Internals & Maintainers

A compact map for people changing Kin. Everyday usage belongs in the task guides; this page points to the implementation contracts, verification discipline, and decision record.

Start with the owning document

• STATUS.md — a bounded, actionable view of active proofs, ranked next work, blockers, and recent landings. Git history remains the journal of record.
• docs/product-direction.md — the AI-peer engineering contract, governing principles, and deliberate negative space.
• docs/invariants.md — security invariants, footguns, and postmortems, organized by symbol and topic.
• Tier guides: harness, TUI, and get-server.

Maintainer paths

• Testing — focused repair loops, the exhaustive local promotion gate, markers, fixtures, and isolation.
• Extending tools — add a built-in tool, permission kind, event, or profile without breaking the harness seam.
• Multi-machine setup — matched development machines and build-worktree separation.
• Scheduled jobs — host schedulers invoking a fresh local kin -p process.
• TUI snapshots — the eight TUI guide-capture owners. See the generated-asset discipline in snapshots/README.md.

Decision records

Rows summarize decisions at the time they were recorded. Current source and superseding decisions own present behavior. Open a record for its context, alternatives, consequences, and references.

Decision	Status	Summary
0223 — Retire the Kinra OS Peer surface	Accepted and implemented 2026-08-25	Removes the undeployed, never-consumed Peer protocol and service packages after Kinra OS retirement while preserving their exact contract in Git history.
0219 — Retire Outpost; cron owns scheduled work	Accepted and implemented 2026-08-23	Retires the unadopted durable appliance and its independent reviewer while preserving kin -p as the local process boundary for cron, systemd timers, launchd, and CI.
0218 — Trusted local execution replaces the per-command sandbox	Accepted and implemented 2026-08-23; Outpost clauses superseded by 0219	Establishes exact workspace trust before project material or inference, makes Auto execute directly as the launching user, and retires local sandbox escalation without migrating its narrower grants.
0210 — Herdr as Kin’s terminal runtime	Accepted 2026-08-22; implemented on dev	Returns interactive Kin to one foreground process, gives persistent conversations host-neutral lifetime leases, and reports root lifecycle to optional Herdr hosting without adding a terminal capability to the model.
0173 — Per-server MCP approval tier	Accepted 2026-08-17	Adds a human-only session and config-hash-bound persistent grant for a server’s initial, unchanged MCP tool listing while preserving late-tool and redefinition prompts.
0169 — Outpost as Kin’s durable agent runtime	Superseded 2026-08-23 by 0219	Historical durable-agent, schedule, appliance, and Git-handoff rationale; host schedulers invoking kin -p now own scheduled work.
0167 — Versioned hosted inference API profile	Accepted 2026-08-13	Moves stable primary/vision roles, omitted-field defaults, detailed counting capabilities, and cross-app integration semantics into one operations-owned specification while adding an explicit no-secret Kin profile refresh.
0166 — Operations-owned hosted model contract	Accepted 2026-08-12	Moves bare live gates to the authenticated public default alias and current Qwen reasoning contract while leaving concrete model, topology, and fleet state in Inference Ops.
0164 — Independent sandbox permission review	Superseded 2026-08-23 by 0218/0219	Historical rationale for the local classifier and durable reviewer; both have retired.
0163 — Kinra OS Peer Protocol v1	Historical; active-surface appointment superseded 2026-08-25 by 0223	Ratified the authenticated, canonical, proposal-only Peer wire and its reference implementation before the unconsumed surface retired.
0162 — Stable hosted model and DS4F reasoning policy	Accepted 2026-08-10	Keeps public clients on a stable gateway-owned model alias while making DS4F reasoning-summary selection an explicit connection-local policy.
0161 — Kinra OS Peer identity and boundary	Historical; active-surface appointment superseded 2026-08-25 by 0223	Established the safe identity and state boundary for the retired Kinra OS experiment; its locality and authority constraints remain intact.
0160 — Qwen / llama.cpp bounded-thinking model route	Accepted 2026-08-09	Adds an explicit route-local Qwen profile with token-budget labels, pinned llama.cpp wire mapping, Utility final-answer headroom, and structural absence for every unrelated provider.
0156 — Provider-neutral context admission and exact Responses counting	Implemented 2026-08-07	Removes the unused provider-specific surface, generalizes one-shot context/body rejection recovery, and lets advertising Responses endpoints supply exact proactive admission counts.
0151 — The model’s own network-shaped shell/run_code output is framed untrusted	Accepted 2026-08-01	DR 0075 framed the human’s !curl but the model’s own curl/wget/urllib output entered history unframed (a zero-approval injection vector in auto mode); shell/run_code now frame output when the command/code is network-shaped, best-effort, keeping local output clean.
0150 — run_code never joins the “always allow this session” tier	Accepted 2026-08-01	run_code’s signature is the generic tool:run_code, so one “always” auto-ALLOWed arbitrary Python for the session; approval_reusable → False (the force-push precedent) makes the modal once/deny only, with interpreter head grants recorded as a named non-goal.
0149 — Protected-write footholds are denied at the sandbox, not just the EDIT gate	Partially superseded 2026-08-23 by 0218	Protected file-tool decisions remain; shell containment does not.
0148 — Secret-path reads never auto-run through shell	Partially superseded 2026-08-23 by 0218	File-tool refusal and the shell Ask rail remain; sandbox masking does not.
