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d6f9327ec1
Volva's code-spec review (thread 01KS4EKVKKGF) surfaced three findings
on the TDD-passing sessions module. All three addressed; one carries
a collateral contract amendment to keep INV-002 truthful.
1) drift: archived=item.get("archived", False) returned None for an
explicit "archived": null in the response. dict.get(k, default) only
fires the default when the key is absent — it does NOT default for
explicit-null values. The dataclass type is `bool` (not `bool | None`)
and INV-002 says explicit-null → False; the .get() form silently
violated both. Fixed: archived=item.get("archived") or False
(handles absent, null, false, and true cleanly).
INV-002 wording was the source of the bug — I introduced the
mis-spelled form during the Volva amendment round. Updated to spell
out the .get(default) foot-gun explicitly so future readers (and
future paraphrase rounds) don't fall back to the broken pattern.
2) test-gap: no test exercised explicit-null archived/tags. The
_list_item() helper had its own defaulting layer (tags=None →
["work"]) so a happy path test couldn't catch the underlying drift.
Added test_explicit_null_list_defaults using a raw dict to bypass
the helper. Catches the drift directly.
3) precision: message_count=body.get("message_count") could silently
default to None while POST-003 required it non-None. INV-001 prose
literally said "body['message_count']" (bracket access) so the
STEP 5 .get() was the contract's own internal inconsistency.
Aligned the code to bracket access (matches sibling required
fields like session_id) and amended STEP 5 + INV-001 to spell out
the strict semantics explicitly.
Volva's meta-note: "modest weight" — TDD caught the main surface;
this round caught a narrow Python .get() semantics edge that no
human reading would have spotted without explicit-null priors.
Still pulls real weight: that's the kind of bug that ships and
shows up months later when a server starts emitting null where
it used to omit a field.
63 tests GREEN (42 sse_client + 20 sessions + 1 boundary).
Ruff clean. Drift check still GREEN against the pinned issue body.
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)