#!/usr/bin/env node /** * agent-inbox.mjs — a tiny bridge between *looking at* the pipeline and * *acting on* it. * * career-ops is driven from an AI session, but there's no durable place to drop * a request when you're not in one — e.g. while glancing at the tracker (or a * dashboard) you think "evaluate this URL" or "draft a follow-up for #7". This * is that place: an append-only queue the agent drains at the start of a * session. * * data/agent-inbox.md * - [ ] — (pending) * - [x] — → result: (resolved) * * Fully local-first and human-in-the-loop: nothing here auto-submits. Queued * items are *intents* for the agent to action and the user to review. Markdown * checklist, no database, no server, no dependencies — edit it by hand or via * this CLI, and any tool (a dashboard, a script, cron) can append to it. The * protocol an agent follows is documented in modes/agent-inbox.md. * * Item numbers are *file positions*, not positions in the pending list: `add` * only ever appends, so a number never changes meaning once printed. `list` * therefore shows gaps as items get resolved (2, 4, 5) — the gaps are the * receipt that something was already handled, and a whole batch of resolves can * be read off a single `list` without drifting. * * Usage: * node agent-inbox.mjs add "evaluate https://acme.com/jobs/42" * node agent-inbox.mjs list [--all] # pending only, or every item * node agent-inbox.mjs resolve 1 [--expect "Acme"] [--result "scored 4.3 — report 012"] */ import { readFileSync, writeFileSync, appendFileSync, existsSync, mkdirSync, openSync, fstatSync, readSync, closeSync, realpathSync, statSync, } from 'fs'; import { dirname } from 'path'; import { withPipelineLock } from './pipeline-lock.mjs'; import { writeFileAtomic } from './tracker-utils.mjs'; import { localToday } from './lib/local-today.mjs'; const PATH = process.env.CAREER_OPS_INBOX || 'data/agent-inbox.md'; const HEADER = [ '# Agent Inbox', '', '> **Agent protocol:** at the start of a career-ops session, read this file.', '> Run each unchecked item top-to-bottom. After each, mark it `[x]` and append', '> `→ result: `. Items that need live user input (a mock, a paste, a', '> decision) → ask the user to start them instead of running them.', '>', '> Nothing here auto-submits — queued items are *intents* for you to action and', '> the user to review. Appended by hand, by a dashboard, or by agent-inbox.mjs.', '', ].join('\n'); // Local date and time, the clock the person queuing the item is looking at. // toISOString() is UTC, and this stamp carries no zone marker, so a request // queued at 10:30 on the 18th east of Greenwich read "2026-08-17 20:30". function stamp(now = new Date()) { const p = (n) => String(n).padStart(2, '0'); return `${localToday(now)} ${p(now.getHours())}:${p(now.getMinutes())}`; } function ensureGitignored() { // The inbox is personal data. On installs whose .gitignore predates this // feature, make sure the default path is ignored so a first `add` can't // accidentally commit it. Only manages the default, non-overridden path. if (process.env.CAREER_OPS_INBOX || PATH !== 'data/agent-inbox.md') return; try { if (!existsSync('.gitignore')) return; // not a git checkout we should touch const text = readFileSync('.gitignore', 'utf8'); if (text.split('\n').some((l) => l.trim() === PATH)) return; // already ignored writeFileSync('.gitignore', text.replace(/\s*$/, '') + `\n${PATH}\n`); } catch { /* best effort — never block queuing on this */ } } function oneLine(s) { // markdown-checklist-safe: collapse to a single bullet line return String(s ?? '').replace(/\s*\n\s*/g, ' ').trim(); } // MUST be called with the queue lock held — see add(). Creating the file is // only half of it; the file is not usable until the header is IN it, and that // is two syscalls, not one. function ensureFile() { if (existsSync(PATH)) return; ensureGitignored(); mkdirSync(dirname(PATH), { recursive: true }); // 'wx': atomic create-exclusive. Two concurrent first-time `add` calls can // both pass the existsSync check above before either writes; without an // exclusive flag, the second writeFileSync (default 'w', which truncates) // lands after the first has already appended its item and wipes it back to // just the header. 'wx' makes only one of them win the create — the loser // gets EEXIST and does nothing, same as if it had seen existsSync === true. // // 'wx' settles the two-creator case and nothing else. It makes the CREATE // atomic, not the INITIALISATION: writeFileSync is open() then write(), and // between those two syscalls the file EXISTS and is ZERO BYTES. Measured on // Windows, a second process polling existsSync and stat-ing the moment the // file appeared saw it at 0 bytes in 303 of 400 rounds. // // So there is a third participant the exclusive flag cannot see: a writer // that arrives INSIDE that window, finds existsSync === true, skips creation, // and appends — into a file this call is about to overwrite from offset 0. // Its item is gone, with no error anywhere; the write below simply lands on // top of it. That is why the caller holds the lock across this function // rather than around the append alone. try { writeFileSync(PATH, HEADER, { flag: 'wx' }); } catch (err) { if (err?.code !