test(orphans): the destructive sweep test is opt-in

CI mounts /var/run/docker.sock into the test container and the runner is
gw04 — the host that runs production missions. So `cargo test --workspace`
there has full access to the production docker daemon, and this test
REMOVES containers.

`adopt_existing` protects everything already present, but it cannot
protect a mission container created in the seconds between that call and
the sweep. On a laptop that race is nothing; on gw04 it is somebody's
mission.

So the destructive case now requires `CM_TEST_ORPHAN_SWEEP=1` and CI
simply does not run it. The read-only probes still run everywhere — they
create fixtures and inspect them, and never sweep.

This is the second time this test's blast radius has bitten: it reaped
two real local mission containers on its first run, and this would have
been the same mistake with production's daemon. The sweep is not the
problem — a sweep is global by nature — the harness around it is.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <[email protected]>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018i9Ten1LU4jUr5d7TAWda9

.sqlx/query-105f8cc147247c69b3c45e2e3eb27fc33b1976accdda66ec3ccc7c57afecc8b9.json

@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+{
+  "db_name": "PostgreSQL",
+  "query": "INSERT INTO auth_sessions (token_hash, user_id, expires_at, scope)\n             VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4)",
+  "describe": {
+    "columns": [],
+    "parameters": {
+      "Left": [
+        "Text",
+        "Uuid",
+        "Timestamptz",
+        "Text"
+      ]
+    },
+    "nullable": []
+  },
+  "hash": "105f8cc147247c69b3c45e2e3eb27fc33b1976accdda66ec3ccc7c57afecc8b9"
+}

.sqlx/query-e8f7cb9c34be37fe16c5406e9263159693674dda567b60a1f87c6763ec448951.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "db_name": "PostgreSQL",
-  "query": "SELECT u.id, u.workspace_id, u.role\n             FROM auth_sessions s\n             JOIN users u ON u.id = s.user_id\n             WHERE s.token_hash = $1 AND s.expires_at > now()",
+  "query": "SELECT u.id, u.workspace_id, u.role, s.scope\n             FROM auth_sessions s\n             JOIN users u ON u.id = s.user_id\n             WHERE s.token_hash = $1 AND s.expires_at > now()",
   "describe": {
     "columns": [
       {
@@ -17,6 +17,11 @@
         "ordinal": 2,
         "name": "role",
         "type_info": "Text"
+      },
+      {
+        "ordinal": 3,
+        "name": "scope",
+        "type_info": "Text"
       }
     ],
     "parameters": {
@@ -25,10 +30,11 @@
       ]
     },
     "nullable": [
+      false,
       false,
       false,
       false
     ]
   },
-  "hash": "900827c5c8c24f4861120e98e3cc8a5b70f22e9f4b4168c9e8eb51c53d68bdae"
+  "hash": "e8f7cb9c34be37fe16c5406e9263159693674dda567b60a1f87c6763ec448951"
 }

crates/cm-api/src/container_tool_hooks.rs

@@ -89,6 +89,92 @@ fn build_install_script() -> String {
     )
 }
 
+/// The MCP configuration `claude -p --mcp-config` is pointed at.
+///
+/// Under `/root` with the hooks, never under `/mission/repo`: it carries a
+/// bearer token, and anything written into the checkout arrives in the diff the
+/// mission delivers.
+pub const MCP_CONFIG_PATH: &str = "/root/toolhooks/clawmates-mcp.json";
+
+/// Where the mission container reaches this server.
+///
+/// Mission containers join `clawmates_core`, the same network the API is on, so
+/// the API is reachable by container name. The name differs between
+/// deployments (`clawmates-server-1` locally, `clawmates_server_1` on gw-04),
+/// so the default is derived from **our own** hostname — docker's embedded DNS
+/// resolves a container id on a user-defined network, which makes this
+/// self-configuring rather than a constant that is right in one place.
+/// Measured from a sibling container: both the id and the name return 200.
+pub fn api_origin() -> Option<String> {
+    if let Ok(v) = std::env::var("CLAWMATES_API_ORIGIN") {
+        if !v.trim().is_empty() {
+            return Some(v.trim().trim_end_matches('/').to_string());
+        }
+    }
+    let host = std::env::var("HOSTNAME").ok()?;
+    let host = host.trim();
+    if host.is_empty() {
+        return None;
+    }
+    Some(format!("http://{host}:8080"))
+}
+
+/// The `--mcp-config` document: one HTTP server, carrying its own credential.
+///
+/// The token is a `skills:read` session and nothing else. It is written into a
+/// file the agent can read — it runs `Bash` — so the only thing keeping this
+/// safe is that the credential authenticates to exactly one route. See
+/// `cm_auth::authenticate_scoped`.
+pub fn mcp_document(origin: &str, token: &str) -> serde_json::Value {
+    serde_json::json!({
+        "mcpServers": {
+            "clawmates_skills": {
+                "type": "http",
+                "url": format!("{origin}/mcp/skills"),
+                "headers": { "Authorization": format!("Bearer {token}") }
+            }
+        }
+    })
+}
+
+// NOTE on `--allowedTools`. The provider passes it only when the config sets
+// `tools`, and the seed already does — without it `claude -p` stops mid-turn to
+// ask for write permission. Whether the MCP tools ALSO need naming there is not
+// documented anywhere we control, and the daemon exposes no config read to
+// merge into that list safely: overwriting it would take `Write` and `Bash`
+// away from every mission agent, and that failure would look like agents that
+// stopped working rather than a config that was replaced.
+//
+// So it is left alone and the question is answered by running a mission with
+// the door installed. Guessing here is how the last three defects in this file
+// were introduced.
+
+/// Write the MCP configuration into a mission container.
+///
+/// Returns the path on success. `None` means the mission runs without a door —
+/// logged, never fatal, exactly like the hooks above. A phase that cannot
+/// retrieve a skill still delivers; a phase that fails to start because a
+/// config write failed delivers nothing.
+pub async fn install_door(docker: &Docker, container: &str, doc: &serde_json::Value) -> Option<String> {
+    // `printf %s` with the JSON single-quoted, not a heredoc: the document is
+    // one line and contains no newline to terminate on.
+    let script = format!(
+        "mkdir -p {HOOK_DIR} && printf '%s' {} > {MCP_CONFIG_PATH} && chmod 600 {MCP_CONFIG_PATH}",
+        crate::vm_tool_tap::shell_quote(&doc.to_string()),
+    );
+    let argv = vec!["sh".to_string(), "-lc".to_string(), script];
+    match crate::container_exec::exec_as_root(docker, container, None, &argv, INSTALL_TIMEOUT).await
+    {
+        Ok(out) if out.exit_code == Some(0) => Some(MCP_CONFIG_PATH.to_string()),
+        other => {
+            eprintln!(
+                "container_tool_hooks: could not write the MCP config in {container}                  ({other:?}) — this mission runs without the skills door"
+            );
+            None
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 /// The tap file inside the mission container.
 pub fn tap_file() -> String {
     format!("{TAP_DIR}/tools.jsonl")

crates/cm-api/src/mcp_skills.rs

@@ -60,12 +60,26 @@ fn err(id: Option<Value>, code: i64, message: &str) -> Json<Value> {
 
 // ── Auth ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
+/// This endpoint accepts a **narrow** credential as well as a person's session.
+///
+/// It is the one route a mission container is given a token for, and that token
+/// sits in a file the agent can `cat`. Mission agents run arbitrary `Bash` with
+/// egress and no read gate, so a full session here would be an owner-privileged
+/// API key handed to something explicitly untrusted — which is why
+/// `SCOPE_SKILLS_READ` exists and why this is the only call site that names it.
+///
+/// `authenticate_scoped` still accepts `full`, so the UI and any human caller
+/// are unaffected.
 async fn authed(state: &AppState, headers: &HeaderMap) -> Option<cm_auth::AuthedUser> {
     let token = headers
         .get(AUTHORIZATION)
         .and_then(|v| v.to_str().ok())
         .and_then(|v| v.strip_prefix("Bearer "))?;
-    state.auth.authenticate(token).await.ok()
+    state
+        .auth
+        .authenticate_scoped(token, cm_auth::SCOPE_SKILLS_READ)
+        .await
+        .ok()
 }
 
 /// Resolve the calling agent via `X-ZeroClaw-Agent` header
@@ -100,7 +114,7 @@ fn skill_uri(workspace_id: Option<Uuid>, name: &str) -> String {
 }
 
 /// Parse `skill:global/<name>` or `skill:workspace/<ws>/<name>`.
-fn parse_uri(uri: &str) -> Option<(Option<Uuid>, String)> {
+pub(crate) fn parse_uri(uri: &str) -> Option<(Option<Uuid>, String)> {
     if let Some(name) = uri.strip_prefix(URI_PREFIX_GLOBAL) {
         return Some((None, name.to_string()));
     }

crates/cm-api/src/microvm_turn_executor.rs

@@ -233,6 +233,12 @@ impl<V: PhaseVm> TurnExecutor for MicroVmTurnExecutor<V> {
             self.phase_id,
             self.run_id,
             &outcome.tools,
+            // No turn agents supplied, so nothing is attributed — the same
+            // `agent_id: None` this path has always written. Resolving the
+            // graph node to an agent uuid is the fix, and it cannot be tested
+            // while the fleet is offline; guessing at it here would put one
+            // node's actions on another node's record.
+            &[],
         )
         .await;
 

crates/cm-api/src/mission_events.rs

@@ -183,6 +183,75 @@ pub async fn narrative_for_mission(
         .collect())
 }
 
+/// One action an agent took, as a reader gets it back.
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, PartialEq)]
+pub struct ToolEvidence {
+    /// The tool's name, e.g. `Bash`, `Write`.
+    pub tool: String,
+    /// The absolute path inside the sandbox, when the tool named one.
+    ///
+    /// Absolute, unlike the sibling `file.touch` row's `target`. See the note
+    /// in `phase_runner::record_vm_tools`: normalising is what destroys the
+    /// only question a path can settle.
+    pub path: Option<String>,
+    /// The tool's arguments, bounded by `vm_tool_tap::bounded_input`.
+    pub input: Value,
+    /// What a command produced, bounded by `vm_tool_tap::bounded_response`.
+    ///
+    /// Null for every tool that is not a command. This is where a failing test
+    /// run is visible, and it is the only place it is — the recorded stream has
+    /// no exit codes.
+    pub response: Value,
+}
+
+impl ToolEvidence {
+    /// The shell command, for the tools that run one.
+    pub fn command(&self) -> Option<&str> {
+        self.input.get("command").and_then(Value::as_str)
+    }
+}
+
+/// Every tool call recorded for a mission, in order.
+///
+/// The counterpart to [`narrative_for_mission`], and the reason it exists: the
+/// narrative is what an agent *said* it did. These rows are what it did. A
+/// measurement built on the narrative alone scores prose, and prose is written
+/// by the thing being measured.
+///
+/// **Bounded by [`PER_PHASE_CAP`].** A phase that ran more tools than the cap
+/// returns the first `PER_PHASE_CAP` and no marker saying so, so a check that
+/// concludes "this never happened" from an empty result is only sound for
+/// phases under the cap. Every check in `skill_use` is one-sided in the safe
+/// direction for that reason: it reports a violation it can see, never
+/// compliance it inferred from silence.
+pub async fn tool_evidence_for_mission(
+    pool: &PgPool,
+    mission_id: Uuid,
+) -> Result<Vec<ToolEvidence>, sqlx::Error> {
+    let rows: Vec<(Option<String>, Value)> = sqlx::query_as(
+        "SELECT target, detail
+           FROM mission_events
+          WHERE mission_id = $1 AND kind = $2
+          ORDER BY id",
+    )
+    .bind(mission_id)
+    .bind(TOOL_CALL)
+    .fetch_all(pool)
+    .await?;
+    Ok(rows
+        .into_iter()
+        .map(|(target, detail)| ToolEvidence {
+            tool: target.unwrap_or_default(),
+            path: detail
+                .get("path")
+                .and_then(Value::as_str)
+                .map(str::to_string),
+            input: detail.get("input").cloned().unwrap_or(Value::Null),
+            response: detail.get("response").cloned().unwrap_or(Value::Null),
+        })
+        .collect())
+}
+
 pub async fn record_all(pool: &PgPool, events: Vec<MissionEvent>) {
     for e in events {
         record(pool, e).await;

