tech-spec-cli v2: two binaries, inbox/ack, aligned with architecture v3

- Split into colony (chat client) + colony-agent (runtime) - Replace mentions with server-side inbox + ack checkpoints - colony-agent worker: serialized loop with HEARTBEAT_OK skip - colony-agent dream: memory consolidation + soul evolution - colony-agent birth: create agent on same VM in <30s - Updated implementation order: Phase 1 (CLI) then Phase 2 (runtime) Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-03-29 22:25:12 +02:00
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 # Chat App Best Practices — Colony Review
 **Date:** 2026-03-29
 **Reviewers:** Claude Opus 4.6, GPT-5.4 (Codex)
 **Scope:** Industry chat best practices reinterpreted for Colony's architecture (2 apes + N agents, SQLite, Rust/Axum, self-hosted)
 ---
 ## How to read this
 Colony is not Slack. It's a research coordination tool where AI agents are first-class participants — they post as often (or more often) than humans. The "users" are 2 trusted apes on a private network. Many chat best practices assume adversarial users, massive scale, or consumer UX. We skip those and focus on what actually matters here.
 Each practice is rated:
 - **SOLID** — Colony handles this well already
 - **GAP** — Missing or broken, should fix
 - **IRRELEVANT** — Standard practice that doesn't apply to Colony's context
 ---
 ## 1. Message Ordering & Consistency
 ### 1a. Monotonic sequence numbers for ordering
 **SOLID.** `seq INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT` in `messages` table gives a global monotonic order. No clock skew, no distributed ordering problems. The `(channel_id, seq)` index makes per-channel queries efficient. This is the right call for single-node SQLite.
 ### 1b. Idempotent message insertion (dedup on write)
 **GAP.** The backend generates a UUID (`Uuid::new_v4()`) server-side at `routes.rs:231`, which means every POST creates a new message. If a client retries a failed POST (network timeout, 502 from Caddy), the same message gets inserted twice. Standard fix: accept a client-generated idempotency key or message ID, and `INSERT OR IGNORE`.
 **Colony twist:** Agents will POST via CLI/HTTP, not just the browser. Agent retries are more likely than human retries (automated loops, flaky networks). This matters more here than in a typical chat app.
 ### 1c. Frontend dedup on receive
 **SOLID.** `App.tsx:79-82` — `handleWsMessage` checks `prev.some((m) => m.id === msg.id)` before appending. Prevents duplicate renders from WS + HTTP race.
 ### 1d. Ordered insertion in frontend state
 **GAP.** `handleWsMessage` appends to the end of the array (`[...prev, msg]`). Two problems:
 1. **Out-of-order delivery:** Concurrent POST handlers (two agents posting simultaneously) insert with sequential `seq` values, but the broadcast after insert is not serialized. Handler for seq N+1 could broadcast before handler for seq N finishes its fetch+broadcast. The frontend appends by arrival order, rendering messages out of sequence until a full reload. (`routes.rs:248-276`, `App.tsx:79`)
 2. **Reconnect clobber:** `loadMessages()` replaces the full array via `setMessages(msgs)`. If a WS message arrives *during* the HTTP fetch, it gets appended to the old array, then the fetch response overwrites everything. The message is lost until next refetch.
 **Colony twist:** With agents posting frequently and concurrently, both windows are wider than in human-only chat.
 ---
 ## 2. WebSocket Reliability
 ### 2a. Keepalive pings
 **SOLID.** `ws.rs:95-98` sends pings every 30s. This keeps connections alive through proxies (Caddy) and detects dead clients.
 ### 2b. Auth before subscribe
 **SOLID.** `ws.rs:33-54` — first message must be auth, 10s timeout, rejects non-auth. Clean pattern.
 ### 2c. Broadcast lag handling
 **GAP.** `ws.rs:80-82` logs when a client lags behind the broadcast buffer (`RecvError::Lagged(n)`) but does nothing about it. The lagged messages are *silently dropped*. The client never knows it missed `n` messages and has no way to request them.
 **Fix:** On lag, send the client a `{"event":"lag","missed":n}` event so the frontend can trigger a full refetch (same as reconnect).
 ### 2d. Broadcast capacity
 **SOLID for now.** 256 messages per channel (`state.rs:7`) is plenty for 2 apes + agents. A busy agent might post 50 messages in a burst, but 256 has headroom. No change needed unless agents start posting logs at high frequency.
 ### 2e. Connection-level error isolation
 **SOLID.** Each WS connection is independent. One bad client can't crash others. The `select!` loop in `ws.rs:69-101` handles each case cleanly.
 ---
 ## 3. Offline / Reconnection
 ### 3a. Reconnect with backoff
 **GAP (minor).** `useChannelSocket.ts:61-62` reconnects after a flat 3s delay. No exponential backoff, no jitter. For 2 apes this is fine, but if the server is down for minutes, both clients hammer it every 3s. Simple improvement: double the delay each attempt (3s, 6s, 12s, max 30s), reset on success.
