The trail links are below. One correction to my last message: #2582 (trail 1420) has already merged, so only two PRs are still waiting.

• #2531, sessions follow the agent: https://entire.io/gh/entireio/cli/trails/1378. CI is green and the trail has 0 findings; it needs a reviewer.
• #2577, skipped-hook carry-forward: https://entire.io/gh/entireio/cli/trails/1416. It needs a reviewer.

I also saved a note that you don't want stacked PRs.

Gap priorities

I ranked them by harm first (a commit linked to the wrong session is worse than a missed link, which is worse than coarser checkpoints), then by how often each is likely to happen. The frequency calls are my judgement from reading the code; I haven't measured them.

How they'd land

• Gap 6 is independent of #2531, so it can start now as a small PR off main.
• Gap 1 touches the same linking code #2531 rewrites. Without stacking, the options are to wait for #2531 to merge, or to add it to #2531. I'd wait; adding it grows a PR that's already +3115/−180 and scoring high risk.
• Gap 7 waits for #2577.

My suggestion: start gap 6 now, and plan gap 1 so it's ready to go when #2531 merges. If you'd like evidence before deciding, I can count no-terminal commits and --amend -m commits that ended up unlinked or linked to the wrong session in this clone's logs.

That explanation is right for the common case, and the code backs it up. Sessions are only created by an agent's own hooks: InitializeSession is only called from lifecycle.go. Entire's git hooks can stamp an existing session onto a commit, but they never open one. If no session is open in that worktree, a commit from a hookless agent or a local-model script gets no trailer, exactly as if someone typed git commit by hand.

There's one case where it's worse than "Entire sees no agent", and it's our gap 1:

• When another agent is open in the same worktree, the commit can go to that agent. Scripts and agent shell tools usually run git commit with no terminal attached. With no terminal, tryAgentCommitFastPath skips the check that the committed files overlap the session's work, and stamps any session that's mid-turn. So if Claude Code is mid-turn in that worktree when the hookless agent commits, the commit is linked to Claude's session, silently.
• From a real terminal, it does behave like a person committing. Entire checks whether the committed files overlap a session's work and, if not, links nothing. That's the "no agent" result you saw.

What this changes:

• Gap 1 is more likely than I estimated. It's hit by IDE commit buttons, and also by every hookless agent or script that commits while a hooked agent is open in the same worktree. It stays P1.
• There's a new gap 0: agents with no Entire integration at all. This one is by design, not a bug. Their only way in today is the external-agent protocol (docs/architecture/external-agent-protocol.md). entire session attach doesn't help, because it attaches a transcript from an agent Entire already supports, and these agents have none.

If yesterday's agent-less commits were made while a Claude Code or Cursor session was open in that worktree, I can check whether any of them picked up that session's trailer by mistake. Which repo were they in?

That changes things. A background session's account of its own setup isn't reliable: it's the agent describing itself, and it may not know what hooks its runtime loaded. Whether this is a gap or a bug depends on what's actually running it:

• Claude Code or Cursor running locally in the background: these use the same hook config as a foreground session. If the session really is one of these, "I don't have hooks" is wrong, and its commits should have been linked. A session that never registered with Entire would be a real bug for us to chase.
• A headless or SDK-driven runner (Agent SDK, claude -p from a script, a local-model harness): these may not load the project's .claude/settings.json hooks, or may have no Entire integration at all. Then no session ever opens, and its commits look like a person's. That's gap 0: a coverage gap, not a bug.
• A remote background agent (cloud VM, Cursor background agents): its clone probably doesn't have Entire installed, so no git hooks run there either.

In every case, a background commit runs with no terminal. If a hooked session is mid-turn in the same worktree when it commits, that's gap 1: the commit is silently linked to the other session.

Which agent and runtime is that background session, and is it on your machine? If it's local, give me its repo and roughly when it ran. I'll check whether a session file was ever created for it (.git/entire-sessions) and whether Entire's hook logs show it firing, and that tells us bug or coverage gap.

Gap 1 is real on both #2531's head and current main (ba0a4a25f), so it predates #2531.

I reproduced it with an integration probe. A Claude Code session is mid-turn and has edited claude_file.txt. A hookless agent then commits only kimi_file.txt:

• No terminal (a background agent, script or GUI): the commit gets Claude's Entire-Checkpoint trailer, so Claude's session is wrongly linked.
• With a terminal (a person typing): no trailer, which is correct.

The cause is tryAgentCommitFastPath. With no terminal it skips the check that the committed files overlap the session's work, and stamps the first mid-turn session it finds.

How the two issues relate

The trigger is the same (a hookless agent runs git commit), but they're different failures with different fixes:

Gap 1 is the priority because it writes wrong data silently; gap 0 only leaves data missing. Fixing gap 1 turns your background agent's commits from "credited to Claude" into "no agent", and gap 0 is then the follow-up that gives them Kimi's session.

Risk in the gap 1 fix

Some hooked agents may commit from a process that isn't under the agent's own process tree. Codex in app-server mode and daemon-based agents are the likely ones. They depend on the fast path today, so requiring file overlap for them could lose links they currently get. Before writing code I'd check, for each agent, whether a no-terminal commit is identified by ancestry. Agents that aren't would keep today's behaviour until they can be identified.

Landing

The fix is a PR off main, not stacked on #2531. It touches session_identity.go, which #2531 also changes, so whichever PR merges second needs a rebase. Gap 0 is separate work.

The probe test is saved in my scratchpad and isn't in any branch.

Should I write the gap 1 plan (per-agent ancestry check first), have a reviewer agent go over it, and then implement it off main? You also said you'd check whether Kimi runs headless. That only matters for the gap 0 fix, not for gap 1.

Agreed: if Kimi is already an external agent, gap 0 isn't "add an integration". The question is why its external agent never opened a session for the background run.

External agents only open sessions from hook events. The CLI acts on an external plugin's events only when its info output declares capabilities.hooks: true (docs/architecture/external-agent-protocol.md:70). There's no other way in: no launcher, and git hooks never open a session. So Kimi's background run produced no session for one of three reasons:

1. The plugin declares hooks: false, or its hooks aren't installed in that repo. This is a setup or plugin issue.
2. Kimi doesn't fire its hooks in headless or background mode. This is a limitation in Kimi, and it would explain the background session saying it has no hooks.
3. Hooks fired but failed. That would leave errors in Entire's hook logs, and it would be a bug on our side.

Kimi isn't installed on this machine, so the person running it needs to check:

• entire-agent-kimi info: is capabilities.hooks true?
• entire-agent-kimi are-hooks-installed, run in that repo.
• Do a short headless Kimi run, then look for a new file in .git/entire-sessions/.

On "any agent can be added as an external agent": that holds only for agents with lifecycle hooks. An agent with no hook system, or one whose hooks don't fire headless, can't open a session through the protocol today. If Kimi turns out to be case 2, the protocol gap is real. The general fix would be a hookless way in, such as a wrapper (entire run -- <agent>) that opens and ends the session itself. That's a protocol design change; I'd write it up for you to decide rather than build it now.

This also settles the risk I flagged in the gap 1 fix. Ancestry identification doesn't depend on the agent type: captureSessionOwner records the process that ran the hook. So once Kimi's external hooks fire, its commits are identified by ancestry like any built-in agent's, and the gap 1 fix doesn't cost external agents their links.

Gap 1 is ready to plan regardless of how the Kimi checks come out. Should I write the plan, have a reviewer agent go over it, and implement it off main?

I'd looked only at the protocol before; I've now gone through the external-agents repo. Two findings change the picture.

1. There is no Kimi external agent in entireio. entireio/external-agents has amp, crewai, goose, grok, hermes, kilo, kiro, langgraph, omp and qwen. No entireio PR or issue mentions Kimi. If Kimi "is an external agent already", it's a third-party or self-built plugin, and its info output and hook install are the first things to check.