crates/cm-api/src/mission_orchestrator.rs

@@ -346,6 +346,19 @@ pub async fn on_launch(
                  settings ({e}) — this mission's tool calls run unchecked"
             );
         }
+        // Only when this mission got its OWN container — the shared runtime is
+        // not ours to reconfigure, and `mission_gateway` being Some is exactly
+        // the signal that `ensure_container` ran.
+        if mission_gateway.is_some() {
+            install_skills_door(
+                pool,
+                user_id,
+                mission_id,
+                &crate::mission_runtime::container_name(mission_id),
+                p,
+            )
+            .await;
+        }
     }
     let mut first_team_id: Option<Uuid> = None;
     let mut provisioned_claws: Vec<cm_domain::AgentId> = Vec::new();
@@ -883,3 +896,78 @@ fn default_accent_for(slot: &str) -> &'static str {
         _ => "#8a8a92",
     }
 }
+
+/// Give this mission's agents a reachable, narrow door to the skills catalogue.
+///
+/// Two halves that must both happen: the document goes into the container, and
+/// the daemon is told to pass it to `claude -p --mcp-config`. Doing one without
+/// the other leaves a door that is installed and unreachable, which looks
+/// exactly like a door nobody walked through — the same shape as the hooks that
+/// were installed and inert.
+///
+/// # The credential
+///
+/// A `skills:read` session, not a user's. It is written into a file the agent
+/// can `cat` — it runs `Bash` with egress — so the only thing keeping this safe
+/// is that the token authenticates to exactly one route and nowhere else. See
+/// `cm_auth::AuthService::authenticate_scoped`. A full session here would be an
+/// owner-privileged API key handed to something explicitly untrusted, which is
+/// why the door went undeployed rather than being deployed the easy way.
+///
+/// Every failure degrades to "no door", never to a failed launch. A mission
+/// that cannot retrieve a skill still delivers.
+async fn install_skills_door(
+    pool: &PgPool,
+    user_id: cm_domain::UserId,
+    mission_id: Uuid,
+    container: &str,
+    prov: &RuntimeProvisioner,
+) {
+    let Some(origin) = crate::container_tool_hooks::api_origin() else {
+        eprintln!(
+            "mission_orchestrator: no API origin for the skills door (set \
+             CLAWMATES_API_ORIGIN) — mission {mission_id} runs without it"
+        );
+        return;
+    };
+    // Outlives the longest mission we have seen, and expires on its own so a
+    // leaked container does not leave a live credential behind indefinitely.
+    let auth = cm_auth::AuthService::new(pool.clone());
+    let token = match auth
+        .mint_scoped(user_id, cm_auth::SCOPE_SKILLS_READ, time::Duration::hours(24))
+        .await
+    {
+        Ok(t) => t,
+        Err(e) => {
+            eprintln!(
+                "mission_orchestrator: could not mint a skills token ({e}) — \
+                 mission {mission_id} runs without the door"
+            );
+            return;
+        }
+    };
+    let docker = match crate::container_exec::connect() {
+        Ok(d) => d,
+        Err(e) => {
+            eprintln!("mission_orchestrator: cannot reach docker for the skills door: {e}");
+            return;
+        }
+    };
+    let doc = crate::container_tool_hooks::mcp_document(&origin, &token);
+    let Some(path) = crate::container_tool_hooks::install_door(&docker, container, &doc).await
+    else {
+        // `install_door` already said why.
+        return;
+    };
+    if let Err(e) = prov.set_claude_cli_mcp_config(&path).await {
+        eprintln!(
+            "mission_orchestrator: wrote the MCP config but could not point \
+             claude_cli at it ({e}) — the door is installed and unreachable"
+        );
+        return;
+    }
+    eprintln!(
+        "mission_orchestrator: skills door installed for mission {mission_id} \
+         ({origin}/mcp/skills)"
+    );
+}

crates/cm-api/src/mission_runtime.rs

@@ -1070,6 +1070,103 @@ impl MissionRuntimeProvisioner {
     /// this to decide whether to KEEP a binding for a retry, and answering
     /// "still there" when docker cannot be reached would pin the binding open
     /// on an unreachable daemon rather than on a real container.
+    /// Every `cm-runtime-mission-*` container on this engine, running or not.
+    ///
+    /// The piece the row-driven sweep never had. Without it "which containers
+    /// exist" is a question the platform cannot ask, and a container the
+    /// database has forgotten is not merely unreaped — it is unseeable.
+    pub async fn list_mission_containers(&self) -> Result<Vec<(String, Option<i64>)>, String> {
+        let mut filters = std::collections::HashMap::new();
+        filters.insert("name".to_string(), vec!["cm-runtime-mission-".to_string()]);
+        let opts = bollard::query_parameters::ListContainersOptionsBuilder::default()
+            .all(true)
+            .filters(&filters)
+            .build();
+        let list = self
+            .docker
+            .list_containers(Some(opts))
+            .await
+            .map_err(|e| format!("list mission containers: {e}"))?;
+        Ok(list
+            .into_iter()
+            .filter_map(|c| {
+                let name = c
+                    .names
+                    .unwrap_or_default()
+                    .into_iter()
+                    // Docker returns names with a leading slash.
+                    .map(|n| n.trim_start_matches('/').to_string())
+                    .find(|n| n.starts_with("cm-runtime-mission-"))?;
+                Some((name, c.created))
+            })
+            .collect())
+    }
+
+    /// How long ago docker says this container was created.
+    ///
+    /// Taken from the listing rather than a second `inspect`: `created` is
+    /// already a unix timestamp there, so this needs neither a date parser nor
+    /// another round-trip. `None` when docker reported none, and the caller
+    /// treats that as "do not reap" — a container we cannot date is exactly the
+    /// one worth leaving.
+    pub fn container_age(created_epoch: Option<i64>) -> Option<std::time::Duration> {
+        let created = created_epoch?;
+        let now = std::time::SystemTime::now()
+            .duration_since(std::time::UNIX_EPOCH)
+            .ok()?
+            .as_secs() as i64;
+        u64::try_from(now - created).ok().map(std::time::Duration::from_secs)
+    }
+
+    /// Does this container's checkout hold commits no remote has?
+    ///
+    /// Answered by `git` inside the container, because only it knows which
+    /// refs the remote had. `--not --remotes` lists every commit reachable
+    /// from any local ref and from no remote-tracking ref — which is exactly
+    /// "work that exists only here".
+    ///
+    /// Every failure path returns `SomeOrUnknown`. A container we cannot
+    /// question is not a container we may delete.
+    pub async fn unpushed_commits(&self, name: &str) -> UnpushedWork {
+        let script = "cd /mission/repo 2>/dev/null || exit 91; \
+                      git rev-list --all --not --remotes 2>/dev/null | wc -l";
+        let argv = vec!["sh".to_string(), "-lc".to_string(), script.to_string()];
+        let out = match crate::container_exec::exec_as_root(
+            &self.docker,
+            name,
+            None,
+            &argv,
+            std::time::Duration::from_secs(30),
+        )
+        .await
+        {
+            Ok(o) => o,
+            Err(e) => {
+                return UnpushedWork::SomeOrUnknown(format!("could not ask git ({e})"));
+            }
+        };
+        if out.exit_code == Some(91) {
+            // No checkout at all — nothing to lose.
+            return UnpushedWork::None;
+        }
+        if out.exit_code != Some(0) {
+            return UnpushedWork::SomeOrUnknown(format!(
+                "git probe exited {:?}",
+                out.exit_code
+            ));
+        }
+        match out.stdout.trim().parse::<u64>() {
+            Ok(0) => UnpushedWork::None,
+            Ok(n) => UnpushedWork::SomeOrUnknown(format!(
+                "{n} commit(s) in its checkout are on no remote"
+            )),
+            Err(_) => UnpushedWork::SomeOrUnknown(format!(
+                "unreadable git output {:?}",
+                out.stdout.trim()
+            )),
+        }
+    }
+
     pub async fn container_exists(&self, mission_id: Uuid) -> bool {
         self.docker
             .inspect_container(&container_name(mission_id), None::<InspectContainerOptions>)
@@ -1152,10 +1249,114 @@ pub fn spawn_sweeper(pool: sqlx::PgPool, grace: std::time::Duration) {
             if let Err(e) = sweep_once(&pool, grace).await {
                 eprintln!("mission_runtime::sweeper: sweep failed: {e}");
             }
+            if let Err(e) = sweep_orphans(&pool, ORPHAN_GRACE).await {
+                eprintln!("mission_runtime::sweeper: orphan sweep failed: {e}");
+            }
         }
     });
 }
 
+/// How long a container with no mission row may sit before it is reaped.
+///
+/// Long, deliberately. The row-driven sweep above handles every container the
+/// platform still knows about, so anything reaching this path is already
+/// unexpected — and the one real orphan we have seen held ten unpushed commits.
+/// A day of disk is cheaper than being wrong about that.
+const ORPHAN_GRACE: std::time::Duration = std::time::Duration::from_secs(24 * 3600);
+
+/// Reap `cm-runtime-mission-*` containers that no `missions` row points at.
+///
+/// [`sweep_once`] selects `FROM missions`, and `teardown_container` is only
+/// ever called with an id that came from that query. So a container whose row
+/// is gone is invisible to every reaper: nothing enumerates docker, nothing
+/// errors, and the only symptom is disk.
+///
+/// Found on gw-04 2026-08-21 — a container `Up` for nine days holding 2.5G,
+/// against a `missions` table with **zero rows**.
+///
+/// # It refuses to reap work that exists nowhere else
+///
+/// That container's checkout held **ten commits on a branch that had never
+/// been pushed** (+3451/-30 across 30 files). A reaper that deleted on sight
+/// would have destroyed all of it, silently, as its designed behaviour. So
+/// before removing anything this asks the checkout whether it holds commits
+/// that no remote has, and leaves the container alone — loudly, every tick —
+/// when it does.
+///
+/// The check is deliberately one-sided in the safe direction: an inspection
+/// that fails for any reason counts as "might hold work", never as "safe to
+/// delete". Losing a day of disk to an unreadable container is recoverable;
+/// the other way round is not.
+pub async fn sweep_orphans(pool: &sqlx::PgPool, grace: std::time::Duration) -> Result<(), String> {
+    let Some(prov) = MissionRuntimeProvisioner::from_env() else {
+        return Ok(());
+    };
+    let names = prov.list_mission_containers().await?;
+    if names.is_empty() {
+        return Ok(());
+    }
+    for (name, created) in names {
+        let Some(id) = mission_id_from_container(&name) else {
+            continue;
+        };
+        // `WHERE id = $1` across every workspace on purpose: the question is
+        // whether ANY row still points at this container, not whether one the
+        // caller can see does.
+        let known: Option<(Uuid,)> = sqlx::query_as("SELECT id FROM missions WHERE id = $1")
+            .bind(id)
+            .fetch_optional(pool)
+            .await
+            .map_err(|e| format!("look up mission {id}: {e}"))?;
+        if known.is_some() {
+            continue;
+        }
+        match MissionRuntimeProvisioner::container_age(created) {
+            Some(age) if age < grace => continue,
+            None => continue,
+            Some(_) => {}
+        }
+        match prov.unpushed_commits(&name).await {
+            // The safe answer, and the one an error also produces.
+            UnpushedWork::SomeOrUnknown(why) => {
+                eprintln!(
+                    "mission_runtime::orphans: {name} has no mission row and is older than \
+                     the grace period, but it is NOT safe to reap: {why}. Recover the work \
+                     (`git bundle create … origin/main..HEAD`, or push the branch) and then \
+                     remove it by hand."
+                );
+            }
+            UnpushedWork::None => {
+                eprintln!(
+                    "mission_runtime::orphans: reaping {name} — no mission row, older than \
+                     the grace period, and its checkout holds nothing a remote does not"
+                );
+                if let Err(e) = prov.teardown_container(id).await {
+                    eprintln!("mission_runtime::orphans: reap {name}: {e}");
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+    Ok(())
+}
+
+/// Whether an orphan's checkout holds commits no remote has.
+#[derive(Debug, PartialEq, Eq)]
+pub enum UnpushedWork {
+    /// Every commit is reachable from a remote ref — nothing is lost.
+    None,
+    /// There IS unpushed work, or the question could not be answered. One
+    /// variant for both, because the reaper must treat them identically.
+    SomeOrUnknown(String),
+}
+
+/// The mission id encoded in a runtime container's name, if it is one.
+///
+/// The inverse of [`container_name`], which formats the uuid `simple` (no
+/// dashes). Anything that does not parse is not ours and is left alone.
+pub fn mission_id_from_container(name: &str) -> Option<Uuid> {
+    Uuid::parse_str(name.strip_prefix("cm-runtime-mission-")?).ok()
+}
+
 async fn sweep_once(pool: &sqlx::PgPool, grace: std::time::Duration) -> Result<(), String> {
     use sqlx::Row;
     let grace_secs = grace.as_secs() as f64;
@@ -1569,6 +1770,48 @@ mod tests {
         }
     }
 
+    /// The name→id round trip the orphan sweep depends on.
+    ///
+    /// If this is wrong the sweep either skips every orphan (harmless) or
+    /// resolves a container to the WRONG mission id and asks the database
+    /// about a mission that does exist — reading "still live, leave it" for a
+    /// container that is not. Cheap to get right, expensive to get wrong.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_container_name_round_trips_to_its_mission() {
+        let id = Uuid::now_v7();
+        assert_eq!(mission_id_from_container(&container_name(id)), Some(id));
+        // Not ours, and not a panic.
+        assert_eq!(mission_id_from_container("clawmates_server_1"), None);
+        assert_eq!(mission_id_from_container("cm-runtime-mission-nonsense"), None);
+        assert_eq!(mission_id_from_container("cm-sandbox-abc"), None);
+    }
+
+    /// A container docker will not date must not be reaped.
+    #[test]
+    fn an_undatable_container_has_no_age() {
+        assert_eq!(MissionRuntimeProvisioner::container_age(None), None);
+        let now = std::time::SystemTime::now()
+            .duration_since(std::time::UNIX_EPOCH)
+            .unwrap()
+            .as_secs() as i64;
+        let age = MissionRuntimeProvisioner::container_age(Some(now - 3600)).expect("age");
+        assert!(age.as_secs() >= 3500 && age.as_secs() <= 3700, "{age:?}");
+        // A clock skew that puts creation in the future must not underflow into
+        // a colossal age that reads as "long past the grace period".
+        assert_eq!(MissionRuntimeProvisioner::container_age(Some(now + 600)), None);
+    }
+
+    /// The grace period is long, and that is the point.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_orphan_grace_is_generous() {
+        assert!(
+            ORPHAN_GRACE >= std::time::Duration::from_secs(12 * 3600),
+            "the row-driven sweep already handles everything the platform knows \
+             about, so anything reaching the orphan path is unexpected — and the \
+             one real orphan held ten unpushed commits"
+        );
+    }
+
     const SAMPLE_CONFIG: &str = r#"# top comment
 [agents.claw_a]
 model_provider = "anthropic.default"

