nagent_review_v3 — Comparison Table

Date: 2026-06-19 Spec pair: spec_v3.md + plan_v3.md Companion: nagent_review_v3_20260619.md (the v3 canonical review); decisions.md (v3 candidate list); nagent_takeaways_v3_20260619.md (bridge to v2.3 takeaways + sibling reviews). Source: nagent v3 (a1f0680 on macton/nagent@main, 2026-06-18) + the two case-study repos at main (macton/pep-copt, macton/differentiable-collisions-optc).

Flat side-by-side reference. One row per v3 cluster + one row per v2.3 pattern that v3 updates. Verdicts and pitfalls are in nagent_review_v3_20260619.md.

Legend

Verdict values: PARITY (same shape), PARITY+ (Manual Slop is stronger), PARITY- (nagent is stronger), PARTIAL (one half, not the other), GAP (Manual Slop lacks the feature), ARCH-DIFF (different architecture, both correct in their domain), SUBSUMED (consumed by a follow-up track).
Domain tags: APP = Application domain, MT = Meta-Tooling domain, BOTH.
Cluster status: NEW (didn't exist at v2.3), UPDATE (extends v2.3 pattern).

v3 new clusters

#	Cluster	nagent source	Manual Slop equivalent	Verdict	Status	Domain
1	Campaigns	`24cf16d`, `199a36b`, `f3ec090`, `c1d2cad`, `6443d70`, `7a7e242`	`conductor/tracks/` is project-scoped but plan.md is not operable	PARTIAL	NEW	BOTH
2	Conversation safety net	`38d3d4f`, `6426a67`	No checkpoint/rebuild; no extracted-summary index	GAP	NEW	APP
3	Hooks	`a4fb141` + both case-study harnesses	Tier 4 QA error interception is analogous; no per-run hook	PARTIAL	NEW	BOTH
4	Project-local roots	`54c8741`, `557dd39`, `0b9d1a2`, `023e23a`	`conductor/tracks/` is already project-scoped; `[conductor].dir` per-project override	PARITY	NEW	BOTH
5	Provider expansion	`bdfa2a6`, `5075f6e`, `2edc7ee`	Manual Slop has 8 providers (per tech-stack.md); per-model context windows new	PARITY (DIFFERENT COUNT)	UPDATE	APP
6	Delegation rewrite	`d56f0f0`, `65787a6`, `315fe9e`	MMA WorkerPool disciplined; non-MMA recursion bug real	PARTIAL	UPDATE	APP
7	Robustness	`065168c`, `6b762da`, `12c35b7`, `49e07f3`	Manual Slop uses `Result[T]` discipline + audit scripts (per `conductor/code_styleguides/error_handling.md`)	ARCH-DIFF	UPDATE	BOTH
8	Operating rules	`a1f0680`	`conductor/code_styleguides/data_oriented_design.md` is derived from this file	PARITY (DERIVED)	UPDATE	BOTH
9	Case-study methodology	both case-study repos (cross-cutting)	No equivalent yet	GAP	NEW	BOTH
10	PEP case study	`macton/pep-copt`	n/a (empirical evidence for nagent, not Manual Slop)	n/a	NEW	n/a
11	Collisions case study	`macton/differentiable-collisions-optc`	n/a	n/a	NEW	n/a

v2.3 patterns updated by v3

#	v2.3 pattern	v3 update
1	Durable work, disposable workers	UPDATES: campaigns (§1) extend with explicit plan artifacts
3	Conversations are editable state	UPDATES: project-local roots (§4) make conversation state project-scoped; hooks (§3) per-turn observability
4	Visible output protocol	(no update in v3)
5	The loop	UPDATES: safety net (§2) adds failure-recovery; robustness (§7) hardens 4 failure modes; hooks (§3) per-turn ground-truth
6	Per-file memory	(no update in v3)
7	Repository history as data	UPDATES: project-local roots (§4) make `.nagent/` commit-able
8	Historical coupling & neighborhoods	(no update in v3)
9	Disposable sub-conversations	UPDATES: delegation rewrite (§6) fixes recursion bug + names two reasons
11	Large files as explicit artifacts	(no update in v3)
12	Tool discovery	(no update in v3)
13	Differences from frameworks	(no update in v3)
14	Build your own	(no update in v3)

Sibling-review cross-refs

Sibling	Section	Relationship
`fable_review_20260617`	Fable's analysis of Mythos system prompt	Comparator: "what a competitor's agent directives look like" vs. nagent's canonical operating rules; Fable's watch-dogging is the anti-pattern of nagent's data-grounded operating rules (§8)
`intent_dsl_survey_20260612`	Survey's Cluster 4 (meta-tooling DSLs) + Cluster 3 (intent-mapping)	Parallel: the 4-prompt case-study methodology (§9) is implicitly an intent-DSL for "drive nagent at an optimization problem"
`superpowers_review_20260619`	superpowers `brainstorming` skill	Process parallel: structured questions to refine an idea before implementation, same role as the case-study 4 prompts