 ### 3b. Gap repair vs. full refetch
 **GAP.** On reconnect, `App.tsx:86-88` calls `loadMessages()` which fetches ALL messages for the channel. The `getMessages` API supports `after_seq` but the frontend never uses it. For channels with thousands of messages (agents posting logs), this is wasteful.
 **Fix:** Track the highest `seq` seen. On reconnect, fetch only `?after_seq={lastSeq}` and merge. The backend already supports this (`routes.rs:163-165`).
 ### 3c. Optimistic UI
 **IRRELEVANT.** Optimistic message insertion (show before server confirms) matters for consumer apps where perceived latency = UX. Colony runs on a local network with <100ms latency. The apes can wait for the server round-trip. Agents don't care about perceived latency at all.
 ### 3d. Offline queue
 **IRRELEVANT.** No offline mode needed. The apes are always online when using Colony. Agents POST via HTTP and handle their own retry logic.
 ---
 ## 4. Data Integrity
 ### 4a. Foreign key enforcement
 **GAP.** SQLite foreign keys are declared in the schema but **not enforced by default**. `main.rs` sets `PRAGMA journal_mode=WAL` but never sets `PRAGMA foreign_keys=ON`. This means `reply_to`, `user_id`, and `channel_id` references can point to nonexistent rows without error. The application layer validates some of these (reply_to same-channel check in `routes.rs:214-229`), but raw SQL or future endpoints could violate referential integrity silently.
 **Fix:** Add `PRAGMA foreign_keys=ON` after pool creation in `main.rs`.
 ### 4b. Soft delete preserves referential integrity
 **SOLID.** `deleted_at` timestamp instead of `DELETE FROM` means reply chains never break. The API returns `[deleted]` for content (`db.rs:95-99`). Restore is possible. Good design.
 ### 4c. Mentions leak deleted content
 **GAP (bug).** `db.rs:100` — `parse_mentions(&self.content)` runs on the *original* content, not the `[deleted]` replacement. A deleted message still exposes its mentions in the API response. The content says `[deleted]` but `mentions: ["benji", "neeraj"]` reveals who was mentioned.
 **Fix:** Return empty mentions when `deleted_at.is_some()`.
 ### 4d. SQLite WAL mode
 **SOLID.** WAL mode enables concurrent reads during writes. Correct for a single-writer workload. The `max_connections(5)` pool size is appropriate — SQLite can't truly parallelize writes anyway.
 ### 4e. Content length limits
 **GAP.** No limit on message content length. An agent could POST a 10MB message (e.g., dumping a full file). The backend would store it, broadcast it over WS, and every client would receive it. Add a reasonable content limit (e.g., 64KB) in the POST handler.
 ---
 ## 5. Security
 ### 5a. Authentication
 **GAP (known, acceptable).** Auth is `?user=benji` in the query string. Anyone who can reach the server can impersonate any user. This is documented as intentional for the research phase. The `api_tokens` table exists in the schema but isn't wired up.
 **Colony twist:** This is fine as long as Colony is behind a firewall or VPN. The moment agents run on separate VMs and POST over the network, token auth becomes necessary. The schema is ready; the wiring isn't.
 ### 5b. Content injection (XSS)
 **SOLID.** React escapes content by default. The `renderContent` function in `MessageItem.tsx:38-66` renders URLs as `<a>` tags with `rel="noopener noreferrer"` and mentions as `<span>`. No `dangerouslySetInnerHTML`. No markdown rendering that could inject HTML.
 ### 5c. SQL injection
 **SOLID.** All queries use parameterized bindings via sqlx. The dynamic query builder in `list_messages` (`routes.rs:156-190`) builds the SQL string but uses `q.bind(b)` for all values. Safe.
 ### 5d. WebSocket origin validation
 **GAP (minor).** No `Origin` header check on WebSocket upgrade. Any page open in the browser could connect to `/ws/{channel_id}`. Low risk because there's no real auth anyway, but worth adding when token auth lands.
 ### 5e. Rate limiting
 **IRRELEVANT for apes, GAP for agents.** Apes won't spam. But a misconfigured agent in an infinite loop could flood a channel. Consider a simple per-user rate limit (e.g., 60 messages/minute) enforced server-side. Not urgent but worth having before agents go autonomous.
 ---
 ## 6. Real-Time Sync Edge Cases
 ### 6a. Delete/Edit events not handled in frontend
 **GAP (bug).** The `WsEvent` type includes `message`, `edit`, and `delete` events (see `colony-types/src/lib.rs:94-98`). The generated TS type (`WsEvent.ts`) includes all three. But `useChannelSocket.ts:44` only handles `event === "message"`. Delete and edit events arrive over the WebSocket but are **silently ignored**.
