[Lightheartdevs]

Problem

Open prompt 07 (photo-renamer) on main d4a61f33, tower2, Qwen3-Coder-Next. This is the same hardware and model as the Hermes and OpenCode controls, which both delivered in about 20 s. Pixel took 25 s and was graded PARTIAL, with product outcome failed.

• The model wrote Playground/photo-renamer/rename_photos.py and test_rename.py. python3 test_rename.py exited 0 on call Add supervisor pattern, background GPU automation, production guardia… #9.
• Call Add PHILOSOPHY.md and reframe README as methodology #10 was an unrequested "manual test" that ended && rm -rf /workspace/test_manual. It was refused before prepare() and recursiveDeleteDenied was set.
• Call Rename to Android Framework — update all references #11 was a harmless mkdir … && ls. It hit the latch, which signalled and aborted the run as designed.
• taskVerificationForRun returned {failed, RECURSIVE_DELETE_REQUIRES_OWNER_REASON} before it looked at the pass, so the owner received only the 270-character model-directed text ("Do not retry … wait for a new owner instruction").

Evidence: runs/tower2-main-d4a61f33-sweep1/07-photo-renamer on tower2, session fe9ee859-c533-483c-b978-5c4a672dc126, session file sha256 8d21ebc1d247f332de279b80e3fd205d5a477a15211dd5bb1f47f158e4ca6f89.

The same prompt on tower3 (Qwen3.5-27B, session 047d3145, sha256 e861b9f0…) was also graded PARTIAL for a related guard reason: python3 -m unittest reported "Ran 11 tests … OK" with exit 0, but the program under a negative test then printed Error: Folder '/nonexistent/folder/path' does not exist., and the unittest recognizer counted that line as a failure. #6752 fixes that, and this branch now contains #6752 (see "Unittest verdict" below).

Change

After a refused recursive deletion (recursiveDeleteRefusalVerification, tool-loop-guard.mjs), the owner gets a receipt built from host state instead of the model-directed text. The run keeps passed only when the receipt can stand for the whole result:

• The owner asked for a change to files and for nothing to be said in the reply, and no research was requested or web results used. The answer detector is deliberately broad; a wrong match only keeps the run failed, as on main. It matches a question, and any ask for an explanation, description, summary, overview, report or results, usage or instructions, how it works or how to run it, documentation, a walkthrough, a comparison or citations; "tell me", "show me", "give me", "let me know"; "include …"; or a reply, answer or response. "Can you write …?" is a request, not a question.
• A write, edit or apply_patch succeeded in this run.
• The latest recognized test passed and at least one test it reported passed: a run where every test was skipped, an expected failure, deselected or todo (unittest, also colored; pytest; Jest/Vitest; node:test; cargo; go) does not count.
• That test ran in a directory that contains a file this run changed. The workspace root and the Playground folder, which hold other projects, cover only their own top-level files. A command that names a parent (..), home (~) or absolute path outside its directory covers nothing.
• That pass is current: no call that could change the workspace was admitted after it; no sibling call from the same model response and no other background command ran while it ran or ended after it; and none is still running.
• The rest of the task evaluation passed without a publication receipt, and the run is not Operations, exact-download, preview-required, managed-extension or managed-team work.

Every other case stays failed, with the same receipt.

Currency

• agent_end runs endPreviewRevalidation (which advances the preview generation) before the ingress reads delivery. Ending the attempt changes no workspace file, so a pass that was current stays current. Without this, the passed branch was unreachable in production and the receipt wrongly called the pass "not current".
• A background test is dated from when it started, not from the read-only poll that completed it. A background command that ends after a pass makes that pass stale. A background command that was running when the test started, started while a background test ran, or was observed to end while it ran, marks the pass as overlapped.
• Sibling calls: OpenClaw runs every before_tool_call of one model response, then the calls together, then each after_tool_call. Each admitted call that could change the workspace is tracked from before_tool_call to after_tool_call; a test that shared that window with another such call, in either order, is overlapped. A read-only sibling, a sibling this guard refused, and a Tool Search call's own nested child do not count. A call without a record counts as overlapped.
• Refused calls never advance the generation. After a deletion refusal, a refused call is not recorded as a test result.