== 'EEXIST') throw err; } } // Whether appending to `path` needs a leading newline first, i.e. the file is // non-empty and doesn't already end in one. Reads only the last byte instead // of the whole file — the full-file read this replaced was only ever used to // check one byte. function needsLeadingNewline(path) { const fd = openSync(path, 'r'); try { const size = fstatSync(fd).size; if (size === 0) return false; const buf = Buffer.alloc(1); readSync(fd, buf, 0, 1, size - 1); return buf[0] !== 0x0a; // '\n' } finally { closeSync(fd); } } // Parse the checklist into items, in file order. `num` is the stable 1-based // item number used by `list` and `resolve` — it is the position in the FULL // list, so resolving an item never renumbers the others. function parseItems() { if (!existsSync(PATH)) return []; const items = []; readFileSync(PATH, 'utf8').split('\n').forEach((line, i) => { const m = /^- \[([ xX])\]\s*(.*)$/.exec(line.trim()); if (m) items.push({ num: items.length + 1, line: i, done: m[1].toLowerCase() === 'x', text: m[2] }); }); return items; } function opt(name, def = '') { const i = process.argv.indexOf('--' + name); if (i < 0) return def; const v = process.argv[i + 1]; return v && !v.startsWith('--') ? v : def; } // Every value given for a repeatable flag, in argv order. An occurrence with no // value yields '' rather than being dropped, so the caller can reject it: // opt() reads only the first occurrence and would never see a later bare one. function optAll(name) { const values = []; process.argv.forEach((arg, i) => { if (arg !== '--' + name) return; const v = process.argv[i + 1]; values.push(v && !v.startsWith('--') ? v : ''); }); return values; } async function add() { const text = oneLine(process.argv.slice(3).join(' ')); if (!text) fail('add needs a request, e.g. node agent-inbox.mjs add "evaluate https://..."'); // Append rather than rewrite. This is the queue's concurrent path — anything // running in the background can drop an item in — and a read-whole-file / // write-whole-file cycle loses every request that lands between the two. With // 30 concurrent `add` calls, half the queue vanished silently. // // POSIX guarantees an O_APPEND write is atomic below PIPE_BUF, and one // checklist line is far under it, so concurrent appends interleave instead of // clobbering. WINDOWS IS NOT POSIX, and that is the whole reason for the lock // below: with 30 concurrent adds on windows-latest this dropped exactly one // item (#2777), silently, which is the same failure this function exists to // remove — it just moved to the one platform the guarantee does not cover. // // The lock is the repo's existing one rather than a second mechanism: the // same `withPipelineLock` that scan.mjs uses for scan-history appends. Two // lock implementations would drift, and the append is short enough that // serializing it costs nothing next to spawning the process that calls it. // // Checking the last byte still happens INSIDE the lock: it decides whether a // separating newline is needed, and reading it outside would race with // another writer's append between the check and the write. // // timeoutMs is raised from the shared 8s default because this queue's whole // point is bursty concurrent writers (a dashboard, a script, cron all drop // items at once), and lock acquisition is a retry lottery, not a fair queue. // Serving N herded waiters is the coupon-collector problem: ~N·H(N) rounds, // so 30 concurrent adds need ~120 rounds while 8000/80 = 100 only affords // ~100. On the slow, contended windows-latest runner that shortfall makes one // waiter time out and its item is LOST, the exact #2777 drop, reappearing as // a loud LockTimeoutError instead of a silent overwrite. Jitter in // pipeline-lock.mjs cuts the collision rate ~6x but is explicitly "not a // cure"; the fit-for-purpose budget for a burst-write queue is the contained // fix. 30s gives ~375 rounds of headroom, well past the herd's worst case, // while the critical section itself is a single sub-millisecond append. // // ensureFile() is INSIDE the lock, not before it. Seeding the file is a // check-create-initialise sequence, and run unlocked it loses items the same // way the unlocked append did: a writer that observes the file between the // creator's open() and its write() sees a zero-byte file, appends into it, // and has its line overwritten when the header lands at offset 0. Every // writer exits 0 and the queue is left perfectly well-formed, one item // shorter — the silent drop the lock was added to end, one step earlier in // the same function. // // Holding the lock across the seed makes the window unreachable rather than // narrow: no writer can observe the file until the creator has released, and // the creator writes the header before it releases. 'wx' above stays as the // guard against writers that are not this function. await withPipelineLock(PATH, () => { ensureFile(); const separator = needsLeadingNewline(PATH) ? '\n' : ''; appendFileSync(PATH, `${separator}- [ ] ${stamp()} — ${text}\n`); }, { timeoutMs: 30_000 }); process.stdout.write(`Queued: ${text}\n`); } function list() { const all = process.argv.includes('--all'); const parsed = parseItems(); const items = parsed.filter((it) => all || !it.done); if (!items.length) return process.stdout.write(all ? 