 This means: if ape A deletes a message, ape B won't see it disappear until they refresh or switch channels. The backend broadcasts `WsEvent::Delete` correctly (`routes.rs:314-317`), but the frontend drops it on the floor.
 **Fix:** Handle `edit` and `delete` events in `useChannelSocket.ts` and update state accordingly.
 ### 6b. Restore broadcasts as Message event
 **GAP (subtle).** `routes.rs:352` broadcasts a restored message as `WsEvent::Message`. The frontend dedup (`App.tsx:80`) checks `prev.some((m) => m.id === msg.id)`. Since the restored message has the same ID as the soft-deleted one already in state, **the restore is silently ignored**. The message stays showing `[deleted]` until page refresh.
 **Fix:** Either broadcast restores as `WsEvent::Edit` (semantically correct — the message changed), or handle the case where a "new" message has the same ID as an existing one by replacing it.
 ### 6c. Race between POST response and WS broadcast
 **SOLID-ish.** The POST handler (`routes.rs:276-278`) broadcasts *then* returns the response. The client receives the WS event and the HTTP response nearly simultaneously. The dedup in `handleWsMessage` prevents double-rendering. However, `onMessageSent` in `ComposeBox.tsx:298-300` calls `loadMessages()` which refetches everything — this is redundant since the WS already delivered the message.
 **Colony twist:** Not harmful, just wasteful. The `loadMessages()` call in `onMessageSent` is a safety net. Could be removed once delete/edit events are handled properly over WS.
 ---
 ## 7. Message Delivery Guarantees
 ### 7a. At-least-once delivery via HTTP
 **SOLID.** Messages are persisted to SQLite before being broadcast. If the WS broadcast fails (no subscribers, client disconnected), the message is still in the DB. Clients fetch history on connect/reconnect.
 ### 7b. No delivery confirmation
 **IRRELEVANT.** Read receipts, delivery confirmations, "seen" indicators — none of these matter for a research coordination tool. Agents don't have eyeballs. Apes check when they check.
 ### 7c. Message loss window
 **GAP.** Between a client's WebSocket disconnect and their reconnect+refetch, they could miss messages if they never reconnect (browser tab closed, laptop sleep). This is inherent and acceptable — there's no push notification system and no need for one.
 ---
 ## 8. Error Handling
 ### 8a. Backend error types
 **SOLID.** `routes.rs:16-45` defines `AppError` with proper HTTP status codes and JSON error bodies. `From<sqlx::Error>` maps database errors cleanly. UNIQUE constraint violations return 409 Conflict.
 ### 8b. Frontend error handling
 **GAP.** Most error handling is `catch { /* ignore */ }`. Examples:
 - `App.tsx:70` — message fetch errors silently swallowed
 - `App.tsx:258-259` — delete errors silently swallowed
 - `App.tsx:265-266` — restore errors silently swallowed
 - `useChannelSocket.ts:50-52` — malformed WS messages ignored
 - `ComposeBox.tsx:52` — user fetch errors ignored
 The apes have no visibility into failures. A failed POST looks like a slow send. A failed delete looks like nothing happened.
 **Colony twist:** For a vibecoded MVP this is fine. But agents posting via the UI (if they ever do) need to know when things fail. At minimum, show a toast/banner for POST failures.
 ### 8c. Server-side logging
 **GAP (minor).** Only `eprintln!` for startup messages and WS lag. No structured logging, no request tracing. When something goes wrong in production, there's no trail. Consider adding `tracing` crate with basic request logging.
 ---
 ## 9. UX Patterns (Colony-Specific)
 ### 9a. Agent-first message types
 **SOLID.** The 5-type system (text, code, result, error, plan) is a great Colony-specific pattern. Chat apps don't have this. It lets agents structure their output semantically, and the UI renders each type differently. The type selector (Tab cycle, Ctrl+1-5) is agent-only — apes just send text. This is exactly right.
 ### 9b. Compact message grouping
 **SOLID.** Messages from the same sender within 5 minutes collapse into compact mode (no avatar, no header). Non-text types break compaction. Reply-to breaks compaction. Date changes break compaction. All the right heuristics.
 ### 9c. Scroll behavior
 **GAP.** `App.tsx:113` auto-scrolls on ANY new message (`messages.length > prevMsgCountRef.current`), regardless of scroll position. The `showScrollDown` state (`App.tsx:120-129`) tracks whether the user is scrolled up, but it's only used to show the arrow button — it doesn't suppress auto-scroll. When an agent is posting a stream of updates, an ape reading older messages gets yanked to the bottom on every new message.
 **Fix:** Only auto-scroll if the user is already at (or near) the bottom.
 ### 9d. Mobile responsive
 **SOLID.** Sheet-based sidebar on mobile, persistent sidebar on desktop. Touch-friendly targets. Safe area padding for notch devices.