0147 — Shell-path nested guidance — the tool-authored guidance_paths seam	SHIPPED 2026-08-01	Amends DR 0073: the READ/EDIT+path trigger gate becomes the default of a tool-authored guidance_paths seam; shell/run_code override it with a bounded raw-text extractor, and dir-valued paths walk dir-inclusive for every tool.
0146 — Provider keys are collected at the point of need; the hub keeps sole writer authority	Accepted 2026-07-30	Amends DR 0142’s surface rule: a no-key /model pick opens a one-field key prompt right there instead of refusing toward the hub; the locked hub transaction stays the sole writer.
0145 — Project MCP config is kin-owned at .kin/mcp.json; a root .mcp.json is adoption material	Accepted 2026-07-30	Stop auto-loading (and writing) the cross-tool .mcp.json at the workspace root: kin reads its own file, and a foreign file becomes something you adopt explicitly.
0144 — Type gate for the Textual client	Accepted 2026-07-24	Extend the ty gate from the harness to src/kin/tui by declaring each mixin’s self contract with the session-islands idiom; container/ stays out of scope.
0143 — MCP OAuth for pre-registered clients	Accepted 2026-07-24	Reach authorization servers that never implement dynamic client registration, without weakening the loopback + PKCE posture or adding a second credential surface.
0142 — Job-first model configuration hub	Accepted 2026-07-22	Stage and atomically apply human-owned jobs, connections, credentials, routes, and assignments without changing the TOML schema or model-write boundary.
0139 — Named model routes for role-specific inference	Accepted 2026-07-21	Bind the MCA, semantic vision, Rig, tasks, workflows, and agent profiles to operator-owned provider/model routes without coupling orchestration to a wire.
0138 — Bounded documentation operating model	Accepted 2026-07-21	Keep root and tier docs as ownership maps, bound the actionable status board, and enforce its exact structural claims in the local promotion gate.
0137 — Kin-native skill discovery	Accepted 2026-07-20	Discover only Kin-owned skill roots; adapt explicitly named foreign skills through skill-creator instead of loading them as live configuration.
0136 — Multiple independent Kin sessions per workspace	Implemented and verified on dev 2026-07-20	Give every Kin process a unique managed instance while preserving bare unattended recovery, exact live-conversation ownership, explicit mirroring, and /fork as the journal branch.
0135 — Structured Git and GitHub publication boundary	Implemented on dev 2026-07-20	Replace recurring Git shell/credential exceptions with bounded daily Git and PR tools, secret-free host-route trust, exact force leases, and an unchanged Beam checkpoint.
0134 — Code is content — conventional syntax semantics in the code band	Implemented on dev 2026-07-18	Stop painting code in brand roles: muted-green strings, bone functions, cyan only on keywords, amber only on numbers, and inline code in body bone on the band.
0133 — The shelf — peer-curated jobs per workspace	Accepted 2026-07-18	Track rock-sized future work as durable git cards that can run on Outpost and return through a verified card update.
0132 — get.kinra.ai product front door and independent Paddock channel	Accepted and deployed 2026-07-18	Present Kin and Paddock as independent products, make Kin’s installer universally useful, and give both release channels disjoint ownership in a durable public docroot.
0131 — Event-driven supervision discourages polling	Accepted 2026-07-18	State the DR 0117 event contract everywhere the MCA looks and clamp the wait tools, so a healthy running child is never polled, hurried, or killed out of impatience.
0130 — KinMarkdown — the one markdown identity surface	Implemented on dev 2026-07-18	Pin every markdown body element to the Graphite+ palette in one class-scoped widget, deleting the fence wiring’s global mutation and import-order invariant.
0129 — Typed, scoped sandbox access	Superseded 2026-08-23 by 0218	Historical typed expansion contract; exact workspace trust now replaces it without migration.
0128 — Task-first, screenshot-rich user guide	Accepted 2026-07-17	Make the shortest everyday path the guide’s organizing principle, while preserving exhaustive operator and implementation material behind it.
0127 — Targeted plan revision under the planning freeze	Accepted 2026-07-17	The adversarial plan-review option deliberately keeps the session in its read-only planning freeze.
0126 — Editable queued input + intentional tool disclosure	Accepted 2026-07-17	The TUI protects the harness from overlapping user turns with one latest-wins queued-message slot.
0125 — Documentation screenshot baselines	Accepted 2026-07-17	Publish three high-information TUI scenes as their own generated snapshot baselines, with a deterministic ownership graph in the promotion gate and machine-sensitive rendering kept outside it.
0124 — Agent-first local promotion gate	Accepted 2026-07-17	Records the rationale, boundary, and consequences for agent-first local promotion gate.
0123 — Subagents run to completion	Accepted 2026-07-17	Kin’s bundled agent profiles predated model-owned supervision and carried fixed max-turns values from 15 to 50.
0122 — TUI timeline presentation + interrupt settlement	SHIPPED 2026-07-16	The timeline should read as a considered work log: calm at rest, specific while active, and visibly terminal when the user interrupts it.
0121 — Tag-gated update channel + kin update	Tag-gated update channel + kin update SHIPPED 2026-07-16	Deployed kin instances had no update story — nothing bumped the version, nothing told a user they were stale, and nothing applied an update.
0120 — Cloud-provider hardening and plan-aware subagent capacity	Implemented and live-gated 2026-07-16	Makes the MiniMax and Z.ai presets reflect their current subscription surfaces, carries provider-tier subagent capacity into live sessions, and turns opaque subscription failures into actionable diagnostics.
0119 — Tier-aware Kimi Code provider	Superseded by DR 0156 on 2026-08-07	Historical provider-specific integration removed in favor of provider-neutral context admission.