2. Gap 0 isn't a protocol gap; I was wrong to suggest an entire run wrapper. The repo already has two ways to integrate an agent that has no hook files:

• Callback bridge (CrewAI, LangGraph, through the entire-adapter Python package): the agent's own process calls entire hooks <agent> <hook> at kickoff, tool use and completion. install-hooks only writes a marker file under .entire/.
• Observer plugin (Hermes): a plugin inside the agent writes sanitized JSONL that the adapter reads.

So Kimi, and your local-model scripts, can each open a session headless: either through Kimi's native hooks if it has them (like qwen and omp, whose READMEs show headless -p runs), or by calling entire hooks <name> … from their own code like CrewAI does. Nothing in the CLI needs to change. Gap 0 comes down to Kimi's integration missing or not firing, plus the scripts having none.

How this overlaps with gap 1: both bridge styles run the hook as a child of the agent's own process. Entire records that process as the session's owner, so a commit made from the agent's tool subprocess is identified by ancestry. The gap 1 fix (no terminal still requires the committed files to overlap the session's work unless ancestry identifies the committing agent) therefore keeps external agents' links. One unverified edge: a Hermes gateway task could commit from a process outside the owner's tree. I'd cover that in the plan's per-agent ancestry check.

Next steps:

• Gap 1: write the plan, run a reviewer agent on it, then implement off main. I need your go-ahead for this.
• Kimi: find out which plugin is running and whether its hooks fire headless. Once you know, I can draft a Kimi external agent or a generic script bridge in external-agents if one is needed.

Yes, three of the six requests overlap the session-attach gaps, and the report also turns up a likely cause of the "Unknown" agent name.

Suggested order:

1. Gap 1 fix, off main. It's the correctness bug, and request 1 depends on it.
2. README fix in external-agents: settings.local.json, plus a link to the token capability. One line each, and it likely explains request 4 for this reporter.
3. attach --commit <sha> (request 3). It's small and squarely session-attach.
4. "No session" warning (request 1), then the session run wrapper (request 2). The wrapper is a product decision for you.
5. Activity labels for external agents (request 4, CLI half) and the server-side commit count.

Should I start with gap 1 (plan, reviewer pass, then implement off main)? I can also draft, without filing, the README fix and issues for requests 2–4. If any of this goes public, I'll keep the reporter's setup details (machine names, tool list) out of it.

This connects to request 3 and adds a new problem: most of those 43 sessions have no commit to attach to at all.

Why they end up orphaned, from the CLI side. entire session attach doesn't need a commit that already has a checkpoint: if HEAD has none, it creates a new one (attach.go:387). What it can't do without a terminal is link that checkpoint. To link, it has to amend HEAD with the trailer. Without -f in a headless run, it only prints the trailer for someone to paste (attach.go:981). With -f, it would rewrite the Sep 30 commit in a checkout a bridge is watching, which is clearly not what they want. Either way, the checkpoint is written but no commit references it. I'm assuming their bridge drives attach or does the equivalent; I haven't seen it.

Request 7 is mostly separate from request 3. attach --commit <sha> (request 3) only helps sessions whose work did land in a commit, like queue-coder (Aider). Most of the orphans never commit by nature: Gemma and GLM review jobs, Godot test runs, FLUX renders. There's no right commit to attach them to. For those, a session needs to exist without a commit:

• In the CLI: let a session or checkpoint be recorded against the repo with no trailer, then synced and listed. This changes Entire's model, where sessions are found through commit trailers.
• On the server: I believe the site finds checkpoints through commits, so a checkpoint no commit points to is stored but never shown. I haven't verified that; it needs a look at the entire.io indexing.

It's a product decision, not a bug fix, and it affects the CLI, entire-api and entire.io.

How it fits the earlier list:

The order I suggested still holds. Gap 1 is first and stays CLI-only. Request 7 joins the wrapper as a product decision for you, and the two fit together: entire session run -- <job> could record a commit-less session for jobs that don't commit.

My next step is still the gap 1 plan, reviewed and then implemented off main, once you say go. Alongside it I can draft (not file) the issues for requests 2, 3, 4 and 7 and the external-agents README fix, with nothing that identifies the reporter.

The external-agents docs fix is committed locally (a7384eb), but the push was blocked by the auto-mode permission check, so there's no PR yet.

The fix moves external_agents setup to .entire/settings.local.json in the root README, six agent READMEs and Hermes' verify script. It also links the token-reporting capability from the root README. Since #2268, external_agents is ignored in .entire/settings.json, so anyone following the old instructions ends up with the agent never discovered. That likely explains the reporter's "Unknown" and missing agents. It might also be why the reporter's Kimi plugin never opened sessions; I haven't confirmed that.

To push and open the PR yourself:

Or allow pushes in your permission settings and I'll do it and open the PR.

The G1 plan is written and a reviewer agent is checking it against the code. Once the review is back I'll adjust the plan and implement it in .worktrees/no-tty-commit-linking, which is off main.

The full gap list is noted in SESSION-ATTACH-WORKTREES.md and in memory.

Lint is clean (0 issues). Unit, integration and canary tests are still running. I'll report once they finish.

The full check is re-running with nothing else in parallel; it takes about 12 minutes. If it passes, I'll commit G1 on peyton/no-tty-commit-linking. Pushing is blocked by the auto-mode permission check, as with the docs PR, so I'll hand you the push command.

Status so far:

• G1 fix: done in .worktrees/no-tty-commit-linking, branched off main. It changes 8 files and adds 2 test files, about +450/−22 including tests.
  • Seven new integration tests cover the reviewer's points: the in-flight task case, post-commit condensation, commit_linking=always, a caller-session environment claim, and the agent's own commit.
  • The real-binary scenario matches the integration tests: a hookless agent's commit is linked on main and not on the branch, and the agent's own commit still links.
  • Lint is clean.
  • One accepted gap: a process launched from an agent's shell keeps that agent's session-ID variable, so it still counts as the agent's own commit. An example is a queue worker started once from Claude's Bash tool and left running.
• Not verified: an agent run inside an IDE (Cursor, VS Code Copilot) where hooks and terminal commands come from different processes. That's the remaining regression risk the reviewer raised. The guard that trusts an agent's session-ID variable covers Cursor's shell tool. I'd still want one real check in Cursor before merging.
• Docs fix for external-agents: committed locally, waiting on you to push.

G1 is pushed and open as #2668: https://github.com/entireio/cli/pull/2668

• mise run check passed on a clean rerun. The first run's 8 failures were timeouts from my concurrent builds, and those tests pass on their own.
• Diff: +467/−22 across 10 files, about half of it tests.
• The PR description includes the real-binary before/after, the risk for IDE-hosted agents, and the follow-up about processes that inherit an agent's session-ID variable.
• I'm watching CI and the trail review, and will fix real findings and resolve the rest.

Still waiting on you:

1. Push the external-agents docs fix. The auto-mode permission check blocked it:
   After that, I can open its PR.
2. Check #2668 in Cursor or another IDE-hosted agent before merging. This is the one regression path I couldn't verify locally.

Next on the list after #2668's findings are clear is attach --commit (R3). It goes off main as its own PR.

The docs fix PR is open as entireio/external-agents#98: https://github.com/entireio/external-agents/pull/98

Both PRs are up, and I've added them to the notes file:

• #2668 (G1): CI and the trail review are running. I'll handle findings when the watch reports back.
• external-agents#98: docs and one script line, ready for review.

While #2668's CI runs, I'll start the plan for attach --commit (R3), off main.

R3 has a design decision I'd like your call on.

Making attach link to an older commit has two options:

• Trailer on the target commit: amending a commit that isn't HEAD rewrites every commit after it, so this is out for pushed history.
• The existing trailer-less anchor: WriteOptions.CommitSHA (api/checkpoint/metadata.go:137) already links a checkpoint to an existing commit without touching it. entire import uses it today ("we never rewrite existing commits"). attach --commit <sha> would write the checkpoint with that anchor and never amend.