crates/cm-api/src/phase_config.rs

@@ -254,18 +254,31 @@ mod tests {
             "order_idx",
             "requires_repo",
             "default_team_template",
+            "default_phase_teams",
             "default_topology",
             "phases",
             "description",
         ];
+        // `[default_phase_teams]` maps a phase PURPOSE to a team template key,
+        // so its keys are not config keys and must not be checked as such.
+        // They are checked against the purposes `phase_runner::purposes_for`
+        // can actually emit instead — a typo'd purpose matches no phase and
+        // that phase silently falls back to the mission-wide team, which is
+        // exactly the kind of quiet wrong staffing this table exists to end.
+        const PURPOSES: &[&str] = &["research", "coding", "security", "mission"];
         for entry in entries.flatten() {
             let path = entry.path();
             if path.extension().and_then(|e| e.to_str()) != Some("toml") {
                 continue;
             }
             let body = std::fs::read_to_string(&path).unwrap();
+            let mut table = String::new();
             for line in body.lines() {
                 let line = line.trim();
+                if line.starts_with('[') {
+                    table = line.trim_matches(['[', ']'].as_slice()).to_string();
+                    continue;
+                }
                 if line.starts_with('#') || !line.contains('=') {
                     continue;
                 }
@@ -273,6 +286,16 @@ mod tests {
                 if key.is_empty() || key.contains(' ') || key.contains('[') {
                     continue;
                 }
+                if table == "default_phase_teams" {
+                    assert!(
+                        PURPOSES.contains(&key),
+                        "{} staffs purpose `{key}`, which `purposes_for` never emits — \
+                         that phase would fall back to the mission-wide team with \
+                         nothing reporting it",
+                        path.display()
+                    );
+                    continue;
+                }
                 let accounted = ENVELOPE.contains(&key)
                     || is_listed(key, KNOWN_KEYS)
                     || is_listed(key, DECLARED_BUT_UNREAD);

crates/cm-api/src/phase_runner.rs

@@ -309,6 +309,81 @@ mod skill_delivery_wiring_tests {
     }
 }
 
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod attribution_tests {
+    use super::attribute_sessions;
+    use crate::vm_tool_tap::Observed;
+    use uuid::Uuid;
+
+    fn call(session: Option<&str>) -> Observed {
+        Observed {
+            tool: "Bash".into(),
+            path: None,
+            session: session.map(str::to_string),
+            input: serde_json::json!({"command": "ls"}),
+            response: serde_json::Value::Null,
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// The ordinary case: three turns, three sessions, in order.
+    #[test]
+    fn each_session_lands_on_the_turn_that_ran_it() {
+        let (a, b, c) = (Uuid::now_v7(), Uuid::now_v7(), Uuid::now_v7());
+        let tools = [
+            call(Some("s1")),
+            call(Some("s1")),
+            call(Some("s2")),
+            call(Some("s3")),
+            call(Some("s2")),
+        ];
+        assert_eq!(
+            attribute_sessions(&tools, &[a, b, c]),
+            vec![Some(a), Some(a), Some(b), Some(c), Some(b)],
+            "sessions are ordered by FIRST appearance, so a later call from an \
+             earlier session still belongs to that earlier turn"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// More sessions than turns — something happened this model does not
+    /// describe, so it must not produce a confident answer.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_count_mismatch_attributes_nothing() {
+        let a = Uuid::now_v7();
+        let tools = [call(Some("s1")), call(Some("s2"))];
+        assert_eq!(
+            attribute_sessions(&tools, &[a]),
+            vec![None, None],
+            "a plausible-looking wrong attribution puts one agent's actions on \
+             another agent's record, and a person later reasons from it"
+        );
+        // And the other direction.
+        assert_eq!(
+            attribute_sessions(&[call(Some("s1"))], &[a, Uuid::now_v7()]),
+            vec![None]
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// One call with no session id poisons the ORDER, not just itself.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_single_missing_session_refuses_the_whole_batch() {
+        let (a, b) = (Uuid::now_v7(), Uuid::now_v7());
+        let tools = [call(Some("s1")), call(None), call(Some("s2"))];
+        assert_eq!(
+            attribute_sessions(&tools, &[a, b]),
+            vec![None, None, None],
+            "a hole shifts every later session onto the wrong turn"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// The pre-session tap, and the microVM path that supplies no turns.
+    #[test]
+    fn no_turns_and_no_sessions_stay_unattributed() {
+        assert_eq!(attribute_sessions(&[call(Some("s1"))], &[]), vec![None]);
+        assert_eq!(attribute_sessions(&[call(None)], &[]), vec![None]);
+        assert!(attribute_sessions(&[], &[]).is_empty());
+    }
+}
+
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod repo_less_text_tests {
     use super::*;
@@ -567,12 +642,26 @@ async fn drain_finished_container_phases(pool: &PgPool) -> Result<(), String> {
                 .await
                 .ok()
                 .flatten();
+        // The agent of each turn, in the order the turns ran. `prompt.composed`
+        // is written by the tier as it sends each turn, so this IS the running
+        // order — not a reconstruction of it.
+        let turn_agents: Vec<Uuid> = sqlx::query_scalar(
+            "SELECT agent_id FROM mission_events
+              WHERE phase_id = $1 AND kind = $2 AND agent_id IS NOT NULL
+              ORDER BY id",
+        )
+        .bind(phase_id)
+        .bind(crate::mission_events::PROMPT_COMPOSED)
+        .fetch_all(pool)
+        .await
+        .unwrap_or_default();
         record_vm_tools(
             pool,
             mission_id,
             phase_id,
             run_id.unwrap_or(phase_id),
             &tools,
+            &turn_agents,
         )
         .await;
         eprintln!(
@@ -1598,7 +1687,7 @@ async fn launch_microvm_phase(
         // still records; recording the same calls twice is what the empty
         // contract exists to prevent.
         if let Ok(o) = &outcome {
-            record_vm_tools(&pool2, mission_id, phase_id, run_id, &o.tools).await;
+            record_vm_tools(&pool2, mission_id, phase_id, run_id, &o.tools, &[]).await;
         }
         let (status, note) = match outcome {
             // The gate gave up. It is the ONLY thing that runs a
@@ -2052,45 +2141,126 @@ pub(crate) fn vm_tool_recorder(
     let pool = pool.clone();
     tokio::spawn(async move {
         while let Some(batch) = rx.recv().await {
-            record_vm_tools(&pool, mission_id, phase_id, run_id, &batch).await;
+            record_vm_tools(&pool, mission_id, phase_id, run_id, &batch, &[]).await;
         }
     });
     tx
 }
 
+/// Which agent each observed call belongs to, by session.
+///
+/// The tap is per-CONTAINER and every role in a phase shares one, so a phase's
+/// calls arrive as one undifferentiated stream and `agent_id` was written
+/// `None` for all of them. That is why every Skill-Use score is per-mission
+/// rather than per-role, and why the World's per-agent view gets nothing from
+/// this tier.
+///
+/// One `claude -p` invocation is one turn is one agent, and Claude Code stamps
+/// each invocation with a `session_id`. So the distinct sessions, in the order
+/// they first appear, are the phase's turns in the order they ran — and
+/// `prompt.composed` already records the agent of each turn in that same order.
+///
+/// # It attributes nothing rather than guessing
+///
+/// Only when the counts match exactly. A phase whose sessions and turns differ
+/// in number has something this correlation does not model — a retry, a turn
+/// that called no tool, two agents genuinely concurrent — and a
+/// plausible-looking wrong attribution is worse here than none: it would put
+/// one agent's `git push` on another agent's record, which is the sort of thing
+/// a person later reasons from.
+pub(crate) fn attribute_sessions(
+    tools: &[crate::vm_tool_tap::Observed],
+    turn_agents: &[Uuid],
+) -> Vec<Option<Uuid>> {
+    let mut order: Vec<&str> = Vec::new();
+    for t in tools {
+        let Some(sid) = t.session.as_deref() else {
+            // A single unattributable call means the sequence has a hole in it,
+            // and a hole shifts every later session onto the wrong turn.
+            return vec![None; tools.len()];
+        };
+        if !order.contains(&sid) {
+            order.push(sid);
+        }
+    }
+    if order.len() != turn_agents.len() || order.is_empty() {
+        return vec![None; tools.len()];
+    }
+    tools
+        .iter()
+        .map(|t| {
+            let sid = t.session.as_deref()?;
+            let idx = order.iter().position(|s| *s == sid)?;
+            turn_agents.get(idx).copied()
+        })
+        .collect()
+}
+
 pub(crate) async fn record_vm_tools(
     pool: &PgPool,
     mission_id: Uuid,
     phase_id: Uuid,
     run_id: Uuid,
     tools: &[crate::vm_tool_tap::Observed],
+    turn_agents: &[Uuid],
 ) {
     if tools.is_empty() {
         return;
     }
+    let owners = attribute_sessions(tools, turn_agents);
+    if owners.iter().all(Option::is_none) && !turn_agents.is_empty() {
+        eprintln!(
+            "phase_runner: {} tool call(s) for phase {phase_id} could not be \
+             attributed to an agent ({} session(s) across {} turn(s)) — recorded \
+             unattributed rather than guessed",
+            tools.len(),
+            tools
+                .iter()
+                .filter_map(|t| t.session.as_deref())
+                .collect::<std::collections::HashSet<_>>()
+                .len(),
+            turn_agents.len()
+        );
+    }
     let mut events = Vec::new();
-    for t in tools {
+    for (t, owner) in tools.iter().zip(owners) {
         events.push(crate::mission_events::MissionEvent {
             mission_id,
             phase_id: Some(phase_id),
             run_id: Some(run_id),
-            agent_id: None,
+            agent_id: owner,
             kind: crate::mission_events::TOOL_CALL.to_string(),
             target: Some(t.tool.clone()),
-            detail: serde_json::Value::Null,
+            // `path` because the World's SSE reads `detail.path` for this kind
+            // and was handed a null on every container-tier call; `input`
+            // because the tool name alone cannot answer a single behavioural
+            // question about the phase.
+            detail: serde_json::json!({
+                "path": t.path,
+                "input": t.input,
+                // Only commands carry one; `bounded_response` returns null for
+                // everything else, and a null key here is noise.
+                "response": t.response,
+            }),
         });
         if let Some(path) = &t.path {
             events.push(crate::mission_events::MissionEvent {
                 mission_id,
                 phase_id: Some(phase_id),
                 run_id: Some(run_id),
-                agent_id: None,
+                agent_id: owner,
                 kind: crate::mission_events::FILE_TOUCH.to_string(),
                 target: Some(crate::mission_events::repo_relative(
                     path,
                     &["/mission/repo", "/workspace"],
                 )),
-                detail: serde_json::json!({ "tool": t.tool }),
+                // The ABSOLUTE path as well as the repo-relative one. `target`
+                // is normalised for the map, where a `mission` → `repo` pair of
+                // directory orbs means nothing to a reader — but normalising is
+                // exactly what destroys the question "did this write land
+                // outside the checkout", which is the one boundary a skill can
+                // be scored on.
+                detail: serde_json::json!({ "tool": t.tool, "abs": path }),
             });
         }
     }

crates/cm-api/src/routes/missions.rs

@@ -294,6 +294,54 @@ pub async fn create(
         .get("phase_teams")
         .and_then(|v| v.as_object())
         .is_some_and(|o| o.values().any(|v| v.as_array().is_some_and(|a| !a.is_empty())));
+    // Per-purpose defaults first: a multi-phase recipe does not have one job,
+    // and staffing every phase from one team is what put a coder, a tester and
+    // a committer on a repo-less markdown mission. Only applied when the caller
+    // named no team of any kind, so an explicit choice always wins.
+    let mut config = body.config;
+    if team_template_id.is_none() && body.team_id.is_none() && !has_phase_teams {
+        if let Some(r) = recipe {
+            let mut resolved = serde_json::Map::new();
+            for (purpose, key) in &r.default_phase_teams {
+                match cm_db::repo::team_templates::get_by_key(&state.pool, key).await {
+                    Ok(Some(t)) => {
+                        resolved.insert(
+                            purpose.clone(),
+                            serde_json::json!([t.id.to_string()]),
+                        );
+                    }
+                    // Loud, and it does NOT fall back silently: a recipe naming
+                    // a template that is not loaded would otherwise stage the
+                    // wrong crew and look deliberate.
+                    Ok(None) => eprintln!(
+                        "missions: recipe {} maps purpose {purpose:?} to team template \
+                         {key:?}, which is not loaded — that phase will fall back to the \
+                         mission-wide default",
+                        body.template_kind.trim()
+                    ),
+                    Err(e) => eprintln!("missions: looking up team template {key:?}: {e}"),
+                }
+            }
+            if !resolved.is_empty() {
+                eprintln!(
+                    "missions: {} staffs {} phase purpose(s) from the recipe",
+                    body.template_kind.trim(),
+                    resolved.len()
+                );
+                if let Some(obj) = config.as_object_mut() {
+                    obj.insert("phase_teams".into(), serde_json::Value::Object(resolved));
+                } else {
+                    config = serde_json::json!({ "phase_teams": resolved });
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+    let has_phase_teams = has_phase_teams
+        || config
+            .get("phase_teams")
+            .and_then(|v| v.as_object())
+            .is_some_and(|o| o.values().any(|v| v.as_array().is_some_and(|a| !a.is_empty())));
+
     if team_template_id.is_none() && body.team_id.is_none() && !has_phase_teams {
         if let Some(key) = recipe.and_then(|r| r.default_team_template.as_deref()) {
             match cm_db::repo::team_templates::get_by_key(&state.pool, key).await {
@@ -324,7 +372,7 @@ pub async fn create(
         repo_id: body.repo_id,
         schedule: body.schedule,
         description: body.description.as_deref(),
-        config: body.config,
+        config,
         runtime_kind: Some(runtime_kind),
         target_node_id: body.target_node_id,
         backend: body.backend.as_deref(),
@@ -1761,6 +1809,12 @@ mod tests {
             blurb: String::new(),
             requires_repo: true,
             default_team_template: Some("rust_sdlc".into()),
+            default_phase_teams: [
+                ("research".to_string(), "topic_research".to_string()),
+                ("coding".to_string(), "rust_sdlc".to_string()),
+            ]
+            .into_iter()
+            .collect(),
             phases: vec![
                 crate::workflow_registry::WorkflowPhase {
                     kind: "research".into(),

