procs: follow a cleared session to the file its process writes now - #17
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A long-lived claude process starts a fresh session file on every /clear, but the start-ts tier pinned the process to its first file — whose first-entry timestamp matches the process start — forever, with sure:true, so sticky re-derived the same wrong answer every draw. A live, mid-conversation agent rendered as an idle corpse: observed on a devbox as a 'working right now' session shown idle-8d with the dead file's title, its needs-you transitions unable to ever fire. The start-ts tier now follows the trail: when the matched file has a newer unclaimed sibling that no other live process's start explains (a concurrently-started process claims its own file via its own start-ts) and that is still being written (followFreshS, 10min), the process pairs to that newest successor, marked how:follow. A stale successor is not followed — both files would display idle anyway, so past the freshness bound the pairing stops guessing. PairClaude gains the injected now these mtime comparisons need; first direct tests for PairClaude cover the follow, stale-trail, and other-process cases with staged timestamps and mtimes. README's pairing derivation documents the rule. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <[email protected]>
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Defect (diagnosed live on the devbox)
pid 3898138 — a claude session actively mid-conversation — was paired
sure:true, how:start-tsto the file it stopped writing on July 7. The board rendered a working agent as an 8-day-idle corpse with the dead file's title, and since status derives from the paired file, its needs-you transitions could never fire. Cause: a long-lived process starts a new session file on every/clear, and the start-ts tier (first-entry timestamp ≈ process start) identifies the first file forever; sticky then re-derives the same wrong answer every draw.This is the deepest of the "issues with agents" behind the deck complaints: rows the user reads as corpses can be live sessions, and vice versa.
Fix
The start-ts tier follows the trail. When the matched file has a newer unclaimed sibling that:
followFreshS= 10 min; a trail gone quiet displays as idle either way, so past that the pairing stops guessing — test pins this too),the process pairs to that newest successor,
how:follow,sure:true.PairClaudegains the injectednowthese mtime comparisons need (§1b-5). No--jsonshape change;whysurfaces the new tier; README's pairing derivation documents it.Evidence
PairClaude(it had none): follow, stale-trail, other-process cases, staged timestamps/mtimes as offsets from injected now.working · 16s · "Implement Workstream C from t…"with its real token counts, instead ofidle · 8d · "/tmp/cmux-drop-…".go test ./... -race, vet, golangci 0 issues, parity, bats, darwin build.Stacked on #14
Same files (
pair.go,board.go), so this PR's base isfix/pairing-dupes; it retargets automatically when #14 merges (merge #14 → #15 → #16 → this).🤖 Generated with Claude Code