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refactor(compact): turn-agnostic retention + dedicated agent/pre-request seam

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Reform the compaction blueprint so a runaway turn survives and the design
stops drifting across review rounds:

- Drop in-flight-turn protection ("layer 2"). Retention is a uniform tail→head
  whole-unit walk; the only structural guard is step-alignment. A single turn
  that alone exceeds the window now compacts its own early closed steps instead
  of being retained verbatim (the failure mode that motivated this).
- Move auto-compaction off the agent/request waterfall onto a new awaited
  agent/pre-request loop seam, fired before history derivation. Compaction
  mutates the surface; the loop derives once from the result — no double-derive,
  and a listener structurally cannot act on not-yet-derived messages.
- Tighten compactIfNeeded to required (session, system, model, signal).
- Enforce a single-pass convergence invariant in resolveConfig: reject configs
  where summarizationMaxTokens + retainTokens exceeds the threshold, so a
  compaction can never immediately re-trigger.
- Document the crash vs recoverable failure taxonomy; core session repair stays
  compaction-agnostic (a log-only orphaned compact/start is inert).
- Wire dsh-compact-basic into examples/coding-agent and add a with-key
  compaction e2e (compaction's first real-world exercise + runaway net).
- Rewrite the RFC to encode the blueprint and move it to implemented/.

The runaway-turn snapshot is a named deferred follow-up: dsh-llm-replay cannot
yet serve the interleaved summarization model call.
This commit is contained in:
Hypatia May
2026-06-26 08:59:33 +08:00
parent aa9afcefc7
commit cec32faa4e
22 changed files with 724 additions and 424 deletions
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7
docs/architecture.md
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@@ -135,8 +135,9 @@ forever:
drain steering (late steering from previous step's listeners)
session('step/start'); emit agent/step-start
assembly = ctx.systemPrompt.assemble() ⟵ waterfall system-prompt/assemble
await ctx.parallel('agent/pre-request') ⟵ surface mutation (compaction) before derive
req = {model, system, tools, messages: session.deriveMessages(), signal}
req = waterfall agent/request ⟵ hooks, compaction, model switch
req = waterfall agent/request ⟵ hooks, model switch
stream ctx.llm.stream(req) ⟵ waterfall llm/stream (raw chunks)
session('assistant/chunk'); emit agent/stream-chunk
if assembler.finish is error/aborted: throw ⟵ adapter's in-band error path →
@@ -192,7 +193,7 @@ Every MVP feature (including the TODO-marked ones), with the mechanism that impl
| `/loop` | on `agent/turn-end`, `send()` the next iteration; or force-continue |
| Dynamic workflow | orchestrator plugin on `agent/turn-end` / `agent/step-end` driving `send`/`steer` (+ sub-agents later) |
| Queued + steering messages | core `Agent.send()` / `Agent.steer()` |
| Context compaction (auto + manual) | the `dsh-compact` seam (`ctx.compact`) + a backend (`dsh-compact-basic`) wrapping `agent/request`: a backend summarizes an older surface range into a single `user/message` `replace` op, bracketed by log-only `compact/*` events; auto = check token pressure before each model call, manual = a (deferred) `/compact` tool invoking the same `ctx.compact` routine. See the [compaction capability-seam RFC](rfc/proposed/feature/2026-06-18-compaction-capability-seam.md) |
| Context compaction (auto + manual) | the `dsh-compact` seam (`ctx.compact`) + a backend (`dsh-compact-basic`) on the awaited `agent/pre-request` seam: a backend summarizes an older surface range into a single `user/message` `replace` op, bracketed by log-only `compact/*` events; auto = check token pressure before each model call (every step — runaway-turn survival), manual = a (deferred) `/compact` tool invoking the same `ctx.compact` routine. See the [compaction capability-seam RFC](rfc/implemented/feature/2026-06-18-compaction-capability-seam.md) |
| System prompt configurability | `ctx.systemPrompt.section()` with ordering |
| AGENTS.md (root) | a section provider reading the file |
| AGENTS.md (subdir, on-touch) + file-change notices | `agent.inject()` from a watcher / tool-result listener |
@@ -220,6 +221,6 @@ Code skeletons for the three plugin shapes (tool, hook/permission-gate, UI) and
Tracked here deliberately — each is designed-for but not implemented:
- **Sub-agent spawn/fork semantics** (seam: `AgentLoop.create()`); inter-agent channels beyond `send`/`steer`/events.
- **Compaction** — the `dsh-compact` seam (`ctx.compact`) and the `dsh-compact-basic` backend exist (auto thresholds, summarization on the `agent/request` seam, `compact/*` session events via declaration merging). The model-facing `/compact` consumer tool is still deferred. See [the compaction capability-seam RFC](rfc/proposed/feature/2026-06-18-compaction-capability-seam.md).
- **Compaction** — the `dsh-compact` seam (`ctx.compact`) and the `dsh-compact-basic` backend exist (auto thresholds, summarization on the awaited `agent/pre-request` seam, `compact/*` session events via declaration merging). The model-facing `/compact` consumer tool is still deferred. See [the compaction capability-seam RFC](rfc/implemented/feature/2026-06-18-compaction-capability-seam.md).