0118 — Full-context fork_agent delegation	Accepted 2026-07-16	Kin’s named task agents deliberately start from isolated history.
0117 — Model-owned subagent supervision	Accepted 2026-07-15	Background task agents originally reported completion on the next human turn.
0116 — Human-readable agent panel	Accepted 2026-07-14	The agent panel exposed the right underlying facts but presented them as three equally sized log boxes.
0115 — Network-capable workspace sandbox	Superseded 2026-08-23 by 0218	Historical network-capable sandbox contract; trusted Auto now runs directly.
0114 — Session nudges supersede Ultracode	Accepted 2026-07-14	Replace one overpromising workflow-mode toggle with a small, stackable vocabulary of session-scoped behavioral preferences.
0113 — Hybrid workspace search and bounded grep	Hybrid workspace search SHIPPED 2026-07-14	Give Kin one stable exact-search contract and one ranked discovery contract, with real CPU and secret-content bounds.
0112 — Durable project prompt history	Durable project prompt history SHIPPED 2026-07-14	Make the composer’s existing ↑/↓ recall and Ctrl+R search survive restarts without making conversation journals own another lifecycle.
0111 — Transparent terminal-ground default theme	Transparent terminal-ground default theme SHIPPED 2026-07-12	Let the user’s terminal own kin’s canvas without giving up Graphite+’s role-based truecolor language or its deterministic opaque fallback.
0110 — Bounded, filterable Outpost supervision	accepted 2026-07-12	Keep Activity and Automations calm at a glance without letting filtering hide live work, blur independent truth axes, or pretend a bounded response is complete history.
0109 — Human-friendly Outpost presentation	accepted 2026-07-12	Translate stable automation and workspace contracts into an approachable daily surface without hiding, renaming, or weakening the underlying truth.
0108 — Adaptive visual system and causal-motion doctrine	accepted 2026-07-12	Let Outpost use hierarchy and motion where they make the product easier to understand, without turning status into theater or weakening accessibility.
0107 — Outpost truth model and five-destination information architecture	accepted 2026-07-12	Rebuild the Outpost around the operator’s actual questions, with one authoritative meaning for present-tense attention across every projection.
0106 — Retire Matrix for sovereign Kin Chat	accepted and executed 2026-07-12	Matrix was chosen when the Outpost had no dependable way to reach the operator.
0105 — Graphite v2 — the chat-era Outpost design doctrine	SHIPPED 2026-07-11 (doctrine and dormant tokens; surface adoption staged)	Extend Graphite+ for Kin Chat without weakening the dashboard’s settled motion, accessibility, or identity constraints.
0104 — Durable beam card with hybrid persistence	ACCEPTED 2026-07-11	Persist handoff identity locally while leaving lifecycle truth on Outpost.
0103 — Native beam controller and composed confirmation	ACCEPTED 2026-07-11	Make a human-started handoff quiet and inspectable without adding a lifecycle-hook policy engine.
0102 — Rig — Kin’s computer	Accepted 2026-07-11; W0 contract and critic pass complete; implementation waves W1–W5…	Rig is one warm, persistent machine beside Outpost: a semantic-first, headful browser and shell that Kin can turn to during a conversation, with screenshots on demand, its own memory, an append-only journal, and an SSO-gated human…
0102 — Execution profiles by validated reference	ACCEPTED 2026-07-11	Run machine-door jobs on an intentional model without moving endpoint or credential material.
0101 — Structured, Codex-style diff rendering	Implemented on dev 2026-07-11	The TUI coloured raw unified diff lines, leaving transport chrome (---, +++, and @@) prominent while omitting line numbers and per-file change counts.
0100 — Titlebar spinner and workspace identity	Implemented on dev 2026-07-11	DR 0021 made the terminal title a curated, sanitized surface and named title grammar extension as its R4 re-engage point.
0099 — Outpost presence in the TUI	Outpost presence in the TUI SHIPPED 2026-07-11	Make remote jobs visible beside local sessions without pretending they are attachable sessions.
0098 — Beam sequential handoff	Beam sequential handoff SHIPPED 2026-07-11	Move work from a departing local machine to Outpost without creating two live writers.
0097 — Multi-session kin — switcher, kin ls, reaper, attention, --bg	Shipped on dev 2026-07-11; live-driven against real tmux 3.7b (crash forensics +…	One terminal, N projects.
0096 — rain — the matrix-rain busy spinner replaces bloom as the default	Shipped on dev 2026-07-11	DR 0078 curated the spinner-vibe set and picked bloom — the calm breathing asterisk family (· ✢ ✳ ✶ ✻ ✽ …) — as the default.
0095 — Copy-on-select + code-fence click-to-copy	Shipped on dev 2026-07-11	Mouse text selection in the transcript already worked (Textual 8.2.7’s built-in selection is on by default and kin never disabled it), but nothing happened on release — copying required knowing about Screen.action_copy_text, which kin…
0094 — Detach/reattach — the fully-hidden managed tmux wrapper	Shipped on dev 2026-07-11; the manual live gate (checklist below) is the dev→main…	kin can optionally run inside a managed, invisible tmux session (one per workdir, dedicated -L kin server): /detach returns the terminal to the shell with the session — a live turn included — still running, and kin in the same…
0093 — Provider-real /effort vocabularies for the MiniMax & Z.ai presets	Implemented; live-key spike passed 2026-07-16	Narrows the /effort picker to each Anthropic-compat provider’s REAL wire knob: MiniMax gets the thinking.type tri-state, Z.ai gets a two-value reasoning_effort (max/high) shipped via a new attr-gated extra_body seam on…
0092 — get.kinra.ai installer + public docs.kinra.ai + kin doctor	Shipped 2026-07-10 (get.kinra.ai installer wave)	Bringing up a fresh machine (Blake’s next Fedora/macOS box, or a stranger’s) meant hand-cloning a private repo, knowing about uv, and knowing that uv sync alone never puts kin on PATH.
