refactor: simplify session log representation

This commit is contained in:
Tianyi Cui
2026-07-13 23:56:10 +08:00
parent d060c0dd4f
commit 1123e946c0
64 changed files with 522 additions and 1032 deletions
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ Status: implemented
A long-running agent conversation grows without bound. As the event log accumulates turns, the derived message history eventually approaches the model's context window — the model then truncates mid-response (`max-tokens`) or degrades. **Compaction** is the mitigation: replace a run of older history with a concise summary, keeping recent context intact.
The [session surface](../../implemented/architecture/2026-06-18-session-surface.md) was built as the foundation for exactly this — a linked list over the event log with a `surfaceOp: { op: 'replace', start, end }` operation purpose-built to shadow a range of nodes and insert a replacement, with `sourceEventSeqs` recording provenance so the decision replays deterministically. What remained was the plugin that *decides what to compact and produces the summary*.
The [session surface](../../implemented/architecture/2026-06-18-session-surface.md) was built as the foundation for exactly this — an ordered projection over the event log with a `surfaceOp: { op: 'replace', start, end }` operation purpose-built to shadow a range of entries and insert a replacement, with `sourceEventSeqs` recording provenance so the decision replays deterministically. What remained was the plugin that *decides what to compact and produces the summary*.
Two forces shape the design. First, compaction is **swappable**: token counting can be a char/4 heuristic or a real tokenizer, and summarization can be a model call, a template, or a remote service — these vary independently of *when* and *which range* to compact. Second, `SurfaceEventType` is closed to five event types (`user/message`, `assistant/message`, `tool/result`, `context/message`, `steering/message`); only those may carry `surfaceOp`. A bespoke `compaction/*` event therefore **cannot** itself appear on the surface — the compiler rejects `surfaceOp` on it and the invariants plugin rejects it at runtime.
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ This **amends** the original RFC's claim of "NO changes to `dsh-agent-loop`; com
Auto-compaction fires before **every** step, not once per turn. This is **load-bearing for runaway-turn survival**: a tool-heavy ReAct turn appends an `assistant/message` + a `tool/result` per step, so the surface grows *within* a turn. A single turn can grow past the window on its own (a "runaway turn") — and the only moment to rescue it before the next model call overflows is the next step's `pre-step` checkpoint. Gating compaction to a turn's first step (or, worse, retaining the whole in-flight turn verbatim) re-opens exactly the hole compaction exists to close: the harness would die when compaction is most needed.
So retention does **not** protect the in-flight turn, and turn boundaries play no role in it. `compactIfNeeded` walks the surface nodes tail→head, summing per-node token estimates, and retains the smallest tail-run of **whole units** whose total reaches `retainTokens`; everything older is compacted (head-anchored — see below). A *unit* is either a whole closed step (its `assistant/message` plus its `tool/result`s) or a single no-step node (a pre-step `user/message`, inter-step `steering/message`, or injection `context/message`). The walk rounds toward retaining *more*: when the raw token cutoff lands mid-step, it extends the retained side head-ward until the cut before the retained node is **tool-pairing balanced**. The single structural guard is therefore **tool-pairing balance** — a region's edges are balanced cuts on the *surface* (no unanswered `tool-call` crosses either edge), so a compacted region never splits a step's tool-calls from their `tool/result`s (which would produce a transcript every provider rejects). The check is decided over the surface linked list, **not** the log's `step/*` markers: a compaction lands a replacement node at a high log seq whose surface position is the head, so a log-position scan mis-reads its neighbours — `dsh-session` exports `isToolPairingBalanced(nodes, events, beforeSeq)` for the surface-anchored check. `compactRegion` enforces it strictly, throwing on a boundary that would split a step.
So retention does **not** protect the in-flight turn, and turn boundaries play no role in it. `compactIfNeeded` walks the surface entries tail→head, summing per-entry token estimates, and retains the smallest tail-run of **whole units** whose total reaches `retainTokens`; everything older is compacted (head-anchored — see below). A *unit* is either a whole closed step (its `assistant/message` plus its `tool/result`s) or a single no-step entry (a pre-step `user/message`, inter-step `steering/message`, or injection `context/message`). The walk rounds toward retaining *more*: when the raw token cutoff lands mid-step, it extends the retained side head-ward until the cut before the retained entry is **tool-pairing balanced**. The single structural guard is therefore **tool-pairing balance** — a region's edges are balanced cuts on the *surface* (no unanswered `tool-call` crosses either edge), so a compacted region never splits a step's tool-calls from their `tool/result`s (which would produce a transcript every provider rejects). The check is decided over surface order, **not** the log's `step/*` markers: a compaction lands a replacement at a high log seq whose surface position is the head, so a log-position scan misreads its neighbours — `dsh-session` exports `isToolPairingBalanced(nodes, events, beforeSeq)` for the surface-anchored check. `compactRegion` enforces it strictly, throwing on a boundary that would split a step.
A runaway turn thus compacts exactly like any other history: its early *closed* steps get summarized while its recent steps stay verbatim. When the only compactable content left is an un-splittable open tail step (its tool-calls have no results yet), compaction declines (`null`) and retries once that step closes.