crates/cm-api/src/routes/world.rs

@@ -1114,9 +1114,13 @@ pub async fn world_live(
             // the durable source: `reasoning` rows carry the agent's own step
             // output, `tool.call` rows its actions.
             //
-            // NOTE: on the container tier `tool.call` legitimately stays empty —
+            // This used to say the container tier "legitimately stays empty —
-            // those agents are tool-free behind the §15 door. Reasoning flows on
+            // those agents are tool-free". That was wrong, and it was wrong in
-            // every tier; tool lines appear where agents actually hold tools.
+            // the most expensive way: it explained the silence, so nobody
+            // looked. Those agents call `Bash` and `Write` constantly; the
+            // calls happen inside claude's own subprocess and so never reached
+            // ZeroClaw's executor. `container_tool_hooks` records them now, and
+            // `tool.call` is populated on both tiers.
             if agent_ev_cursor < 0 {
                 agent_ev_cursor = sqlx::query_scalar(
                     "SELECT coalesce(max(id), 0) FROM mission_events",

crates/cm-api/src/runtime_provision.rs

@@ -201,6 +201,21 @@ impl RuntimeProvisioner {
         .await
     }
 
+    /// Point `claude -p` at an MCP configuration.
+    ///
+    /// The counterpart to [`set_claude_cli_settings`](Self::set_claude_cli_settings):
+    /// writing the document into the container and telling the daemon about it
+    /// are two halves of one thing, and doing one without the other leaves a
+    /// door that is installed and unreachable — which looks exactly like a door
+    /// nobody walked through.
+    pub async fn set_claude_cli_mcp_config(&self, path: &str) -> Result<(), String> {
+        self.set_prop(
+            "providers.models.claude_cli.default.mcp_config",
+            serde_json::json!(path),
+        )
+        .await
+    }
+
     /// Rebind an existing claw's model without touching its risk_profile
     /// or mcp_bundles. Used by the "change model" UI on the Agents page
     /// so we don't accidentally demote a coding_readwrite claw back to

crates/cm-api/src/skills_loader.rs

@@ -175,33 +175,56 @@ mod tests {
 mod contradiction_tests {
     use std::path::PathBuf;
 
-    fn skills_root() -> PathBuf {
+    fn repo_root(rel: &str) -> PathBuf {
         PathBuf::from(env!("CARGO_MANIFEST_DIR"))
-            .join("../../skills")
+            .join("../..")
+            .join(rel)
             .canonicalize()
-            .expect("skills dir")
+            .unwrap_or_else(|e| panic!("{rel}: {e}"))
     }
 
-    fn all_skills() -> Vec<(String, String)> {
+    fn walk_ext(dir: &std::path::Path, ext: &str, out: &mut Vec<(String, String)>) {
-        fn walk(dir: &std::path::Path, out: &mut Vec<(String, String)>) {
+        for e in std::fs::read_dir(dir).expect("read dir") {
-            for e in std::fs::read_dir(dir).expect("read skills dir") {
+            let p = e.expect("entry").path();
-                let p = e.expect("entry").path();
+            if p.is_dir() {
-                if p.is_dir() {
+                walk_ext(&p, ext, out);
-                    walk(&p, out);
+            } else if p.extension().and_then(|x| x.to_str()) == Some(ext) {
-                } else if p.extension().and_then(|x| x.to_str()) == Some("md") {
+                out.push((
-                    out.push((
+                    p.file_name().unwrap().to_string_lossy().to_string(),
-                        p.file_name().unwrap().to_string_lossy().to_string(),
+                    std::fs::read_to_string(&p).expect("read file"),
-                        std::fs::read_to_string(&p).expect("read skill"),
+                ));
-                    ));
-                }
             }
         }
+    }
+
+    /// Skill bodies alone.
+    fn all_skills() -> Vec<(String, String)> {
         let mut out = Vec::new();
-        walk(&skills_root(), &mut out);
+        walk_ext(&repo_root("skills"), "md", &mut out);
         out
     }
 
-    /// No skill may teach a workspace path the platform does not use.
+    /// **Everything we ship that becomes prompt text an agent reads.**
+    ///
+    /// Skills and team-template role prompts, in one corpus, because the rules
+    /// below are properties of *what an agent is told* — not of which file it
+    /// happened to be written in.
+    ///
+    /// This function is the finding. The `/workspace/repo` guard was written on
+    /// 2026-08-19 against `skills/` only, and the same wrong path had been
+    /// sitting in **four team templates** the whole time — including
+    /// `rust_sdlc`, the default for five of the six workflow recipes, whose
+    /// coder was told "your working directory is /workspace/repo" and whose
+    /// committer was told to `cd` there. A guard that covers one corpus and not
+    /// the other reads exactly like a guard that covers the problem.
+    fn all_shipped_prompts() -> Vec<(String, String)> {
+        let mut out = all_skills();
+        walk_ext(&repo_root("templates/teams"), "toml", &mut out);
+        walk_ext(&repo_root("templates/workflows"), "toml", &mut out);
+        out
+    }
+
+    /// Nothing we ship may teach a workspace path the platform does not mount.
     ///
     /// `workspace-repo-commit-protocol` told agents that `/workspace/repo` was
     /// "the ONLY path where source-modifying edits belong". The platform mounts
@@ -210,18 +233,18 @@ mod contradiction_tests {
     /// was delivered twice in a single measured run, so agents received the
     /// platform's real path and a skill contradicting it in the SAME prompt.
     #[test]
-    fn no_skill_teaches_a_repo_path_the_platform_does_not_mount() {
+    fn nothing_we_ship_teaches_a_repo_path_the_platform_does_not_mount() {
         let mut offenders = Vec::new();
-        for (name, body) in all_skills() {
+        for (name, body) in all_shipped_prompts() {
             if body.contains("/workspace/repo") {
                 offenders.push(name);
             }
         }
         assert!(
             offenders.is_empty(),
-            "{} skill(s) name /workspace/repo; the mission checkout is \
+            "{} shipped prompt file(s) name /workspace/repo; the mission \
-             /mission/repo, so an agent following them writes somewhere that is \
+             checkout is /mission/repo, so an agent following them writes \
-             never delivered: {}",
+             somewhere that is never delivered: {}",
             offenders.len(),
             offenders.join(", ")
         );
@@ -239,7 +262,7 @@ mod contradiction_tests {
     /// legitimately DISCUSS these names, as this one now does when warning
     /// against them.
     #[test]
-    fn no_skill_instructs_an_agent_to_call_a_zeroclaw_tool() {
+    fn nothing_we_ship_instructs_an_agent_to_call_a_zeroclaw_tool() {
         const ZEROCLAW_TOOLS: &[&str] = &[
             "`file_read`",
             "`file_write`",
@@ -248,7 +271,7 @@ mod contradiction_tests {
             "`glob_search`",
         ];
         let mut offenders = Vec::new();
-        for (name, body) in all_skills() {
+        for (name, body) in all_shipped_prompts() {
             // The line has to READ as an instruction. "Do not reach for
             // `file_read`" is the correction, not the defect.
             for line in body.lines() {
@@ -267,10 +290,146 @@ mod contradiction_tests {
         }
         assert!(
             offenders.is_empty(),
-            "{} skill line(s) tell an agent to use a tool its subprocess does \
+            "{} shipped prompt line(s) tell an agent to use a tool its \
-             not expose:\n  {}",
+             subprocess does not expose:\n  {}",
             offenders.len(),
             offenders.join("\n  ")
         );
     }
+
+    /// No skill may show a marker the real parser rejects.
+    ///
+    /// Checked by running `task_card_parser::parse` itself, never a copy of its
+    /// rules — a second implementation of the contract drifts, and then the
+    /// test passes while the mission loop stalls.
+    ///
+    /// This is the third instance of one class: the skills were written
+    /// alongside the platform and then never compared to it again. The first
+    /// was a repo path the platform does not mount; the second a tool the agent
+    /// does not have; this one is `PLAN_COMPLETE: INT-01..05` in
+    /// `decompose-int-items`, which a live planner emitted verbatim. Ids are
+    /// strictly `INT-<digits>`, so the range form parses to nothing — the plan
+    /// pass records no completion at all while every item stays open.
+    ///
+    /// Scoped to fenced code blocks, which is where a skill puts the text it
+    /// tells an agent to EMIT. A marker named in a sentence is prose.
+    #[test]
+    fn no_skill_shows_a_marker_the_parser_would_reject() {
+        // The templates. `INT-NN` is a placeholder an agent substitutes, not a
+        // literal it emits, so it is not a contradiction.
+        const PLACEHOLDERS: &[&str] = &["INT-NN", "INT-XX", "INT-N", "INT-nn"];
+        let mut offenders = Vec::new();
+        for (name, body) in all_skills() {
+            let mut fenced = false;
+            for line in body.lines() {
+                if line.trim_start().starts_with("```") {
+                    fenced = !fenced;
+                    continue;
+                }
+                let t = line.trim();
+                if !fenced || !t.contains("INT-") || !t.contains(':') {
+                    continue;
+                }
+                let Some((kind, _)) = t.split_once(':') else {
+                    continue;
+                };
+                if !MARKER_KINDS.contains(&kind.trim()) {
+                    continue;
+                }
+                if PLACEHOLDERS.iter().any(|p| t.contains(p)) {
+                    continue;
+                }
+                if crate::task_card_parser::parse(t).is_empty() {
+                    offenders.push(format!("{name}: {t}"));
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        assert!(
+            offenders.is_empty(),
+            "{} skill line(s) show a marker the parser rejects — an agent that \
+             follows them exactly is silently ignored:\n  {}",
+            offenders.len(),
+            offenders.join("\n  ")
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// Every team a recipe names must be a team that exists.
+    ///
+    /// `create()` logs and carries on when a recipe names a template that is
+    /// not loaded, because failing mission creation over it would be worse.
+    /// That makes a typo here invisible in exactly the way that matters: the
+    /// mission is staffed by the fallback crew and looks deliberate. `research_only`
+    /// pointed at `rust_sdlc` for months and nothing said a word.
+    #[test]
+    fn every_team_a_recipe_names_exists() {
+        let mut keys = std::collections::HashSet::new();
+        for (_, body) in {
+            let mut v = Vec::new();
+            walk_ext(&repo_root("templates/teams"), "toml", &mut v);
+            v
+        } {
+            for line in body.lines() {
+                if let Some(rest) = line.trim().strip_prefix("key") {
+                    if let Some((_, val)) = rest.split_once('=') {
+                        keys.insert(val.trim().trim_matches('"').to_string());
+                    }
+                    break;
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        assert!(!keys.is_empty(), "no team templates found at all");
+
+        let mut recipes = Vec::new();
+        walk_ext(&repo_root("templates/workflows"), "toml", &mut recipes);
+        let mut missing = Vec::new();
+        for (name, body) in recipes {
+            let mut table = String::new();
+            for line in body.lines() {
+                let line = line.trim();
+                if line.starts_with('[') {
+                    table = line.trim_matches(['[', ']'].as_slice()).to_string();
+                    continue;
+                }
+                if line.starts_with('#') {
+                    continue;
+                }
+                let named = if let Some((_, v)) = line.split_once('=') {
+                    if line.starts_with("default_team_template")
+                        || table == "default_phase_teams"
+                    {
+                        Some(v.trim().trim_matches('"').to_string())
+                    } else {
+                        None
+                    }
+                } else {
+                    None
+                };
+                if let Some(k) = named {
+                    if !keys.contains(&k) {
+                        missing.push(format!("{name} -> {k}"));
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        assert!(
+            missing.is_empty(),
+            "{} recipe(s) name a team template that does not exist, so the mission \
+             is staffed by the fallback crew and looks deliberate: {}",
+            missing.len(),
+            missing.join(", ")
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// The marker kinds, as the parser spells them.
+    const MARKER_KINDS: &[&str] = &[
+        "TASK",
+        "PLAN_COMPLETE",
+        "WORK",
+        "HANDOFF",
+        "TEST_PASS",
+        "TEST_FAIL",
+        "REVIEW_APPROVE",
+        "REVIEW_BLOCK",
+        "COMPLETED",
+    ];
 }