0091 — Composer paste interception — file drops normalize to @-mentions	Shipped 2026-07-10 (drag-and-drop/file-paste wave, Rock 3)	Finder drag-drops and terminal pastes of absolute file paths reach the Composer as raw text today (a Finder multi-file drop arrives as a newline-joined absolute-path string; Ghostty backslash-escapes spaced paths; iTerm newline-joins).
0090 — read_file learns Word (.docx) + Excel (.xlsx)	Shipped 2026-07-10 (docx/xlsx read_file wave)	read_file detected media by extension — image / PDF / SVG / text — and everything unrecognized fell through to _read_text, which opens the file encoding="utf-8", errors="replace".
0089 — TUI two-phase quit with visible memory curation + skip	Shipped 2026-07-10 (Workstream B of the workspace-scoped memory + two-phase quit plan;…	End-of-quit memory reflection (STRATEGY §7, unified by DR 0019) ran inside KinApp.on_unmount AFTER the UI tore down.
0088 — Workspace-scoped memory — auto-stamped frontmatter + read-seam filtering	Shipped 2026-07-10 (Workstream A of the workspace-scoped memory + two-phase quit plan;…	kin’s agent memory (DR 0015/0019) is fully global: one root (settings.memory_dir(), default ~/.kin/memory), one FTS index at <root>/.index.db, and the workdir threaded through memory.recall() / index_block() was only…
0087 — Skills catalog — per-profile skill grants (coder + researcher only)	Shipped 2026-07-10 (prompt-polish deferred follow-ups wave, Step 6)	The bundled defaults/skills/ catalog sits directly after SYSTEM_PROMPT in compose_system as the cache anchor (the stable prefix every child inherits verbatim — DR 0081’s “append-only” cache argument).
0086 — Subagent-result trust framing — third formal re-reject	Shipped 2026-07-10 (prompt-polish deferred follow-ups wave, Step 4, doc-only)	Records the rationale, boundary, and consequences for subagent-result trust framing — third formal re-reject.
0085 — Schema-up-front dispatch note — top-level field list for agent(schema=…)	Shipped 2026-07-10 (prompt-polish deferred follow-ups wave, Step 3)	The agent(schema=…) path (run_subagent with schema=) post-hoc structures the child’s prose answer via a Tier-1 forced tool_choice + Tier-2 prompt-JSON fallback (DR 0069; see REFERENCE.md § “Dynamic workflows”).
0084 — Live planning walk-up — root-resolving property + satisfies DR 0081’s revisit trigger	Shipped 2026-07-10 (prompt-polish deferred follow-ups wave, Step 1)	Revisit trigger: if sess.planning ever becomes a live property that walks to the root, planner fan-out becomes safe to reconsider.
0083 — The liveliness doctrine — motion, freshness honesty, and the settled state (Outpost polish wave)	SHIPPED	The Outpost dashboard grew its live surfaces piecemeal: the Activity feed got a pulsing dot grammar (green running, amber pulse-wait for needs-human), the header got a pulsing “live” pill, DR 0021 gave the tabs a deliberately…
0082 — Model-facing truth — the context tells the model the truth about its own harness	Shipped 2026-07-09 (prompt-polish wave, Rocks 2–4)	Records the rationale, boundary, and consequences for model-facing truth — the context tells the model the truth about its own harness.
0081 — Subagent dispatch contract — shared preamble + the non-interactive invariant	Shipped 2026-07-09 (prompt-polish wave, Rock 1)	Records the rationale, boundary, and consequences for subagent dispatch contract — shared preamble + the non-interactive invariant.
0080 — TUI voice conventions: one hint voice, toast governance, safe defaults	SHIPPED (polish wave, Rocks C1–C3)	Placement addendum (2026-07-16): DR 0122 keeps this record’s hint grammar but supersedes the identical-full-hint placement.
0079 — Approval modal: native bodies, honest choice architecture, deny-with-note	SHIPPED (polish wave, Rocks B1–B5)	The ApprovalModal rendered every tool identically: `“?
0078 — Spinner vibes + the “one heartbeat, colour elsewhere” doctrine (POLISH r11)	SHIPPED (polish wave, Rocks A1–A4)	Partially superseded by 0096: the default is now rain and bloom is removed from the vibe set.
0077 — Deferred: local-model escalation routing (G6.2, Step 8 of the field-gap Wave B)	Deferred 2026-07-09	The 2026-07-09 field-gap analysis (research/2026-07-09-kin-vs-field-gap-analysis.md § G6, item 2) named the 2025–26 practitioner consensus: SLM-first with automatic escalation to a stronger model on trouble signals (schema violations,…
0076 — Session handoff — REJECTED (G4c, Step 7 of the field-gap Wave B)	Rejected 2026-07-09	The field ships live session handoff: Cursor’s “Cloud Handoff” lets a user pick up a running agent session in the browser/mobile that was started locally (or vice versa), attaching a second live surface to the same running conversation.
0075 — ! shell passthrough — composer-only shell escape (G8e, field-gap Wave B, Step 6)	Shipped 2026-07-09	The 2026-07-09 field-gap analysis named the missing ! shell escape as one of the TUI QoL batch’s five items (docs/decisions/0074-tui-qol-batch.md carries the other four: /export, /fork, /editor, Ctrl+R history search).
