Built-in persona base prompts move from inline DB text / base.md into
prompts/personas/<slug>.md — code-owned, PR-reviewable, drift-proof.
base.md / base_coordinator.md become personas/engineer.md / orchestrator.md.
Prompt source is now explicit in storage instead of inferred in app logic:
a new base_prompt_file column plus CHECK (base_prompt IS NOT NULL OR
base_prompt_file IS NOT NULL) — two nullable columns, never both empty.
Resolution is a coalesce (base_prompt else load(base_prompt_file)), frozen
into the workstream stamp at creation. base_prompt_file marks a persona as
built-in (code-only, un-archivable); an operator override on a built-in is
allowed and wins over the file. "Inherit the kind default" is a
workstream-creation act (is_default), not a persona-row state.
Migration 063:
- seeds reference their file (base_prompt NULL); no runtime file reads —
the backfill's frozen prompt text is inlined as a point-in-time snapshot
so migration history stays self-contained and reproducible.
- every existing workstream is stamped by kind (creative -> writer, else
the kind default), set-based (INSERT..SELECT via temp tables) with the
persona column added after the bulk writes to shorten its lock window.
Storage guards (both backends): operators must supply base_prompt;
built-ins can't be archived or have base_prompt_file set via the API;
clearing an operator persona's only source is rejected.
Follow-ups reviewed alongside (#756): soft-set visibility docstring scoped
to per-process; _apply_persona_snapshot / _current_persona_snapshot own the
stamp round-trip; spawn approval-header args (skill/name/target_node)
flattened+capped like persona; server-side tool injection generalized to
replace-only (client-def gated, incl. the xAI include forwarding). Seed
copy revised (researcher soft; de-costumed prose; engineer de-biased).
New test_schema_parity asserts create_all matches the alembic head.
Closes#683 groundwork; ruff + strict mypy clean, full suite green.
The roster persona merge distinguishes key-absence (pre-persona node in a
rolling upgrade — preserve) from present-but-empty (authoritative
unstamped — accept), so a stale in-memory value can never mask the
snapshot on an immutable field. The node create route caps the persona
slug at 64 like the console proxy, keeping oversized values out of the
storage lookup and the reflected 400 text. The four persona admin
handlers drop their redundant function-local asyncio imports, and the
DELETE-route test moves its request out of the assert statement.
The rank guard now derives needs_approval through the real _prepare_tool
on a bash call under an allowlisting persona instead of scripting the
flag, and asserts the approval gate actually fires. The row-shape guard's
source-grep is replaced with behavioral collector tests driving both
ws_created lanes (poll-diff and SSE relay), plus a proxy-forward twin and
a saved-list value assertion that would catch positional column mix-ups.
Receiving-side stamping gets its first HTTP coverage: create with an
explicit persona under workstreams.create only (selection needs no
persona perm), kind-mismatch and unknown-name 400s, omitted-persona
default stamping, the 503 on a failed default lookup, and the clean-None
legacy lane. Resume adoption is pinned end to end: a corrupt target stamp
leaves the session fully intact, an MCP-on stamp is refused when the
client was persona-gated at construction, and an MCP-off stamp drops the
live surface (listeners deregistered, toolsets reset). Soft-set
tool_search expansion recomposes the prompt exactly once; legacy sessions
never recompose.
Compaction legs run real flows now: spill plus the recall-pointer variant
under memory-off with recall visible vs hidden, and a full stamp
surviving compaction-then-resume. Migration 063 gains the downgrade
config-cleanup case (stamps removed, creative_mode preserved) and the
conversion idempotency case (already-stamped creative rows don't crash
the upgrade).
RBAC coverage goes cross-perm: read-only and write-only principals hit
every verb (a wrong-perm-name regression in any handler is now visible),
archive and default-flip succeed through PATCH, persona.* strings
round-trip the role editors and the overrides overlay, and the production
route table is asserted directly (no DELETE registered). Endpoint/storage
fixtures move off migration-seed names; storage hardening tests cover the
size caps, corrupt-row reads, the TypeError-to-ValueError ordering, the
duplicate-name race mapping, and the single-default backstop. Shell
asserts pin the new picker surfaces and drop the last persona-as-kind
wording.
Review pass over the branch surfaced real defects, all fixed here with
regression guards:
- Fork-resume (resume_ws) adopts the SOURCE workstream's stamp,
resolved pre-construction so all four levers (including the
construction-time MCP gate) bind the fork; a corrupt source stamp is
a loud 400, an unstamped legacy source forks unstamped — never the
kind default. Watch-restore and CLI --resume thread the stamp the
same way, closing an MCP leak where a restored MCP-off workstream
re-merged the catalog.
- SessionManager.open parses the stamp inside the install guard so a
corrupt stamp releases the reserved slot; a retry reproduces the
loud error instead of 'already tracked'.
- Mid-session resume() adopting a stamp rebuilds the tool_search
pathway to match (hard set drops it, soft set force-constructs it);
soft persona sets survive the global tool-search setting being off.
- Memory nudges gate on actual memory-tool VISIBILITY, not just the
memory lever, so an allowlist that hides the tool also silences the
nudges that point at it; post-compaction resume gets a no-recall
nudge variant when the pointer would dangle.
- Console PATCH: explicit null flags from UpdatePersonaRequest no
longer archive the persona or flip levers on a rename; multi-kind
personas survive a shelf edit; admin list ships the per-kind
tool_inventory so the shelf checklist tracks the server inventory
instead of a hardcoded JS list; admin CRUD moved off the event loop.
- Migration 063 converts legacy creative_mode workstreams to the full
writer stamp (downgrade removes all persona keys).
- REPL: /new passes the persona; /workstreams unpacks the widened row.
- Shared resolve_persona_for_kind is the single eligibility rule for
the HTTP handler, CLI, and spawn precheck; spawn_batch memoizes the
persona lookup; ToolSearchManager.is_expanded gives the visibility
tail an O(1) probe.
The 15 guards from the design brief: the approval path is untouched
under any persona (rank guard); empty-toolset personas compose no tools
block and put zero definitions on the wire; the tool_search escape hatch
is soft when included (discovered tools union with the allowlist) and
hard when omitted (pathway disabled, including native defer_loading);
memory-off suppresses recall injection, the memory tool, and
memory-directed nudges while behavioural nudges and task-agent tools
survive; MCP-off is session-wide and refresh-proof; spawn validates
persona at prep time and never inherits the parent's; task_agent's
schema stays persona-free; the stamp is immutable, survives
SessionManager.open threading, and corrupt stamps fail construction
loudly; mandatory prompt policies compose under every persona; CLI
resolution (extracted to resolve_cli_persona_kwargs for testability)
loads seeds, exits clearly on unknown names, and adopts the resume
target's stamp; persona edits/archives never touch stamped workstreams;
and the row-shape contract twins carry the persona field.
RBAC endpoint coverage: admin CRUD 403s without persona.* and succeeds
with it; the picker feed needs no persona permission and hides archived
personas; invariant violations surface as 400s; DELETE is 405.
Patrick Buckley