Cost and context-window control: a "heavy" preset's model can offload
work to a cheaper preset without spending its own tokens on the result.
Example: deep model is mid-conversation and asks fast to summarize a
20k-line build log; the summary comes back as exec-output for the
next turn, deep stays small.
Marker syntax: DELEGATE: <preset> "<prompt>"
(Single or double quotes; one DELEGATE per line; lines without the
quoted shape are dropped — let the user write about delegation in
prose without accidental dispatch.)
Dispatch flow (mirrors CMD: / CMD&: extraction):
1. ask_ai's stream completes
2. extract_delegate_lines walks the final response
3. For each {preset, prompt}: broker.chat(config.models[preset], ...)
synchronously; result is appended via ctx:append_exec_output as
"[delegate <preset>]: <result>"
4. The model sees the delegate result on its next turn
Implementation choice — marker over tool: option 1 from the issue
("inline delegate marker") works with any model regardless of
tool_calls support. Option 2 (aish_delegate as a tool dispatched in
the existing Phase 2 sub-loop) is the better UX for capable models
since it returns the result mid-turn — filed as follow-up if needed.
Meta surface:
:delegate <preset> <prompt> one-shot direct invocation (useful for
testing without depending on the model
emitting DELEGATE:, and as a manual
"ask <preset> something" verb)
Scope:
- Plan mode: emits "PLAN: DELEGATE <preset> <prompt>" without dispatch
- Norris: not extended; the planner's model anchor would conflict with
mid-plan switching (R-C3-adjacent risk)
- No self-delegation guard: each DELEGATE is a separate broker call,
not recursive; a delegate result reaching the next turn could
contain another DELEGATE but that's bounded by max_tool_depth-style
iteration cap on the parent
- No cost prompt: configuring a paid cloud preset already implies
consent to spend on it
- Unknown preset → error status + exec-output note "[delegate X failed:
unknown preset]"
Extractor unit-tested with 8 cases (single-quote, double-quote, multi-
line prose, empty prompt, no-quotes, case-sensitive, wrong prefix).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Builds, long-running network calls, and file watches no longer block
the turn. A new "CMD&: <cmd>" marker (analogue of CMD:) tells the REPL
to spawn the command in the background, return immediately, and poll
for completion between user inputs.
Process model: shell-wrapped to avoid needing fork()/execv() FFI.
nohup sh -c '(<cmd>) > <log> 2>&1; echo $? > <status>' </dev/null
>/dev/null 2>&1 & echo $!
The child is reparented to init; we hold only the PID and the path to
the .status sidecar. Completion is detected by the .status file
existing (the wrapper writes it as its last act). No waitpid needed —
the child isn't ours after the popen subshell exits.
Storage: <history.dir>/bg/<id>.log + <id>.status. The directory is
created lazily at startup (mkdir -p). Requires history.dir to be
configured; without it CMD&: emits an error status and the model
sees an "[bg failed to start]" exec-output note.
check_bg_done() runs at the top of each main-loop iteration alongside
check_every_due(). When a job is detected as exited, the REPL:
- emits a status line "[bg:<id> exited <code>, <bytes>, <secs>s wall] <cmd>"
- appends the same string to ctx as exec output, so the model sees
the completion on its next turn (natural follow-up: "ok the build
finished; let me check the log")
Meta surface:
:bg-spawn <cmd> start a bg job directly (no AI needed; also
useful for testing without depending on the
model emitting CMD&:)
:bg-list show running/done jobs (id, pid, state, runtime, cmd)
:bg-output <id> dump the log file to stdout
:bg-kill <id> SIGTERM (note: only delivers if the PID is
still the actual command — long-lived shells
may need pkill by name)
Scope (deliberately limited for v1):
- No callback-mode readline: bg completion detection is pre-prompt,
not mid-readline. If a build finishes while the user is typing,
notification comes when they hit Enter.
- Permission policy DSL (#9) does NOT apply to CMD&: — the
asynchronous gating model wasn't designed for the y/N flow.
Filed as follow-up if needed.
- Norris not extended: helpers.exec_cmd is still synchronous; the
planner doesn't dispatch bg jobs.
- Plan mode interaction: CMD&: in plan mode emits "PLAN: & <cmd>"
and a "[plan] would bg-run: <cmd>" exec-output note, no spawn.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Phase 1 review caught a structural gap: executor.exec only drained the
PTY master fd, never forwarded user keystrokes — vim/less/htop/nano
would render and hang on input. PHASE1.md §5 specified bidirectional
multiplex but only the read leg landed. tcgetattr/tcsetattr were also
missing, so even with input forwarding the parent's line discipline
would buffer until newline (breaking single-key UIs).
ffi/libc:
- struct termios opaque buffer + tcgetattr/tcsetattr + cfmakeraw
- M.set_raw(fd) saves termios + applies cfmakeraw; returns saved or
(nil, err) when fd isn't a tty (scripted / piped-stdin runs)
- M.restore_termios(fd, saved)
- struct pollfd + M.poll (POLLIN constant)
executor:
- multiplex(sess): poll(stdin, master); reads master on any revents
(POLLHUP fires when child closes its slave end, not POLLIN — the
revents != 0 check catches both); forwards stdin keystrokes to
master; loop exits when master read returns 0 (EOF / child gone)
- stdin polling is only enabled when stdin_is_tty (set_raw succeeded);
piped-stdin runs (tests / scripted) would otherwise drain queued
aish commands into the child of the *current* cmd, swallowing them
- raw mode is restored before returning so the user lands back at the
aish prompt in canonical mode
renderer + repl:
- exec_output(out, code) split into exec_begin() (top rule, before
spawn) + exec_end(code) (closing rule with exit, after wait). PTY
multiplex streams the body live to stdout in between; the renderer
never re-prints the body.