0074 — TUI QoL batch: /export, /fork, /editor, Ctrl+R history search (G8, field-gap Wave B)	Steps 2–5 (/export, /fork, /editor, Ctrl+R history search) SHIPPED	Historical privacy boundary: DR 0112 supersedes this section’s in-memory-only storage choice with bounded, project-scoped durable history.
0073 — Nested/lazy AGENTS.md discovery (G7 — Step 1 of the field-gap Wave B)	SHIPPED 2026-07-09	agents_md.discover(workdir) reads exactly three fixed paths at session start — workdir AGENTS.md, workdir CLAUDE.md (fallback only), and ~/.config/kin/AGENTS.md — with no nested walk and no @-import expansion (both…
0072 — Mid-run steering — a steer-file channel across the subprocess boundary (G4b, Step 7 of the field-gap Wave A)	Proposed 2026-07-09	Records the rationale, boundary, and consequences for mid-run steering — a steer-file channel across the subprocess boundary (g4b, step 7 of the field-gap wave a).
0071 — The kill switch — one cancel-semantics core behind three doors (G4a, Step 6 of the field-gap Wave A)	SHIPPED 2026-07-09	A queued or running job’s operator gets a real Stop, not just Pause.
0070 — No user-configurable lifecycle hooks (G3 — Step 5 of the field-gap Wave A)	Rejected 2026-07-09	The absence is currently undocumented: src/kin/harness/ has no lifecycle hook mechanism, and no prior DR ever considered adding one.
0069 — Guided-decoding probe + scheduler compact default (G6.1 + G6.3 — Step 4 of the field-gap Wave A)	SHIPPED 2026-07-09	The 2026-07-09 field-gap analysis named G6.1 (structured-output fast path) as a candidate build: attach vLLM’s guided-decoding params to force_tool_call so Tier-1 structured output stops relying on the model “just complying” with a…
0068 — Terminal bell / OSC 9 walk-away notification (G5 — Step 3 of the field-gap Wave A)	SHIPPED 2026-07-09	The 2026-07-09 field-gap analysis (.kin/2026-07-09-gap-analysis-vs-field.md — moved to research/2026-07-09-kin-vs-field-gap-analysis.md at the wave’s Step 8 close-out) named a real ergonomics gap: kin gives no walk-away signal.
0067 — File snapshots-before-write + /rewind file restore (G2 — Step 2 of the field-gap Wave A)	SHIPPED 2026-07-09	The 2026-07-09 field-gap analysis named a real gap: HistoryOps.rewind truncates the CONVERSATION at a user-turn boundary, but it never touches FILE state.
0066 — Diagnostics-after-edit (G1.1 — Step 1 of the field-gap Wave A)	SHIPPED 2026-07-09	“LSP servers can get out of sync, use significant memory, and slow down agent workflows.”.
0065 — Deep-link targets for run_report and alert taps (Step 4 of the mobile control-plane wave)	Deep-link targets for run_report and alert taps — SHIPPED 2026-07-09	The push lane is a complete control plane now: lock-screen delivery (DR 0063), lock-screen one-tap actions for the low/medium-risk lane (DR 0064), and — with this step — a per-kind deep-link grammar so a run_report tap lands on the…
0064 — One-tap approve/dismiss for medium-risk inbox items (Step 2 of the mobile control-plane wave)	One-tap approve/dismiss for medium-risk inbox items — SHIPPED 2026-07-09	The phone stops being an information surface and becomes an action surface — at least for the low/medium-risk lane.
0063 — Push all three event kinds with rich, typed envelopes (Step 1 of the mobile control-plane wave)	Push all three event kinds with rich, typed envelopes — SHIPPED 2026-07-09	The phone stops being silent on run_report and alert events.
0062 — Dip-in transcript modal — read-only view of a child agent’s transcript (Step 7 of the subagent-retention wave)	Dip-in transcript modal — SHIPPED 2026-07-09	The retention keystone (DR 0058) parks a child idle with its full transcript surviving aclose.
0061 — Headless retry posture — children retry through mid-stream errors (Step 5 of the subagent-retention wave)	Headless retry posture — SHIPPED 2026-07-09	Today, a transient wire error mid-stream lands as done("error") + the partial prose for EVERY session — root included.
0060 — agent_message — coordinator-only resume on a parked subagent (Step 6 of the subagent-retention wave)	agent_message — SHIPPED 2026-07-09	The retention keystone (DR 0058) parks a finished child instead of destroying it; that parked child is a live Session.
0059 — Subagent failure semantics — kill the silent-partial family (Step 4 of the subagent-retention wave)	Subagent failure semantics — SHIPPED 2026-07-09	A worse bug than the brief knew: when a foreground subagent dies on a transient wire error after streaming prose, the loop emits events.error + events.done("error") and returns normally — ForwardingEmit dropped error events,…
0058 — Subagent retention — child journals + park + deliberate close (Step 3 of the subagent-retention wave)	Subagent retention — SHIPPED 2026-07-08	Records the rationale, boundary, and consequences for subagent retention — child journals + park + deliberate close (step 3 of the subagent-retention wave).
0057 — Unified agent registry — every child gets a stable id + handle (Step 1 of the subagent-retention wave)	Unified agent registry — SHIPPED 2026-07-08	Background subagents already had a registry (BgSubagents / BgAgent) and a stable id; foreground subagents did not.