crates/cm-api/src/vm_tool_tap.rs

@@ -71,6 +71,132 @@ pub struct Observed {
     pub tool: String,
     /// The path the tool's **input** named, if any. From JSON, never prose.
     pub path: Option<String>,
+    /// Claude Code's session id for the `claude -p` invocation this call
+    /// happened inside.
+    ///
+    /// One invocation is one turn is one agent, so this is the only thing in
+    /// the payload that separates one agent's actions from another's. The tap
+    /// is per-CONTAINER and every role in a phase shares one, so without this
+    /// the whole phase arrives as an undifferentiated stream.
+    pub session: Option<String>,
+    /// What a **command** produced, bounded by [`bounded_response`].
+    ///
+    /// Only for tools that run something. `Read`'s response is the file it just
+    /// read and `Write`'s is a restatement of what was written — both are
+    /// already knowable from the arguments and the delivered diff, and storing
+    /// them would double the largest write path in the system for nothing.
+    ///
+    /// A command's OUTCOME is different: it is the only place a failing test
+    /// run is visible. Without it "did this phase go red before it went green"
+    /// cannot be answered from anything — not from tool order (in Rust the
+    /// unit test lives in the file under test, so one `Edit` adds both), and
+    /// not from the repository either, because `tdd-red-green-refactor` says
+    /// in so many words to "commit the RED-to-GREEN pair as one commit".
+    pub response: Value,
+    /// The tool's arguments, bounded by [`bounded_input`].
+    ///
+    /// Kept because the tool NAME alone answers almost nothing. A phase that
+    /// recorded `Bash × 6` is indistinguishable from one that ran the test
+    /// suite six times, one that pushed to a branch it was told not to, and
+    /// one that queried an API a skill forbids. The argument is where the
+    /// behaviour is, and until now this parser read it, took the path out of
+    /// it, and dropped the rest on the floor.
+    pub input: Value,
+}
+
+/// How much of one argument string is worth keeping.
+///
+/// A shell command longer than this is a heredoc or a generated payload; its
+/// first half still carries the verb, which is what any check reads.
+const MAX_ARG_LEN: usize = 512;
+
+/// Argument keys whose value is a file BODY rather than a description of an
+/// action.
+///
+/// Dropped to a byte count rather than truncated. These carry whole source
+/// files — `mission_events` is already the largest write path on a coding
+/// phase, and storing every `Write` twice (once in the event, once in the
+/// delivered diff) buys nothing: no check reads the body, and the diff is the
+/// authority on what was written anyway.
+const BODY_KEYS: [&str; 4] = ["content", "new_string", "old_string", "edits"];
+
+/// Tools whose response is an outcome rather than a restatement.
+const RESPONSE_TOOLS: [&str; 1] = ["Bash"];
+
+/// How much of a command's output to keep.
+const MAX_OUTPUT_LEN: usize = 600;
+
+/// Shrink a command's response, keeping the **end** of its output.
+///
+/// The opposite of [`bounded_input`], and deliberately so. An argument's
+/// meaning is at the start — the verb of the command. A command's meaning is at
+/// the END: `cargo test` prints hundreds of lines and then `test result: ok` or
+/// `test result: FAILED`, and a head-biased truncation would keep the noise and
+/// throw away the verdict, which is the one thing being stored for.
+pub fn bounded_response(tool: &str, response: &Value) -> Value {
+    if !RESPONSE_TOOLS.contains(&tool) {
+        return Value::Null;
+    }
+    let Some(obj) = response.as_object() else {
+        return Value::Null;
+    };
+    let mut out = serde_json::Map::new();
+    for key in ["stdout", "stderr", "interrupted"] {
+        match obj.get(key) {
+            Some(Value::String(s)) if s.len() > MAX_OUTPUT_LEN => {
+                let start = s
+                    .char_indices()
+                    .map(|(i, _)| i)
+                    .find(|i| *i >= s.len().saturating_sub(MAX_OUTPUT_LEN))
+                    .unwrap_or(0);
+                out.insert(key.into(), Value::String(format!("[truncated]…{}", &s[start..])));
+            }
+            Some(v) => {
+                out.insert(key.into(), v.clone());
+            }
+            None => {}
+        }
+    }
+    Value::Object(out)
+}
+
+/// Shrink a tool's arguments to something safe to store on every call.
+///
+/// Bounded rather than whitelisted on purpose. A whitelist of "interesting"
+/// keys silently drops the one argument that matters the first time a tool
+/// grows a new field, and the loss is invisible — the event still looks
+/// complete. Bounding keeps every key and says, in the record itself, where it
+/// stopped.
+pub fn bounded_input(input: &Value) -> Value {
+    let Some(obj) = input.as_object() else {
+        return Value::Null;
+    };
+    let mut out = serde_json::Map::new();
+    for (k, v) in obj {
+        if BODY_KEYS.contains(&k.as_str()) {
+            let bytes = match v {
+                Value::String(s) => s.len(),
+                other => other.to_string().len(),
+            };
+            out.insert(k.clone(), json!({ "omitted_bytes": bytes }));
+            continue;
+        }
+        match v {
+            Value::String(s) if s.len() > MAX_ARG_LEN => {
+                let cut = s
+                    .char_indices()
+                    .map(|(i, _)| i)
+                    .take_while(|i| *i <= MAX_ARG_LEN)
+                    .last()
+                    .unwrap_or(0);
+                out.insert(k.clone(), Value::String(format!("{}…[truncated]", &s[..cut])));
+            }
+            other => {
+                out.insert(k.clone(), other.clone());
+            }
+        }
+    }
+    Value::Object(out)
 }
 
 /// The hook script. Copies stdin verbatim to the tap file and gets out of the
@@ -140,13 +266,13 @@ pub fn install_command(dir: &str) -> String {
         "mkdir -p {dir} && rm -f {dir}/tools.jsonl \
          && printf '%s' {script} > {dir}/tap.sh && chmod +x {dir}/tap.sh",
         dir = dir,
-        script = q(&hook_script(dir)),
+        script = shell_quote(&hook_script(dir)),
     )
 }
 
 /// Write the composed settings document.
 pub fn settings_command(path: &str, settings: &Value) -> String {
-    format!("printf '%s' {} > {path}", q(&settings.to_string()))
+    format!("printf '%s' {} > {path}", shell_quote(&settings.to_string()))
 }
 
 /// Parse a drained tap.
@@ -178,8 +304,20 @@ pub fn parse(raw: &str) -> Vec<Observed> {
                 .or_else(|| v.get("toolInput"))
                 .cloned()
                 .unwrap_or(Value::Null);
+            let response = v
+                .get("tool_response")
+                .or_else(|| v.get("toolResponse"))
+                .cloned()
+                .unwrap_or(Value::Null);
             Some(Observed {
                 path: crate::mission_events::tool_path(&input),
+                input: bounded_input(&input),
+                response: bounded_response(&tool, &response),
+                session: v
+                    .get("session_id")
+                    .or_else(|| v.get("sessionId"))
+                    .and_then(Value::as_str)
+                    .map(str::to_string),
                 tool,
             })
         })
@@ -188,7 +326,7 @@ pub fn parse(raw: &str) -> Vec<Observed> {
 
 /// Single-quote for `sh`. Local copy, same rule as the stop gate's — these two
 /// modules deliberately share no code, so neither can break the other.
-fn q(s: &str) -> String {
+pub fn shell_quote(s: &str) -> String {
     format!("'{}'", s.replace('\'', r"'\''"))
 }
 
@@ -268,12 +406,78 @@ mod tests {
         assert_eq!(
             parse(raw),
             vec![
-                Observed { tool: "Edit".into(), path: Some("/mission/repo/src/a.rs".into()) },
+                Observed {
-                Observed { tool: "Bash".into(), path: None },
+                    tool: "Edit".into(),
+                    path: Some("/mission/repo/src/a.rs".into()),
+                    input: json!({"file_path": "/mission/repo/src/a.rs"}),
+                    session: None,
+                    response: Value::Null,
+                },
+                Observed {
+                    tool: "Bash".into(),
+                    path: None,
+                    input: json!({"command": "ls"}),
+                    session: None,
+                    response: Value::Null,
+                },
             ]
         );
     }
 
+    /// The command survives the parse.
+    ///
+    /// The regression this guards is the one that made the first container-tier
+    /// measurement unusable: six `Bash` calls were recorded and not one of them
+    /// said what it ran, so every behavioural question — did it run the tests,
+    /// did it commit, did it call the API a skill forbids — was unanswerable
+    /// from a record that looked complete.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_argument_is_what_carries_the_behaviour() {
+        let raw = concat!(
+            r#"{"tool_name":"Bash","tool_input":{"command":"cargo nextest run -p cm-api"}}"#,
+            "\n",
+        );
+        let got = parse(raw);
+        assert_eq!(got[0].input["command"], json!("cargo nextest run -p cm-api"));
+    }
+
+    /// A file body is counted, not stored; everything else survives bounded.
+    #[test]
+    fn bodies_are_dropped_and_long_arguments_are_marked() {
+        let long = "x".repeat(MAX_ARG_LEN + 50);
+        let got = bounded_input(&json!({
+            "file_path": "/mission/repo/src/a.rs",
+            "content": "fn main() {}",
+            "command": long,
+        }));
+        assert_eq!(got["file_path"], json!("/mission/repo/src/a.rs"));
+        assert_eq!(
+            got["content"],
+            json!({"omitted_bytes": 12}),
+            "a file body is stored in the delivered diff already; the event only \
+             needs to say how big it was"
+        );
+        let cmd = got["command"].as_str().expect("command kept");
+        assert!(cmd.ends_with("…[truncated]"), "{cmd}");
+        assert!(
+            cmd.len() < MAX_ARG_LEN + 40,
+            "a bounded argument must actually be bounded: {}",
+            cmd.len()
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// Truncation must not split a multi-byte character.
+    ///
+    /// `&s[..cut]` on a byte index inside a UTF-8 sequence panics, and the
+    /// panic would land in the drain — losing a whole phase's tap to a command
+    /// that happened to contain an emoji or an em dash.
+    #[test]
+    fn truncation_respects_character_boundaries() {
+        let long = "é".repeat(MAX_ARG_LEN);
+        let got = bounded_input(&json!({ "command": long }));
+        assert!(got["command"].as_str().unwrap().ends_with("…[truncated]"));
+    }
+
     /// Exactly one place in the tree writes the guest settings document.
     ///
     /// The unit test above proves `guest_settings` composes correctly; it says

crates/cm-api/src/workflow_registry.rs

@@ -34,6 +34,20 @@ pub struct WorkflowRecipe {
     pub phases: Vec<WorkflowPhase>,
     #[serde(default)]
     pub default_team_template: Option<String>,
+    /// Default team **per phase purpose**, by template key:
+    /// `{ research = "topic_research", coding = "rust_sdlc" }`.
+    ///
+    /// `default_team_template` names ONE team for a whole mission, and a
+    /// multi-phase recipe does not have one job. `research_and_code` staffs a
+    /// research phase and a coding phase from the same `rust_sdlc` crew, which
+    /// is why its research phase has to spend a paragraph of `task` telling
+    /// coders not to code — a workaround for staffing, written into the prompt.
+    ///
+    /// Resolved to `config.phase_teams` at mission-create, which the
+    /// orchestrator and `composed_graph` already read. Purposes come from
+    /// `phase_runner::purposes_for`.
+    #[serde(default)]
+    pub default_phase_teams: std::collections::BTreeMap<String, String>,
 }
 
 #[derive(Debug, Clone, Deserialize, Serialize)]

