- Refactored and condensed numerous system prompts, agent instructions, and tool documentation files across packages.
- Streamlined workflow rules, formatting constraints, and execution guidelines for improved clarity and brevity.
- Updated discovery rules, recommendation criteria, and syntax standards in prompt templates.
Three related changes that address the pattern of the advisor flagging things
the primary already fixed:
Fix 1 — coalesce late-arriving deltas before agent.prompt (runtime.ts)
Refactored #drain into a reusable #collectAndMaintainBatch helper that loops
until the pending queue is stable (no new deltas arrive during a maintenance
check) before calling agent.prompt. Previously, any turn queued during the
maintainContext await was deferred a full extra model-call cycle; now it is
merged into the current batch after re-checking the token budget for the
expanded payload. Every await in the loop has an epoch guard so a
reset/dispose mid-await cannot leak a stale batch. finalTurns always counts
all merged turns so #backlog decrements correctly.
Fix 2 — hasFreshBacklog + delivery-time staleness annotation (runtime.ts, agent-session.ts)
Added AdvisorRuntime.hasFreshBacklog getter (true when #pending.length > 0
while agent.prompt is running — i.e., newer primary turns arrived after the
reviewed window). #routeAdvice checks it at delivery time and appends a
lightweight caveat to the note so the primary agent knows to verify before
acting. Uses #pending.length not #backlog, which is always > 0 mid-call.
Fix 3 — willContinue WIP marker in rendered delta + system prompt (runtime.ts, agent-session.ts, system.md)
onTurnEnd now accepts { willContinue } and passes it through to #renderDelta,
which tags the heading '[in progress — more steps follow]' for intermediate
turns. The agent-session.ts call site passes context.willContinue. The advisor
system prompt instructs the model to withhold critique on WIP updates.
Also fixed pre-existing inline casts in #renderDelta and #dedupContextMessage
that suppressed the type checker instead of using the narrowing already provided
by the role discriminant.
All 75 advisor tests pass; pre-existing type errors in cursor.ts are unrelated.
- Instruct the advisor to stop policing scope, ambition, or backwards compatibility unless explicitly requested by the user.
- Adjust the blocker criteria to require explicit contradictions of user instructions rather than subjective assessments of refactor size or scope.
- Rewrote docs/advisor-watchdog.md 'Tools and isolation' to describe the
read-only default plus the WATCHDOG.yml tools: grant surface (edit, write,
bash, eval, browser, ...), and called out that grants do not bypass the
session's approval mode (always-ask / write / yolo).
- Added a WATCHDOG.yml section documenting the advisor roster file (fields,
legacy tool aliases, discovery locations) with an example that grants a
fixer advisor edit + bash.
- Reworked the intro (title + first paragraphs) and the trailing peer
sentence so they no longer promise a hard read-only observer.
- Updated the advisor system prompt to describe using whichever tools this
session grants instead of asserting read-only access.
- Fixed the AdvisorConfig docstring in advisor/config.ts to match the
runtime (any built-in name; default read/grep/glob).
Fixes#4044
- Clarified the advisor's role to focus on strategy, proactive course correction, and user advocacy.
- Expanded guidance on identifying churn and handling agent drift or premature completion.
- Instructed the advisor to avoid redundant advice and allow the agent space to iterate.
- Renamed the `find` and `search` tools to `glob` and `grep` respectively across the codebase to improve command clarity.
- Implemented full-stack support for the renamed tools, including CLI arguments, system prompts, SDK exports, and tool registration.
- Added automated migration logic in `settings` to transform legacy `find` and `search` configuration keys to their new equivalents.
- Updated the `collab-web` renderer registry to ensure backwards compatibility with legacy tool outputs.
Require advisor claims about tool arguments to cite transcript or inspected tool evidence instead of inventing hidden argument shapes. Add regression coverage for the prompt contract.\n\nFixes #3483
- Refined the advisor's scope to prioritize concrete technical risks and user advocacy while discouraging process-related critiques.
- Explicitly barred the advisor from intervening on user intent, process questions, or issues already handled by developer tooling.
- Updated `advise` tool documentation to clarify its purpose in preventing wasteful or incorrect work.
- Restrict the advisor from providing redundant insights, context, or second opinions.
- Prohibit restating information or problems already visible to the agent via its own tools.
- Prevent repetition of previously provided advice to minimize noise.
- Added discovery of local, user, and ancestor `WATCHDOG.md` files via `discoverWatchdogFiles`.
- Appended discovered watchdog prompts to advisor system prompts during session setup.
- Added protocol startup defaults that force `advisor.enabled` and `advisor.subagents` false.
- Handled `maintainContext` failures and drained pending updates before token estimation.
- Added advisor context maintenance hook and token estimation before prompting for auto-upkeep.
- Added re-prime replay handling to reset advisor context and recover deferred prompts.
- Implemented session-level context compaction with model promotion and snapcompact-first fallback summarization.
- Surfaced advisor settings in the model tab and updated advisor system guidance text.
- Created AdvisorRuntime and AdviseTool to drive a read-only advisor agent that delivers severity-tagged advice (nit, concern, blocker) with interruption policy and transcript delta rendering.
- Added /advisor slash command with on/off/status/dump subcommands to control advisor lifecycle and inspect advisor metrics (model, messages, tokens, cost).
- Added advisor.enabled and advisor.subagents settings to enable passive advisor review on main agent and spawned task/eval subagents.
- Implemented advisor message rendering with severity-color badges (blocker=error, concern=warning, nit=muted) in chat log and status line indicator (++ badge).
- Extended yield-queue and session-history-format to support advisor batching and optional thinking block inclusion.
can1357