0056 — Remove the redundant TodoList header pulse (Step 0 of the subagent-retention wave)	Remove the redundant TodoList header pulse — SHIPPED 2026-07-08	The TodoList panel’s leading-glyph hex pulse (PRIMARY → PRIMARY_DIM driven by app-level harness_busy) was a redundant twin of the StatusBar shimmer_text heartbeat — both answered the same “is kin working?” question on the same…
0055 — The code-audit gate — cite symbols not line numbers + move-tombstone class check	The code-audit gate (symbols not line numbers + move-tombstone classes) SHIPPED…	A new task ship gate (task code-audit) that forbids file:line citations in non-test code comments/docstrings and flags duplicate module-level class definitions inside a package.
0054 — Move landing composer to templates/landing.py (Step 6 of the 2026-07-08 dashboard mega-templates wave)	Move landing composer to templates/landing.py (Step 6 of the 2026-07-08 dashboard…	Step 6 of the dashboard mega-templates wave moves the landing-page composer _build_landing_html out of container/dashboard/app.py into templates/landing.py.
0053 — Move run-detail page + _shell to templates/run_page.py (Step 5 of the 2026-07-08 dashboard mega-templates wave)	Move run-detail page + _shell to templates/run_page.py (Step 5 of the 2026-07-08…	Step 5 of the dashboard mega-templates wave moves the run-detail page composer (_build_run_page_html) plus _shell (the GitHub OAuth status pages) plus two sole-consumer prep helpers (_sanitize_plain, _classify_run_source) out of…
0052 — Move landing <script> block to templates/landing_js.py (Step 4 of the 2026-07-08 dashboard mega-templates wave)	Move landing <script> block to templates/landing_js.py (Step 4 of the 2026-07-08…	Step 4 of the dashboard mega-templates wave moves the 2955-line landing JS block (_build_landing_html’s <script nonce="…"> body) out of container/dashboard/app.py into templates/landing_js.py as the f-string function landing_js.
0051 — Extract landing body HTML to templates/landing_body.py (Step 3 of the 2026-07-08 dashboard mega-templates wave)	Extract landing body HTML to templates/landing_body.py (Step 3 of the 2026-07-08…	Step 3 of the dashboard mega-templates wave moves the landing page’s ~554-line body block (five tab sections + the inbox action bar) out of container/dashboard/app.py into templates/landing_body.py as six plain-string constants:…
0050 — Extract landing <style> block to templates/landing_css.py (Step 2 of the 2026-07-08 dashboard mega-templates wave)	Extract landing <style> block to templates/landing_css.py (Step 2 of the…	Step 2 of the dashboard mega-templates wave moves the 415-line landing CSS block (_build_landing_html’s <style> body) out of container/dashboard/app.py into templates/landing_css.py as the f-string function LANDING_CSS.
0049 — Create templates/ + extract plain-string head fragments to templates/fragments.py (Step 1 of the 2026-07-08 dashboard mega-templates wave)	Create templates/ + extract plain-string head fragments (Step 1 of the 2026-07-08…	Step 1 of the dashboard mega-templates wave: a container/dashboard/templates/ package is created and the eight plain-string CSS/JS head fragments (_FAVICON_LINK, _THEME_COLOR_META, _MANIFEST_LINK, _APPLE_TOUCH_ICON_LINK,…
0047 — Session collaborators — REJECTED. The mixin shape is the endpoint.	Session collaborators REJECTED 2026-07-08	The post-Tier-2 re-premise check (Step 0 of the .kin/plans/2026-07-08-session-facade-plan.md) kills the “convert Session from mixins + all-state-on-core to state-owning collaborator objects” refactor.
0046 — Roundtrip island (C2 rock)	Roundtrip island (C2 rock) SHIPPED 2026-07-08	The RoundTripOps mixin (24 methods across 4 groups) and the NeedsHumanError class are peeled out of session/core.py into session/roundtrip.py (Step 7 of the 2026-07-08 Tier-2 session-islands wave).
0045 — Subagents island	Subagents island SHIPPED 2026-07-08	The SubagentOps mixin (4 methods + 1 property) and 8 module-level helpers (incl.
0044 — DR 0044 — swap-island (Step 5 of the 2026-07-08 Tier-2 session-islands wave)	SHIPPED 2026-07-08	The third of five island extractions: peels BackendSwap (the C4 coupling to persistence.wire_shape / strip_thinking / rebuild_history / to_neutral_turns that backs Session.set_provider’s live cross-provider history…
0043 — DR 0043 — controls-island (Step 4 of the 2026-07-08 Tier-2 session-islands wave)	SHIPPED 2026-07-08	Folds the two tiny “controls” concerns (ModeToggle + ReasoningEffort) into one ControlOps mixin in session/controls.py, the second of five island extractions.
0042 — Extract HistoryRewind → session/history.py (Step 3 of the 2026-07-08 Tier-2 session-islands wave)	Extract HistoryRewind → session/history.py (Step 3 of the 2026-07-08 Tier-2…	Step 3 of the 2026-07-08 Tier-2 session-islands wave.
0041 — Convert session.py into a session/ package (Step 2 of the 2026-07-08 Tier-2 session-islands wave)	Convert session.py into a session/ package (Step 2 of the 2026-07-08 Tier-2…	Step 2 of the 2026-07-08 Tier-2 session-islands wave.