crates/cm-api/tests/orphan_sweep.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,352 @@
+//! The orphan sweep's two Docker-touching seams, against real containers.
+//!
+//! `sweep_orphans` force-removes containers. Its decision logic is pure and
+//! unit-tested in `mission_runtime`, but the two calls that talk to Docker —
+//! "which containers exist" and "does this checkout hold work no remote has" —
+//! had never run against a daemon. Those are exactly the ones worth exercising
+//! for real: the first decides what is considered at all, and the second is the
+//! only thing standing between a reaper and ten unpushed commits.
+//!
+//! That is not hypothetical. The orphan that motivated this sweep held
+//! +3451/-30 across 30 files on a branch that existed nowhere else.
+//!
+//! Skips cleanly when there is no Docker, so a machine or CI runner without one
+//! reports "not run" rather than failing.
+
+use cm_api::mission_runtime::{container_name, MissionRuntimeProvisioner, UnpushedWork};
+use uuid::Uuid;
+
+/// The image is already local on any machine that runs missions, and it has
+/// `git`, which the probe needs.
+const FIXTURE_IMAGE: &str = "clawmates-runtime:hooks";
+
+/// These tests must not run at the same time as each other.
+///
+/// `sweep_orphans` is global: it reaps EVERY orphaned `cm-runtime-mission-*`
+/// container on the daemon, which on a parallel test runner includes the
+/// fixtures another test in this file just started. That is not a flaw in the
+/// sweep — it is what a sweep is — but it means anything here that creates a
+/// mission-shaped container has to hold this lock.
+///
+/// Found the honest way: the reap test deleted the listing test's fixture
+/// mid-run and the listing test reported a container it could not see.
+static FIXTURES: std::sync::LazyLock<tokio::sync::Mutex<()>> =
+    std::sync::LazyLock::new(|| tokio::sync::Mutex::new(()));
+
+fn docker_available() -> bool {
+    std::process::Command::new("docker")
+        .args(["image", "inspect", FIXTURE_IMAGE])
+        .stdout(std::process::Stdio::null())
+        .stderr(std::process::Stdio::null())
+        .status()
+        .map(|s| s.success())
+        .unwrap_or(false)
+}
+
+/// Start a fixture container named like a mission runtime, running a shell
+/// script that leaves `/mission/repo` in a known state.
+fn start_fixture(id: Uuid, setup: &str) -> String {
+    let name = container_name(id);
+    let _ = std::process::Command::new("docker")
+        .args(["rm", "-f", &name])
+        .stdout(std::process::Stdio::null())
+        .stderr(std::process::Stdio::null())
+        .status();
+    let script = format!("{setup}\nsleep 3600");
+    let out = std::process::Command::new("docker")
+        .args([
+            "run", "-d", "--name", &name, "--entrypoint", "sh", FIXTURE_IMAGE, "-c", &script,
+        ])
+        .output()
+        .expect("docker run");
+    assert!(
+        out.status.success(),
+        "could not start fixture {name}: {}",
+        String::from_utf8_lossy(&out.stderr)
+    );
+    // The script has to have finished its git work before the probe runs.
+    std::thread::sleep(std::time::Duration::from_secs(3));
+    name
+}
+
+fn remove(name: &str) {
+    let _ = std::process::Command::new("docker")
+        .args(["rm", "-f", name])
+        .stdout(std::process::Stdio::null())
+        .stderr(std::process::Stdio::null())
+        .status();
+}
+
+const GIT_INIT: &str = "set -e
+mkdir -p /mission/repo && cd /mission/repo
+git init -q .
+git config user.email t@t && git config user.name t
+echo hello > a.txt && git add a.txt && git commit -qm 'work nobody else has'";
+
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn the_sweep_can_see_containers_and_refuses_the_ones_holding_work() {
+    if !docker_available() {
+        eprintln!("orphan_sweep: no docker or no {FIXTURE_IMAGE} — not run");
+        return;
+    }
+    let Some(prov) = MissionRuntimeProvisioner::from_env() else {
+        eprintln!("orphan_sweep: no docker connection — not run");
+        return;
+    };
+    let _serial = FIXTURES.lock().await;
+
+    let dirty_id = Uuid::now_v7();
+    let clean_id = Uuid::now_v7();
+    let empty_id = Uuid::now_v7();
+
+    // Commits, and no remote ref anywhere: this is the container that must
+    // survive. It is the one the real orphan looked like.
+    let dirty = start_fixture(dirty_id, GIT_INIT);
+    // The same repo, but every commit is reachable from a remote-tracking ref,
+    // which is what "already pushed" looks like to `git rev-list --not
+    // --remotes`.
+    let clean = start_fixture(
+        clean_id,
+        &format!("{GIT_INIT}\ngit update-ref refs/remotes/origin/main HEAD"),
+    );
+    // No checkout at all — nothing to lose.
+    let empty = start_fixture(empty_id, "set -e\nmkdir -p /root");
+
+    let result = async {
+        let names = prov.list_mission_containers().await?;
+        let found: Vec<&String> = names.iter().map(|(n, _)| n).collect();
+        for expected in [&dirty, &clean, &empty] {
+            assert!(
+                found.iter().any(|n| *n == expected),
+                "the sweep cannot see {expected}; a container it cannot list is \
+                 one it can never reap, which is the whole defect this closes. \
+                 saw: {found:?}"
+            );
+        }
+
+        // Docker's own creation timestamp must come back, or the sweep declines
+        // to reap for want of an age.
+        let (_, created) = names
+            .iter()
+            .find(|(n, _)| n == &dirty)
+            .expect("dirty in listing");
+        assert!(
+            MissionRuntimeProvisioner::container_age(*created).is_some(),
+            "a container docker will not date is never reaped, so an absent \
+             timestamp here would silently disable the sweep"
+        );
+
+        match prov.unpushed_commits(&dirty).await {
+            UnpushedWork::SomeOrUnknown(why) => {
+                assert!(why.contains("no remote"), "{why}");
+            }
+            UnpushedWork::None => panic!(
+                "the probe said a checkout with an unpushed commit holds nothing — \
+                 this is the exact answer that destroys work"
+            ),
+        }
+
+        assert_eq!(
+            prov.unpushed_commits(&clean).await,
+            UnpushedWork::None,
+            "every commit is reachable from a remote ref, so there is nothing to lose"
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            prov.unpushed_commits(&empty).await,
+            UnpushedWork::None,
+            "no /mission/repo at all means nothing to lose"
+        );
+        Ok::<(), String>(())
+    }
+    .await;
+
+    remove(&dirty);
+    remove(&clean);
+    remove(&empty);
+    result.expect("orphan sweep probes");
+}
+
+/// A container we cannot question is not a container we may delete.
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn a_container_that_is_gone_reads_as_holding_work() {
+    if !docker_available() {
+        eprintln!("orphan_sweep: no docker — not run");
+        return;
+    }
+    let Some(prov) = MissionRuntimeProvisioner::from_env() else {
+        return;
+    };
+    match prov
+        .unpushed_commits("cm-runtime-mission-does-not-exist-at-all")
+        .await
+    {
+        UnpushedWork::SomeOrUnknown(_) => {}
+        UnpushedWork::None => panic!(
+            "an unanswerable probe must never read as 'safe to delete' — every \
+             failure path in this check is one-sided for that reason"
+        ),
+    }
+}
+
+/// Set to run the destructive sweep test.
+///
+/// The other tests in this file only create fixtures and read them. This one
+/// calls `sweep_orphans`, which REMOVES containers — and CI runs
+/// `cargo test --workspace` inside a container with `/var/run/docker.sock`
+/// mounted, on gw04, which is the host that runs production missions.
+///
+/// `adopt_existing` protects everything already present, but it cannot protect
+/// a mission container created in the seconds between that call and the sweep.
+/// On a developer machine that race is nothing; on the production host it is a
+/// mission. So the destructive test is opt-in, and CI simply does not run it.
+const RUN_DESTRUCTIVE: &str = "CM_TEST_ORPHAN_SWEEP";
+
+/// The reap decision itself, against real containers.
+///
+/// The probes above are the inputs; this is the act. A clean orphan past its
+/// grace must go, an orphan holding unpushed work must stay, and a young one
+/// must stay regardless — and all three have to be true of the same sweep, in
+/// one pass, because that is how it runs.
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn the_sweep_reaps_the_clean_orphan_and_spares_the_others() {
+    if !docker_available() {
+        eprintln!("orphan_sweep: no docker — not run");
+        return;
+    }
+    if std::env::var(RUN_DESTRUCTIVE).is_err() {
+        eprintln!(
+            "orphan_sweep: not run — this test removes containers, and the CI \
+             runner shares a docker daemon with production. Set \
+             {RUN_DESTRUCTIVE}=1 to run it."
+        );
+        return;
+    }
+    if MissionRuntimeProvisioner::from_env().is_none() {
+        return;
+    }
+    let _serial = FIXTURES.lock().await;
+    let pool = cm_testkit::test_pool().await;
+
+    // Adopt every mission container that already exists on this daemon.
+    //
+    // The sweep asks the DATABASE whether a container is known, and a fresh
+    // test database knows nothing — so on a developer machine the sweep
+    // classifies the live local stack's mission containers as orphans and
+    // reaps them. It did exactly that on the first run of this test, deleting
+    // two real mission containers.
+    //
+    // Giving each a row makes the test safe AND covers the case the other
+    // assertions do not: a container the platform still knows about is never
+    // touched, whatever its checkout looks like.
+    let adopted = adopt_existing(&pool).await;
+
+    let clean_id = Uuid::now_v7();
+    let dirty_id = Uuid::now_v7();
+    let young_id = Uuid::now_v7();
+
+    let alive = |name: &str| {
+        std::process::Command::new("docker")
+            .args(["inspect", name])
+            .stdout(std::process::Stdio::null())
+            .stderr(std::process::Stdio::null())
+            .status()
+            .map(|s| s.success())
+            .unwrap_or(false)
+    };
+
+    let clean = start_fixture(
+        clean_id,
+        &format!("{GIT_INIT}\ngit update-ref refs/remotes/origin/main HEAD"),
+    );
+    let dirty = start_fixture(dirty_id, GIT_INIT);
+
+    // Pass one, no grace: everything present is past its window, so the
+    // decision is made purely on whether the checkout holds work.
+    let swept = cm_api::mission_runtime::sweep_orphans(&pool, std::time::Duration::ZERO).await;
+    let clean_gone = !alive(&clean);
+    let dirty_alive = alive(&dirty);
+
+    // Pass two, a real grace, on a container minted seconds ago. It is clean
+    // and orphaned — reapable on every axis except its age — so if the grace is
+    // decorative this is where that shows.
+    //
+    // Started AFTER the first pass on purpose: a grace applies to every
+    // container in the sweep, so a fixture created before a zero-grace pass is
+    // reaped by that pass and proves nothing about the window. The first
+    // version of this test made exactly that mistake and failed itself.
+    let young = start_fixture(
+        young_id,
+        &format!("{GIT_INIT}\ngit update-ref refs/remotes/origin/main HEAD"),
+    );
+    let swept2 =
+        cm_api::mission_runtime::sweep_orphans(&pool, std::time::Duration::from_secs(3600)).await;
+    let young_alive = alive(&young);
+
+    remove(&clean);
+    remove(&dirty);
+    remove(&young);
+
+    for name in &adopted {
+        assert!(
+            alive(name),
+            "the sweep reaped {name}, which HAS a mission row — a container the \
+             platform still knows about must never be touched"
+        );
+    }
+
+    swept.expect("first sweep");
+    swept2.expect("second sweep");
+    assert!(
+        clean_gone,
+        "a clean orphan past its grace is exactly what this sweep exists to \
+         reclaim; leaving it means the disk leak is still open"
+    );
+    assert!(
+        dirty_alive,
+        "an orphan holding commits no remote has MUST survive — the container \
+         that motivated this held ten of them"
+    );
+    assert!(
+        young_alive,
+        "a container inside the grace window must be left alone even when it is \
+         otherwise reapable, or the grace is decorative"
+    );
+}
+
+/// Give every mission container already on this daemon a row, so the sweep
+/// treats it as known and leaves it alone.
+///
+/// Returns the names, which then double as an assertion: none of them may be
+/// reaped.
+async fn adopt_existing(pool: &sqlx::PgPool) -> Vec<String> {
+    let Some(prov) = MissionRuntimeProvisioner::from_env() else {
+        return Vec::new();
+    };
+    let Ok(existing) = prov.list_mission_containers().await else {
+        return Vec::new();
+    };
+    let ws = Uuid::now_v7();
+    sqlx::query("INSERT INTO workspaces (id, name, plan) VALUES ($1, 'orphan-test', 'free')")
+        .bind(ws)
+        .execute(pool)
+        .await
+        .expect("seed workspace");
+    let mut names = Vec::new();
+    for (name, _) in existing {
+        let Some(id) = cm_api::mission_runtime::mission_id_from_container(&name) else {
+            continue;
+        };
+        sqlx::query(
+            "INSERT INTO missions (id, workspace_id, title, template_kind)
+             VALUES ($1, $2, 'adopted by orphan_sweep test', 'research_only')
+             ON CONFLICT (id) DO NOTHING",
+        )
+        .bind(id)
+        .bind(ws)
+        .execute(pool)
+        .await
+        .expect("adopt container");
+        names.push(name);
+    }
+    names
+}

crates/cm-auth/src/lib.rs

@@ -12,5 +12,7 @@ mod token;
 
 pub use bootstrap::bootstrap_owner;
 pub use jwt::{ExternalClaims, JwtError, JwtVerifier};
-pub use service::{AuthError, AuthService, AuthedUser, SESSION_TTL};
+pub use service::{
+    AuthError, AuthService, AuthedUser, SCOPE_FULL, SCOPE_SKILLS_READ, SESSION_TTL,
+};
 pub use token::SessionToken;

crates/cm-auth/src/service.rs

@@ -10,6 +10,17 @@ use crate::token::{hash_token, SessionToken};
 /// How long a login session stays valid.
 pub const SESSION_TTL: Duration = Duration::days(7);
 
+/// A person's session. Accepted by every route.
+pub const SCOPE_FULL: &str = "full";
+
+/// Read the skills catalogue over MCP, and nothing else.
+///
+/// The credential a mission container is given so its agent can retrieve skill
+/// bodies on demand. Deliberately its own constant rather than a string
+/// literal at the two call sites: a typo in one of them would produce a token
+/// that authenticates nowhere, which fails safely but silently.
+pub const SCOPE_SKILLS_READ: &str = "skills:read";
+
 /// The authenticated caller attached to every API request: everything RBAC
 /// decisions need, nothing more.
 #[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq)]
@@ -263,13 +274,44 @@ impl AuthService {
     /// JWTs (three dot-separated segments) take the hosted-identity path;
     /// everything else is a local opaque session token.
     pub async fn authenticate(&self, token_secret: &str) -> Result<AuthedUser, AuthError> {
+        self.authenticate_scoped(token_secret, SCOPE_FULL).await
+    }
+
+    /// Resolve a bearer token that is allowed to be narrow.
+    ///
+    /// `required` is the scope this call site accepts *in addition to*
+    /// [`SCOPE_FULL`], which is a person's session and is accepted everywhere.
+    ///
+    /// # Fail closed
+    ///
+    /// [`authenticate`](Self::authenticate) delegates here with `SCOPE_FULL`,
+    /// so a narrow token is **rejected by every existing caller** and a route
+    /// has to opt in by naming the scope it accepts. That direction matters:
+    /// the likely mistake is adding a scope and forgetting to wire a check, and
+    /// this way that mistake grants nothing instead of granting everything.
+    ///
+    /// A narrow credential exists because the alternative is worse. Reaching
+    /// `/mcp/skills` from a mission container means putting a bearer token in a
+    /// file inside it, and mission agents run arbitrary `Bash` with egress and
+    /// no read gate — so a full session there is an owner-privileged API key
+    /// handed to something explicitly untrusted.
+    pub async fn authenticate_scoped(
+        &self,
+        token_secret: &str,
+        required: &str,
+    ) -> Result<AuthedUser, AuthError> {
         if let Some(verifier) = self.verifier.clone() {
             if token_secret.matches('.').count() == 2 {
+                // An external issuer JWT is always a person. There is no
+                // narrow form of it, so it satisfies only `full`.
+                if required != SCOPE_FULL {
+                    return Err(AuthError::Unauthenticated);
+                }
                 return self.authenticate_external(token_secret, &verifier).await;
             }
         }
         let row = sqlx::query!(
-            "SELECT u.id, u.workspace_id, u.role
+            "SELECT u.id, u.workspace_id, u.role, s.scope
              FROM auth_sessions s
              JOIN users u ON u.id = s.user_id
              WHERE s.token_hash = $1 AND s.expires_at > now()",
@@ -278,6 +320,9 @@ impl AuthService {
         .fetch_optional(&self.pool)
         .await?
         .ok_or(AuthError::Unauthenticated)?;
+        if row.scope != SCOPE_FULL && row.scope != required {
+            return Err(AuthError::Unauthenticated);
+        }
         Ok(AuthedUser {
             user_id: UserId::from(row.id),
             workspace_id: WorkspaceId::from(row.workspace_id),
@@ -289,6 +334,35 @@ impl AuthService {
         })
     }
 