Honest notes

The v3 verdict for "Provider expansion" is PARITY (DIFFERENT COUNT) — Manual Slop has 8 providers per tech-stack.md (the qwen_llama_grok track adds 3 more); nagent v3 has 6 providers. The count is independent of the abstraction (per-model context windows, billing isolation, ground-truth harness).
The "Conversation safety net" GAP is the highest-value v3 candidate — the 3-number config (checkpoint_interval_minutes, checkpoint_max_new_kb, rebuild_at_kb) + the sync-checkpoint invariant are concrete patterns Manual Slop can adopt.
The "Case-study methodology" GAP is the methodology-level insight; the per-case-study sections (§10, §11) are the empirical evidence.
v3 candidates are in decisions.md; the bridge doc is nagent_takeaways_v3_20260619.md.

Format commitment: literal 7-column table

Symbol	Name	Signature	Semantics	Example	Borrowed from	Shape
§1	Campaigns	`nagent-campaign update {slug} [--dry-run]`	Run one bounded pass; merge worker results, check completion, gate decomposition, dispatch unblocked items; exit	`nagent-campaign update migrate-config --dry-run`	nagent `bin/nagent-campaign` (24cf16d)	[M] mutable aggregate (index.yaml + item.yaml)
§2	Safety net	`run_safety_net(conversation_file, root, llm, settings)`	Wall-clock cadence + burst guard for checkpoints; sync checkpoint first on rebuild; widen tail on writer failure	`checkpoint_interval_minutes: 60, checkpoint_max_new_kb: 256, rebuild_at_kb: 384`	nagent `bin/nagent:1455-1687` (38d3d4f)	[B] boundary (sync-checkpoint invariant)
§3	Hooks	`--hook-per-run CMD` + `--hook-per-file-edit CMD`	Run configured shell hook; inject exit code + stdout + stderr; CLI > config > disabled	`nagent --hook-per-run ./prove-optimized-harness.sh`	nagent `bin/nagent:1442-1484` (a4fb141)	[B] boundary (LLM failure surface)
§4	Project-local roots	`resolve_default_root(root_arg) -> Path`	Root in `{git-toplevel}/.nagent` inside repo, `~/.nagent` outside; 4-layer context (install → user → project → root) with once-per-directory dedup	`--root` overrides	nagent `bin/helpers/nagent_cli.py:36-44` (54c8741)	[S] string concatenation
§5	Provider expansion	`generate_text_with_usage(prompt, provider, model)`	6 providers; per-model `MODEL_CONTEXT_WINDOWS` verified table; rebuild on byte OR 0.85·window; Together always streamed	`provider="together", model="meta-llama/Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct-Turbo"`	nagent `bin/helpers/nagent_llm.py:13-19` (bdfa2a6)	[B] boundary (SDK call surface)
§6	Delegation rewrite	(no API; prompt-only)	Decompose or isolate, never offload; don't delegate a single small action whose result is no smaller than doing it yourself	"Context isolation is worth more the longer-lived your conversation is"	nagent `bin/nagent:666-673` + `:790-806` (65787a6)	[B] boundary (delegation is the model's call)
§7	Robustness	`dedupe_nodes(nodes) -> list[TagNode]`	Lenient parser extracts valid tags + records IgnoredSpans; dedupe collapses exact duplicates; per-conversation scratch dir	`dedupe_nodes([tag1, tag2, tag2_dup])`	nagent `bin/helpers/nagent_tags.py:248-265` (6b762da)	[I] inspectable transformation
§8	Operating rules	`simplify-pass(current_machine, data_shape) -> improvements`	9-question pass; Q9 = "different machine?" when plateau detected	`Q9: is there a different algorithm that fits the data better?`	nagent `context/data-oriented-design.md:151-164` (a1f0680)	[S] string of questions
§9	Case-study methodology	`case-study(input, model, target) -> result`	5-element pattern: 4 prompts + harness + log + freeze + subject; parameterizable match contract	`prompts/create-{reference,optimized-test-harness,optimized,visualizer}.md`	both case-study repos (cross-cutting)	[B] boundary (data-meets-measurement)
§10	PEP case study	(empirical)	2.04× speedup aggregate; byte-identity-strict; 24-image benchmark; 6 kept optimizations	`palette hash + block-prefix sums + early-abandon + ...`	`macton/pep-copt/src-optimized/OPTIMIZATION-LOG.md`	[B] boundary (case study as artifact)
§11	Collisions case study	(empirical)	101.06× committed; tolerance-based; 26+ iterations; 4 explicit REJECTED	`GJK/bisection + per-type SAT + analytic witness + ...`	`macton/differentiable-collisions-optc/src-optimized/OPTIMIZATION-LOG.md`	[B] boundary (case study as artifact)

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