PHASE1.md §3:
- tcgetattr/tcsetattr changed from "optional" to "required for
single-key UIs to work — done-criteria #2"; poll added to the libc
row description.
Verified:
- non-interactive smoke (echo / false / exit 7 / ls /nonexistent /
printf multi-line) — all exit codes correct, output streamed live,
a\nb\nc\n preserved byte-for-byte
- scripted-stdin run reaches all expected lines (no stdin draining
into a non-interactive child)
- aish prompt + framed exec block + exit-code line all render in
correct order
Live interactive verification (vim / less / htop in a real terminal)
still needs a user-test pass.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Replaces the Phase 0 io.popen + sentinel-echo exit-code recovery with
forkpty + waitpid via ffi/pty. The §7 amendment paragraph on PHASE0.md
is rewritten to point at PHASE1.md §5 — the workaround is gone, not
just renamed.
User-visible behavioral changes:
- Interactive commands (vim, less, htop, top) now work via $cmd /
:exec / known-command shell paths because the child has a real
PTY for line discipline.
- Exit codes are accurate: `false` -> 1, `exit 7` -> 7, signal kill
-> 128+N (bash convention), shell parse error -> sh's 2.
- Broken-shell-syntax cmd now shows the actual sh diagnostic
(e.g. "Syntax error: end of file unexpected") instead of Phase 0's
"(no output — possible shell parse error)" guess.
- Output normalization: PTY emits CR LF; executor collapses \r\n
-> \n to keep the Phase 0 contract ("output uses \n separators").
Code path:
pty.spawn(cmd) -> drain master_fd until EOF
-> wait() returns ("exit", N) | ("signal", N) | ...
-> exit_code mapped: exit -> N, signal -> 128+N, else -1
Phase 0 invariants intact: `cd` interception unchanged (still libc.chdir
per §3 + §7), `CMD: ` extraction unchanged.
PHASE0.md §7: the "LuaJIT 2.1 popen-close caveat" paragraph is rewritten
to "Superseded by Phase 1" — points at PHASE1.md §5 for the live model.
The illustrative sketch is left in place as historical context.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Addresses three concerns + one nit from the Phase 0 review pass.
executor.lua:
- M.exec guards empty / whitespace-only cmd up front, returns
"(empty command)" / -1 instead of running the wrapper on nothing.
- On sentinel-parse failure with empty output (typical of shell
parse errors — the syntax error itself escapes to the popen
parent's stderr because 2>&1 is inside the unparsable subshell),
surface "(no output — possible shell parse error)" rather than
a silent empty frame.
- extract_cmd_lines now skips whitespace-only / empty bodies; a
bare `CMD: ` line in assistant output no longer turns into an
"execute ''? [y/N]" prompt.
- "what" comments cleaned in maybe_chdir.
router.lua:
- path_like now matches `~` and `~/foo` so `~/scripts/build.sh`
classifies as shell (was: ai). Restores symmetry with executor's
maybe_chdir, which already expands `~` on `cd`.
repl.lua:
- :exec and :ask trim args and renderer.status a usage line on
empty rather than running an empty cmd / sending an empty turn
to broker.
Regression: full prior smoke suite still passes — known_commands
shell paths, all maybe_chdir branches, CMD: extraction with non-empty
bodies, exec exit-code recovery, all router branches.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Phase 0 implementation per PHASE0.md §6, §7.
M.exec(cmd) -> (output, exit_code)
M.maybe_chdir(cmd) -> nil | true | false, errmsg
M.extract_cmd_lines(text)-> { "ls -la", "echo hi", ... }
Two non-obvious bits:
1. LuaJIT 2.1's io.popen():close() follows the Lua 5.1 ABI and returns
only `true` — no child exit status. The §7 manifest sketch assumes
Lua 5.2's three-return form, which doesn't apply here. Recover the
exit code by appending `; echo __AISH_EXIT_<tag>__$?` after the
command and parsing the sentinel-prefixed integer back out. Phase 1
replaces this with waitpid via libc FFI when PTY support lands.
2. `cd` interception is a §3 invariant: must not delegate to popen
(popen forks; a child cd evaporates). maybe_chdir parses the line,
~ expands, calls libc.chdir, returns success/failure separate from
"not a cd" (nil) so the caller can distinguish.
CMD: extraction is anchored at start-of-line per the §3 "exact prefix,
single space" invariant — leading whitespace before CMD: does not match.
Smoke covers: echo capture (code=0), failed ls (code!=0), `false`
(code=1), multi-line output preserved, all maybe_chdir branches
(non-cd / bare / explicit / ~ expansion / failure), CMD extraction
including the leading-whitespace-rejection case.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
- README, .gitignore, CLAUDE.md (project conventions)
- docs/PHASE0.md — full Phase 0 manifest (locked substrate)
- 10 root .lua modules + 4 ffi/ bindings, all stubs raising NotImplemented
with module-scoped responsibilities matching the manifest
- config.lua wired to current dirac/hossenfelder endpoints (qwen-coder-7b
snappy/32k + cloud via OpenRouter through hossenfelder)
File names match docs/PHASE0.md §4 exactly. Module bodies fill in across
later phases; the tree shape is locked.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
marfrit
claude-noether