The receipt

• It says the command was refused and did not run. It never claims nothing was deleted and contains no instructions aimed at the model.
• It lists files written and files changed with edit or apply_patch (at most 20). Each path is capped at 200 characters, keeping its start and file name, so the receipt stays far below the 32 KiB ingress bound. The coding-exhausted receipt shares this helper and is otherwise byte-identical.
• It names the latest test command and the directory it ran in, from the call the model made (before execution control wraps it). A leading cd /workspace/... wins over workdir. Command and directory are capped at 160 characters with backticks and control characters removed.
• It gives that test's state: passed and current; passed but not current; passed while "another tool call or command ran at the same time"; exited successfully with no passing test; failed; not finished; or none ran.

Progress stop. The budget is checked before the deletion check, so a deletion refusal always comes first; the latch's own refusals are what exhaust the budget afterwards. The deletion receipt now takes precedence over RUN_PROGRESS_STOP_REASON in that case. Loop bounds, signal and abort counts are unchanged.

Unittest verdict (tower3). This branch builds on #6752 (merged in at bf7708967 and at #6752's current head 1363e768c in bf279cc18) and uses #6752's runner-summary verdict. This branch's own earlier recognizer change (eb55782c) was dropped in that merge. The tower3 replay below passes through #6752's verdict.

Disclosure. The workspace guide gains one constant sentence, RECURSIVE_DELETE_CONTRACT: "Do not delete directories recursively (rm -rf or equivalents) unless the owner asked; ODS refuses that and may stop tool use for the turn. Keep temporary test inputs inside the project folder and leave cleanup to the owner." Prompts that change or test named existing code (for example "Fix the bug in Playground/x/y.py, then run the tests") get that sentence alone when the guide is absent. Other turns, including non-coding ones, are unchanged. The guide's length bound in agent-skills.test.mjs moves from 3200 to 3400 characters (now 3364).

Unchanged: the model-facing RECURSIVE_DELETE_REQUIRES_OWNER_REASON, the latch, execControl.signal, abortRun, the strict-stop synthesis skip, beforeAgentFinalize, continuationAllowed (false), and pixel_ingress.mjs. No model text is accepted after a refusal. Nothing outside the deletion-refusal delivery reads the overlap, no-passing-test or coverage state.

Delivered for the recorded tower2 run (status passed):

Pixel stopped using tools because a command included a recursive deletion that you did not ask for. That command was refused and did not run.
Results recorded by Pixel's tools before that:
- File written: `/workspace/Playground/photo-renamer/rename_photos.py`.
- File written: `/workspace/Playground/photo-renamer/test_rename.py`.
- The latest recognized test command, `python3 test_rename.py` in `/workspace/Playground/photo-renamer`, passed, and no tool call that could change the workspace ran after it.
This does not establish complete test coverage or completion of every requested step.

Review follow-up

Commits eb55782c, 65f55390 and d291bb05 address both reviews.

Finding	Resolution
passed unreachable in production: agent_end advanced the generation before delivery	Fixed: a current pass stays current through agent_end
Receipt said "a later tool call could have changed the workspace" when none ran	Fixed by the same change
Tests skipped the real agent_end order	Fixed: every run in deletion_refusal_delivery.test.mjs goes through the lifecycle callbacks plugin/index.js registers, and the test pins that agent_end order
Lifted to passed with no work, or for a non-coding request (probes C, D)	Fixed: requires a successful write/edit/patch, a change request and no requested written answer; team workers are excluded too
Background test dated from the poll; background command ending after the pass (A, B)	Fixed
Skipped-only tests lifted to passed (E, F)	Fixed on this path. The normal delivery path still treats skipped-only runs as passing; changing that affects every run and is left for a separate change
Research + script request lifted to passed (Q)	Fixed: research requested, citations asked, or web results used keep failed
edit/apply_patch changes missing; directory from workdir over a leading cd (G, S)	Fixed
Receipt length unbounded (R: 74,280 characters)	Fixed: the same input now gives 4,850 characters
Disclosure missed existing-code fix prompts	Fixed for prompts that name workspace code with a change or test verb
Progress stop replaced the receipt	Fixed
Only 1 of 5 undelivered photo-renamer hosts reached	tower3's recognizer false negative is fixed by #6752, which this branch contains. The rest are not caused by these paths: strixy has genuinely failing tests and hit the coding-loop limit, mac-mini hit path corrections then the progress stop, and the laptop "code in chat only" grade is a harness trace failure (WSL 0x8007274c) on a session that did use tools
Merge-order hazard with #6722	Cannot be removed from this side; the exact replacement assertion is below and was run

Also fixed, from the probes: a pass in a directory that holds none of this run's changes (probe H) no longer completes the run.