I recommend the anchor. It also helps the reporter's bridge: it could attach its 43 orphaned sessions to the Sep 30 commit, or to the current HEAD, headless and without rewriting anything. That covers much of R7 without a new "session with no commit" model. entire import can't do this for them because it only supports built-in agents.

Two things to check before building:

1. How the site shows anchored checkpoints. The field's comment calls an anchor "not attribution", and import's checkpoints are read-only. I need to confirm that entire.io and entire-api show a checkpoint anchored by attach on that commit and in the activity view, rather than treating it as import-only. That's a read of the entire-api and entire.io code.
2. What "anchor" means for attach. For import it means "imported at this point in time". For attach --commit it would mean "this session belongs to this commit". I'd keep the field and add a distinct kind (or reuse the existing attach marker) so readers can tell the two apart.

Should I check the server side (point 1) and then plan attach --commit on the anchor approach? #2668's trail review is still running, and I'll handle its findings when it finishes.

No. Attached checkpoints, and normal ones, link to their commit only through the Entire-Checkpoint trailer in the commit message. The checkpoint itself doesn't record which commit it belongs to.

• attach: writes the checkpoint with no commit field (attach.go:347, no CommitSHA). Its only link is the trailer it amends into HEAD, or prints for someone to paste.
• Normal condensation: the same; the commit is found from the trailer, never from checkpoint metadata.
• entire import: the one writer that sets CommitSHA. Imported history has no trailer to rely on, so it writes the anchor into the metadata.

So linking always runs from the commit to the checkpoint. The checkpoint has no link back to its commit unless it was imported. That's why the reporter's 43 sessions are orphaned: the checkpoints were written, but no commit's trailer points at them.

This makes the anchor approach for attach --commit a real addition, not a reuse of something attach already does: attach would start recording the commit in the checkpoint's metadata, the way import does. That's also why I want to confirm how entire.io and entire-api treat a CommitSHA anchor before building on it. If they only read it on import's code path, an attach-written anchor wouldn't show up anywhere.

Should I check the server side?

A search agent is tracing how entiredb, entire-api and entire.io link checkpoints to commits, and specifically whether the metadata commit_sha anchor is read outside imports. I'll report when it's done.

One limitation: the live entire-api couldn't be fetched (its remote returns "Repository not found"), so the API part relies on the Sep 17 copy. entiredb and entire.io are current.

#2668's trail review is still being watched in the background.

No. The server never links a checkpoint to a commit through the commit_sha anchor unless the checkpoint is an import. Writing the anchor from attach with no server change would have no visible effect.

What the server does (entire-api as of Sep 17; entiredb and entire.io checked at current main):

• Commit links come only from trailers. The entire-api ingester parses Entire-Checkpoint: trailers into a checkpoint_commits table (internal/ingest/flow.go:863,897). The commit page, the commit-list previews, checkpoint detail and the /me activity view all read from that table. entiredb and entire.io don't link anything themselves; entire.io just forwards these requests to entire-api.
• commit_sha is read only on imports. It's used only when the checkpoint's metadata also has "imported": true (internal/ingest/checkpoint.go:701). It's then stored as an import anchor and every read filters on kind='imported'. An anchor written by attach without that flag is ignored, so the checkpoint 404s on detail and appears under no commit.
• Even import anchors are limited:
  • they only work when checkpoints are stored in the same repo, so not with a separate checkpoint_remote;
  • they credit no commit author or line changes;
  • in activity they add a checkpoint row, never a commit row.

So R3 and R7 need server work, not just a CLI flag. The options:

I recommend B. It's a cross-repo change touching the CLI, entire-api and possibly entire.io. Since I can't fetch the live entire-api (it moved from the remote I have), it needs you or the API owners for the server half. I can draft the CLI half and a short design note for entire-api. A is a stopgap I'd avoid because it labels the work as imported.

The same trace also answers R4's server half. The "Unknown" label comes from entire-api: getAgentID (me_agents.go:58) maps any agent outside a fixed list to "unknown", and checkpoints with no primary agent are recorded as "unknown" (flow.go:~1131). External agents need a server change there too, alongside the CLI's hardcoded activity labels.

Which way do you want R3/R7 to go? Also, where does entire-api live now, so I can read the current code?

Partly. Attach does need a link that doesn't depend on rewriting the commit, but that wouldn't make it like other checkpoints: no other checkpoint has an anchor.

• Normal checkpoints: linked only by the Entire-Checkpoint trailer in the commit. That works because the trailer is stamped while the commit is being made, in prepare-commit-msg.
• Imported checkpoints: the only ones with an anchor (commit_sha plus imported: true), because their commits already exist and can't be changed.
• Attached checkpoints: today they work like normal ones, using a trailer added by amending HEAD.

Attach is the one case that runs after the commit already exists, which is the import situation, not the normal one:

• HEAD, not yet pushed: amending in the trailer still works and is the right link.
• An older or pushed commit, or a headless bridge: a trailer would mean rewriting history. That case needs an anchor, the way imports have one.

So the proposal stands: attach gets an anchor for commits it can't amend, written by the CLI and honoured by entire-api for attached checkpoints, not only imports. One choice comes with it: should an attached anchor count for attribution (credit the commit's author, show in activity as a commit)? Import anchors deliberately don't. For attach, I'd say yes: the person attaching is saying "this session produced this commit", not "this history existed around then".

Do you want it designed that way? If so, I need the current location of entire-api to write the server half.

#2668 is ready for human review. Trail 1490: https://entire.io/gh/entireio/cli/trails/1490

• All 19 checks pass.
• The trail's agent review found no findings.
• The only failing gate is approvals, which needs a reviewer.
• The trail description is now copied from the PR body.

The question on the attach anchor is still open: should an anchor written by attach credit the commit's author and count in activity, unlike import anchors? And where does entire-api live now?

I wrote the design for attributing attach anchors, and a reviewer agent is checking it against the CLI and server code now.

The design:

• CLI: entire session attach <id> --commit <rev> never amends and never prompts, so it works headless.
  • If the target commit already has a checkpoint trailer, the session joins that checkpoint.
  • Otherwise the new checkpoint's metadata records linked_commits: [<sha>]. That's a new field, kept separate from import's commit_sha so import behaviour doesn't change.
• Server (entire-api): when it ingests a checkpoint, linked_commits creates the same checkpoint_commits rows a trailer does. Commit pages, previews, checkpoint detail and activity then work without changing how they read. It still needs:
  • handling for a checkpoint arriving before its commit is indexed, or after;
  • activity rows for that commit;
  • a record of where each link came from (trailer or attached).

Open questions I've asked the reviewer to weigh in on:

• Who is allowed to create an attributing link to a commit? A trailer is written by the commit's author; an anchor by anyone who can push checkpoints.
• How a wrong anchor gets removed.
• Whether v1 supports only a single commit.
• Whether --commit HEAD is enough for the reporter's jobs that never commit.

The decision and the reason it needs server work are in the notes file.

I still need to know where entire-api lives now. The au remote returns "Repository not found", so the server half is being reviewed against the Sep 17 copy.

I cloned the current entire-api from /et/entirehq/entire-api (main at 17e6e6858, Oct 5) into my scratchpad. I didn't touch your local clone.

• Still true on today's code: commit links come only from trailers (internal/ingest/flow.go:895,931). commit_sha is still read only for imports (internal/ingest/checkpoint.go:797). So the anchor still needs server work.
• The reviewer is now using this clone for the server half instead of the Sep 17 copy.
• Location saved in memory and the notes file.

When the design review comes back, I'll adjust the plan and implement the CLI half off main. I'll bring the server half to you before changing entire-api.

Docker is available, so the entire-api store integration tests can run locally. I've read entire-api's rules:

• migrations use timestamped versions created with scripts/new-migration.sh;
• mise run build, vet and lint run before any push;
• cross-cell behaviour needs a multicellular scenario, and activity forwarding is one.