0040 — Harness settings package	Harness settings package SHIPPED 2026-07-08	The 950-line src/kin/harness/settings.py is split into a 5-submodule settings/ package (Step 1 of the 2026-07-08 Tier-1-finish wave); the public import surface stays byte-for-byte stable so no downstream caller touches its `from…
0039 — Harness persistence package	Harness persistence package SHIPPED 2026-07-08	The 867-line src/kin/harness/persistence.py is split into a 3-submodule persistence/ package (Step 5 of the 2026-07-07 Tier-1 package-conversion wave); the public import surface stays byte-for-byte stable so no downstream caller…
0038 — Harness MCP package	Harness MCP package SHIPPED 2026-07-08	The 1104-line src/kin/harness/mcp.py is split into a 6-submodule mcp/ package (Step 4 of the 2026-07-07 Tier-1 package-conversion wave); the public import surface stays byte-for-byte stable so no downstream caller touches its `from…
0037 — TUI modals package	TUI modals package SHIPPED 2026-07-08	The 2307-line src/kin/tui/modals.py is split into a 12-submodule.
0036 — TUI widgets package	TUI widgets package SHIPPED 2026-07-08	The 2358-line src/kin/tui/widgets.py is split into a 12-submodule.
0035 — TUI diff module (C1 keystone of Tier-1 wave)	Landed on dev 2026-07-07	The four unified-diff helpers move from widgets.py into a new kin.tui.diff module so ToolCall and ProposalModal can render diffs without crossing the widgets/modals package boundary.
0034 — Matrix as the Outpost’s communication fabric	historical; Matrix surface retired by…	The .kin/plans/2026-07-07-matrix-as-communication-fabric-plan.md close-out record: Matrix = projection + command rail, Outpost = the only mutator, one inbox store, one answer service — and the honest verification state as of landing.
0033 — The kin ↔ Outpost middle way — the Outpost becomes the automation layer	accepted 2026-07-06 (docs + constitution only; the ttyd cut is Step 3)	Step 0 of .kin/plans/2026-07-06-kin-outpost-middle-way-plan.md.
0032 — Matrix multi-room + the loops unlock	Historical; retired by 0106	The messenger becomes multi-operator and makes completion reports first-class; the surface was later retired for sovereign Chat.
0031 — Run inspection — Trace / Files / Diff / Memory panes	WP8 shipped on feat/outpost-wp8-inspect (2026-07-06)	The run-detail page’s WP8 inspection surfaces: a Trace pane over the harness’s metadata-only spans JSONL, a Files pane for the workspace tree + text file preview, a Diff pane that stacks journal-derived edits + git diff vs HEAD with…
0030 — Workspace snapshots / fork / restore (WP10)	Recorded	WP10 closes the last Outpost gap that was left open after WP0–WP7: there was no way to safely reverse a destructive operator action on a workspace, and no way to fork a workspace at a known point.
0030 — Agent recipes gallery — bundled Qwen-tested recipe JSONs + the Jobs-tab UI	landed 2026-07-06	WP9 of the Outpost stack plan (.kin/plans/2026-07-05-outpost-stack-plan.md).
0029 — Inbound triggers — generic webhook, GitHub, Slack slash-command	landed 2026-07-06	WP7: per-service triggers whose per-source signature-auth receiver fires governed one-shot jobs.
0028 — Live transcript — journal tail over SSE	WP3 shipped on dev (2026-07-06)	The run-detail page’s Transcript pane: a per-pane SSE stream that tails the run’s append-only JSONL journal and renders sanitized render-events in real time.
0027 — Matrix reachability + ntfy retirement	Historical; retired by 0106	Records self-hosted Synapse as the former Outpost delivery surface and the retirement of the legacy ntfy path.
0026 — GPU-fairness governor — admission control over background runs	WP4 landed on dev (2026-07-05)	An in-process admission module (container/dashboard/governor.py) now governs every background run sharing the same vLLM as the live interactive TUI: per-class max_concurrent caps (api 2, scheduled 2; the global…
0025 — Outpost Developers portal — the service-registry front door (WP5)	WP5 landed on dev (2026-07-05)	Wave 1 / WP5 of the Outpost stack plan (.kin/plans/2026-07-05-outpost-stack-plan.md).
0024 — The resume seam — kin -p --resume + the Inbox answer service	WP2 landed on dev (2026-07-05)	A halted headless run (needs_human, exit 2) is now resumable by continuation: a second headless run loads the saved journal (which already contains the model’s ask tool call + its structured needs-human tool error) and runs a…
0023 — Outpost Activity tab + Inbox UI — the console spine (WP1)	WP1 landed on dev (2026-07-05)	Wave 1 / WP1 of the Outpost stack plan (.kin/plans/2026-07-05-outpost-stack-plan.md).
0022 — Outpost foundations — unified run model, inbox store, delivery seam, run pages	WP0 landed on dev (2026-07-05)	The WP0 foundation for the Outpost stack plan (Wave 0): four new modules + a server-rendered run-detail page that unblock WP1 (Activity tab + Inbox UI), WP2 (resume seam), WP3 (live transcript), and WP8 (run inspection).
0021 — Lively tab titles — TUI (OSC 0/2) + Outpost dashboard tabs	Lively tab titles — implemented on dev (2026-07-05)	One pure derived_tab_title(...) grammar in kin.harness/, written change-guarded to (a) the host terminal’s tab title from the TUI via OSC 0/2 and (b) the Outpost dashboard’s Run + Jobs tab buttons via the payload refreshRun…
0020 — TUI liveliness (hex pulse + reasoning sweep) + collapsible todo panel	Liveliness + collapsible todo — SHIPPED to main 2026-07-05	Three additions that signal “kin is working” without breaking the POLISH r1–r10 invariants or the reduced-motion byte-identical guarantee: a breathing hex glyph on the live surfaces (per-surface local liveness, NOT a global busy…
0019 — Memory capture unification — one write path, auto-capture everywhere	Memory capture unification — SHIPPED 2026-07-05	kin gets exactly ONE memory-write mechanism — a guarded end-of-run reflection turn over the live memory tool — fired automatically on every client (TUI, kin -p, Outpost scheduled jobs) and on demand via /memory.