Re-review follow-up (bf7708967, 2e9cf8986, 0b8659f90, bf279cc18, c091bd635)

The re-review's finding: a refused deletion must not lift a stale or unrelated passing test to passed.

Finding	Resolution
The answer-request gate missed eight phrasings ("provide a brief explanation of how it works", "give me a short summary", "report which photos it renamed", "let me know the results", "include usage instructions in your reply", "give an overview", "tell me how to run it", "describe the edge cases")	2e9cf8986: the broad detector above; those eight and 23 more reply-content tails stay failed; three plain change requests still pass
A background command that ran while the passing test ran, ended after it, or was killed after it (N01-N03)	2e9cf8986: overlapped or stale, not lifted; the receipt says why
No test passed although nothing was "skipped": Python 3.14 colored OK (skipped=1), pytest xfailed/deselected only, Jest todo, node:test todo (N04-N06)	2e9cf8986: reuses #6752's color stripping and summary parsing; the receipt says no test passed
A test run from the workspace root, or one that names .., ~ or an outside absolute path, "covered" a Playground project	2e9cf8986: covers nothing, or only top-level files at the root
Sibling calls: for [write rename_photos.py, python3 -m unittest -v] in one model response, the write's receipt arrives first, so no call was admitted after the test's receipt. The pass lifted to passed with "no tool call that could change the workspace ran after it", although the test ran at the same time as the write. A background test started beside a write lifted the same way.	0b8659f90: sibling calls that could change the workspace mark each other overlapped, in either order; failed with "another tool call or command ran at the same time"
cd /workspace/Playground && python3 -m pytest old-project ran another project's tests, and the Playground folder "contained" this run's files, so it lifted	0b8659f90: the Playground folder covers only its own top-level files, like the root. A run from there that names this run's project is refused too (a false failure, never a false pass)
Branch + main failed 1 test: #6751 (now on main) prefixes the Playground path correction with "Not written: …", and the tower2 replay pinned the recorded text exactly	c091bd635: the replay checks that call 1 is refused with a text that contains the recorded sentence; that text is another guard's
#6752's verdict changes	Merged: bf7708967 (c0a83a78e) and bf279cc18 (1363e768c)

Tests

tests/deletion_refusal_delivery.test.mjs (26 tests) runs every scenario through the plugin/index.js lifecycle callbacks (before_tool_call, after_tool_call, agent_end) around the real guard.

• tower2 replay (fixture photo-renamer-tower2-d4a61f33.json, all 11 recorded calls): blocks and prepare() calls match the recording, signal and abort fire once, and delivery after the real agent_end is passed with the receipt above. replyPayloadSending replaces both the empty final and a model claim. The loopback ingress delivers it with pixel_outcome: passed.
• tower2 counterfactuals: no Rename to Android Framework — update all references #11 gives the same receipt; a write between Add supervisor pattern, background GPU automation, production guardia… #9 and Add PHILOSOPHY.md and reframe README as methodology #10, the failing Improve repo discoverability: tagline, component table, Quick Start p… #5, and no test run all stay failed; a refused rerun of the test and a refused rm -rf … && unittest keep passed.
• Review probes: A and B (background), C and D (no change, questions) plus a polite request that stays passed, Q (research, citations, web results), E and F (unittest, pytest -q, pytest, and a partial skip that still counts), G (edit and apply_patch listed as "File changed"), H (other directory), S (cd over workdir), team builder, Operations, the progress stop, and R (23 files at depth 30 plus a hostile directory).
• Re-review probes: N01-N03 (background overlap, with the receipt text and a control that ended before the test), N04-N06 (colored and no-passing-test outputs, with controls where something passed), N20-N27 and 23 reply-content tails (with three controls), coverage (.., --start-directory=.., outside absolute, ~, -t .., root, Playground folder, with in-project controls), and sibling calls: [write, test] with the exact receipt, [test, write], a background test started beside a write; controls [read, test], [test, refused rm -rf] and a Tool Search call with its nested child hooks stay passed.
• tower3 replay (new fixture photo-renamer-tower3-d4a61f33.json, all 8 recorded calls from session 047d3145): status passed, and the model's own answer is delivered unchanged. Ad-hoc scripts printing Error: or fail: without a unittest verdict still fail, and unittest's own FAIL: block after an OK still fails.
• Disclosure: the photo-renamer turn has the guide and the sentence once; three existing-code prompts get only the sentence; five other prompts (factual, Operations, explain-a-file, research, "do not edit") get neither. Checked at context budgets 65536 and 16384.
• tool_loop_guard.test.mjs: three expected-text constants change from "No file was written." to "No file was written or changed with Pixel's file tools."

