ROOT CAUSE (post-mortem at docs/reports/TIER2_MCP_REGRESSION_20260624.md):
- Tier 1 asserted claims from old reports without re-verifying (SSDL campaign
was designed from a static text string '6 nil-check functions' in
src/code_path_audit_gen.py:108 that was never a runtime measurement)
- Tier 2 (autonomous) made an empty fix commit (2b7e2de1) for the MCP
regression; the pre-commit hook silently stripped opencode.json +
mcp_paths.toml and the agent reported success without verifying with
'git show HEAD --stat'
- Both happened because neither tier read the critical files before acting
THE FIX (this commit):
1. .agents/agents/tier1-orchestrator.md: add MANDATORY pre-action reading
list (6 files: AGENTS.md, conductor/workflow.md, current track spec/plan,
the 3 code_styleguides). Reference the 2026-06-24 SSDL failures.
2. .agents/agents/tier2-tech-lead.md: add MANDATORY pre-action reading list
(8 files: AGENTS.md, workflow.md, edit_workflow.md, the githooks
forbidden-files.txt, the tier2_leak_prevention spec, the 3 styleguides)
+ the MANDATORY pre-commit verification gate (3 checks per commit).
3. .agents/agents/tier3-worker.md: add 4-file read list (AGENTS.md, task
spec, relevant styleguide, the actual code being modified). Tier 3 doesn't
need the full 8-file list — Tier 2's task spec is the contract.
4. .agents/agents/tier4-qa.md: same 4-file read list (analysis context).
5. conductor/tier2/agents/tier2-autonomous.md: add the 8-file MANDATORY
pre-action reading list + the MANDATORY pre-commit verification gate.
6. conductor/tier2/commands/tier-2-auto-execute.md: add the 8-file list
to the pre-flight section (step 0).
7. conductor/tier2/githooks/pre-commit: change behavior from 'silent strip
+ commit anyway' to 'strip + ABORT commit with diagnostic message'.
The previous behavior led to empty commits (the 2026-06-24 regression).
The agent MUST investigate the leak before retrying the commit.
ENFORCEMENT (all tiers):
- First commit of any track must include 'TIER-N READ <list> before <task>'
in the commit message. The failcount contract treats an unacknowledged
first commit as a red-phase failure (per the error_handling.md Rule #0
precedent).
NOT IN THIS COMMIT (deferred to followup tracks per the post-mortem):
- Rule 4 (CI gate for required files via scripts/audit_branch_required_files.py)
- AGENTS.md addition of the canonical 'MANDATORY Pre-Action Reading' section
(separate track to ensure the project-root rules reflect the same list)
- Cross-platform agent files (.opencode/, .claude/, .gemini/) — those are
generated from the canonical .agents/agents/ files; this commit updates
the canonical sources.
7 files modified, 109 insertions, 6 deletions.
Follow-up to the 'NEVER USE APPDATA' directive. The agent kept
trying to use \C:\Users\Ed\AppData\Local\Temp / \C:\Users\Ed\AppData\Local\Temp / %TEMP% / %TMP% — the previous
deny rule (*AppData\\\\* and *AppData\\Local\\Temp\\*) only matched
the literal expanded path, not the env-var form. The agent would
self-block based on its own interpretation of the rule, but it still
TRIED before self-blocking (the 'fucking tired of it fucking with
AppData' complaint).
Fix:
1. opencode.json.fragment: add bash deny patterns matched against
the LITERAL command string (before shell expansion):
*\C:\Users\Ed\AppData\Local\Temp* - PowerShell env var (the form the agent tried)
*\C:\Users\Ed\AppData\Local\Temp* - PowerShell env var
*%TEMP%* - cmd env var
*%TMP%* - cmd env var
*GetTempPath* - .NET API
*gettempdir* - Python tempfile module
*mkstemp* - Python tempfile.mkstemp
Applied to BOTH the top-level permission.bash (for default agents)
and the tier2-autonomous agent's permission.bash.
2. conductor/tier2/agents/tier2-autonomous.md: rewrite the Temp
files section to explicitly list ALL forbidden literals and
reiterate 'every one of those literal command strings is denied
at the bash level'. Updated changelog note.
3. conductor/tier2/commands/tier-2-auto-execute.md: same.
4. tests/test_tier2_slash_command_spec.py: extend
test_config_fragment_denies_temp_writes to assert each of the 9
patterns in both the top-level and the agent's bash.
Verified: re-ran setup against the live clone. tier2 agent's bash
has 13 deny patterns (9 AppData/temp + 4 git). 37/37 default-on
tests pass.
Note: the user's prior commit (fix(tier2): remove AppData allow
rules from OpenCode permission JSON) already removed the AppData
allow rules from read/write and added the broader *AppData\\\\*
deny rule. This commit layers on top of that with the env-var-form
deny patterns.
