Tianyi Cui
e6fad266a6
Define the in-file RFC contract in docs/rfc/README.md § The file format: the header block (`# RFC: <title>` plus a dateless Status enum cross-checked against the lifecycle folder), the per-lifecycle body skeleton (a Problem opener everywhere; Proposal/Alternatives considered/ Acceptance criteria/Risks in proposed/; present-tense Decision/ Consequences with proposal-era headings banned in implemented/; the frozen proposal shape in rejected/), and a mandatory Alternatives considered section with a date-fenced grandfather comment for pre-format RFCs whose alternatives are not reconstructible from the record. Enforce it with a new doc-sync gate, scripts/verify-rfc-format.ts, and normalize all 112 RFCs to it: ~15 Status-line spellings collapse to the enum, 29 Context openers become Problem, the 39 legacy-format XXX debt markers are resolved and banned from reappearing, proposal-era sections in implemented RFCs are rewritten to shipped reality (including the web/fs/subagent seam RFCs' migration plans and test checklists, closing the doc-tiers deferred-work item on the web seam), every RFC gains an Alternatives considered section or the grandfather comment, and the bilingual pair is re-mirrored and re-recorded. Move the generated index tables out of README.md into a fully generated docs/rfc/INDEX.md — gen-rfc-index now writes the whole file, and verify-rfc-classification checks its freshness and rejects index-shaped rows in the curated README — which makes room for the format contract to live in the README front door instead of a separate FORMAT.md. The decision record, and the first RFC written in the new format, is docs/rfc/implemented/process/2026-07-05-uniform-rfc-format.md.
32 lines
4.2 KiB
Markdown
32 lines
4.2 KiB
Markdown
# RFC: Remove the `agent/steering` mirror emit
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Status: implemented
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## Problem
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`agent/steering` was the last remaining transient mirror of a durable session event. The loop's steering drain appends the durable `steering/message { turn, content, source }` and, on the very next line, emitted `agent/steering(agent, turn, content, source)` — the identical fact as a fire-and-forget event (`packages/core/agent-loop/src/loop.ts`, `drainSteering`). It had zero production listeners: the only subscriber anywhere was a loop regression test asserting the emit carried `source` — the same fact the durable event already records one line above.
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Both mirror-removal RFCs retained it while explicitly deferring the decision this RFC makes. The [boundary-mirror removal](2026-06-20-remove-agent-boundary-mirror-events.md) kept it as a live control signal rather than a boundary; the [stream-chunk removal](2026-07-02-remove-stream-chunk-mirror.md) retained it on the reading that it had no durable twin. The second rationale did not survive the code: the durable twin is `steering/message`, appended immediately before the emit with the same payload. The mirrored-vs-live-only line the taxonomy actually draws puts it on the mirror side: `agent/queued` is genuinely live-only (it fires at enqueue time, before any durable event exists, and already carries a `steering: boolean` flag — cancelled queued work never enters the log), while `agent/steering` fired at the exact moment its durable twin landed, carrying nothing the log does not.
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Steering carries real production traffic — the hook bridges' turn-continuation decisions inject their reasons through `inbox.steer()`, landing as durable `steering/message` events that the hook-matrix goldens pin — and every one of those consumers observes the durable event. Nothing observed the mirror.
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## Decision
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`agent/steering` is removed from the agent event taxonomy: the declaration in `packages/core/agent/src/types.ts` (and its mention in the live-events JSDoc list there), the emit in `drainSteering` (whose then-unused `ctx` parameter went with it), the row in `packages/core/agent/README.md`, and the emit line in the loop-pseudocode blocks (the `packages/core/agent-loop/src/loop.ts` module doc and [architecture.md](../../../architecture.md)); the cordis catalog is regenerated without it. The one regression test pins source preservation on the durable `steering/message` event — the fact it pins lives on the log.
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Three implemented RFCs stated the retention, and each is amended per [implemented/AGENTS.md](../AGENTS.md) to point here as the record of the removal: the [boundary RFC](2026-06-20-remove-agent-boundary-mirror-events.md)'s retained-list entry, the [stream-chunk RFC](2026-07-02-remove-stream-chunk-mirror.md)'s scope clause, and the [event-domain-semantics RFC](../architecture/2026-06-30-event-domain-semantics.md)'s transient-emit enumeration.
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## Alternatives considered
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### Why not keep it?
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"It is a control signal, not a boundary" — but the taxonomy's operative distinction is mirrored-vs-live-only, not control-vs-boundary, and this event mirrored. A consumer that wants enqueue-time notification has `agent/queued` (with its steering flag); a consumer that wants drain-time notification is by definition asking for the moment `steering/message` is appended, which `session/event` delivers with the same payload plus durability. The rejected [retire-mid-turn-steering RFC](../../rejected/simplification/2026-06-20-retire-mid-turn-steering.md) defended the steering *capability* — `steer()`, the durable event, continuation forcing — all of which this removal keeps untouched.
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## Verification
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The `agent/steering` spelling survives only in RFC prose (this RFC, the three amended RFCs above, and the frozen [rejected steering-capability RFC](../../rejected/simplification/2026-06-20-retire-mid-turn-steering.md), whose text records the proposal it declined); the catalog is regenerated; the retargeted test pins source preservation on `steering/message`.
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## Consequences
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Zero production listeners existed to migrate, and both live-notification needs keep surviving homes: enqueue-time on `agent/queued` (with its `steering` flag), drain-time on `session/event` as the durable `steering/message` lands.
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