Red checks (this head's deletion_refusal_delivery.test.mjs on earlier plugins):

• on 2e9cf8986's plugin: 3 of 26 fail (sibling calls, the Playground folder, and the overlapped wording);
• on d291bb05's plugin: 6 of 26 fail (the above, the answer-request gate, and the two no-passing-test tests).

Verification

Full Linux plugin suite (remote-js-test.sh, tower2):

Tree	Tests	Pass	Fail
main d4a61f33 (earlier run)	3138	3100	0
d291bb05	3161	3123	0
red check: d291bb05's tests with the plugin from 378bf54e	3161	3104	19
2e9cf8986	3253	3215	0
bf279cc18	3255	3217	0
bf279cc18 + main 8c589ef5	3328	3289	1 (the #6751 wording, fixed in c091bd635)
this head c091bd635	3255	3217	0
c091bd635 + main 8c589ef5 (local merge)	3328	3290	0
c091bd635 + #6722 (ebe90936)	3336	3287	11 (all in #6722's own delivered-text test, as before)

The 19 red-check failures of the first review are 16 of the 21 delivery tests then plus the 3 wording changes in tool_loop_guard.test.mjs.

Recorded-session replays (reviewer 2's replay-multi harness, which ends each run with the real agent_end handler):

• Earlier, at d291bb05: all 60 open-prompt sessions from the d4a61f3 sweep (6 hosts, sha-verified): only tower2/07 and tower3/07 change, both from failed to passed; the other 58 deliver byte-identical text on main and the branch. 57 qualification-round sessions (rounds 100–107, 312 runs): byte-identical to main.
• This head: the same harness over the same 117 sessions (60 open-prompt, 57 qualification; 372 runs, 3,728 calls). Against fix(pixel): judge an exit-0 unittest run by the runner's own summary; a coding stop takes precedence over test-command coaching #6752's head 1363e768c: only tower2/07 differs, failed with the model-directed refusal to passed with the receipt above. Against d291bb05: 3 sessions differ, all from fix(pixel): judge an exit-0 unittest run by the runner's own summary; a coding stop takes precedence over test-command coaching #6752's coding-stop order and identical on 1363e768c: strixy/07 and two laptop qualification coding runs (rounds 100 and 107) get one more abortRun at the coding stop; their delivered status stays failed, and in the two laptop runs the stop text changes. tower3/07 is passed on both.
• Reviewers' probe files (at d291bb05): A, B, C, D, E, F, H, M, P and Q are failed; G, K, L, S and N are passed; R gives a 4,850-character receipt. Probe N (abort not acknowledged, 12 calls after the refusal) gives the same refusal sequence and the same 11 signals and 11 aborts on main, 378bf54e and the branch.

Composition

#6752. This branch contains #6752's head 1363e768c (normal merge commits, no rebase). Merge #6752 first; this branch then adds only its own commits.

#6722. Merges cleanly. Its test "a second recursive deletion or a substitute after the guidance stops the turn" (1 test plus 10 subtests) asserts the old delivered text. Whichever PR merges second changes that assertion to the following; the status stays failed:

status: "failed", text: "Pixel stopped using tools because a command included a recursive deletion that you did not ask for. " +
  "That command was refused and did not run.\nResults recorded by Pixel's tools before that:\n" +
  "- No file was written or changed with Pixel's file tools.\n- No recognized test command ran.\n" +
  "This request is not complete. Ask Pixel to continue, or say explicitly if you want a folder deleted.",

This branch's own tests refuse top-level folders, so they pass unchanged under #6722's guided in-project refusal.

#6702. Merges cleanly with this head (git merge-tree). The disclosure sits in the workspace-guide slot, which #6702 moves into per-turn guidance, so it stays out of the byte-stable system prompt there.

Not done here

• Fleet rerun. Open prompt 07 has not been rerun on tower2 or tower3 with this branch; that needs the branch deployed, and fleet hosts were read-only for this work. Expected: tower2 DELIVERED when the model repeats the cleanup, and tower3 DELIVERED.
• Skipped-only runs on the normal path still count as passing (see the table above).
• Background commands from an earlier turn of the same conversation are not tracked by this run; a pass is judged against this run's own calls.
• A test in the project directory can still test something else there (for example an old test module). The receipt says "This does not establish complete test coverage".

🤖 Generated with Claude Code