Once the design review is back I'll finalize the plan and implement both halves on separate branches, CLI off main and entire-api off its main. Waiting on the reviewer now.

The design review is back. It changes the plan in ways you should weigh in on: one point is a trust question, and another reverses something I said earlier about R7.

Decisions for you:

1. Who can create an attributing link. A trailer can only be added by whoever writes the commit. An anchor only needs push access to the checkpoint storage, which may be a separate checkpoint_remote repo. Without a gate, anyone who can push checkpoints could put AI activity and tokens on someone else's commits and their /me page. On /me the effect is permanent: once a commit is marked as having a checkpoint, it can't be unmarked. The reviewer recommends:

   • an anchor counts for attribution only when the authenticated pusher is the commit's author (you can only anchor your own commits);
   • otherwise it's kept as an "unverified attachment": visible on the checkpoint, but no commit link and no activity credit;
   • pushes with no identified pusher (mirrored repos) never count, the same as imports today.

   I agree. Does that fit what you meant by "count for attribution"?

2. R7 should not use this. That reverses what I told you. Anchoring commit-less jobs (reviews, renders, test runs) to HEAD would credit work that didn't produce HEAD to HEAD's author. The reporter's 43 orphaned sessions need a separate home at the repo level. --commit is only for work that actually landed in that commit.

CLI changes I'm folding in (no decision needed):

• Field shape: linked_commits becomes a list of objects, {sha, repo}, carrying the code remote. The server needs that to find the right repo when one checkpoint store serves several repos.
• Push: --commit pushes the checkpoint itself, or fails with the exact command to run. Otherwise the anchor never reaches the server and the session stays orphaned, which is the bug.
• Unpushed targets: refuse a target commit that isn't on any remote branch, unless --allow-unpushed is given. Anchors don't follow a rebase or amend.
• Hard-coded HEAD: make attach's helpers work on the target commit instead of assuming HEAD.
• Local readers: teach explain <commit> and blame/why to fall back to anchors after trailers, so local blame agrees with the server.

Server shape:

• When a checkpoint arrives, its anchors are recorded as claims.
• Commit indexing treats verified claims exactly like trailers, so activity, linking and either arrival order all work.
• Each link records separately whether it came from a trailer and whether from an anchor, so an anchor can later be removed without deleting a trailer link.

Cut from v1: multiple commits or ranges, adding an anchor to a session's existing checkpoint (refused for now), detach/undo, remapping anchors after a rewrite, crediting non-author teammates, and a UI badge.

The reviewer estimates about 2–3 days for the CLI and 3–5 for the server.

My first cut of the CLI (.worktrees/attach-commit) has --commit writing linked_commits without amending, with 4 tests passing. I'm reworking it to the object-list shape and adding push and unpushed-target handling now. I'll start the server half once you confirm the trust gate in point 1.

The CLI half of attach --commit is built in .worktrees/attach-commit (branch peyton/attach-commit, off main). It isn't committed yet; mise run check is running.

What it does:

• --commit <rev>: links a session to any commit without amending or prompting.
  • If the commit already has a checkpoint, the session joins it.
  • Otherwise the new checkpoint records linked_commits: [{sha, repo}].
  • An ambiguous short hash is refused.
• Unpushed targets: refused unless --allow-unpushed is given.
• Push: the checkpoint goes up immediately through the pre-push path, which respects push_sessions, checkpoint_remote and the privacy filter. If the push fails, attach says so and that it will go out with the next push.
• Readers: explain <commit> and blame/why fall back to linked checkpoints when a commit has no trailer.
• Existing checkpoint: a session that already has one is refused with --commit, as v1 scopes it.
• Docs: sessions-and-checkpoints.md describes the field, the trust gate and the rewrite caveat.

Tests: 10 new ones. They cover:

• linking an older commit without rewriting it;
• joining a commit's existing checkpoint;
• an invalid revision;
• HEAD anchored rather than amended;
• refusing an unpushed commit;
• pushing to a real bare remote;
• the explain fallback, confirmed to fail when the fallback is removed;
• the blame fallback listing checkpoints only once per run;
• the reverse-lookup helper.

The server half is still being built by the background agent in the scratch entire-api clone. I'll review its work when it reports. Neither half gets pushed until both are reviewed and you've seen the combined diff.

Will do. I'll commit and open the CLI PR once mise run check passes. If anything fails, I'll re-run the failing tests on their own first, in case they're timeouts caused by the server agent's work running at the same time.

The first check failed lint with 3 issues. All are fixed:

• two in the test stub (struct field layout, and a List error that was always nil);
• runAttach was over the maintainability limit, so the --commit steps and the existing-checkpoint branch moved into small helpers.

Lint is now clean, and the full check is re-running. I'll commit and open the PR when it passes.

The second run passed lint and all tests except one source guard: commit hashes have to be compared with .Equal, not ==. I fixed the one place I'd used ==, and the guard passes. The full check is running a third time; I'll commit and open the PR once it's clean.

The attach --commit PR is open as #2672: https://github.com/entireio/cli/pull/2672

• mise run check passed on the third run. The first two caught a lint complexity issue and a hash-comparison guard, both fixed before committing.
• Diff: +604/−35 across 8 files, commit 28b573c05.
• The description says plainly that the server half isn't merged yet. Until it lands, the server ignores linked_commits and the checkpoint stays unlinked on entire.io, so there's no regression from today. It also lists what's out of scope for v1.
• I'm watching CI and the trail review, and will fix real findings and resolve the rest.

The server half is still being built by the background agent. I'll review its commits before anything goes to entire-api.

The server agent hasn't reported yet; it's waiting on its own background tests. I'll review its entire-api commits when it does.

Running in the background:

• #2668 (G1): clean, waiting for a reviewer.
• #2672 (attach --commit): watching CI and the trail review.
• entire-api server half: agent still running, local commits only.

Still waiting on the server agent; it's blocked on its own background test run.

The server half is built: 4 local commits on peyton/checkpoint-anchor-links in the scratch entire-api clone, +1651/−7, not pushed. It follows the spec:

• Claims: anchors from linked_commits are stored as claims.
• Trust gate: a claim links only when the pusher is the commit's author and the commit is in exactly one of the mapped repos.
• Linking: verified claims go through the same commit indexer as trailers. A new single-commit job handles commits that were indexed before their claim arrived.
• Provenance: each link records whether it came from a trailer and whether from an anchor, so removing an anchor never removes a trailer link.

The agent reports passing lint, store integration tests and the cross-cell suite, with mutation checks caught. One unit package, internal/sandbox, fails because of macOS stat; it fails the same way on main.

Things it decided beyond the spec, which the reviewer will check:

1. A claim-list version (anchor_claims_at), so an older checkpoint write can't overwrite a newer claim list.
2. The re-index job leaves the commit's pusher unset and doesn't count anchors toward link-freshness metrics.
3. If the commit is indexed before the claim and replication lag hides it when the claim arrives, the claim stays pending until the next push or re-walk. Nothing sweeps for these.
4. Consumers need deploying before producers start sending anchors. Older consumers fall back to safe, bounded work.

An independent reviewer is going over the branch now, focusing on the trust gate (can an unverified or another account's push ever link or credit?), migration safety and deploy ordering. Pushing it to entire-api is your call after that review.

#2672's CI and trail watch is still running.

The server review came back "fix first", and the fixes are underway. The trust gate holds: no path links or credits activity for an unverified claim, and the tests are real.

Must fix (being fixed now, each with a regression test written first):

1. A link could be lost permanently. If queueing the link job failed after a claim was marked verified, the retry skipped it. Fix: queue the job for every verified claim on each sync.
2. Two checkpoints anchoring the same commit: the second one's link job was dropped as a duplicate. Fix: include the checkpoint ID in the job's dedup key.
3. One missing repo could stall all indexing for a repo. A "not found" from any mapped repo was treated as fatal, so the job retried until it was dead-lettered. Fix: treat it as "no hit" and never fail commit indexing on a lookup error.
4. Trust gate gap. A later push of the same checkpoint could replace an unverified claim's claimant. Someone could then get a claim verified against another person's commit. Fix: the claimant is set only when the claim is first recorded and is never changed. A claim first seen without a pusher never verifies, the same as imports.

