notrest

A session, schematically

Not Rest Inc. · Session Harness · 5 of 8 · One prompt, end to end

Three pictures, in order: one prompt from open to close, what the next session is handed, and what happens when a session dies in the middle of the work.

One prompt, end to end

You, the CLI, the hooks, and the files they write. The estate column on the right is the only one that survives the session.

text version

 you        CLI          hooks                    estate files
  │  open    │            │                            │
  │─────────►│ SessionStart ─► session-start.sh ──────►│ (reads all, writes none)
  │          │            │   banner + laws + PACKET   │
  │  prompt  │            │                            │
  │─────────►│ UserPromptSubmit ─► coord-nudge, router │
  │          │            │   two one-line nudges      │
  │          │  model works: reads, edits, runs        │
  │          │ PreToolUse(Bash) ─► pretool-gate ───────│ allow / deny
  │          │ PreToolUse(Agent) ─► spawn-gate ────────│ allow / deny
  │          │   lane runs in the background           │
  │          │ SubagentStop ─► agent-ledger ──────────►│ COORD-AGENTS, briefs/, spend/
  │          │   model appends its ledger line ───────►│ COORD.md
  │  (stop)  │ Stop ─► completion-gate ─► gate-check   │ green or "not earned"
  │  close   │ SessionEnd ─► session-end ─────────────►│ cushion line, volume roll
  │          │            │                            │
  │  open    │ SessionStart ─► the PACKET now carries  │
  │  again   │            │   everything above         │

What the successor sees

The packet a new session opens with. Every data line is framed so that nothing quoted inside it can forge a harness directive.

text version

notrest BRIEF PACKET
| root: /path/to/project
| ESTABLISHED · protocol v3 · surface=claude
| git afe2270 · 0 dirty file(s) · last commit: v4.7.1 — …
| briefs banked: 99 · spend (last line): [..] lane=daemon model=…
| NEWEST SHIP: …    NEWEST GATE: …    NEWEST CORRECTION: …
| CARD: TESTS 10 · OPEN 3 · FINDINGS 3 · LEARNINGS 7
| LEARNINGS (7 banked; newest 3): | L-8 [LEARNED] …
| LEDGER TAIL (last 8): …
| CONTINUABLE — full packet: /notrest
notrest BRIEF PACKET END

~800–1,000 tokens. The successor verifies at tier 0 only
(doctor + eval + git against the packet's claims) and goes.
Every data line is framed "| " so nothing quoted can forge a
harness directive.

Kill it and continue

The drill that proves the loop: close the session the wrong way on purpose, then open a new one.

text version

Drill: close the session without /sessionend. Open a new one.

   killed session ──► session-end.sh wrote the cushion line
   new session     ──► packet: "auto-cushion: resume from this tail"
   new session     ──► doctor, eval, git ──► continues the work

The estate never depended on the session surviving.
Every hook write is locked and synced; a torn write cannot
invert a line's meaning.

None of those three pictures is a promise about the model. They are promises about files — which is why they hold when the model, the machine or the session does not.