- **Parallel tool execution** (concurrency-safety hints on ToolDefinition).
- **Session branching/tree** (pi-style entry tree) if needed beyond seed-based forking.

32
docs/cordis-catalog/events-and-services.md
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@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ The **harness tier** below (the `@deepseek-ai/dsh-*` packages) is the vocabulary
## Events
Dispatch modes: **emit** (fire-and-forget), **waterfall** (each listener gets `next()` and may transform or veto — see [waterfall semantics](../architecture.md#cordis-waterfall-semantics-important)), **parallel** (awaited fan-out, no veto). The harness declares 24 events across 6 scopes.
Dispatch modes: **emit** (fire-and-forget), **waterfall** (each listener gets `next()` and may transform or veto — see [waterfall semantics](../architecture.md#cordis-waterfall-semantics-important)), **parallel** (awaited fan-out, no veto). The harness declares 25 events across 6 scopes.
### `agent/*`
@@ -49,7 +49,21 @@ A step or turn errored. The loop reports a failure here (plus the logger) even w
Types: [Agent](../core-data-structures/core.md)
Source: [`packages/core/agent/src/types.ts:220`](../../packages/core/agent/src/types.ts)
Source: [`packages/core/agent/src/types.ts:242`](../../packages/core/agent/src/types.ts)
#### `agent/pre-request` — parallel
Awaited surface-mutation checkpoint, fired BEFORE the step's message history is derived (and thus before agent/request). The loop awaits `ctx.parallel('agent/pre-request', …)` after assembling the system prompt but before `session.deriveMessages()`, then derives ONCE from whatever the surface now holds. This is where compaction belongs: it mutates the session surface in place (shadowing an older range with a summary node), and the single subsequent derive reflects the mutation — so there is no double-derive and no listener can see (or be expected to act on) an assembled `messages` array that does not exist yet.
Awaited (parallel), not a waterfall: a listener mutates the surface as a side effect; there is nothing to transform or veto, but the loop must wait for the mutation to complete before deriving. `system`/`model` are the assembled values a listener needs to measure pressure (system counts toward the budget) and to summarize (the model). `signal` cancels any in-flight work a listener starts (e.g. a summarization model call).
```ts cordis-catalog
'agent/pre-request'(agent: Agent, turn: number, step: number, system: string, model: string, signal: AbortSignal): Promise<void> | void
```
Types: [Agent](../core-data-structures/core.md)
Source: [`packages/core/agent/src/types.ts:202`](../../packages/core/agent/src/types.ts)
#### `agent/queued` — emit
@@ -65,7 +79,7 @@ Source: [`packages/core/agent/src/types.ts:156`](../../packages/core/agent/src/t
#### `agent/request` — waterfall
Waterfall: mutate the fully-assembled GenerateOptions before the model call (hooks, compaction, model switching, tool filtering, …). Call `next()` to delegate, or return without it to short-circuit.
Waterfall: mutate the fully-assembled GenerateOptions before the model call (hooks, model switching, tool filtering, …). Call `next()` to delegate, or return without it to short-circuit. For surface mutation that must precede history derivation (compaction), use agent/pre-request instead — by the time this fires, `options.messages` is already derived.
```ts cordis-catalog
'agent/request'(agent: Agent, turn: number, step: number, options: GenerateOptions, next: () => Promise<GenerateOptions>): Promise<GenerateOptions>
@@ -73,7 +87,7 @@ Waterfall: mutate the fully-assembled GenerateOptions before the model call (hoo
Types: [Agent](../core-data-structures/core.md) · [GenerateOptions](../core-data-structures/core.md)
Source: [`packages/core/agent/src/types.ts:189`](../../packages/core/agent/src/types.ts)
Source: [`packages/core/agent/src/types.ts:211`](../../packages/core/agent/src/types.ts)
#### `agent/status` — emit
@@ -97,7 +111,7 @@ Steering content was injected into a running turn.
Types: [Agent](../core-data-structures/core.md) · [ContentBlock](../core-data-structures/core.md) · [MessageSource](../core-data-structures/core.md)
Source: [`packages/core/agent/src/types.ts:214`](../../packages/core/agent/src/types.ts)
Source: [`packages/core/agent/src/types.ts:236`](../../packages/core/agent/src/types.ts)
#### `agent/step-end` — emit
@@ -121,7 +135,7 @@ Waterfall: post-process the assembled assistant Message before tool dispatch (va
Types: [Agent](../core-data-structures/core.md) · [Message](../core-data-structures/core.md)
Source: [`packages/core/agent/src/types.ts:195`](../../packages/core/agent/src/types.ts)
Source: [`packages/core/agent/src/types.ts:217`](../../packages/core/agent/src/types.ts)
#### `agent/step-start` — emit
@@ -145,7 +159,7 @@ A raw StreamChunk arrived from the model (token-level UI/log feed).