Smaller fixes in the same pass:

• set the job's commit state explicitly, so an old consumer's fallback can't mark trailer links as shipped;
• apply claim lists in the right order when two versions land in the same second;
• skip the claim queries and transaction for repos with no anchors;
• add a lock timeout to the migration;
• close a narrow race that could leave an anchor-only link behind;
• document that pending claims have no sweeper.

The same agent is making these changes on the branch, still local only. I'll check the result before bringing entire-api to you to push.

#2672 (attach --commit) is ready for human review. Trail 1494: https://entire.io/gh/entireio/cli/trails/1494

• All 19 checks pass.
• The trail's agent review found no findings.
• The only failing gate is approvals.
• The trail description is copied from the PR body.

Both CLI PRs are now waiting on reviewers. #2672 shouldn't merge before the entire-api half is ready to deploy; merging earlier causes no harm, it just has no visible effect on entire.io. The server fixes are still being made in the background.

The server agent is waiting on its own test run for the review fixes. Nothing to report until it finishes.

Verified on the branch:

• the claimant is written only when a claim is first inserted (the ON CONFLICT clause no longer touches it);
• build and vet are clean;
• the ingest anchor tests pass.

The entire-api half is ready to push, pending your OK.

• Branch: peyton/checkpoint-anchor-links in the scratch clone of /et/entirehq/entire-api.
• Commits: 6 (4 implementation, 2 review fixes), 16 files, +2151/−16. About 60% of that is tests and the test harness.
• Review: all 10 findings are fixed, each with a regression test that fails when its fix is reverted.
• Tests: lint 0 issues; store integration on real Postgres and the cross-cell suite pass; unit tests pass except internal/sandbox, which fails identically on main because of macOS stat.
• Not done: nothing sweeps pending claims (documented). A claim whose commit wasn't visible yet when it arrived waits for the next push or re-index.

Before you decide:

• Deploy order matters. entire-api's consumers have to be deployed before producers start creating anchor link jobs. An older consumer does safe, bounded work if it sees one, but the safe path is consumers first. The CLI's #2672 only has a visible effect once this is deployed.
• A "commit not found" from one repo now counts as "not in this repo", as specified. That 404 can also be replication lag, in which case the claim waits for the next push to be checked again.
• Pushing creates a branch on entire-api and a trail there. That's an outward step in a repo I haven't pushed to before.

Should I push the branch and open its trail on entire-api (no merge)?

The entire-api half is pushed, and its trail is open: trail #197 at https://entire.io/et/entirehq/entire-api/trails/197. Nothing is merged.

• The branch peyton/checkpoint-anchor-links passed lint before the push. Some files are flagged by gofmt, but this branch doesn't touch them.
• The trail description covers the trust gate, the migration, deploy order (consumers first), known limits and tests.
• #2672's PR and trail now link to trail #197.
• I'm watching #197's review and will handle its findings.

Everything open for this work:

Still on the list (recorded in the notes file):

• R1: a "no session" warning on commits;
• R2: an entire session run wrapper for hookless agents;
• R7: a repo-level home for commit-less sessions;
• R4: activity labels for external agents (the CLI's hardcoded list plus entire-api's getAgentID).

R1 and R2 are next once the open trails are clear.

Trail #197 is still building: its CI check is running and the findings review hasn't started. I'm watching until both finish, and will handle any findings.

Trail #197 has two problems.

1. The Medium finding (fixed locally, not pushed). Deleting a code repo left behind verified claims that still pointed at it. Claims are keyed by the checkpoint-storage repo, so the purge's sweep by repo missed them. The purge now also deletes claims that verified into the deleted repo. The new regression test failed before the fix and passes after it; the existing purge and delete tests still pass.

2. CI failed on Buildkite, and I can't see why yet. Every step I can run locally passes:

• migration-order check;
• test:pipeline;
• race tests on the changed packages;
• lint, the store integration suite and the cross-cell suite (run earlier).

The full race suite across all packages is running now.

To read the actual Buildkite log, the Buildkite connector needs authorizing: run /mcp and select "claude.ai Buildkite". You can also open https://buildkite.com/entire/entire-api/builds/1136 and tell me which step failed.

I'll push the purge fix together with whatever the CI failure turns out to need, in one commit, so the trail re-runs once.

The purge fix is pushed as 34beca1d6, and its finding is resolved on trail #197.

The full race suite also passed locally (exit 0). Every Go step in the CI pipeline now passes on my machine, so the first CI failure was either a non-Go step (sidecar tests, shell lint, image build) or a flake. The push re-runs CI on the new head, and I'm watching it.

If it fails again, I'll need to see the Buildkite log: run /mcp → "claude.ai Buildkite", or tell me which step failed.

Trail #197 has two problems:

1. New Medium finding, fixed and committed locally (86ad4ef7b). When a checkpoint's newest version had no anchors, the fast path skipped recording that version. An older version that did have anchors could then still be applied later. The fast path now records the version in one statement.
   • The regression test failed before the fix and passes after it.
   • An existing test asserted "no write for checkpoints without anchors", which was the bug itself. I've changed it to expect the version to be recorded.
   • Store and ingest tests pass, and lint is clean.
2. CI failed again on the new head (Buildkite build 1137), so it isn't a flake. Every Go step passes locally: build, vet, lint, race, pipeline, integration, cross-cell and migration order. The failure must be in a step I can't reproduce here, such as the sidecar tests, the image build or the deploy upload, or in something CI-specific.

I need the Buildkite log to fix it. Either run /mcp → "claude.ai Buildkite" to authorize, or open https://buildkite.com/entire/entire-api/builds/1137 and tell me which step failed and its error. I'll push the finding fix together with the CI fix and resolve the finding then.

The CI failure is diagnosed. migration-check failed because main added two newer migrations after I branched, so this branch's migration now sorts underneath them, and goose would refuse to apply it. My local check missed it because it compared against my outdated main.

In progress:

• Merging main: done as a merge commit, so no force-push is needed. There are three conflicts where main reworked the checkpoint hydration functions. The agent that wrote this code is resolving them so both sides' behaviour survives. That includes confirming that main's new "skip unchanged checkpoints" path can't skip a change to linked_commits.
• Re-stamping the migration: forward with scripts/new-migration.sh. It has never been applied anywhere, which is the documented fix.
• Re-running everything: migration order against the current main, lint, unit, integration, cross-cell, pipeline and race tests.

The Medium finding fix (86ad4ef7b) goes out in the same push. When the agent reports, I'll check the merge, push once, resolve the finding and watch CI.

The agent is still running its test suite after the merge and re-stamp. Nothing to report yet.

Still running its tests. Waiting.

Will do. When the agent reports, I'll check the merge resolution and the re-stamped migration myself. If its checks all passed, I'll push once, resolve the finding on #197 and watch CI.

Still waiting on the agent's test run.

Pushed. Trail #197's head is now 50f94679f.

• Commits: the fast-path finding fix, the merge with the current main (conflicts resolved so both sides' behaviour survives), and the migration re-stamped to 20261006195110.

• Before pushing, I re-checked:

  • no leftover conflict markers;
  • migration order OK against the current main, which is the check that failed in CI;
  • build and lint clean.

  The agent ran the integration, cross-cell, pipeline and race suites after the merge, and all passed.

• Findings: both are resolved.

I'm watching CI and the trail review on the new head.

Once #197's CI is green, the work for this round is done. What happens next:

Waiting on reviewers:

• cli#2668 (G1): also needs one real check in Cursor or VS Code before merging.
• cli#2672 and entire-api #197 (attach anchors): deploy entire-api's consumers first, then merge #2672.
• external-agents#98 (README).