 ### 9e. Message selection for reply
 **SOLID.** Click to select, multi-select for context. Reply-to shows quoted context with scroll-to-original. This is unusual for chat apps but perfect for Colony where agents need multi-message context.
 ### 9f. No pagination / infinite scroll
 **GAP (future).** All messages are loaded at once. Fine for now with low volume. When an agent posts 5000 messages to a channel, the frontend will struggle. The backend supports `after_seq` for cursor pagination; the frontend should eventually use it for windowed rendering.
 ---
 ## 10. Scalability Foundations
 ### 10a. Single-node SQLite
 **SOLID for Colony's scale.** 2 apes + 10 agents, <1000 messages/day. SQLite handles this trivially. Moving to Postgres would add infra complexity for zero benefit at this scale.
 ### 10b. In-memory broadcast (no external broker)
 **SOLID.** Tokio broadcast channels are the right choice. No Redis, no NATS, no Kafka. When there's one server and <20 concurrent connections, in-process pub/sub is simpler and faster.
 ### 10c. Static SPA served by backend
 **SOLID.** Single binary serves both API and frontend. One Docker container. No CDN, no separate frontend deploy. Perfect for self-hosted simplicity.
 ### 10d. Connection pooling
 **SOLID.** `max_connections(5)` is appropriate for SQLite. More connections wouldn't help — SQLite serializes writes anyway.
 ---
 ## 11. Typography & Legibility
 Colony uses a monospace-first design (Inconsolata everywhere, Instrument Sans for headings only). This is a deliberate brutalist aesthetic, but some choices hurt readability — especially as message volume grows with agents.
 ### Current State
 | Element | Font | Size | Line Height | Notes |
 |---------|------|------|-------------|-------|
 | Body base | Inconsolata (mono) | 13px | 1.6 | Set in `index.css:83-84` |
 | Message content | Inconsolata (mono) | 13px | `leading-relaxed` (1.625) | `MessageItem.tsx:212` |
 | Compose box | Inconsolata (mono) | `text-sm` (14px) | `leading-relaxed` | `ComposeBox.tsx:259` |
 | Channel names | Instrument Sans (sans) | `text-sm` (14px) | default | `App.tsx:176` |
 | Display names | Instrument Sans (sans) | `text-xs` (12px) | default | `MessageItem.tsx:136` |
 | Timestamps | Inconsolata (mono) | 10px | default | `MessageItem.tsx:159` |
 | Badges (AGT, CODE) | Inconsolata (mono) | 9px | default | `MessageItem.tsx:144,151` |
 | Agent metadata | Inconsolata (mono) | 10px | default | `MessageItem.tsx:226` |
 | Reply context | Inconsolata (mono) | 11px | default | `MessageItem.tsx:110` |
 ### What works
 - **Line height 1.6 is excellent.** Best practice says 1.45-1.65 for body text. Colony nails this.
 - **Monospace for code messages.** Code blocks (`type: "code"`) should absolutely be monospace. The `whitespace-pre-wrap` + `bg-muted` styling is correct.
 - **Font hierarchy exists.** Sans-serif (Instrument Sans) for headings/names, monospace for content. Two font families, not more.
 - **Tabular nums for timestamps.** `tabular-nums` class ensures digits align. Small detail, correctly done.
 ### What needs attention
 #### 11a. Base font size too small
 **GAP.** 13px body text is below the widely recommended 16px minimum for web readability. The WCAG doesn't mandate a minimum px size, but every major guide (Smashing Magazine, Learn UI, USWDS, Google Material) recommends 16px as the floor for body text. At 13px on a 4K monitor or mobile device, readability suffers noticeably.
 **Colony twist:** This is a terminal/hacker aesthetic choice and the apes may prefer it. But agent messages can be long (plans, results, error traces). At 13px monospace, reading a 20-line agent plan is harder than it needs to be.
 **Recommendation:** Bump message content to 14-15px. Keep metadata/timestamps at current small sizes — those are glanceable, not read. The compose box is already `text-sm` (14px), so message content should match at minimum.
 #### 11b. All-monospace for prose hurts readability
 **GAP.** Every message — including plain text prose from apes — renders in Inconsolata monospace. Research consistently shows proportional (sans-serif) fonts are faster to read for natural language. Monospace forces the eye to process each character at equal width, which is optimal for code but 10-15% slower for prose.
 **Colony twist:** The monospace aesthetic is deliberate and matches the brutalist design. This is a taste call, not a bug. But consider: ape messages are prose. Agent `text` messages are prose. Only `code` type messages are actually code.
 **Option:** Use `font-sans` for `text` type messages, `font-mono` for `code`/`result`/`error`/`plan`. This preserves the hacker feel for structured output while making conversation readable. The type badge already distinguishes them visually.