Types: [Agent](../core-data-structures/core.md) · [StreamChunk](../core-data-structures/llm-streaming.md)
Source: [`packages/core/agent/src/types.ts:209`](../../packages/core/agent/src/types.ts)
Source: [`packages/core/agent/src/types.ts:231`](../../packages/core/agent/src/types.ts)
#### `agent/turn-continuation` — waterfall
@@ -157,7 +171,7 @@ Waterfall: override the turn-continuation decision. The default (computed by the
Types: [Agent](../core-data-structures/core.md)
Source: [`packages/core/agent/src/types.ts:202`](../../packages/core/agent/src/types.ts)
Source: [`packages/core/agent/src/types.ts:224`](../../packages/core/agent/src/types.ts)
#### `agent/turn-end` — emit
@@ -373,7 +387,7 @@ Implementations MUST honor:
- **Blocking**: no compaction begins while another is in progress for the same session. The recommended mechanism is the log-recorded lock — append `compact/start` before the slow work and `compact/end` after (even on failure) — so the lock is visible to replay and crash recovery.
```ts cordis-catalog
abstract compactIfNeeded( session: Session, systemPrompt?: string, model?: string, signal?: AbortSignal, ): Promise<CompactionResult | null>
abstract compactIfNeeded( session: Session, system: string, model: string, signal: AbortSignal, ): Promise<CompactionResult | null>
abstract compactRegion( session: Session, start: number, end: number, model: string, signal?: AbortSignal, ): Promise<CompactionResult>
```

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@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
# Compaction
The compaction seam — a [capability seam](../rfc/implemented/architecture/2026-06-13-capability-seams.md) split like bash: interface ([dsh-compact](../../packages/compact/compact), `ctx.compact`), implementation (a backend such as [dsh-compact-basic](../../packages/compact/compact-basic)), and consumer (a `/compact` tool, deferred). Compaction is **one optional capability**, not part of the agent-loop spine — so its vocabulary lives here, not in [core.md](core.md). A tokenizer- or template-based backend is a sibling package implementing the same interface. Unlike bash, the interface necessarily depends on `dsh-session` and `dsh-llm`: its verbs are defined over a `Session` and its output is the `ContentBlock` vocabulary (see the [compaction capability-seam RFC](../rfc/proposed/feature/2026-06-18-compaction-capability-seam.md)).
The compaction seam — a [capability seam](../rfc/implemented/architecture/2026-06-13-capability-seams.md) split like bash: interface ([dsh-compact](../../packages/compact/compact), `ctx.compact`), implementation (a backend such as [dsh-compact-basic](../../packages/compact/compact-basic)), and consumer (a `/compact` tool, deferred). Compaction is **one optional capability**, not part of the agent-loop spine — so its vocabulary lives here, not in [core.md](core.md). A tokenizer- or template-based backend is a sibling package implementing the same interface. Unlike bash, the interface necessarily depends on `dsh-session` and `dsh-llm`: its verbs are defined over a `Session` and its output is the `ContentBlock` vocabulary (see the [compaction capability-seam RFC](../rfc/implemented/feature/2026-06-18-compaction-capability-seam.md)).
Source: [`packages/compact/compact/src/types.ts`](../../packages/compact/compact/src/types.ts)
@@ -50,4 +50,6 @@ interface CompactionResult {
## The service
`CompactService` (`ctx.compact`, abstract — defined in [`packages/compact/compact/src/index.ts`](../../packages/compact/compact/src/index.ts)) declares two abstract methods: `compactIfNeeded(session, systemPrompt?, model?, signal?)` checks token pressure and compacts an older range if the history is too large (returning `null` when nothing needs it), and `compactRegion(session, start, end, model, signal?)` forcibly summarizes surface nodes `[start, end]` into a single replacement node. Both take an optional `signal: AbortSignal` that a backend summarizing via `ctx.llm.stream()` must forward into the call's `GenerateOptions.signal`, so an abort or dispose tears down the in-flight summarization. The entire strategy — token estimation, retention policy, event sequencing, summarization — is a HOW decision owned by the implementation.
`CompactService` (`ctx.compact`, abstract — defined in [`packages/compact/compact/src/index.ts`](../../packages/compact/compact/src/index.ts)) declares two abstract methods: `compactIfNeeded(session, system, model, signal)` checks token pressure and compacts an older range if the history is too large (returning `null` when nothing needs it), and `compactRegion(session, start, end, model, signal?)` forcibly summarizes surface nodes `[start, end]` into a single replacement node. `compactIfNeeded`'s parameters are all required — the loop's `agent/pre-request` checkpoint always supplies the assembled `system`, the `model`, and the turn `signal`. A backend summarizing via `ctx.llm.stream()` must forward `signal` into the call's `GenerateOptions.signal`, so an abort or dispose tears down the in-flight summarization. The entire strategy — token estimation, retention policy, event sequencing, summarization — is a HOW decision owned by the implementation.
Auto-compaction runs on the awaited `agent/pre-request` loop seam (fired once per step, BEFORE the request history is derived), not the `agent/request` waterfall: compaction mutates the session surface in place, and the loop derives the request from the already-compacted surface. Retention is turn-agnostic — the only structural guard is step-alignment (a compacted region never splits a step's tool-calls from their results), so a single runaway turn that alone exceeds the window compacts its own early closed steps rather than being retained verbatim. The backend that ships this (`dsh-compact-basic`) documents the retention walk, the single-pass convergence invariant, and the crash/recoverable failure taxonomy.

