# Talking Stick 0.1.0-alpha.2 Date: 2026-04-26 Incremental alpha. Additive features and reliability fixes; no breaking changes to the protocol or stored schema beyond an additive `notes` table migration. ## New features ### Non-owner notes Members of a room can now leave durable async observations for the current owner and successors without holding the stick. - New tools: `add_note`, `list_notes`. - New CLI: `tt notes add [--turn N] [--path DIR] [--stdin]` and `tt notes list [--all] [--after ID] [--limit N] [--path DIR]`. - Notes are room-scoped by default or attached to a specific `turn_id`. Plain text body, ≤ 16 KB, append-only. Resolution is documented but out of scope for v1. - Skill guidance updated: notes are observations and pointers, not permission for parallel edits. Run `list_notes` when you take the stick so you see what the room left for you. ### `wait_for_turn` owner-idempotency and richer `not_yet` - Calling `wait_for_turn` while you already hold the stick returns `your_turn` (reason `already_owner`) with your existing `turn_id` / `lease_id` instead of falling through to `not_yet`. Stale-lease owners still fall through so they cannot keep using a dead lease. - `not_yet` payload now carries `turn_id`, `current_owner`, `reserved_for`, `lease_expires_at`, and `claim_expires_at`. Harnesses and the CLI no longer need a follow-up `get_room_state` to describe the room. - Removed the unused `cursor` parameter and field; resumable event replay belongs to `get_room_events`. - `tt wait` short-circuits to the recorded session on `already_owner` and verifies the recorded guardian via a trim-tolerant liveness check before reporting it as still active. If the guardian is gone, a replacement is spawned. ### Human-readable `tt` CLI by default - `tt wait` / `tt try`: when your turn arrives with a real handoff, status, next action, artifacts, open questions, and do-not entries render as indented sections instead of being hidden behind `--json`. - `tt notes list`: bulleted rows with short note id, author, relative time (`13m ago` / `in 14m`), scope, and first-line preview. - `tt state`: room path / state header, owner or reserved line with relative deadline, and a member list with `last seen` time and a `← you` marker. - `tt events`: grouped per turn with relative time and `from → to (reason)` arrows. - `--json` is auto-selected when invoked from a harness (same `TT_HARNESS_EXPORT` / `TT_HARNESS_AGENT_ID` gate the identity resolver uses; only `1`/`true` enable export). `--text` forces human mode even in a harness. - `tt release` and `tt pass` accept JSON handoffs on stdin via `--stdin`, mirroring the `tt notes add --stdin` convention. ## Reliability fixes ### Liveness hardening - `createDefaultProcessLivenessChecker` returns `unknown` instead of `gone` on a live pid with `process_started_at` drift; both sides are trim-normalized. Pure ESRCH still returns `gone`. - `inspectRoom` / `inspectRoomForMutation` now gate `owner_gone` on a `2 * heartbeatIntervalMs` silence-grace window. A momentary `gone` reading no longer voids an active lease. `recipient_gone` is a diagnostic label only — actual takeover is gated on `claim_expires_at`. - Read RPCs (`get_room_state`, `get_room_events`, `list_notes`) now refresh joined-member presence via `touchKnownMember` so a legitimately-busy reader cannot accidentally trip the silence grace. ### Windows installer hardening - `tt install` resolves the executable from the configured env/platform PATH and, on Windows, routes `.cmd`/`.bat` wrappers through `cmd.exe /d /s /c`. Spawn errors become structured `InstallResult` failures rather than crashing the CLI. - Args containing cmd metacharacters (`& | < > ^ % "`) are rejected before launch. ### Installer skips absent harnesses - `tt install --all` no longer fails when a harness isn't present, and no longer creates `~/.claude`, `~/.codex`, or `~/.opencode` just to drop a skill in. New `SkipAction` kind, `MissingHarnessError`, and per-harness config-dir resolvers carry the absent signal end to end. ### CLI session preservation on join refresh - `tt wait` / `tt try` no longer overwrite the existing CLI session's `lease_id` / `turn_id` / `guardian_pid` when re-joining the room. The new `upsertJoinedCliSession` helper merges join-time fields onto whatever lease/guardian state was already there. ## Known alpha boundaries - No human override / admin model yet. - No full daemon / push transport; waiting still uses bounded polling (now amortized via `ScheduleWakeup`-style pacing in skill guidance). - Ambient presence remained design-only; its obsolete design sketch was later retired. ## Verification - `npm run typecheck` - `npm test` (165 tests across 13 files) - `npm run build`