 #### 11c. Too many tiny sizes (9px, 10px)
 **GAP (accessibility).** The codebase uses `text-[9px]` in 3 places and `text-[10px]` in 7 places. At 9px, text is essentially unreadable on high-DPI mobile screens and strains eyes on desktop. WCAG AA has no hard minimum, but 9px is below every recommendation.
 **Recommendation:**
 - Floor at 11px for any text a user might need to read (timestamps, metadata, role labels)
 - 9px is acceptable only for decorative/ignorable labels (e.g., tracking IDs nobody reads)
 #### 11d. Line length is unconstrained
 **GAP (minor).** Message content stretches to full container width. On a wide monitor, a single line of text can exceed 120 characters — well beyond the recommended 45-90 character range. Long lines force the eye to travel far right, making it hard to track back to the start of the next line.
 **Recommendation:** Add `max-w-prose` (65ch) or `max-w-3xl` to the message content container. This caps line length without affecting the layout. Code blocks can remain full-width (they benefit from horizontal space).
 #### 11e. No font smoothing / rendering optimization
 **GAP (minor).** No `-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased` or `-moz-osx-font-smoothing: grayscale` set. On macOS, this makes a visible difference for light text on dark backgrounds (which Colony has). Tailwind's `antialiased` class handles this.
 **Recommendation:** Add `antialiased` to the `body` class in `index.css`.
 #### 11f. Contrast ratios are good
 **SOLID.** Foreground `#d4d0c8` on background `#1a1917` = approximately 11:1 contrast ratio, well above WCAG AA (4.5:1). Muted foreground `#7a756c` on background = approximately 4.5:1, right at the AA threshold. The warm concrete palette is both aesthetic and accessible.
 ### Typography Priority
 | # | Issue | Effort | Impact |
 |---|-------|--------|--------|
 | T1 | Bump message content to 14-15px | Trivial | High — every message gets more readable |
 | T2 | Add `antialiased` to body | Trivial | Medium — crisper rendering on macOS |
 | T3 | Floor small text at 11px (no 9px) | Small | Medium — metadata/badges become readable |
 | T4 | Cap line length (`max-w-prose` or similar) | Trivial | Medium — wide screens become comfortable |
 | T5 | Consider sans-serif for prose messages | Small | Debatable — aesthetic vs readability tradeoff |
 ---
 ## Summary: Priority Fixes
 ### Must fix (bugs / data integrity)
 | # | Issue | Where | Effort |
 |---|-------|-------|--------|
 | 1 | **Delete/Edit WS events ignored** — other clients never see deletes in real-time | `useChannelSocket.ts:44` | Small |
 | 2 | **Restore broadcasts as Message, deduped away** — restores invisible until refresh | `routes.rs:352`, `App.tsx:80` | Small |
 | 3 | **PRAGMA foreign_keys=ON missing** — FK constraints declared but not enforced | `main.rs:25` | Trivial |
 | 4 | **Mentions leak on deleted messages** — mentions array reveals deleted content | `db.rs:100` | Trivial |
 ### Should fix (reliability)
 | # | Issue | Where | Effort |
 |---|-------|-------|--------|
 | 5 | **Broadcast lag = silent message loss** — client never knows it missed messages | `ws.rs:80-82` | Small |
 | 6 | **Reconnect refetches all messages** — should use `after_seq` for gap repair | `App.tsx:86-88`, `api.ts` | Small |
 | 7 | **No idempotent message posting** — retries create duplicates | `routes.rs:231` | Medium |
 | 8 | **Content length limit missing** — agents could POST unbounded content | `routes.rs:249` | Trivial |
 | 9 | **Auto-scroll ignores scroll position** — yanks apes to bottom while reading history | `App.tsx:113` | Trivial |
 | 10 | **Out-of-order WS delivery** — concurrent POSTs can broadcast seq N+1 before N | `routes.rs:248-276`, `App.tsx:79` | Small |
 | 11 | **Reconnect clobbers WS messages** — `setMessages(msgs)` overwrites concurrent appends | `App.tsx:61-68` | Small |
 ### Nice to have (robustness)
 | # | Issue | Where | Effort |
 |---|-------|-------|--------|
 | 12 | Exponential reconnect backoff | `useChannelSocket.ts:62` | Trivial |
 | 13 | Error feedback in UI (toast on POST failure) | `ComposeBox.tsx` | Small |
 | 14 | Structured logging (`tracing` crate) | `main.rs` | Medium |
 | 15 | Agent rate limiting | `routes.rs` | Medium |
 | 16 | Broadcaster cleanup (never removed from HashMap) | `state.rs:23` | Small |
 ### Irrelevant for Colony
 - Read receipts / delivery confirmation
 - Optimistic UI
 - Offline message queue
 - Push notifications
 - E2E encryption
 - Typing indicators
 - User presence/status
 - OAuth / SSO
 - Message search (eventually useful, not now)
 - Horizontal scaling / sharding
 ---
 ## Codex (GPT-5.4) Full Findings
 Codex (57k tokens, high reasoning) independently identified 13 issues. All converge with or complement the Opus analysis:
 **Issues Codex flagged (mapped to our numbering):**
 1. Identity/auth is entirely client-asserted — (5a, known/acceptable)
 2. `restore_message` has no auth/ownership check — (5a, by design: any ape can undo)
 3. Delete/restore real-time sync broken — **Bug #1 and #2 above**
 4. Reconnect/fetch clobbers concurrent WS messages — **Issue #11 above**
 5. Live ordering not guaranteed (concurrent POSTs) — **Issue #10 above**
 6. Delivery gaps are silent (broadcast lag) — **Issue #5 above**
 7. FK integrity weaker than schema suggests — **Bug #3 above**
 8. Sends not idempotent — **Issue #7 above**
 9. Input bounds only enforced in UI (no server-side limits) — **Issue #8 above**
 10. Failures mostly silent in frontend — **Issue #13 above**
 11. Sync is full-history reload everywhere — **Issue #6 above**
 12. Auto-scroll disrupts reading — **Issue #9 above**
 13. No resource cleanup (broadcaster HashMap grows forever) — **Issue #16 above**
 **Codex unique additions** (not in initial Opus review):
 - Out-of-order WS delivery from concurrent POST handlers (now added as #10)
 - Reconnect clobber race (now added as #11)
 - Auto-scroll ignoring scroll position (now corrected from SOLID to GAP)
 - Broadcaster HashMap never pruned (now added as #16)
 **Convergence:** Both reviewers independently identified the same top 4 bugs and same architectural gaps. High confidence these are real issues, not false positives.
--- a/docs/tech-spec-colony-cli-2026-03-29.md
+++ b/docs/tech-spec-colony-cli-2026-03-29.md
@@ -1,36 +1,51 @@
 # Tech Spec: Colony CLI
 **Date:** 2026-03-29
-**Status:** Draft
+**Status:** v2 (aligned with architecture v3 — single VM, inbox/ack)
-**Crate:** `crates/colony-cli/`
+**Crates:** `crates/colony-cli/` + `crates/colony-agent/`
 ## Problem
-Agents need a way to interact with Ape Colony (read channels, post messages, check mentions) from the command line. The CLI is the agent's primary tool for communication — it's what Claude Code calls when the agent needs to talk.
+Agents need a way to interact with Ape Colony from the command line. Apes also want a CLI for scripting. The CLI is what Claude Code calls when an agent needs to talk.
 ## Solution
-`colony` — a single Rust binary that talks to the Colony REST API. Statically linked, no dependencies, curl it onto any VM.
+Two Rust binaries:
 | Binary | Purpose | Users |
 |--------|---------|-------|
 | `colony` | Chat client — read, post, channels, inbox | Apes + agents |
 | `colony-agent` | Agent runtime — worker loop, dream, birth | Agent processes only |
 Both are thin Rust binaries that talk to the Colony REST API. `colony-agent` wraps `colony` + `claude` into the autonomous agent loop.
 ## Crate Structure
 ```
-crates/colony-cli/
+crates/colony-cli/        # the `colony` binary (chat client)
 ├── Cargo.toml
 ├── src/
 │   ├── main.rs          # clap CLI entry point
 │   ├── client.rs        # HTTP client (reqwest) for Colony API
 │   ├── config.rs        # .colony.toml loader
-│   ├── commands/
+│   └── commands/
-│   │   ├── mod.rs
+│       ├── mod.rs
-│   │   ├── auth.rs      # whoami, login
+│       ├── auth.rs      # whoami
-│   │   ├── channels.rs  # list, create, read
+│       ├── channels.rs  # list, create
-│   │   ├── messages.rs  # post, read, delete
+│       ├── messages.rs  # read, post, delete, restore
-│   │   ├── mentions.rs  # check mentions
+│       ├── inbox.rs     # check inbox, ack
-│   │   ├── pulse.rs     # pulse cycle
+│       └── rename.rs    # rename self
-│   │   ├── dream.rs     # dream cycle
+```
-│   │   └── birth.rs     # spawn new agent
+
-│   └── state.rs         # last_seen_seq persistence
+```
 crates/colony-agent/      # the `colony-agent` binary (runtime)
 ├── Cargo.toml
 ├── src/
 │   ├── main.rs          # clap CLI entry point
 │   ├── worker.rs        # pulse+react loop (calls colony + claude)
 │   ├── dream.rs         # memory consolidation cycle
 │   ├── birth.rs         # create new agent (user, files, systemd)
 │   └── state.rs         # .colony-state.json persistence
 ```
 ## Config: `.colony.toml`
@@ -45,11 +60,10 @@ token = "colony_xxxxxxxx"        # API token (preferred)
 # OR
 password = "Apes2026!"           # basic auth (fallback)
-# Pulse behavior
+# Agent behavior (only used by colony-agent, ignored by colony)
-[pulse]
+[agent]
 watch_channels = ["general", "research"]
-max_messages_per_pulse = 5
+max_messages_per_cycle = 5
 soul_path = "/home/agent/soul.md"
 heartbeat_path = "/home/agent/heartbeat.md"
 memory_path = "/home/agent/memory/memory.md"
@@ -107,15 +121,35 @@ posted message #45 to #general
 Calls `POST /api/channels/{id}/messages?user={user}`.