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@@ -44,7 +44,6 @@ Do NOT write one for a mechanical or local choice (a variable name, a one-file r
| [Agent Client Protocol (ACP) support for external editors](proposed/feature/2026-06-14-acp-agent-client-protocol.md) | 2026-06-14 |
| [Multiplex concurrent ACP sessions over one connection](proposed/feature/2026-06-14-acp-multi-session.md) | 2026-06-14 |
| [Optional Code Mode — model writes TypeScript against an SDK of all tools](proposed/feature/2026-06-15-optional-code-mode.md) | 2026-06-15 |
| [Compaction as a capability seam (abstract contract + basic backend)](proposed/feature/2026-06-18-compaction-capability-seam.md) | 2026-06-18 |
### Simplification
@@ -83,6 +82,7 @@ Do NOT write one for a mechanical or local choice (a variable name, a one-file r
| Title | First proposed |
|---|---|
| [Rich ACP bash rendering — the terminal card (`_meta`) and command classification](implemented/feature/2026-06-18-acp-terminal-and-tool-rendering.md) | 2026-06-18 |
| [Compaction as a capability seam (abstract contract + basic backend)](implemented/feature/2026-06-18-compaction-capability-seam.md) | 2026-06-18 |
| [Subagent capability seam](implemented/feature/2026-06-21-subagent-capability-seam.md) | 2026-06-21 |
| [ACP subagent backend (out-of-process delegation)](implemented/feature/2026-06-22-acp-subagent-backend.md) | 2026-06-22 |

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@@ -0,0 +1,118 @@
# RFC: Compaction as a capability seam (abstract contract + basic backend)
Status: implemented (2026-06-18; retention/seam reform 2026-06-26)
## Context
A long-running agent conversation grows without bound. As the event log accumulates turns, the derived message history eventually approaches the model's context window — the model then truncates mid-response (`max-tokens`) or degrades. **Compaction** is the mitigation: replace a run of older history with a concise summary, keeping recent context intact.
The [session surface](../../implemented/architecture/2026-06-18-session-surface.md) was built as the foundation for exactly this — a linked list over the event log with a `surfaceOp: { op: 'replace', start, end }` operation purpose-built to shadow a range of nodes and insert a replacement, with `sourceEventSeqs` recording provenance so the decision replays deterministically. What remained was the plugin that *decides what to compact and produces the summary*.
Two forces shape the design. First, compaction is **swappable**: token counting can be a char/4 heuristic or a real tokenizer, and summarization can be a model call, a template, or a remote service — these vary independently of *when* and *which range* to compact. Second, a later commit (`ce43c25`) closed `SurfaceEventType` to five event types (`user/message`, `assistant/message`, `tool/result`, `context/message`, `steering/message`); only those may carry `surfaceOp`. A bespoke `compaction/*` event therefore **cannot** itself appear on the surface — the compiler rejects `surfaceOp` on it and the invariants plugin rejects it at runtime.
## Decision
### Compaction is a capability seam, split interface / implementation
Per the [capability-seams RFC](../../implemented/architecture/2026-06-13-capability-seams.md), compaction ships as separate packages so the contract, the algorithm, and (later) the consumer surface evolve independently:
1. **Interface** — `@deepseek-ai/dsh-compact`: an abstract `CompactService` owning the `ctx.compact` key, the `CompactionResult` vocabulary, and the `compact/*` session events. It declares `compactIfNeeded()` and `compactRegion()` as **abstract** — the contract states *what* compaction does, not *how*.
2. **Implementation** — `@deepseek-ai/dsh-compact-basic`: a concrete `BasicCompactService` that owns the entire algorithm — token estimation (char/4 + per-block overhead), the tail→head retention walk, summarization via `ctx.llm.stream()`, the surface replacement, the lock, and the `agent/pre-request` auto-compaction listener. A tokenizer-based or template-based backend is a sibling package (or a subclass overriding the two protected estimation/summarization hooks).
3. **Consumer** — deferred. A `/compact` tool and slash command will `inject: ['compact']` and call the contract; they are intentionally out of scope here so the seam settles first.
### The contract depends on `dsh-session` and `dsh-llm` — a deliberate deviation
The capability-seams RFC states the interface package "depends only on cordis" (true of `dsh-bash`, whose vocabulary is self-contained). Compaction **cannot** honor that: its verbs are defined *over* a `Session` (`compactRegion(session, start, end)`) and its output *is* the content vocabulary (`CompactionResult.summary: ContentBlock[]`). There is no way to express the contract without naming `Session`/`SessionEvent` (from `dsh-session`) and `ContentBlock` (from `dsh-llm`).
This is not a coupling smell — it is the contract's domain. The "only cordis" guidance was always shorthand for "the interface depends only on what the contract genuinely names, and never on an implementation." `dsh-session` and `dsh-llm` are themselves interface/vocabulary packages, not implementations; `dsh-compact` still imports no backend. The seam's real invariant — *consumers and implementations evolve independently behind an abstract service* — holds intact.