What I'd take next, in order:

Smaller gaps, lower priority:

• --amend -m drops the commit's own trailer; also broken on main.
• A person's commit during an agent's first turn links no session.
• An interactive chooser for commits made in a third worktree.
• Subagent TodoWrite checkpoints in other worktrees.
• #2577's own follow-ups.

Shall I start R1 while the reviews are pending?

Right, and it's the same thing we hit in the original investigation: the git hook wrappers run entire hooks git … 2>/dev/null || true, so anything written to stderr from a git hook disappears.

About #1859. It's still open, from an outside contributor. It prints to stderrWriter, which the wrappers discard, so nobody would ever see it. It also recommends session adopt, which we found is the wrong remedy for a missed link. #2531 already covers the same ambiguous-worktree case in a way that does reach the user: announceUnlinkedCommit (session_identity.go:150) writes to the controlling terminal (/dev/tty), the same way the existing link prompt (askConfirmTTY) does, and points at entire session attach. Once #2531 merges, #1859 is superseded. I'd close it with a note pointing there, but only when you say so.

How I'd warn without undoing the 2>/dev/null decision:

1. Warn only when there's something to link. "This commit has no session" is true for almost every commit a person makes, so warning on that would be noise on every commit. Warn only when an open session could have owned the commit but didn't get it:

   • #2531's ambiguous-worktree case;
   • a live session that #2668's new rule excluded because the commit came from outside its agent;
   • a mid-turn session in this worktree whose files didn't overlap the commit.

   A repo with no live sessions stays quiet.

2. People at a terminal: write to /dev/tty. This is already accepted for the link prompt and in #2531. It bypasses the wrappers without reopening stderr, so hook errors and crashes stay hidden as before.

3. No terminal (agents, scripts, GUI clients, queue jobs): record it instead of printing. Nothing would reach anyone there anyway. Append the commit and its candidate sessions to a small log in the session store, and show it where people look:

   • entire status ("2 recent commits weren't linked; run entire session attach <id> --commit <sha>"), which uses #2672's new flag;
   • entire doctor;
   • optionally the next agent hook in that worktree, as added context for the agent, so it can attach the commit itself.

4. The site's "no session" marker needs no CLI change. entire-api already records whether each commit has a checkpoint (has_checkpoint), so this is UI work in entire.io.

I wouldn't remove 2>/dev/null. It also hides hook errors and crash output from every commit, which is presumably why it was added, and a terminal notice plus a recorded log covers both audiences without bringing that back.

Should I go with this? The CLI part (points 1–3) is one PR off main. It touches the same commit-linking code as #2531 and #2668, so whichever merges last needs a rebase.

Trail #197 status:

• CI: green on 50f94679f. The migration re-stamp fixed migration-check.
• High finding: valid, and caused by my own fast-path fix. The server agent is replacing it so the version is recorded inside the existing checkpoint upsert, with a deterministic concurrency test and mutation checks.
• Medium finding: dismissed. Never updating the claimant is the deliberate trust-gate fix.

I'll push once the agent's checks pass, as you asked.

Still open from you: should I go with the R1 warning design from my last message (/dev/tty notice at a terminal, a recorded log surfaced in entire status and doctor when there's no terminal, and warnings only when a session could have owned the commit)?

That notification is just the earlier 2>/dev/null search finishing; I'd already read its results. Still waiting on the server agent's race fix and on your answer about the R1 design.

No. #1859 is exactly the approach that can't work, and R1 is built to avoid it:

One honest overlap: the terminal half reuses #2531's announceUnlinkedCommit, which already does the /dev/tty write for the ambiguous case. R1 shouldn't re-implement that, and #2531 isn't merged yet. Since we don't stack PRs, the options are:

• (a) R1 waits for #2531 to merge, then extends announceUnlinkedCommit.
• (b) R1 lands off main with only the parts that don't need #2531: the recorded log, status/doctor, and the exclusion case from #2668. The terminal notice gets wired in once #2531 merges.

I'd do (b) now: the recorded log is the new part, and it's where the reporter's headless commits actually show up.

The server agent is still running its tests for the race fix. Waiting on that, and on your pick of (a) or (b) for R1.

Still waiting on the server agent's tests.

Still running.

The race fix is pushed to trail #197 as d53fa5c0d, and the High finding is resolved.

• The fix: the claim-list version is now recorded inside the checkpoint upsert. It only ever moves forward, and it takes the same row lock as the claim transaction. The separate update I'd added to the fast path is removed.
• Proof: a new regression test reproduces the exact interleaving from the finding. It failed 3 of 3 runs before the fix and passes after.
• Checks before pushing: migration order OK against current main, lint 0 issues; integration, cross-cell and pipeline suites pass.
• Diff: this fix adds +198/−21 on top of the branch.

I'm watching CI and the review on the new head.

For R1, I'm still waiting on your choice: (a) wait for #2531, or (b) land the recorded-log part off main now.

No, not in this session. #2634 was opened on Oct 1 under your account from peyton/worktree-local-settings (worktree .worktrees/worktree-local-settings, trail 1460), so it came from an earlier session, likely the settings-worktree-scope investigation the notes file mentions.

It is relevant to the external-agent report, though. external_agents: true only counts from .entire/settings.local.json, and that file is gitignored, so a new git worktree add doesn't have it. In a linked worktree, every external-agent hook then fails with unknown agent …, no session is recorded, and a commit there can even link to the main tree's live session. That's another way a headless external agent like the reporter's ends up with "no session" if its jobs run in worktrees. #2634 fixes it: a linked worktree without its own local file uses the main worktree's.

It's still open. Do you want me to check its current state (CI, trail findings, whether it needs rebasing onto main)?

Trail #197 (entire-api) is clean on d53fa5c0d: CI passes, the agent review found nothing new, and the only failing gate is approvals.

All four PRs for this round are now waiting only on reviewers:

I've added #2634 to the notes as related: it fixes external agents not working in linked worktrees.

Two things are waiting on you:

1. R1: (a) wait for #2531, or (b) start the recorded-log part off main now. I recommend (b).
2. #2634: do you want me to check its CI, findings and whether it needs a rebase?

These four are ready for review. external-agents#98 has no trail, so its line links the PR.

• #2668: a commit made outside a running agent (a hookless agent, a script, a GUI client) no longer gets that agent's session attached to it. https://entire.io/gh/entireio/cli/trails/1490 • #2672: entire session attach --commit <sha> links a session to an older or already-pushed commit without rewriting it. https://entire.io/gh/entireio/cli/trails/1494 • entire-api #197: the server side of #2672. A link counts as attribution only when whoever pushed it also authored the commit. Deploy consumers before producers. https://entire.io/et/entirehq/entire-api/trails/197 • external-agents#98: the docs said external_agents goes in settings.json, where the CLI ignores it. They now say settings.local.json. https://github.com/entireio/external-agents/pull/98

#2672 and #197 should land together.

Those are two different sessions. #2668 (trail 1490) only stops the wrong one from being attached.

Commit from a script run by the agent itself (Claude runs ./deploy.sh and the script commits):

• Before: linked to the agent's session.
• After #2668: still linked. The script runs under the agent's process, so the agent is in the commit's process ancestry and nothing changes.

Commit from a separate script or hookless agent (a queue job, Kimi, a cron script) while Claude happens to be mid-turn in the same worktree:

• Before: linked to Claude's session. That's wrong: Claude didn't make the commit, and its transcript gets condensed into it.
• After #2668: not linked, unless the commit includes files Claude's session touched.

The same separate script with no other agent running:

• Before: not linked.
• After #2668: not linked. Unchanged.

The reporter's complaint ("no session was attached") is the third case. The script never opened a session, so there's no correct session for Entire to attach. #2668 doesn't fix that and isn't meant to. It fixes the second case, where an unrelated session was being attached instead.