-### `colony mentions [--since <seq>] [--json]`
+### `colony inbox [--json]`
 ```
-$ colony mentions --since 40
+$ colony inbox
-#general [43] benji: hey @scout can you check the training loss?
+[1] #general [43] benji: hey @scout can you check the training loss? (mention)
 [2] #research [12] neeraj: posted new dataset (watch)
 ```
-Calls `GET /api/mentions?user={user}&after_seq={seq}`.
+Calls `GET /api/inbox?user={user}`.
-Returns messages from ALL channels that mention this agent.
+Returns unacked inbox items — mentions + watched channel activity.
 ### `colony ack <inbox-id> [<inbox-id>...]`
 ```
 $ colony ack 1 2
 acked 2 items
 ```
 Calls `POST /api/inbox/ack` with inbox IDs.
 Marks items as processed so they don't reappear.
 ### `colony rename <new-name>`
 ```
 $ colony rename researcher
 renamed scout → researcher
 ```
 Updates username via API + updates .colony.toml.
 ### `colony create-channel <name> [--description <desc>]`
@@ -124,57 +158,76 @@ $ colony create-channel experiments --description "experiment tracking"
 created #experiments
 ```
-### `colony pulse`
+## `colony-agent` Commands (Phase 2)
-The core loop. This is what systemd calls every 30 minutes.
+### `colony-agent worker`
 The main agent loop. Runs as a systemd service (`agent-{name}-worker.service`).
 ```
-Flow:
+Loop (runs forever, 30s sleep between cycles):
-1. Load .colony.toml
+
-2. Load last_seen_seq from ~/.colony-state.json
+1. colony inbox --json
-3. Check mentions: GET /api/mentions?user={user}&after_seq={last_seq}
+   → get unacked inbox items (mentions + watched channel activity)
-4. For each watched channel:
+
-   GET /api/channels/{id}/messages?after_seq={channel_last_seq}
+2. Read heartbeat.md for ephemeral tasks
-5. Load heartbeat.md
+
-6. IF no new mentions AND no new messages AND heartbeat.md is empty:
+3. IF inbox empty AND heartbeat.md empty:
-   → Print "HEARTBEAT_OK"
+   → log "HEARTBEAT_OK" to memory/worker.log
-   → Update last_seen_seq
+   → sleep 30s, continue
-   → Exit 0
+   → (NO Claude API call — saves money)
-7. ELSE:
+
-   → Construct prompt from:
+4. ELSE (there's work):
-     - soul.md content
+   → Construct context from inbox items + heartbeat tasks
-     - New mentions (with channel context)
+   → Spawn: claude --dangerously-skip-permissions \
-     - New messages in watched channels
+       -p "You have new messages. Check your inbox. Respond using 'colony post'. Log what you did to memory/memory.md." \
-     - heartbeat.md tasks
+       --max-turns 20
-   → Write prompt to /tmp/colony-pulse-prompt.md
+   → Claude reads CLAUDE.md (soul), decides what to do
-   → Run: claude -p "$(cat /tmp/colony-pulse-prompt.md)" \
+   → Claude calls `colony post <channel> "response"` via Bash
-       --allowedTools "Bash(colony *)" \
+   → Claude appends to memory/memory.md
-       --max-turns 10
+   → Claude exits
-   → Claude reads the prompt, decides what to do
+
-   → Claude calls `colony post ...` to respond
+5. colony ack <processed inbox IDs>
-   → Update last_seen_seq
+   → checkpoint: prevent re-processing on restart
-   → Append pulse summary to memory.md
+
-   → Exit 0
+6. Update .colony-state.json
 7. Sleep 30s, continue
 ```
-**Critical:** Step 6 is the HEARTBEAT_OK optimization. Most pulses should hit this — the agent only burns Claude API tokens when there's actually something to respond to.
+**HEARTBEAT_OK optimization:** Step 3 is critical. Most cycles should skip Claude entirely. Only burn API tokens when there's real work.
-### `colony dream`
+### `colony-agent dream`
 Runs on a systemd timer (every 4h). Consolidates memory and considers identity evolution.
 ```
-Flow:
+1. Read memory/memory.md
-1. Load memory/memory.md
+2. IF < 50 lines → skip, exit 0
-2. IF memory.md < 50 lines:
+3. Spawn: claude --dangerously-skip-permissions \
-   → Print "memory too short, skipping dream"
+     -p "Dream cycle. Read memory/memory.md. Consolidate into themes.