### Abstract `compactIfNeeded` / `compactRegion`, algorithm in the backend
An earlier draft put the full algorithm (the retention walk, token-summing, text extraction) as concrete methods on the interface, with only `estimateContentTokens()` and `summarize()` abstract. That recouples the contract to one strategy: a backend that wants a different retention policy or a different event-sequencing would have to fight inherited concrete code. Making both core methods abstract puts every *how* decision in the backend, where it belongs, and keeps the interface a pure statement of *what*. The backend remains internally factored — `estimateContentTokens()` and `summarize()` are `protected` hooks a sub-backend can override without reimplementing the walk — but that factoring is the backend's private concern, not the contract's.
`compactIfNeeded(session, system, model, signal)` takes **required** parameters (not the original all-optional shape). The auto-compaction seam (below) always supplies all four — the assembled system prompt (counted toward the estimate), the model (summarization fallback), and the turn's abort signal — so optionality would only invite a hidden default at the seam. `compactRegion(session, start, end, model, signal?)` keeps an optional signal (a manual caller may omit it).
### Auto-compaction runs on `agent/pre-request`, a dedicated surface-mutation seam
Compaction is a **surface mutation**, not a request transform — and that distinction is the seam it belongs on. The loop's request lifecycle, per step, is: assemble the system prompt → derive the message history from the surface → run the `agent/request` waterfall → call the model. An earlier cut wedged compaction into the `agent/request` waterfall, which forced two problems: (1) the loop had already derived `messages` from the *stale* surface, so the listener had to mutate the surface and then *re-derive* and overwrite `request.messages` — a double-derive whose only purpose was to undo the premature first derive; and (2) `agent/request` also carries downstream-injected context a listener might have added to `request.messages`, which compaction cannot act on (it can only compact the surface), inviting the confusion of measuring tokens compaction can't shed.
The fix is a new awaited loop seam, **`agent/pre-request`** (`@mode parallel`), fired by the loop *after* system assembly and *before* `deriveMessages()`:
```
assembly = ctx.systemPrompt.assemble()
await ctx.parallel('agent/pre-request', agent, turn, step, system, model, signal) ⟵ compaction mutates the surface here
messages = session.deriveMessages() ⟵ single derive, reflects the compaction
request = waterfall agent/request ⟵ pure request transform (hooks, model switch)
```
This makes the layering correct *by construction*: compaction mutates the surface, the loop derives **once** from the result (no double-derive), and at `pre-request` the assembled `messages` do not yet exist — so a listener structurally *cannot* see or be expected to act on downstream-injected context. `agent/request` reverts to a pure request transformer. The seam is `parallel` (awaited fan-out, no veto), like `session/flush`: a listener mutates the surface as a side effect; there is nothing to transform or return.
This **amends** the original RFC's claim of "NO changes to `dsh-agent-loop`; compaction is a pure plugin." That claim was load-bearing for a wrong design — reusing `agent/request` was the mistake. Per the pre-release "foundation over blast radius" stance, adding the correct seam (one event declaration in `dsh-agent`, one awaited emit in the loop) beats preserving a no-change boast that locked in the double-derive.
### Retention is turn-agnostic; step-alignment is the only structural guard
Auto-compaction fires before **every** model call (every step), not once per turn. This is **load-bearing for runaway-turn survival**: a tool-heavy ReAct turn appends an `assistant/message` + a `tool/result` per step, so the surface grows *within* a turn. A single turn can grow past the window on its own (a "runaway turn") — and the only moment to rescue it before the next model call overflows is the next step's `pre-request`. Gating compaction to a turn's first step (or, worse, retaining the whole in-flight turn verbatim) re-opens exactly the hole compaction exists to close: the harness would die when compaction is most needed.
So retention does **not** protect the in-flight turn, and turn boundaries play no role in it. `compactIfNeeded` walks the surface nodes tail→head, summing per-node token estimates, and retains the smallest tail-run of **whole units** whose total reaches `retainTokens`; everything older is compacted (head-anchored — see below). A *unit* is either a whole closed step (its `assistant/message` plus its `tool/result`s) or a single no-step node (a pre-step `user/message`, inter-step `steering/message`, or injection `context/message`). The walk rounds toward retaining *more*: when the raw token cutoff lands inside a step, it extends the retained side head-ward until the boundary is a step-aligned start. The single structural guard is therefore **step-alignment** — the compacted region always ends on a step boundary, so it never splits a step's tool-calls from their `tool/result`s (which would produce a transcript every provider rejects). `compactRegion` enforces step-alignment strictly, throwing on a splitting boundary.
A runaway turn thus compacts exactly like any other history: its early *closed* steps get summarized while its recent steps stay verbatim. When the only compactable content left is an un-splittable open tail step (its tool-calls have no results yet), compaction declines (`null`) and retries once that step closes.
**Single-unit overflow is out of scope, by design.** If a single retained unit — one closed step, or a large free node such as a pasted `user/message` — *alone* exceeds the budget, compaction cannot help and the next model call may go out over-budget. Bounding an individual unit's size is a separate concern (output truncation), handled elsewhere; compaction makes no promise about it, and the harness without such a mechanism can still break on a single oversized unit. This is named honestly rather than papered over.