Getting the script's own session attached needs:

• The script to open a session: the entire session run -- <cmd> wrapper (R2), or an external-agent bridge that calls entire hooks ….
• Or attaching afterwards: entire session attach <id> --commit <sha> (#2672), if the job's transcript can be attached.
• And R1's warning, so those commits don't go by silently.

Which case did the reporter mean: a script the agent ran, or a separate job? If it's the first, it should already link, and that would be a different bug worth reproducing.

No, not yet. Nothing shipped so far gives a script that calls a model its own session:

• #2668 stops a different agent's session from being attached to the script's commits.
• #2672 (attach --commit) can link afterwards, but attach reads the transcript of an agent Entire supports. A script's Ollama calls aren't in any agent's transcript format, so there's nothing for it to attach.

The fix for that is R2, the entire session run wrapper. It's the next real piece of work. Roughly:

1. Opens a session before the command starts, with the wrapper process recorded as the session's owner.
2. Links commits through process ancestry. Every git commit the script makes runs under the wrapper, so it's identified as this session's own commit. #2668's rule is what keeps it from going to some other agent.
3. Records a transcript. Either the job's stdout/stderr as a plain log, or a JSONL file the script writes with prompt/response pairs. With the JSONL file, the job can also report model and token counts, which covers the reporter's tokens request (R5).
4. Ends the session when the command exits.

Two open questions make it a design note before code:

• Transcript format: a raw log is zero effort for script authors; structured JSONL gives real prompts and tokens. Probably support both.
• Jobs that never commit (reviews, renders, test runs): the session would have no commit to link to. That's R7, the repo-level home, which needs entire-api work. So R2 and R7 should be designed together.

Should I write that design note now? Or start R2 with only the part that doesn't depend on R7: the wrapper, linking for jobs that do commit (like their Aider queue-coder), and a log as the transcript?

• #2668: fixes commits made outside a running agent (a script, a headless agent, a GUI client) wrongly getting that agent's session attached. https://entire.io/gh/entireio/cli/trails/1490 • #2672: entire session attach --commit <sha> links a session to an older or already-pushed commit without rewriting it. https://entire.io/gh/entireio/cli/trails/1494 • entire-api #197: the server side of #2672. A link counts as attribution only when whoever pushed it also authored the commit. Deploy consumers before producers. https://entire.io/et/entirehq/entire-api/trails/197 • external-agents#98: the docs said external_agents goes in settings.json, where the CLI ignores it. They now say settings.local.json. https://github.com/entireio/external-agents/pull/98

I kept "headless" in the #2668 line as the source of the commit, not as something that now gets a session. Attaching a headless job's own session is the session run wrapper (R2), which isn't built yet.

It's the other way around: the commit isn't changed at all.

• Today, attach without --commit: writes the checkpoint ID into the commit. It amends HEAD to add Entire-Checkpoint: <id>, which rewrites the commit.
• #2672, attach --commit <sha>: writes the commit SHA into the checkpoint. The checkpoint's metadata records linked_commits: [{sha, repo}], and the commit stays exactly as it was. That's why it works on older or already-pushed commits and in headless runs.

entire-api #197 is what makes that recorded SHA count. When the server ingests the checkpoint and the pusher is the commit's author, it links the checkpoint to that commit, the same as a trailer would.

One exception: if the target commit already has a checkpoint trailer, nothing new is written for the link. The session is just added to that existing checkpoint.

You're right to question it. #2672 is the right fix for a narrower problem than the one the reporter mostly has.

What it does fix: a session whose work did land in a commit, but not HEAD (an older commit, an already-pushed one, or a headless attach). For that case, linking to the commit is correct: the commit link is what Entire's attribution is built on ("this agent wrote these lines").

What it doesn't fix, and arguably entrenches: the reporter's main problem is the coupling itself. Their bridge records 43 sessions, and most of them (reviews, test runs, renders) never produce a commit. Today a session can only appear on entire.io by being linked to one. #2672 still requires a commit, just a more flexible one. Anchoring those jobs to HEAD would credit work to a commit it didn't produce, which is the R7 point from the review.

What I think the right model is: sessions are first-class and recorded against the repo whether or not they produced a commit. A link to a commit is an optional extra that carries attribution when there is one. Under that model:

• R7 (commit-less jobs) is just a session with no link;
• the session run wrapper (R2) creates sessions that may or may not get links;
• #2672's linked_commits becomes one way of adding a link.

What I'd do:

1. Hold #2672 and entire-api #197 from merging until the session-first design (R7, with R2) is settled. If that design changes how links are stored, we'd be shipping a metadata field and a database table we then have to migrate. Holding costs nothing; both stay ready.
2. Write the R7/R2 design note next, covering where a session lives without a commit, how the site shows it, how a commit link attaches to it, and whether linked_commits survives as-is.
3. #2668 and external-agents#98 are independent of this and fine to send now.

If you agree, drop #2672 and #197 from the Slack message for now, or post them as "ready, holding until the session design is decided". Should I start the design note?

You shouldn't have to choose, and with #2672 as it stands you'd have to. There are two mechanisms, and which one you get depends on a flag:

Nobody can be expected to know which attach mode is right, especially an agent.

What I'd propose: one rule based on timing, never on a flag.

• While a commit is being made, the git hooks write the trailer, as today. That's automatic, so no one chooses.
• After the commit exists, entire session attach always records the link in the checkpoint and never amends. --commit defaults to HEAD. The -f amend path goes away.

People and agents then learn one thing: attach links a session to a commit, for any commit, and never rewrites history. Under the hood, readers check trailers first and anchors second, which #2672 already does for explain and blame.

What this costs:

• It changes behaviour for anyone who relies on attach -f amending HEAD. Agent-help guidance and docs would need updating.
• An attach only counts once entire-api #197 is deployed, and only when the person attaching authored the commit. Today's amend path has no such check, because a trailer can only be written by whoever rewrites the commit. That's a narrowing, and I think it's the right one.

This belongs in the same design note as the session-first model (R7/R2): in that model, the anchor becomes the single way to link after the fact. It's one more reason to hold #2672 and #197 until the note is settled, since #2672 would change from "add --commit" to "make attach always anchor".

Should I write the design note covering all three: sessions without a commit, the session run wrapper, and the single-rule attach?

No, the proposed change removes the one place attach rewrites history today.

• attach -f today rewrites history. It runs git commit --amend on HEAD to add the trailer, so HEAD gets a new SHA. That's harmless before a push, but on a pushed commit it forces a force-push. That's why attach only works on HEAD and refuses older commits.
• The git hooks don't. They add the trailer in prepare-commit-msg, while the commit is being made, so the commit is created with it.
• The proposed rule doesn't either, and neither does #2672. attach writes only to Entire's own checkpoint storage (entire/checkpoints/v1, or a checkpoint ref). That adds a new commit to Entire's metadata, the same as every normal checkpoint, and never touches your branch or its commits.

So under the single rule, nothing in Entire ever rewrites a commit after it exists. Commits get trailers only while they're being made, and every later link is recorded on Entire's side.

Fair question. Honestly, I don't think we need it now.

How we got here:

• The request: the reporter's request #3 was "let session attach target a specific commit".
• The cost: to do that without rewriting history, we built #2672 in the CLI and entire-api #197. That's about +600 and +2,400 lines, including a trust gate, a migration and a new job type.
• What we learned along the way: their real pain is the 43 orphaned sessions, and most of those never produced a commit. #2672 doesn't help them.

What #2672/#197 still fix: someone attaching a session whose work landed in an older or already-pushed commit. That's a real gap, but nobody has reported hitting it, and I don't know how common it is. I let the scope grow on a request that turned out not to be the main problem.

What the reporter actually needs, in order:

1. The session run wrapper (R2): their scripts and queue jobs get sessions at all, and jobs that commit get linked automatically through process ancestry, with no attach step.
2. Somewhere for sessions without a commit (R7): reviews, renders and tests show up on the site.
3. The warning when a commit could have been linked (R1).

