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Author SHA1 Message Date
Jesse Vincent
d8189d1587 fix(sdd,codex): bounded wait stretches with reconciliation
Round 2 proved the long-wait mechanism (65.1%->0.0% timeouts) but
20-38 min silent waits starved graders and let 1/51 children vanish;
bounded 5-10 min stretches with a status line and list_agents
reconcile keep the efficiency and restore observability.
2026-07-31 10:27:51 -07:00
Jesse Vincent
db4538fcb8 fix(sdd): controllers wait long or not at all
Docs-only wait guidance in the platform reference changed nothing
(65.1% vs 67.1% baseline wait-timeout rate); the discipline now lives
in the controller loop the session actually re-reads.
2026-07-31 10:27:50 -07:00
Jesse Vincent
9b8b14fe12 fix(codex): event-driven waiting instead of short polls
60-78% of wait_agent calls timed out across every measured corpus;
waits are event subscriptions, so one long wait replaces dozens of
polls at identical wake latency.
2026-07-31 10:27:50 -07:00
2 changed files with 34 additions and 0 deletions

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@@ -197,6 +197,17 @@ Everything you paste into a dispatch prompt — and everything a subagent
prints back — stays resident in your context for the rest of the session
and is re-read on every later turn. Hand artifacts over as files.
**Waiting on dispatched subagents:** never poll a wait interface with
short timeouts, and never sit in one silent, open-ended wait either.
While you have local work — ledger updates, packaging the next review,
reading reports — keep working; child results arrive on their own.
When you are genuinely idle, wait in bounded stretches (five to ten
minutes, where your platform allows), and between stretches post one
line of status and reconcile your live children: list them, and chase
any that finished without reporting. A bounded stretch keeps nearly
all of a long wait's efficiency while guaranteeing a stuck or lost
child is noticed within minutes, not at the end of the session.
### 1. Dispatch the implementer
Record BASE (`git rev-parse HEAD`) before dispatching — the review package

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@@ -36,6 +36,29 @@ disagree.
spawn allowlist — V2 accepts only V2-capable presets and hard-errors
on the rest.
## Waiting on children
`wait_agent` is an event subscription, not a poll: a long wait wakes
the moment a child produces mailbox activity, with the same latency as
a short one. Short-timeout polling buys nothing and costs a tool call —
and a context rebill — per poll. In measured sessions, roughly
two-thirds of all wait calls were short polls that timed out.
- While you still have local work, do not wait at all. A completed
child's final answer is pushed into your mailbox and arrives with
your next turn.
- When you are genuinely idle with children outstanding, wait in
bounded stretches: `wait_agent` with `timeout_ms` 300000-600000
(5-10 minutes). After each stretch — wake or timeout — post one
status line, run `list_agents`, and chase any child that finished
without reporting. Never stack polls shorter than five minutes; the
event subscription wakes a bounded stretch just as fast as a short
one.
- Completion mail cannot wake an idle controller (it is delivered
without triggering a turn); covering that idle window is
`wait_agent`'s only job. A stretch that times out with no activity
is your cue to reconcile, not to shorten the next stretch.
## Environment Detection
Skills that create worktrees or finish branches should detect their