### Head-anchoring: one auto checkpoint, always at the head
`compactIfNeeded` always anchors the compacted range at the surface **head** (`nodes[0]`). After a first compaction lands a summary node at the head, the *second* compaction's range starts at that summary node and re-summarizes it together with the steps accumulated since — so the surface holds **at most one** auto-generated checkpoint, always at the head, re-consolidated each cycle (the backend's checkpoint-merge prompt makes this a cheap incremental merge — see below). This is *why* `CompactionResult.shadowedRange` is a **surface-position span, not a numeric seq interval**: after a replace lands a fresh high-seq summary node at an older range's position, `start` can be numerically **greater** than `end`. The range is resolved positionally (index into the ordered node list and slice), and `shadowedSeqs` is the authoritative set in surface order. (Manual `compactRegion` may target any aligned mid-range and so *can* leave several checkpoints; the checkpoint framing does not claim everything after it is recent.)
### Single-pass convergence invariant
`resolveConfig` **rejects** (throws at construction) any config where `summarizationMaxTokens + retainTokens > contextWindow * thresholdRatio`. The invariant guarantees the post-compaction history — the bounded summary plus the retained recent tail — is structurally below the threshold, so a compaction never immediately triggers another: consecutive re-compaction is impossible by construction, with no thrash throttle needed. `summarizationMaxTokens` stays an explicit *quality* knob (terse summaries); the invariant only forbids setting it so high it breaks convergence. The sole residual is the single-unit-overflow case above (a backward-rounded oversized step can push the retained tail over budget) — which is exactly the out-of-scope concern, not a thrash bug. Per the pre-release reject-don't-migrate stance, a config that cannot guarantee convergence is a bug at the call site, not something to silently clamp.
### Surface replacement: `compact/*` events are log-only; one `user/message` carries the summary
Because `SurfaceEventType` is closed, the summary cannot ride on a `compact/*` event. The backend instead appends a **single `user/message`** with `surfaceOp: { op: 'replace', start, end }` whose `content` is the (framed) summary and whose `sourceEventSeqs` covers the shadowed nodes *and* the bookkeeping events. The `compact/*` events are pure log records (lock + provenance). The surface mutation sits **inside** the lock — `compact/end` is the last event appended:
```
compact/start → log-only. Acquires the lock.
[summarize older range via the backend]
compact/summary → log-only. Provenance: raw summary, range, shadowed seqs, token count.
user/message → surfaceOp { op:'replace', start, end }. THE surface mutation (framed summary).
deriveMessages() renders it as a user-role message.
compact/end → log-only. Releases the lock (carries `error` on a recoverable failure).
```
`deriveMessages()` then yields `[summary_as_user_message, ...retained_nodes]`. Reusing `user/message` is honest rather than a workaround: a summary genuinely *is* user-role context.
### Checkpoint framing + incremental merge (backend-private)
The landed `user/message` is not the raw summary: the backend wraps it in a checkpoint preamble (so a resuming model reads it as established background, not a fresh request) and `<compacted-summary>…</compacted-summary>` tags. The tags make a prior checkpoint detectable on the next cycle, and the summarization prompt then instructs the model to *merge it in place* (preserve still-true facts, drop stale) rather than re-summarize verbatim — a cheap incremental merge that needs no extra log/event machinery. The raw, unframed summary stays on the `compact/summary` provenance event. This framing is entirely a **backend HOW decision** — the contract only promises "a single replace `user/message` carries the (possibly framed) summary; the raw summary lives on `compact/summary`." A template or remote backend may frame differently or not at all.
### Blocking via a log-recorded lock, plus a crash/recoverable failure taxonomy
The `compact/start … compact/end` bracket is justified, in order of what now does the work:
1. **Crash-detectable orphan + provenance** (primary). Summarization is a slow model call persisted *after* `compact/start`. A crash mid-summarization leaves a `compact/start` with no matching `compact/end` — a detectable orphan. Releasing the lock last (rather than first) converts the crash window from *silent corruption* into that detectable orphan.
2. **Prevents concurrent compaction.** `compactRegion` refuses to start if the current turn holds an unmatched `compact/start`. (The loop is single-threaded across the awaited `pre-request`, so this is also a re-entry tripwire — a thrown "already in progress" signals a real bug.)
Two failure paths, both documented:
- **Crash** (the loop dies mid-summarization): a dangling `compact/start`, no closer. Because `compact/*` are **log-only**, the orphan is **inert** — the surface replacement never landed, so the full, uncompacted history derives correctly. Generic turn-repair (`interruptedTurnClosers`) closes the turn with a synthetic `turn/end`; the orphan sits *before* that `turn/end`, so the turn-scoped in-progress check never sees it and a crash can't wedge future compaction. Compaction simply re-attempts at the next `pre-request`.
- **Recoverable** (summarization throws but the loop survives): the backend appends `compact/end` with its **`error`** field set, leaving the surface untouched, and the model call proceeds with full history.
`compact/end` keeps its `error?` field (mirroring `tool/result`'s self-contained error — one event tells success from failure without correlating a sibling). There is no separate `compact/error` event.
**Core session repair stays compaction-agnostic — deliberately.** `interruptedTurnClosers` is never taught about `compact/*`. Teaching it would force every future `xxx/start … xxx/end` plugin pair to patch a core module — exactly the coupling the capability-seam architecture exists to avoid. Because the log-only orphan is inert, no special repair is needed: generic turn-repair plus the inertness of an un-landed surface mutation is sufficient.
