feat(compact): compaction capability seam — abstract CompactService interface

Adds the @deepseek-ai/dsh-compact interface package: the abstract
CompactService (ctx.compact) with compactIfNeeded / compactRegion, the
compact/* session-event types via SessionEventMap declaration merging, and the
capability-seam RFC. Wires the package into the three root tsconfigs and the
cordis catalog. A backend implementation lands separately.

docs/cordis-catalog/events-and-services.md

@@ -279,7 +279,7 @@ Source: [`packages/core/tools/src/index.ts:43`](../../packages/core/tools/src/in
 
 ## Services
 
-The 8 `ctx.<key>` services the harness provides. An abstract seam (e.g. `ctx.bash`) is implemented by a separate package; the interface is what consumers code against.
+The 9 `ctx.<key>` services the harness provides. An abstract seam (e.g. `ctx.bash`) is implemented by a separate package; the interface is what consumers code against.
 
 ### `ctx.agentLoop` — `AgentLoop`
 
@@ -339,6 +339,24 @@ Types: [BashExecRequest](../core-data-structures/bash.md) · [BashExecSpec](../c
 
 Source: [`packages/bash/bash/src/index.ts:59`](../../packages/bash/bash/src/index.ts)
 
+### `ctx.compact` — `CompactService` (abstract seam)
+
+Abstract compaction service. Subclass implement the two abstract methods, and load the subclass as a plugin — it registers as `ctx.compact` (one implementation per context; loading a second throws, which is cordis' standard duplicate-service behavior).
+
+Both core methods are abstract: the contract states WHAT compaction does, while the entire strategy — token estimation, retention policy, event sequencing, summarization — is a HOW decision owned by the implementation.
+
+Implementations MUST honor:
+
+- **Surface contract**: a successful compaction shadows the compacted surface nodes with a SINGLE replacement node carrying the summary. Because `SurfaceEventType` is a closed union, that node is a `user/message` with `surfaceOp: { op:'replace', start, end }`; the `compact/*` events are log-only (lock + provenance).
+- **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, ): Promise<CompactionResult | null>
+abstract compactRegion( session: Session, start: number, end: number, model: string, ): Promise<CompactionResult>
+```
+
+Source: [`packages/compact/compact/src/index.ts:57`](../../packages/compact/compact/src/index.ts)
+
 ### `ctx.llm` — `LlmService`
 
 The abstract `llm` service: an adapter registry plus a streaming model-call surface, interceptable via the `llm/stream` waterfall.

docs/module-graph.md

@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@ graph TD
   agent --> brand
   agent --> llm
   agent --> session
+  compact --> llm
+  compact --> session
   llm-replay --> llm
   llm-replay --> session
   session-persistence --> session
@@ -78,6 +80,7 @@ graph TD
 | `session` | `brand`, `llm` |
 | `system-prompt` | `llm` |
 | `agent` | `brand`, `llm`, `session` |
+| `compact` | `llm`, `session` |
 | `llm-replay` | `llm`, `session` |
 | `session-persistence` | `session` |
 | `invariants` | `agent`, `llm`, `session` |

docs/rfc/README.md

@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ 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
 

docs/rfc/proposed/feature/2026-06-18-compaction-capability-seam.md

@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+# 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:
+
+```
+compact/start    → log-only. Acquires the lock.
+[summarize older range via the backend]
+compact/summary  → log-only. Provenance: summary, range, shadowed seqs, token count.
+compact/end      → log-only. Releases the lock.
+user/message     → surfaceOp { op:'replace', start, end }. THE surface mutation.
+                   deriveMessages() renders it as a user-role message.
+```
+
+`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 `compact/end` is 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.