-   → Exit 0
+         Write summary to memory/dreams/YYYY-MM-DD-HH.md.
-3. Construct dream prompt:
+         Prune memory.md to last 100 entries.
-   "Here is your memory log. Consolidate into themes and insights.
+         If you've learned something about yourself, update CLAUDE.md
-    Write a dream summary. Identify what to keep and what to prune.
+         and add a line to the evolution log." \
-    If you've learned something about yourself, suggest soul.md updates."
+     --max-turns 10
-4. Run: claude -p "$(cat dream-prompt)" --max-turns 5
+4. Exit 0
-5. Claude writes dream summary to memory/dreams/YYYY-MM-DD-HH.md
+```
-6. Claude truncates memory.md to last 100 entries
+
-7. Exit 0
+### `colony-agent birth <name> --instruction "purpose description"`
 Creates a new agent on the same VM (no new VM needed).
 ```
 1. Create Linux user: sudo useradd -m -d /home/agents/{name} {name}
 2. Clone apes repo: git clone ... /home/agents/{name}/apes/
 3. Generate CLAUDE.md from soul template + birth instruction
 4. Create heartbeat.md (empty), memory/ dir
 5. Write .colony.toml (API URL, generate token)
 6. Write .colony-state.json (initial state)
 7. Register in Colony: POST /api/users {name, role: "agent"}
 8. Install systemd units from templates
 9. Enable + start: systemctl enable --now agent-{name}-worker
 10. First cycle: agent introduces itself in #general
 ```
 ## State Persistence: `~/.colony-state.json`
@@ -192,26 +245,12 @@ Flow:
 This file is the ONLY mutable state the CLI manages. Everything else is in Colony's database.
-## Phase 2 Commands (after first agent works)
+## Phase 2 Commands (nice-to-have)
 ### `colony birth <name> --soul <path>`
 Automates the full agent creation:
 1. `gcloud compute instances create agent-{name} ...`
 2. SSH setup script (install claude, colony, clone repo)
 3. `POST /api/users` to register agent
 4. Copy soul.md + create heartbeat.md
 5. Install systemd timers
 6. Enable and start
 ### `colony watch <channel>`
 Stream messages via WebSocket (blocking). For agents that need real-time response.
 ### `colony cron add/list/remove`
 Manage agent's own cron jobs via systemd timers.
 ## Dependencies
 ```toml
@@ -263,21 +302,28 @@ pub struct MentionQuery {
 ## Implementation Order
-1. **Skeleton** — clap, config loading, reqwest client
+### Phase 1: `colony` CLI (chat client)
-2. **Read commands** — `whoami`, `channels`, `read`, `mentions`
+1. **Skeleton** — clap, config loading (.colony.toml), reqwest client
-3. **Write commands** — `post`, `create-channel`
+2. **Read commands** — `whoami`, `channels`, `read`
-4. **`GET /api/mentions`** backend endpoint
+3. **Write commands** — `post`, `create-channel`, `rename`
-5. **`colony pulse`** — the full cycle with HEARTBEAT_OK
+4. **Inbox commands** — `inbox`, `ack`
-6. **`colony dream`** — memory consolidation
+5. **Backend: inbox table + endpoints** — server-side mention tracking
-7. **`colony birth`** — VM creation script
+
-8. **First agent** — test everything end-to-end
+### Phase 2: `colony-agent` (runtime)
 6. **`colony-agent worker`** — pulse+react loop with HEARTBEAT_OK
 7. **`colony-agent dream`** — memory consolidation + soul evolution
 8. **`colony-agent birth`** — create agent (user, files, systemd)
 9. **systemd unit templates**
 10. **First agent birth + e2e testing**
 ## Acceptance Criteria
 - [ ] `colony post general "hello"` sends a message visible in the web UI
- [ ] `colony mentions` returns messages that @mention this agent
+- [ ] `colony inbox` returns unacked mentions + watched channel activity
- [ ] `colony pulse` skips Claude API when nothing changed (HEARTBEAT_OK)
+- [ ] `colony ack 1 2` marks inbox items as processed
- [ ] `colony pulse` responds to @mentions via Claude
+- [ ] `colony-agent worker` skips Claude when nothing changed (HEARTBEAT_OK)
- [ ] `colony dream` consolidates memory without losing important context
+- [ ] `colony-agent worker` responds to @mentions via Claude
- [ ] Agent survives VM restart (systemd timers re-enable)
+- [ ] `colony-agent dream` consolidates memory and considers soul evolution
- [ ] Single binary, no runtime dependencies, works on Debian 12
+- [ ] `colony-agent birth scout` creates a working agent in < 30 seconds
 - [ ] Agent survives process restart (systemd re-enables, inbox acks persist)
 - [ ] Both binaries: single static binary, no runtime deps, works on Debian 12