## Consequences
- **New packages**: `packages/compact/compact` (interface) and a sibling `compact-basic` (backend) under `packages/compact/`, wired into the root tsconfigs. The consumer tier is deferred.
- **New loop seam**: `agent/pre-request` (`@mode parallel`) declared in `dsh-agent` and emitted by `dsh-agent-loop` between system assembly and history derivation. This is a documented change to the loop — `docs/architecture.md` records it and the generated cordis catalog carries its signature.
- **`SessionEventMap`** gains `compact/start` / `compact/summary` / `compact/end` by declaration merging (merge-extensible); `SurfaceEventType` is **not** touched. These are session events, not cordis `Events`, so the event-taxonomy gate needs no entry.
- **No changes** to `dsh-session` or `dsh-invariants`: the surface replace op, the surface-metadata runtime guard, and the turn-enclosure invariant all already exist and are reused.
- **Wiring**: `dsh-compact-basic` is loaded in `examples/coding-agent`'s `cordis.yml`, so the seam ships in the real demo (it was previously loaded nowhere).
## Testing
- **Unit** (`dsh-compact-basic`): the whole-unit retention walk, the convergence-invariant throw, both failure paths (`compact/end` with/without `error`), head-anchoring producing a non-monotonic `shadowedRange`, decline-on-open-tail, crash-orphan inertness, and the **runaway-turn regression** — a single oversized open turn compacts its early closed steps (proven to fail on the layer-2 protection it replaced). Driven through the real `dsh-invariants` plugin and the real Loader/inject path.
- **Loop** (`dsh-agent-loop`): `agent/pre-request` fires once per step, before derive, awaited; a surface mutation in a `pre-request` listener is reflected in the single derived request.
- **With-key e2e** (`examples/coding-agent`): a real model + real bash session with a lowered `contextWindow`/`retainTokens` triggers compaction mid-session; the test verifies the WORLD (a `compact/start…end` pair landed, the surface shrank, the agent still completed the task after compaction). This is compaction's first real-world exercise and the runaway-survival net.
- **Snapshot (deferred, named gap)**: a full-transcript snapshot of a runaway-turn compaction is NOT yet possible — `dsh-llm-replay` derives one model call per `(turn, step)` from `assistant/chunk` events, but the summarization call records no `assistant/chunk`s and carries no `sessionId` (it binds to the anonymous cursor and claims a non-existent extra script). Covering it needs net-new replay infrastructure (record/replay an interleaved summarization call) and is scheduled as a follow-up rather than discovered mid-build.

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# RFC: Compaction as a capability seam (abstract contract + basic backend)
Status: proposed (2026-06-18)
## Context
A long-running agent conversation grows without bound. As the event log accumulates turns, the derived message history eventually approaches the model's context window — the model then truncates mid-response (`max-tokens`) or degrades. **Compaction** is the mitigation: replace a run of older history with a concise summary, keeping recent context intact.
The [session surface](../../implemented/architecture/2026-06-18-session-surface.md) was built as the foundation for exactly this — a linked list over the event log with a `surfaceOp: { op: 'replace', start, end }` operation purpose-built to shadow a range of nodes and insert a replacement, with `sourceEventSeqs` recording provenance so the decision replays deterministically. What remained was the plugin that *decides what to compact and produces the summary*.
Two forces shape the design. First, compaction is **swappable**: token counting can be a char/4 heuristic or a real tokenizer, and summarization can be a model call, a template, or a remote service — these vary independently of *when* and *which range* to compact. Second, a later commit (`ce43c25`) closed `SurfaceEventType` to five event types (`user/message`, `assistant/message`, `tool/result`, `context/message`, `steering/message`); only those may carry `surfaceOp`. A bespoke `compaction/*` event therefore **cannot** itself appear on the surface — the compiler rejects `surfaceOp` on it and the invariants plugin rejects it at runtime.
## Decision
### Compaction is a capability seam, split interface / implementation
Per the [capability-seams RFC](../../implemented/architecture/2026-06-13-capability-seams.md), compaction ships as separate packages so the contract, the algorithm, and (later) the consumer surface evolve independently:
1. **Interface** — `@deepseek-ai/dsh-compact`: an abstract `CompactService` owning the `ctx.compact` key, the `CompactionResult` vocabulary, and the `compact/*` session events. It declares `compactIfNeeded()` and `compactRegion()` as **abstract** — the contract states *what* compaction does, not *how*.
2. **Implementation** — `@deepseek-ai/dsh-compact-basic`: a concrete `BasicCompactService` that owns the entire algorithm — token estimation (char/4 + per-block overhead), the tail→head retention walk, summarization via `ctx.llm.generate()`, the surface replacement, the lock, and the `agent/request` auto-compaction listener. A tokenizer-based or template-based backend is a sibling package (or a subclass overriding the two protected estimation/summarization hooks).
3. **Consumer** — deferred. A `/compact` tool and slash command will `inject: ['compact']` and call the contract; they are intentionally out of scope here so the seam settles first.