0018 — Re-inject task/todo state on compact (don’t nag)	Re-inject task/todo state on compact SHIPPED 2026-07-05	After a context compact the model lost awareness of the task list — even though the durable tasks DAG survived structurally.
0017 — Plan routing & no-inline-self-audit rule	Plan routing & no-inline-self-audit rule SHIPPED 2026-07-05	Encode Blake’s inline-vs-dispatch routing rule at the prompt surface AND replace structural self-review with a context-aware nudge at the trap moment (the inline initial-draft return).
0016 — Plan thoroughness respec	Plan thoroughness respec SHIPPED 2026-07-04	Plans are written to be executed against a CLEARED context by a smaller model — the whole planning flow now states that bar explicitly at every surface, instead of assuming it.
0015 — Agent memory floor	Agent memory floor SHIPPED 2026-07-03	Persistent cross-session memory for kin: a markdown file-based store under ~/.kin/memory/, two-channel recall (cached prefix + volatile <system-reminder>), and session-end consolidation — so the model can carry state past the prompt…
0014 — Git network tools	Git network tools SHIPPED 2026-06-30	Three dedicated tools (git-push / git-pull / git-fetch) that run git network operations outside the auto-mode OS sandbox with structured-args-only argv assembly, modeled on the SSH egress pattern.
0013 — v3 sections 4-7 batch	v3 sections 4-7 batch SHIPPED 2026-06-28	Four tightly-coupled v3 rocks landed together (ssh egress outside the network-off sandbox, bundled exemplar skills/commands, search_workspace Tier 1 FTS5, and the settings tool + /settings) — each behind its own headless gate, with…
0012 — File-extraction refactor	File-extraction refactor SHIPPED 2026-06-24	Eleven commits on dev moved every hardcoded agent-config surface to markdown+frontmatter (skills, agents, slash commands, AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md) and surfaced three real security findings — all fixed.
0011 — Go to Python pivot thesis + scope	Go to Python pivot thesis + scope CAPTURED 2026-06-23	The Textual UI in this repo stayed; the harness moved from the Go kin sibling into the same Python repo and dropped the NDJSON wire, so the seam became a function call instead of a subprocess pipe.
0010 — 2026 agent benchmarks + external context	2026 agent benchmarks + external context CAPTURED 2026-07-03	Captures 2026-07-03 sweep findings on Textual ≥8.2.7 capabilities kin underuses, Textual API gotchas to verify against kin, and where kin sits vs 2026 agent-harness UX benchmarks — reference material for future rocks.
0009 — Anti-regression list	Anti-regression list CAPTURED 2026-07-03	The settled-good decisions from the 2026-07-03 review — preserved as a single anchor so future refactors do not quietly undo them.
0008 — Effort vocabulary dispatch	Effort vocabulary dispatch SHIPPED 2026-07-01. Superseded in part by…	Cross-wire reasoning-effort controls (/effort slash command + per-serve picker) that translate a single human-set “effort level” into the right wire knob per active backend (Anthropic thinking.type, OpenAI top-level…
0007 — Planning-freeze design	Planning-freeze design SHIPPED 2026-06-27	Planning is a transient gate-enforced freeze overlay (not a mode), paired with an auto-first two-mode collapse, so the model can self-enter read-only deliberation while only a human can ever exit it.
0006 — Headless runs + the needs-human envelope	Headless runs + the needs-human envelope SHIPPED 2026-07-02	Headless cron/CI runs need an in-process one-shot path that fails closed on a human-gated event instead of hanging forever or silently auto-allowing — so kin -p carries an explicit needs-human exit code plus the structured…
0005 — v3 permission model	CAPTURED 2026-06-27 (direction doc; most sections since shipped)	A captured direction document for the v3 permission-model rocks — auto-first two-mode collapse, visible plans, plan lifecycle, SSH egress, bundled exemplars, optional DB-mode search, settings-tool + /settings, and computer use —…
0004 — Strategy: missing lanes the critique surfaced	Strategy: missing lanes the critique surfaced CAPTURED 2026-07-03	Atomic decision record for the five future-pass lanes the 2026-07 strategy critic flagged as worth their own pass but which were NOT in the 9-lane research set, captured here so STRATEGY can be relocated/trimmed without losing the…
0003 — Background subagents + Tasks DAG	Background subagents + Tasks DAG SHIPPED 2026-06-26	The agents surface grew from “delegate one focused job to a subagent” into “the model can run profiles, fan-out work in parallel in the background, and maintain a session-long work graph” — without breaking the foreground path or the…
0002 — Environment context cache split	Environment context cache split SHIPPED 2026-06-24	Prompt-caching fails when per-turn content sits behind the cache anchor, so the environment context is split into a cached stable prefix and a per-turn volatile reminder.
0001 — Strategy build decisions (2026-07)	Strategy build decisions (2026-07) SHIPPED 2026-07-03	Canonical record for the 11 rocks of the July-2026 strategy build — this is the home docstring citations (STRATEGY §N and STRATEGY Tier Xy) point to, written so the planned STRATEGY →…