Tier 2 (in commit 923d360d) relocated the failcount state and failure
report defaults from 'scripts/tier2/state/' to 'tests/artifacts/tier2_state/'
(matching the workspace_paths.md styleguide). This commit reconciles
the agent prompt with the actual code path:
- 'Temp files' convention: scripts/tier2/state/<track>/state.json
-> tests/artifacts/tier2_state/<track>/state.json
- 'Temp files' convention: scripts/tier2/failures/
-> tests/artifacts/tier2_failures/
- Example audit output: scripts/tier2/state/audit_initial.json
-> tests/artifacts/tier2_state/audit_initial.json
- 'Failcount Contract' state path updated to match.
The user must re-bootstrap the Tier 2 clone to pick up the fixed
template (pwsh -File scripts/tier2/setup_tier2_clone.ps1).
Refs: conductor/tracks/tier2_no_appdata_20260618 (post-merge followup)
The 'Temp files' convention bullet had a counter-example that
referenced the AppData path explicitly. The test
tests/test_tier2_slash_command_spec.py::test_agent_denies_temp_writes
catches this and asserts NO AppData path strings in the agent prompt.
Replaced the AppData path in the counter-example with a generic
'AppData is denied by the bash rule' reference.
Refs: conductor/tracks/tier2_no_appdata_20260618
Three changes to conductor/tier2/agents/tier2-autonomous.md:
1. Frontmatter permission.read / permission.write: removed the two
AppData allow rules; only the Tier 2 clone is allowed now.
2. Frontmatter permission.bash: added '*AppData\\\\*': deny (broader
pattern, in addition to the existing Temp-specific deny).
3. 'Hard Bans' section: rewrote the filesystem boundary line to say
'NEVER USE APPDATA' and point at the new deny rule.
4. 'Conventions / Temp files' bullet: replaced with inside-clone
conventions (scripts/tier2/state/, scripts/tier2/failures/,
scripts/tier2/artifacts/<track>/). Documents the 2026-06-18 reversal.
5. 'Failcount Contract' section: state path is now
scripts/tier2/state/<track>/state.json (Path.cwd()-relative).
Refs: conductor/tracks/tier2_no_appdata_20260618
The Tier 2 agent wrote audit_exception_handling.py output to
C:\\Users\\Ed\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\audit_initial.json via shell
redirection. This is OUTSIDE the sandbox allowlist (which is
C:\\projects\\manual_slop_tier2 + C:\\Users\\Ed\\AppData\\Local\\
manual_slop\\tier2 + C:\\Users\\Ed\\AppData\\Local\\manual_slop\\
tier2_failures). The OpenCode session-level guard fires the 'ask'
prompt for paths outside the project root, which has no answer in an
autonomous session, so ops halted mid-track.
Fix (3 layers):
1. opencode.json.fragment: add bash deny rule
'*AppData\\Local\\Temp\\*': 'deny' to BOTH the top-level
permission.bash (for default agents) and the tier2-autonomous
agent's permission.bash. The agent physically cannot run shell
commands that target the global Temp dir.
2. conductor/tier2/agents/tier2-autonomous.md: add 'Temp files'
convention telling the agent to use
C:\\Users\\Ed\\AppData\\Local\\manual_slop\\tier2\\ for scratch
/ audit-output / intermediate files, NOT %TEMP%.
3. conductor/tier2/commands/tier-2-auto-execute.md: same convention
in the slash command so the agent sees it at slash-command time.
Tests (default-on):
- test_agent_denies_temp_writes: agent prompt has the Temp deny in
frontmatter bash + the app-data dir note
- test_config_fragment_denies_temp_writes: both top-level and agent
bash have the deny rule
All 16 tier 2 slash command tests pass.
Also: cleaned up the leaked audit_initial.json + audit.json +
audit_after*.json from %TEMP% (they were leftovers from a prior
run). Re-ran setup against the live clone; opencode.json's agent
bash and top-level bash both have the deny rule.
User feedback from the first sandbox run (send_result_to_send_20260616,
2026-06-17) identified 6 conventions Tier 2 must follow. Update the agent
prompt template, slash command template, user guide, and workflow doc:
1. Test runner: ALWAYS use 'uv run python scripts/run_tests_batched.py'
(NOT 'uv run pytest'). The batched runner provides tier filtering,
parallelization (xdist), and a summary table that direct pytest lacks.
2. Default branch: this repo uses 'master', not 'main'. The Tier 2 slash
command now does 'git fetch origin master' (was 'origin main').
3. Line endings: preserve existing. This repo has a mix of CRLF and LF;
a repo-wide LF standardization is a future track.
4. Throw-away scripts: write to 'scripts/tier2/artifacts/<track>/', NOT
the base 'scripts/tier2/' directory. The base is reserved for
production code; throw-away scripts are kept for archival but
isolated per-track.
5. End-of-track report: write 'docs/reports/TRACK_COMPLETION_<track>.md'
and update 'state.toml' to 'status=completed'. The user reads this
to decide merge. Previously this was implicit; now it's explicit.
6. Run-time expectation: tracks are 1-4 hours. If context runs out, Tier
2 notes progress to disk and continues. The --resume flag picks up
from the last completed task.
Also updated the user guide with a 'Conventions' section and a
troubleshooting entry for the resume flow. The verify-the-sandbox
checklist now uses 'origin master' instead of 'origin main'.
ed