### The contract depends on `dsh-session` and `dsh-llm` — a deliberate deviation
The capability-seams RFC states the interface package "depends only on cordis" (true of `dsh-bash`, whose vocabulary is self-contained). Compaction **cannot** honor that: its verbs are defined *over* a `Session` (`compactRegion(session, start, end)`) and its output *is* the content vocabulary (`CompactionResult.summary: ContentBlock[]`). There is no way to express the contract without naming `Session`/`SessionEvent` (from `dsh-session`) and `ContentBlock` (from `dsh-llm`).
This is not a coupling smell — it is the contract's domain. The "only cordis" guidance was always shorthand for "the interface depends only on what the contract genuinely names, and never on an implementation." `dsh-session` and `dsh-llm` are themselves interface/vocabulary packages, not implementations; `dsh-compact` still imports no backend. The seam's real invariant — *consumers and implementations evolve independently behind an abstract service* — holds intact. We record the deviation here so a future reader doesn't mistake it for an accident or "fix" it by smuggling `Session` behind an opaque handle.
### Abstract `compactIfNeeded` / `compactRegion`, algorithm in the backend
An earlier draft put the full algorithm (the retention walk, token-summing, text extraction) as concrete methods on the interface, with only `estimateContentTokens()` and `summarize()` abstract. That recouples the contract to one strategy: a backend that wants a different retention policy (e.g. turn-count instead of token-budget) or a different event-sequencing would have to fight inherited concrete code. Making both core methods abstract puts every *how* decision in the backend, where it belongs, and keeps the interface a pure statement of *what*. The backend remains internally factored — `estimateContentTokens()` and `summarize()` are `protected` hooks a sub-backend can override without reimplementing the walk — but that factoring is the backend's private concern, not the contract's.
### Surface replacement: `compact/*` events are log-only; one `user/message` carries the summary
Because `SurfaceEventType` is closed, the summary cannot ride on a `compact/*` event. The backend instead appends a **single `user/message`** with `surfaceOp: { op: 'replace', start, end }` whose `content` is the summary `ContentBlock[]` and whose `sourceEventSeqs` covers the shadowed nodes *and* the bookkeeping events. The `compact/*` events are pure log records (lock + provenance), never on the surface. The surface mutation sits **inside** the lock — `compact/end` is the last event appended:
```
compact/start → log-only. Acquires the lock.
[summarize older range via the backend]
compact/summary → log-only. Provenance: summary, range, shadowed seqs, token count.
user/message → surfaceOp { op:'replace', start, end }. THE surface mutation.
deriveMessages() renders it as a user-role message.
compact/end → log-only. Releases the lock.
```
Ordering the surface mutation **before** `compact/end` is deliberate: `session.append()` commits one event at a time, so there is no multi-event transaction to make the sequence atomic. Releasing the lock last converts the crash window from *silent corruption* (a `compact/end` that claims compaction finished while the surface was never shadowed) into a *detectable orphaned lock* (a `compact/start` with no matching `compact/end`), which a persistence backend already detects on reload. A `session/event` listener on `compact/end` likewise never sees the lock free before the replacement has landed.
`deriveMessages()` then yields `[summary_as_user_message, ...retained_nodes]`. An alternative — extending `SurfaceEventType` to admit a `compact/*` type — was rejected: the closed union is a deliberate safety boundary (only message-producing events reach the model), and a summary genuinely *is* user-role context, so reusing `user/message` is honest rather than a workaround.
### Blocking via a log-recorded lock, not a mutex
Compaction must be serialized: no second compaction starts before the first finishes, and no ordinary events interleave the slow summarization. Rather than an in-memory mutex (invisible to replay, lost on crash), the lock **is** the log: `compactRegion` refuses to start if the last `compact/start` has no matching `compact/end` after it. `compact/start` is appended first (fast, synchronous), the slow model call runs, then the `compact/summary` and `user/message` replacement land, and only then is `compact/end` appended — in a `catch` that records the error, so a failed summarization can never wedge the lock. Because the backend runs compaction synchronously inside the `agent/request` waterfall, the loop is single-threaded for that window; the lock additionally gives observability and lets a persistence backend detect an orphaned `compact/start` on reload.
## Consequences
- **New packages**: `packages/compact/compact` (interface) and a sibling `compact-basic` (backend) under `packages/compact/`, wired into the three root tsconfigs. The consumer tier is deferred.
- **`SessionEventMap`** gains `compact/start` / `compact/summary` / `compact/end` by declaration merging (merge-extensible); `SurfaceEventType` is **not** touched. These are session events, not cordis `Events`, so the event-taxonomy gate needs no entry.
- **No changes** to `dsh-session`, `dsh-invariants`, or `dsh-agent-loop`: the surface replace op, the surface-metadata runtime guard, and the `agent/request` waterfall all already exist. Compaction is a pure plugin on documented seams.
- The capability-seams convention gains a second reference beyond bash, and a documented case where "interface depends only on cordis" relaxes to "depends only on interface/vocabulary packages the contract genuinely names." On acceptance, [AGENTS.md](../../../../AGENTS.md) § Conventions and [architecture.md](../../../architecture.md) § "Capability seams" should note this relaxation.