+    /// Mint a narrow, short-lived credential for something that is not a person.
+    ///
+    /// Returns the secret, which is the only time it exists in plaintext here.
+    pub async fn mint_scoped(
+        &self,
+        user_id: UserId,
+        scope: &str,
+        ttl: Duration,
+    ) -> Result<String, AuthError> {
+        if scope == SCOPE_FULL {
+            // A caller reaching for this wants a narrow token; handing back a
+            // full one because the argument was wrong is the failure this
+            // whole change exists to prevent.
+            return Err(AuthError::Unauthenticated);
+        }
+        let token = SessionToken::generate();
+        sqlx::query!(
+            "INSERT INTO auth_sessions (token_hash, user_id, expires_at, scope)
+             VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4)",
+            hash_token(token.secret()),
+            user_id.as_uuid(),
+            OffsetDateTime::now_utc() + ttl,
+            scope,
+        )
+        .execute(&self.pool)
+        .await?;
+        Ok(token.secret().to_string())
+    }
+
     /// Mint a long-lived opaque session for an internal service caller
     /// (e.g. the per-team ZeroClaw runtime calling back into the MCP door).
     /// Returns the plaintext token — the caller is responsible for handing

crates/cm-auth/tests/local_auth.rs

@@ -125,3 +125,81 @@ async fn tokens_are_unique_per_login() {
     auth.authenticate(a.secret()).await.unwrap();
     auth.authenticate(b.secret()).await.unwrap();
 }
+
+/// A narrow credential must be refused everywhere it was not explicitly
+/// allowed.
+///
+/// This is the whole security property. The skills token lives in a file
+/// inside a mission container, where an agent running arbitrary `Bash` can
+/// read it — so what matters is not that `/mcp/skills` accepts it but that
+/// **nothing else does**.
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn a_scoped_token_is_refused_by_every_unscoped_caller() {
+    let pool = cm_testkit::test_pool().await;
+    let (_ws, user) = seeded(&pool).await;
+    let auth = AuthService::new(pool);
+
+    let narrow = auth
+        .mint_scoped(user.id, cm_auth::SCOPE_SKILLS_READ, time::Duration::hours(1))
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+
+    // `authenticate` is what every ordinary route calls.
+    assert!(
+        matches!(
+            auth.authenticate(&narrow).await,
+            Err(AuthError::Unauthenticated)
+        ),
+        "a skills token must not authenticate a normal API call — the token is \
+         readable by the agent it is given to"
+    );
+
+    // And it is refused for a DIFFERENT narrow scope, not just for `full`.
+    assert!(matches!(
+        auth.authenticate_scoped(&narrow, "some:other").await,
+        Err(AuthError::Unauthenticated)
+    ));
+
+    // It does work for the one thing it is for.
+    let ok = auth
+        .authenticate_scoped(&narrow, cm_auth::SCOPE_SKILLS_READ)
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+    assert_eq!(ok.user_id, user.id);
+}
+
+/// A person's session keeps working everywhere, including the scoped route.
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn a_full_session_still_satisfies_a_scoped_route() {
+    let pool = cm_testkit::test_pool().await;
+    let (_ws, user) = seeded(&pool).await;
+    let auth = AuthService::new(pool);
+    auth.set_password(user.id, "correct horse battery staple")
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+    let token = auth
+        .login_local("[email protected]", "correct horse battery staple")
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+
+    assert!(auth
+        .authenticate_scoped(token.secret(), cm_auth::SCOPE_SKILLS_READ)
+        .await
+        .is_ok());
+}
+
+/// `mint_scoped` must refuse to mint a full token.
+///
+/// A caller reaching for this wants a narrow credential; handing back a full
+/// one because an argument was wrong is precisely the failure the scope column
+/// exists to prevent, and it would be invisible — the token would work.
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn mint_scoped_refuses_to_mint_a_full_token() {
+    let pool = cm_testkit::test_pool().await;
+    let (_ws, user) = seeded(&pool).await;
+    let auth = AuthService::new(pool);
+    assert!(auth
+        .mint_scoped(user.id, cm_auth::SCOPE_FULL, time::Duration::hours(1))
+        .await
+        .is_err());
+}

docs/NEXT-SESSION.md

@@ -1,177 +1,219 @@
-# Where this left off — 2026-08-21
+# Where this left off — 2026-08-21 (second pass)
 
 Read `CAPABILITY-REVIEW.md` for the system picture,
-`TOOL-CALL-ARCHITECTURE.md` for how mission tools actually work (and the two
+`TOOL-CALL-ARCHITECTURE.md` for how mission tools actually work, and
-wrong theories that preceded it), and `SKILL-USE-BASELINE.md` for the
+`SKILL-USE-BASELINE.md` for the measurement — which now scores behaviour rather
-measurement — noting that its Trigger column is now out of date in a good way
+than the agent's own account of it.
-(see "Next, in order" §2).
 
 ## State of the tree
 
-Everything is pushed. `main` is at `5a11fae`; the fork's
+Local suite green: **107 test binaries, 796 tests** (`cargo test --workspace`), and the workspace builds with `--all-targets`.
-`merge/upstream-v0.8.4` is at `be9c34b1c`. Local suite green: **107 test
+Five measurement missions ran on the local stack (`scripts/skill-use-run.sh`);
-binaries, 412 lib tests**, frontend builds.
+all five are held 90 days and re-scorable with `--score <id>`.
+10 commits on `main` this pass, **not pushed** — a push to `main` auto-deploys
+to gw-04, and the container-tier work already deployed is unexercised there
+(see below).
 
-**CI is green and production is current.** Run 507 passed `test` and `build`,
+## The premise of the last handoff's item 1 was wrong
-and gw-04 rolled to it. Production also runs `clawmates-runtime:hooks` for
-per-mission containers (see below).
 
-## Container-tier tool gate + telemetry — SHIPPED 2026-08-21
+It said the container-tier gate and tap were "proven locally and unproven in
+prod", and told you to watch for the first production mission.
 
-The tier that actually runs missions now has both, verified end to end on a
+**Production has never run a mission.**
-real mission (locally first, then deployed):
 
 ```
-tool.call   10    Bash 6, Read 3, Write 1
+gw-04$ select count(*) from missions;        -> 0
-file.touch   4    research/tapproof.md
+gw-04$ select count(*) from mission_events;  -> 0
 ```
 
-That is the first time the container tier has ever been observable.
+Prod is armed correctly — server restarted with
+`CLAWMATES_RUNTIME_IMAGE=clawmates-runtime:hooks`, image present. There is
+simply nothing to watch. Prod auth is Clerk, so a mission cannot be launched
+from a terminal; someone has to click. Generalise the lesson: before debugging
+why a deployed thing shows no evidence, check whether anything ran.
 
-**How, after `stream-json` failed.** Claude Code runs its tools inside its own
+### A leaked mission container nothing can reap
-subprocess, so they never reach ZeroClaw's executor and never become a
-`TurnEvent::ToolCall`. Hooks bypass that entirely: `claude -p --settings <doc>`
-honours `PreToolUse` and `PostToolUse`, so the gate blocks and the tap records
-without ZeroClaw being involved at all.
 
-Pieces: `--settings` on `claude_cli` (fork `be9c34b1c`),
+`cm-runtime-mission-019ff5b157ce77028f308ebd3dc92748` has been `Up` since
-`container_tool_hooks` writes both hook scripts and one settings document into
+**2026-08-12** on `clawmates-runtime:sync`, with no `missions` row behind it.
-the mission container, `set_claude_cli_settings` points the provider at it, and
-`phase_runner::drain_finished_container_phases` collects the tap into
-`mission_events` (idempotent by truncation — no cursor column).
 
-**Production state:** server on `f6e6037`;
+`mission_runtime`'s terminal sweeper selects `FROM missions WHERE status IN
-`CLAWMATES_RUNTIME_IMAGE=clawmates-runtime:hooks` in `/opt/clawmates/.env`
+(…)`, and `teardown_container(mission_id)` is only ever called with an id from
-(backup at `.env.bak.prehooks`; rollback = restore it and recreate). Note that
+that query. Nothing enumerates Docker for `cm-runtime-mission-*` containers with
-host uses **legacy `docker-compose`**, not the v2 plugin.
+no matching row, so a container whose row is gone is invisible to every reaper.
+Same shape as the earlier agent-container reap drift, different table.
 
-**Not yet observed in production** — no prod mission has run since the flip.
+**It was not idle.** Its checkout held **ten commits on a branch that had never
-Prod auth is Clerk, so a mission cannot be launched from here by password. The
+been pushed** — +3451/-30 across 30 files, eighteen INT items on `clawhdf5`
-check when one runs:
+including AES-256-GCM, Ed25519 signing and HNSW batch insert. The remote had
+eight other `clawmates/*` branches and not this one.
 
-```
+Handled: bundled and verified, branch pushed to git.redclaw.dev, confirmed on
-ssh gw-04 'docker logs clawmates_server_1 2>&1 | grep -E "per-mission runtime image|drained .* tool call"'
+the remote at the tip (`87039e9`), container removed. 57G → 59G free. The
-```
+bundle is kept at `/opt/clawmates/rescued/rescue-019ff5b1.bundle`.
 
-### Three bugs the live test found, all the same shape
+`mission_runtime::sweep_orphans` now closes the gap, and **that container is
+why it refuses to reap a checkout holding commits no remote has.** A reaper
+that deleted on sight would have destroyed all of it silently, as its designed
+behaviour. Every unanswerable case — docker will not date it, git will not
+answer, the clock skewed — resolves to *do not reap*.
 
-Each left every other link looking correct:
+## What shipped this pass
 
-1. The settings document pointed `PostToolUse` at a path the installer never
+### The tool tap kept the name and discarded the argument
-   wrote. Claude Code does not complain about a missing hook command — it
-   records nothing. A test now compares the document's commands against the
-   files the installer creates.
-2. The mission container uses `CLAWMATES_RUNTIME_IMAGE`, not the shared
-   `clawmates-runtime` container — it was on an older image whose daemon schema
-   had no `settings` field, so the prop write returned `404 path_not_found`.
-3. The drain used `connect_with_local_defaults()`; the server reaches Docker
-   through a **socket proxy**, so it failed — and returned `Ok(())` silently.
 
-### CI: build failures were disk, not code
+The container tier's first measured mission recorded `Bash × 6` and not one of
+them said what it ran. `vm_tool_tap::parse` read `tool_input` to pull the path
+out of it and dropped the rest, so every behavioural question about a phase was
+unanswerable from a record that looked complete.
 
-Runs 503–506 failed at `build` with an unreadable log, and the first casualty
+`Observed.input` now keeps it, bounded: file bodies become a byte count, other
-was a **docs-only** commit. Cause: building runtime images by hand on gw-04
+long strings truncate with a marker. **Host-side only, no image rebuild** — the
-competes with CI for the same 150G volume; the frontend image build lost.
+arguments were always in the tap file. `tool.call` also gained `detail.path`
-`docker builder prune` reclaimed 34GB (22G → 57G free) and the next run went
+(the World's SSE reads it and had been getting null on every container-tier
-green. The build job now writes breadcrumbs, a `df -h` snapshot, and which
+call) and `file.touch` gained `detail.abs`.
-services actually pushed — the failing runs had pushed `server`, aborted on
-`frontend`, and left `:latest` unmoved, which surfaced three steps later as
-"the deploy did not happen".
 
-**Operational note:** do not build images by hand on gw-04 while CI may run.
+### Skill-Use is scored from actions
+
+`skill_use::Evidence` carries `tool.call` rows alongside the narrative, and
+every check prefers them. `workspace-repo-commit-protocol`'s boundary was a
+substring search for `/workspace/repo` in prose — an agent that wrote to the
+wrong root **without narrating it scored a clean pass**. Two verdicts changed
+for honesty: silence is `NotObservable` rather than `Pass`, and a test that ran
+after the first write is undecidable rather than a failure.
+
+**Trigger is still `NotObservable`, and half of its old reason is now wrong.**
+"`claude_cli` cannot surface a tool call" is false. What still holds is that we
+**inline** skill bodies, so there is no retrieval to observe. The blocker moved
+from the transport to the delivery model, and the door (§3) closes it with no
+scorer change at all.
+
+### Research phases are staffed by a research team
+
+`research_only` — repo-less, one research phase — defaulted to `rust_sdlc`, so
+it was staffed with a planner, coder, tester, reviewer and committer, four of
+whom had nothing to do. New `topic_research` team, plus `default_phase_teams`
+so a recipe can staff each phase *purpose* separately. Measured: 5 roles → 3,
+14 skill deliveries → 4, 50KB of prompt → 24KB, and **1 of 9 delivered skills
+applicable → 4 of 4**.
+
+The scores barely moved, and that is the honest reading: what changed is that
+`not_applicable` now means "no machine-checkable consequence" rather than "this
+skill had nothing to do with this phase".
+
+Three existing research templates were also wrong in ways nothing checked.
+`papers_research` bound **`arxiv-daily`** — a skill whose content is "do not
+search arXiv yourself" — to the DOMAIN SCOUT, the role whose job is searching.
+Its PAPER READER was told to "fetch the PDF, extract text"; the runtime image
+has no pdftotext, no mutool and no pypdf, so every paper would have hit the
+`[read: abstract only]` fallback, which reads exactly like the fallback working.
+`insight_research` cross-referenced "our repos'" history when a mission binds
+one. `codebase_research` wrote to a vault that is not mounted.
+
+### The wrong repo path was in the team templates too
+
+The `/workspace/repo` guard was written against `skills/` only. The same path
+was in four team templates — including `rust_sdlc`, default for five of six
+recipes, whose coder was told "your working directory is /workspace/repo". The
+guards now walk one corpus: skills, team templates and recipes together.
+
+### Two more skills contradicted the platform
+
+Both found by reading the source of truth before writing a check against it —
+which is the only reason they were found.
+
+- `decompose-int-items` taught `PLAN_COMPLETE: INT-01..05`. Ids are strictly
+  `INT-<digits>`, so the range form is rejected and the plan pass records
+  nothing while every item stays open.
+- `workspace-repo-commit-protocol` claimed the task-card parser advances mission
+  state on the INT id in your commit subject. **Nothing in the platform reads
+  commit messages** — `apply_for_run` reads `run_events`, the turn output.
+
+`no_skill_shows_a_marker_the_parser_would_reject` guards the class, running the
+real parser over every marker in every skill's fenced blocks.
 