'Inbox is empty.\n' : 'No pending items.\n'); items.forEach((it) => { process.stdout.write(`${String(it.num).padStart(2)}. [${it.done ? 'x' : ' '}] ${it.text}\n`); }); // Explain the gaps rather than let them read as a display bug. if (items.length < parsed.length) { process.stdout.write( `\n(${parsed.length - items.length} resolved item(s) hidden — numbers are stable file positions, so gaps are expected. \`list --all\` shows everything.)\n`, ); } } async function resolve() { const n = Number(process.argv[3]); if (!Number.isInteger(n) || n < 1) fail('resolve needs a 1-based item number (see `list`)'); const outcome = await withPipelineLock(PATH, () => { // The item snapshot, line lookup, and rewrite are one transaction. An // add between the old read and write was acknowledged, then overwritten by // this stale snapshot even though add itself correctly held this same lock. // Number inside the critical section too, so the selected item and the // rewritten line always come from one locked view. // // Number against the FULL item list, not the pending subset. `add` only ever // appends, so an item's position is stable for the life of the file and a // batch of resolves read off one `list` stays correct. Numbering against the // pending view instead made each resolve shift every higher number down by // one — silently stamping later results onto the wrong items. const items = parseItems(); const target = items[n - 1]; if (!target) { const pending = items.filter((it) => !it.done).length; return { error: `no item #${n} — inbox has ${items.length} item(s), ${pending} pending. Run \`list --all\`.` }; } // Already-resolved is an error, not a silent re-stamp: it is what a stale // number from an older `list` most often lands on. if (target.done) return { error: `item #${n} is already resolved — refusing to overwrite it:\n #${n}: ${target.text}` }; // Optional caller-side guard: abort unless the target says what the caller // thinks it says. Catches "right command, wrong target" generally. // Every --expect given must hold, and every one must carry a value: a bare // --expect anywhere on the line is a guard the caller meant to set and did // not, so it fails instead of being skipped behind an earlier valid one. const expects = optAll('expect'); if (expects.includes('')) return { error: '--expect needs a substring, e.g. --expect "Dana-Farber"' }; const missing = expects.find((expect) => !target.text.toLowerCase().includes(expect.toLowerCase())); if (missing !== undefined) { return { error: `item #${n} does not contain --expect ${JSON.stringify(missing)} — refusing to resolve:\n #${n}: ${target.text}` }; } const result = oneLine(opt('result')); const lines = readFileSync(PATH, 'utf8').split('\n'); let updated = lines[target.line].replace('[ ]', '[x]'); if (result && !/→ result:/.test(updated)) updated += ` → result: ${result}`; lines[target.line] = updated; // Replace, don't rewrite in place. The lock serialises writers, but `list` // and anything reading the file by hand do not take it, and writeFileSync // truncates before it writes: a reader in that window, or a crash inside // it, sees a queue with items missing. A same-directory temp file renamed // over the original is the repo's existing helper for exactly this. // // A rename replaces the directory entry it is given and installs a new // file, so two things the in-place write got for free have to be asked // for: write THROUGH a symlinked inbox (rename over the link would swap it // for a regular file and leave its target stale), and keep the queue's // permissions (a 0600 inbox must not come back 0644 under the umask). const real = realpathSync(PATH); writeFileAtomic(real, lines.join('\n'), { mode: statSync(real).mode & 0o7777 }); return { target }; }, { timeoutMs: 30_000 }); // Fail only after withPipelineLock has released. process.exit() inside the // callback would bypass the lock's finally block and strand the directory. if (outcome.error) fail(outcome.error); process.stdout.write(`Resolved #${n}: ${outcome.target.text}\n`); } function fail(msg) { process.stderr.write(`agent-inbox.mjs: ${msg}\n`); process.exit(1); } const USAGE = 'Usage:\n' + ' node agent-inbox.mjs add "evaluate https://acme.com/jobs/42"\n' + ' node agent-inbox.mjs list [--all]\n' + ' node agent-inbox.mjs resolve [--expect "substring"] [--result "..."]\n' + '\n' + 'Numbers are stable file positions: `list` shows gaps once items are\n' + 'resolved, and a batch of resolves read off one `list` stays correct.\n' + '--expect aborts unless the target item contains that substring.\n'; const cmd = process.argv[2]; if (cmd === 'add') await add(); else if (cmd === 'list') list(); else if (cmd === 'resolve') await resolve(); else if (cmd === undefined || cmd === '--help' || cmd === '-h') process.stdout.write(USAGE); else { // A word that is not a subcommand (`ad` for `add`) queued nothing, so it must // not exit 0: the callers that check the status read 0 as "queued". process.stderr.write(`agent-inbox.mjs: unknown command "${cmd}"\n${USAGE}`); process.exit(1); }