", STEP 6 said
`item.get("tags", []) if "tags" in item else None` (which collapses
absent and explicit-null into the same None branch while letting an
explicit [] pass through). Tightened to: tags is always list[str]
defaulting to [] for absent/null/empty in list items; archived is
always bool defaulting to False; name remains str | None (the only
field where None is a meaningful value). create_session always sets
list-only fields to their fixed defaults (name=None, archived=False,
tags=[]) instead of None to keep the dataclass shape uniform.
2) The include_archived_query test said "URL has no include_archived
param OR explicit false". STEP 2 prescribes "ADD include_archived='true'
iff include_archived" — the OR-clause weakened the test against the
prescribed behavior. Tightened to: default (include_archived=False)
asserts NO include_archived param at all, not an explicit false.
5) metadata's populated semantics: INV-001 said "populated from the
201 response", STEP 5 said body.get("metadata", {}) — two valid
readings (trust the spec vs defensive default). Aligned to the
defensive shape: INV-001 + INV-002 now explicitly state "defaults
to {} when absent" as spec-drift tolerance.
Volva flags #3 (exception .body sensitivity — truncation reduces
size not sensitivity) and #4 (assert for runtime validation — Python
-O disables) reviewed and kept as-is. Both are intentional carryovers
from issue #1's precedent: exception .body is for caller debugging
bound to 1024 bytes (caller's responsibility to not log raw); assert
chosen for fast-path validation, trading -O robustness for normal-mode
speed.
Drift check still clean — amendments don't touch the pinned issue
body, so prd: hashes remain valid.
Ratatoskr
A Worldtree Conversation API debug TUI. Runs up and down Worldtree's API surface — sessions, turns, persona, tools, admin events, Bifrost state — carrying messages between layers. Like the squirrel.
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.
Status
v0 scaffold. Design locked; implementation hasn't started. The dev team owns the implementation pass.
Read in this order
docs/design-brief.md— the locked design. Read this first. Every architectural decision is recorded with its rationale, the alternatives considered, and (where relevant) the operator's lock-in moment.docs/SPEC-PIN.md— what Worldtree spec version Ratatoskr is built against, where the vendored snapshot lives, and how to bump the pin.docs/conversation-api-spec.md— the vendored Worldtree spec snapshot. Read this to understand the API surface Ratatoskr consumes. Do not import anything from a Worldtree checkout — the boundary is the spec, not the code. Seedocs/design-brief.md§2.CLAUDE.md— Claude Code conventions for this repo (mostly inherited from the Corviduo template).persistent-memory.md— durable intent across context resets. Update as decisions and state evolve.
Quickstart
# 1. Environment
uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install -e ".[dev]"
# 2. Verify the spec pin
cat docs/SPEC-PIN.md # documented Worldtree SHA + bump procedure
# 3. Tests (none yet; scaffold only)
uv run pytest
# 4. Run against a local Worldtree (once implementation lands)
# Worldtree must be running: python -m core.conversation_api
ratatoskr --agent mimir
What this repo is NOT
- NOT a polished consumer for Worldtree's end-users — that's the web app.
- NOT a Worldtree admin tool — admin CLI is separate (
sessions_cli.pylives in Worldtree). - NOT a featuretracking shadow of the web app — when the Conversation API surface grows, Ratatoskr does not necessarily grow with it.
- NOT a remote-Worldtree debug client — file-tail surfaces (persona log, server log) assume local-dev posture.
The full negative-clause list lives in docs/design-brief.md §6.
Boundary rule
Ratatoskr depends on three things only:
httpx+httpx-sse(network layer)textual(TUI framework)- Worldtree's published Conversation API spec at the pinned SHA
Hard rule: no imports from a Worldtree checkout. No core.* imports,
no from worldtree.*, no shared models, no submodule of Worldtree. The
spec is the entire surface. Boundary smoke test at tests/test_no_worldtree_imports.py
enforces this in CI.
Version-skew strategy
The dev team is decoupled from Worldtree's dev team. To detect drift when Worldtree changes the API:
- Spec-version pin in
pyproject.toml(worldtree-spec-rev). Bump explicitly; bumps are a tracked action. - Recorded-SSE snapshot tests at
tests/snapshots/. Captured against a live Worldtree; replayed in CI. Re-record after every pin bump. - Conformance smoke test — boots Worldtree via Docker compose in CI, runs a one-turn happy path. Catches integration-level drift.
See docs/SPEC-PIN.md for the bump procedure.
Consumer-side discoveries
If you find a spec gap, ambiguity, or missing-but-needed endpoint while working on Ratatoskr: route the discovery back to worldtree-dev via althing rather than via PR on Worldtree directly. The separate-team boundary is intentional and helps catch spec gaps that an in-tree consumer would paper over.
Related repos
- Worldtree — the API Ratatoskr consumes
- brokkr-smithy — authored this design brief
- Skaldsong — another Worldtree API consumer (Python; render-and-aggregate pattern)
- mead-hall — another Worldtree API consumer (TypeScript; server-side broker)