None of those needs #2672 or #197.

What I'd do:

• Park #2672 and entire-api #197: convert them to drafts, keep the branches and leave a short note on each saying why. Revisit them once the session design (R7/R2) is settled, or if someone hits the older-commit case.
• Send #2668 and external-agents#98: they're independent and fix real problems from this report.
• Start the R2 + R7 design note next, with the single attach rule as a section in it rather than a separate effort.

Should I convert #2672 and #197 to drafts with that note?

Yes, for part of their case it helps, and with one adjustment it's simpler for everyone.

Where it helps the reporter: coding jobs that do commit. Their Aider queue-coder and the qwen-coder and GLM coding runs produce commits that today end up with no session, or attached to a stale checkout's HEAD. With #2672 and #197, their bridge can run entire session attach <id> --commit <sha> against the commit each job produced: headless, no amend, any commit. Two conditions apply:

• the bridge's sessions must be in a registered agent's format, which works if they come through an external agent;
• the account pushing the checkpoint must be the commit's author, or the link doesn't count.

It doesn't help their review, render and test jobs. Those still need R7.

Is it better for users overall? Only if there's one rule. Two linking modes chosen by a flag would confuse people and agents. So I'd revise #2672 before it ships:

• attach always records the link in the checkpoint and never amends. --commit defaults to HEAD, and -f amend goes away.
• The git hooks keep writing trailers while commits are made. That stays automatic and invisible.

How people and agents find out when to use it:

1. Agent-help guidance (agentHelpGuidance, which is where the repo rules say agent guidance belongs), along the lines of: "Commits made during a session are linked automatically. If one was missed, run entire session attach <session-id> --commit <sha>; it never rewrites the commit."
2. attach --help: the same rule, written for people.
3. Point to it from the places where a missed link is noticed: R1's terminal notice and entire status/doctor print the exact attach --commit command for the unlinked commit. #2531's notice already points at attach, so it should include --commit.
4. A clear message when the link can't count yet: when the person attaching isn't the commit's author, say so up front instead of failing silently on the server.

So: keep #2672 and #197, but revise #2672 to the single rule with the guidance, and land it with R1 so there's a path from "this commit wasn't linked" to the command that fixes it. Session-first (R7/R2) stays the next design.

Should I make that revision to #2672 now?

Yes. Today attach always targets HEAD, so defaulting --commit to HEAD keeps the same target and changes only how the link is recorded. That made me recheck my "always record it in the checkpoint" proposal, and it's wrong for the most common case.

The usual attach is "I just committed and the hooks missed it", so the target is an unpushed HEAD. For that case the trailer is the better link:

• It travels with the commit, so it survives a later rebase, amend or squash. A link recorded in the checkpoint points at the old SHA and is left dangling. That's why #2672 refuses unpushed commits without --allow-unpushed.
• It works without the server, and without the author check.
• Amending an unpushed HEAD is harmless, because nobody else has it yet.

So the rule should depend on the commit's state, and attach should apply it automatically:

People and agents still learn one command, entire session attach <id> [--commit <sha>], and never pick a mechanism. attach says what it did, for example "linked by amending HEAD" or "linked in the checkpoint; the commit is unchanged".

Relative to today, that's:

• Today: HEAD only. It prompts to amend, or -f amends; without a terminal it just prints the trailer and leaves the checkpoint unlinked.
• Revised #2672: the same amend for an unpushed HEAD, done automatically even with no terminal, which fixes the headless orphan. A pushed commit gets a link in the checkpoint instead of a force-push. An older unpushed commit is refused with guidance.

Should I revise #2672 to that rule, along with the agent-help and --help guidance?

Not quite. Today attach already targets the existing HEAD; it never waits for a next commit.

Today:

• At a terminal: it creates the checkpoint and asks whether to amend HEAD with the trailer. -f amends without asking.
• Without a terminal (agents, scripts): it can't ask, so it creates the checkpoint, prints the trailer for someone to paste, and leaves HEAD alone. The checkpoint stays unlinked. That's the headless orphan.
• Future commits: it also sets up the session's state so that, if the session is still running, its later commits get trailers through the normal hooks. That covers ongoing work, not the transcript you just attached. (There's one side path: a later git commit --amend of that HEAD restores the trailer.)
• No commits at all: it fails ("failed to get HEAD").

With the revised #2672:

• Same default target, the existing HEAD.
• HEAD not yet pushed: amends automatically, even without a terminal, so the headless orphan goes away.
• HEAD already pushed: records the link in the checkpoint instead of amending, so no force-push.
• --commit <sha>: for an older pushed commit, the link is recorded in the checkpoint. An older unpushed commit is refused with guidance.
• Future commits of a still-running session: link through the hooks, unchanged.

So the new parts are: no orphans when there's no terminal, pushed commits linked without rewriting them, and older commits linked at all.

Yes, attach would decide for itself. That's the revision I'm proposing; #2672 doesn't do it yet. Right now it chooses by flag: no --commit amends HEAD, and --commit always records the link in the checkpoint.

The revised logic, checked in this order:

1. Resolve the target: --commit <sha>, or HEAD by default.
2. Does the commit already have an Entire-Checkpoint trailer? Add the session to that checkpoint. It's already linked, so nothing else is written.
3. Is the target on a remote branch? (git branch -r --contains, which #2672 already runs.)
   • Not pushed, and it's HEAD: amend in the trailer. Nobody else has the commit, and the trailer survives later rebases.
   • Already pushed: record the commit SHA in the checkpoint (linked_commits) and push the checkpoint. Amending would mean a force-push.
   • Not pushed and not HEAD: refuse. The message says to push it first, or to attach while it's HEAD next time.
4. Say what happened, e.g. "linked by amending HEAD (not yet pushed)" or "linked in the checkpoint; commit unchanged (already pushed)". If the link records the SHA and the person attaching isn't the commit's author, warn that it won't count until the author attaches it.

The -f flag and the amend prompt go away; whether to amend is decided by whether the commit has been pushed, not by asking. --allow-unpushed goes away too, since the unpushed HEAD case now amends.

The same rule goes into attach --help and the agent-help guidance, so people and agents only ever learn entire session attach <id> [--commit <sha>].

Should I make this change to #2672?

The rule is implemented on #2672's branch (.worktrees/attach-commit). It isn't committed yet; mise run check is running.

What changed:

• The decision logic: planAttachLink picks the link from the target commit, never from a flag:
  • already has a checkpoint → join it;
  • unpushed HEAD → amend in the trailer, no prompt;
  • pushed → record the link in the checkpoint and push it;
  • older unpushed commit → refuse before anything is written.
• Removed: the amend prompt and --allow-unpushed. -f is still accepted but hidden and has no effect, so existing scripts and the e2e harness keep working.
• Headless attach no longer leaves an orphan: an unpushed HEAD is amended automatically instead of printing a trailer to paste.
• A pushed commit is never rewritten. Previously -f would amend it.
• Author warning: a recorded link where the local git author isn't the commit's author warns up front that it won't count.
• Guidance: attach --help, a new agent-help entry for session attach, and sessions-and-checkpoints.md all describe the one rule.

Tests: 9 for the rule pass:

• unpushed HEAD is amended;
• pushed HEAD and an older pushed commit are linked in the checkpoint (nothing rewritten, checkpoint pushed);
• an older unpushed commit is refused with nothing written;
• joining an existing checkpoint;
• the author warning;
• a bad revision;
• explain finds the linked checkpoint;
• the headless amend.

The existing attach tests pass with Force removed.

When the check passes, I'll commit, push to #2672 and update its PR and trail description to the new rule.

The first full check caught one lint issue: an unchecked error in a new test. It's fixed, lint is clean, and the full check is running again. I'll commit and push to #2672 when it passes.

Pushed. Updating #2672's title, description and trail to the new rule.