 ## Next, in order
 
-1. **Watch the first production mission.** Nothing has run since the runtime
+1. **The TDD check cannot confirm red-first, and that is structural.** Run 4
-   flip, so the container-tier gate and tap are proven locally and unproven in
+   (`research_and_code`, real repo) edited `src/lib.rs` once — implementation
-   prod. Prod auth is Clerk, so a mission cannot be launched from here.
+   *and* `#[cfg(test)] mod tests` in the same write — then ran `cargo test`
-   ```
+   five times. In Rust the unit test lives in the file under test, so that
-   ssh gw-04 'docker logs clawmates_server_1 2>&1 | grep -E "per-mission runtime image|drained .* tool call"'
+   ordering is what following the skill precisely looks like from outside. The
-   ssh gw-04 'docker exec <cm-runtime-mission-…> cat /root/toolhooks/tap/tools.jsonl | head'
+   check detects "wrote source, never ran a test" and nothing more. If you want
-   ```
+   red-first, it needs the diff (did the test exist before the impl?), not the
-   If tools appear in `mission_events`, the loop is closed. If not, check the
+   tool order.
-   three failure shapes listed above — each looked correct from every other
-   angle.
 
-2. **Now that tool calls are observable, redo the Skill-Use measurement.**
+2. **Attribute tool calls to agents.** `record_vm_tools` writes
-   `docs/SKILL-USE-BASELINE.md` reports Trigger as `not_observable` on the
+   `agent_id: None`, because the container tap is per-container and all roles
-   container tier because there was no tool evidence. There is now.
+   share one. Every Skill-Use score is therefore per-**mission**, not per-role,
-   `mission_events` carries `tool.call` and `file.touch` per phase, so
+   and the World's per-agent view gets nothing from the container tier. The
-   Trigger can be scored from behaviour instead of prose — which is what the
+   hook payload carries `session_id`; mapping it back to a turn is the fix.
-   paper actually measures. This is the single highest-value follow-up: it
-   turns the baseline from "the first honest number" into a real one.
 
-3. **Give the microVM tier the same treatment, or retire the difference.** It
+3. **Deploy the door** (`TOOL-CALL-ARCHITECTURE.md` §3). Config, not code:
-   has the gate and a tap already, but by a different route (`vm_tool_tap`
+   `/zeroclaw-data/clawmates-mcp.json` plus a door-shaped provider alias. It is
-   installs into the guest, `microvm_executor` drains inside the turn). Two
+   now the single change that makes **Trigger** a real measurement, and the
-   mechanisms for one job is how they drift. Worth folding onto
+   precondition for skills moving from inlined bodies to progressive
-   `container_tool_hooks` once the fleet is back — tank and morpheus have been
+   disclosure — which would also cut the prompt cost in item 1.
-   offline for over a week, so the microVM tier cannot be tested at all today.
 
-4. **Deploy the door** (`docs/TOOL-CALL-ARCHITECTURE.md` §3). Config, not code:
+4. **Fold the microVM tier onto `container_tool_hooks`.** It has a gate and a
-   `/zeroclaw-data/clawmates-mcp.json` plus a door-shaped provider alias. Now
+   tap by a different route (`vm_tool_tap` installs into the guest,
-   less urgent than it looked — the gate no longer depends on it — but it is
+   `microvm_executor` drains inside the turn). Two mechanisms for one job is how
-   still the precondition for `clawmates_skills` being reachable, and therefore
+   they drift — and the argument-discarding bug above lived in the shared parser
-   for skills moving from inlined bodies to progressive disclosure.
+   precisely because nobody looked at it from the container side. The fleet has
+   been offline for over a week, so this cannot be tested today.
 
 5. **Pull upstream's egress policy** — `0db7d999a feat(plugins): add shared
    egress policy foundation (#9137)`. We are ~220 commits behind; this is the
-   one item identified as worth taking, and it is defence for a problem we have
+   one item worth taking, and it is defence for a problem we have not solved.
-   not solved.
-
-**Dropped from this list:** "give the direct-session tier a tap". That tier is
-dormant — `CLAWMATES_MISSION_EXECUTOR` is unset in production, so it never
-runs. Checking that before building for it saved the work.
 
 ## Open decisions that are yours
 
-- **Self-authoring scope.** Agents now apply their own `skill_candidate` items
+- **Push.** 10 commits are local. Pushing `main` triggers CI → auto-deploy to
-  with no human click (`CLAWMATES_SKILL_SELF_AUTHORING=0` restores the gate).
+  gw-04.
+- **Self-authoring scope.** Agents apply their own `skill_candidate` items with
+  no human click (`CLAWMATES_SKILL_SELF_AUTHORING=0` restores the gate).
   `identity_refinement` and `brain_consolidation` still wait for a human,
   because they change what an agent IS rather than adding a procedure it can
-  consult. Say if you want those autonomous too.
+  consult.
-- **Skill-Use Compliance coverage.** Most skills still score `not_applicable` —
-  we cannot tell whether they changed anything. `small-focused-commits` and
-  `tdd-red-green-refactor` are the next candidates and both need the repository
-  diff rather than the turn text.
 
 ## Deliberately not done
 
-- **The mission executor swap** (running turns through `ProviderExecutor` or the
+- **The mission executor swap.** Blockers are structural: `cm-runtime`'s `files`
-  chat `Runtime`). The blockers are structural, not wiring: `cm-runtime`'s
+  tool rejects absolute paths by construction, `shell` runs in a per-agent
-  `files` tool rejects absolute paths *by construction*, `shell` runs in a
+  sandbox with no mission mount, `ToolContext` carries no path or VM handle, and
-  per-agent sandbox with no mission mount, `ToolContext` carries no path or VM
+  approvals key on `(session_id, message_id)`.
-  handle, and approvals key on `(session_id, message_id)`. The cheap fixes
+- **A tap for the direct-session tier.** Dormant —
-  deliver what it was wanted for.
+  `CLAWMATES_MISSION_EXECUTOR` is unset in production, so it never runs.
-- **`cm-brain` offline tests** — 6 of 9 need live `clawbrainhub.com`. Stubbing
+- **`cm-brain` offline tests** — 6 of 9 need live `clawbrainhub.com`.
-  means reproducing an external registry protocol we have no spec for.
 - **Graph memory / `clawhdf5-agent`** — in the workspace manifest, used by no
-  crate. Measure against a baseline before migrating.
+  crate.
 
 ## Operational facts that cost time to learn
 
 - The Gitea **actions-log API returns 403** for the token in
-  `deploy/compose/.env`. Every CI failure this week was debugged blind because
+  `deploy/compose/.env`. A token with the `actions` scope remains the
-  of it. Steps now write to `/tmp/ci-logs` on the runner host as a workaround;
+  highest-value thing to obtain.
-  **a token with the `actions` scope** remains the highest-value thing to
+- **gw-04 uses legacy `docker-compose`**, not the v2 plugin.
-  obtain.
-- **gw-04 uses legacy `docker-compose`**, not the v2 plugin. `docker compose`
-  fails there.
 - **Do not build images by hand on gw-04 while CI may run** — same 150G volume,
   and the frontend image build is what loses.
 - The server reaches Docker through a **socket proxy** (`DOCKER_HOST`). Use
   `container_exec::connect()`, never `connect_with_local_defaults()`.
 - Prod auth is **Clerk**; the bootstrap password in `deploy/compose/.env` works
   only against the local stack.
+- Rebuilding the local server image is a **full Rust compile inside Docker**
+  (~8 min); the layer cache does not preserve `target/`. Budget for it before
+  any measurement that needs new server code.
+- macOS has no `timeout(1)`.
 
-## Two corrections made this session, worth remembering
+## The recurring shape, now seven times over
 
-- **"Missions can't call tools at all" was wrong.** They call `Bash` and `Write`
+**A claim in a comment or a doc, believed and never checked.** Every significant
-  with permissions pre-accepted. The gap was observing and gating, not having.
+finding this pass came from reading the source of truth — the parser, the
-- **Raw test counts are a bad coverage metric.** They pointed at `cm-safety`,
+recipe, the production table — rather than the text describing it. The two new
-  whose seven tests already covered its critical paths, and missed a Slack
+skill contradictions were found *while writing checks against those skills*,
-  replay hole that let one captured request authenticate forever.
+which is the cheapest place to catch them and the reason to always read first.
 
-The recurring shape, now seven times over: **a claim in a comment or a doc,
+The corollary the measurement itself demonstrated: **its own first verdict was
-believed and never checked.** Every significant finding this session came from
+wrong**, and scoring a research phase as a TDD failure would have buried the
-running the thing rather than reading about it.
+real finding (item 1). A check that reports a system defect as an agent defect
+is worse than no check.

docs/SKILL-USE-BASELINE.md

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # Skill-Use baseline
 
-*First measurement of whether ClawMates' skills change what agents do.
+*Whether ClawMates' skills change what agents do. First measured 2026-08-19;
-2026-08-19.*
+re-measured 2026-08-21 against tool evidence rather than agent prose.*
 
 Scored on the three axes from `Skill-Use` (arXiv, 2026-08-05): **Trigger** (did
 the agent reach for the skill), **Compliance** (did it follow the procedure),
@@ -10,165 +10,314 @@ the agent reach for the skill), **Compliance** (did it follow the procedure),
 Read the method before the numbers. A measurement whose limits are not stated
 is worse than none, because it gets quoted without them.
 
-## Why there was no baseline before today
+## What changed on 2026-08-21
 
-Not because nobody ran it. Because **it could not have returned anything but
+The 2026-08-19 measurement scored Compliance and Boundary from the
-zero**, for two structural reasons that had nothing to do with agent behaviour:
+`reasoning` events — the agent's own account of its turn. Since then the
+container tier records what agents actually **do**
+(`container_tool_hooks`, `PostToolUse`), and `vm_tool_tap` stopped throwing the
+tool's arguments away, so `Bash` commands and `Write` paths are on the record.
 
-1. 55 of 85 role skill bindings resolved to skills that were never authored.
+`skill_use` now reads those. The difference is not cosmetic:
-2. Even resolved skills had no delivery channel to a mission agent — the
-   catalogue's only route was an MCP server that mission claws cannot reach.
 
-Both were fixed in the two commits preceding this document. Anyone who had run
+- `workspace-repo-commit-protocol`'s Boundary was a substring search for
-this measurement in July would have concluded "our agents ignore their skills",
+  `/workspace/repo` in the narrative. **An agent that wrote to the wrong root
-which would have been false and expensive.
+  without narrating it scored a clean pass.** It now reads the write paths.
+- `arxiv-daily`'s Boundary read a URL in prose, which may be the agent
+  explaining that it did *not* fetch it. It now reads the `curl` that ran.
+- `tdd-red-green-refactor`, `cargo-test-driven-development` and
+  `small-focused-commits` gained their first checks at all.
+
+Two verdicts changed for honesty rather than coverage. **Silence used to score
+`Pass`** — a mission with no evidence scored identically to one checked and
+found clean; it is now `NotObservable`. And a test that ran *after* the first
+write is `NotObservable`, not a failure, because a Rust unit test lives in the
+file under test.
+
+### Trigger: the reason changed, and only half of it went away
+
+The 2026-08-19 document said Trigger was unobservable because `claude_cli`
+"cannot surface a tool call — there is nothing to retrieve *with*."
+
+**That half is now false.** Mission tool calls are recorded on both tiers; a
+retrieval would be as visible as any other call.
+
+The other half still holds and is the one that decides the verdict: **we still
+inline**. `pinned_skills_text` puts full skill bodies in the prompt, so the
+agent never reaches for anything — it is simply holding one. Trigger is now
+*instrumentable* and still not *observable*, and the blocker has moved from the
+transport to the delivery model.
+
+Making it real is one change and no scorer work: serve skills through the door
+(`TOOL-CALL-ARCHITECTURE.md` §3) so retrieval becomes a tool call.
 
 ## Method, and what it cannot see
 
-Scored by `cm_api::skill_use` from what the platform records: the
+Scored by `cm_api::skill_use` from what the platform records: `prompt.composed`
-`prompt.composed` event (the exact bytes an agent received) and the `reasoning`
+(the exact bytes an agent received), `reasoning` (what it said it did), and
-events (what it said it did). No re-derivation from the catalogue — the
+`tool.call` (what it did). No re-derivation from the catalogue — the catalogue
-catalogue changes, and now that agents author their own skills it changes by
+changes, and now that agents author their own skills it changes by itself.
-itself.
 
-### Trigger is not observable here, and that is a finding
+**Every tool-backed check is one-sided.** It reports a violation it can see and
-
+never infers compliance from silence: the recorded stream is capped per phase
-The paper measures agents under **progressive disclosure**: the agent sees a
+(`PER_PHASE_CAP = 400`), so an absent call is not proof of an absent action.
-name and description and must decide to retrieve the body. That retrieval is a
-tool call, which makes Trigger observable.
-
-We do not deliver skills that way. `pinned_skills_text` inlines full bodies into
-the prompt, because mission claws run on `claude_cli`, which cannot surface a
-tool call — there is nothing to retrieve *with*. The agent never reaches for a
-skill; it is simply holding one.
-
-So Trigger is reported as `not_observable` with the reason attached, **never as
-zero**. Scoring it zero would report a delivery-model property as an agent
-failure — the same confusion that kept 55 empty bindings invisible.
-
-### Compliance and Boundary are checked mechanically, or not at all
 
 Only skills whose procedure has a machine-checkable consequence are scored.
-Everything else returns `not_applicable` rather than a guess: a heuristic that
+Everything else returns `not_applicable` rather than a guess — a heuristic that
 scores prose by keyword overlap produces a number that looks like a measurement
 and is not one.
 
 Compliance for `int-xx-marker-protocol` is checked by running the **real**
-`task_card_parser`, not a copy of its rules — a second implementation would
+`task_card_parser`, not a copy of its rules; a second implementation would
 drift, and then the score would pass while the mission loop still stalled.
 
 ## The runs
 
-Two missions on the container/ZeroClaw tier, local stack, `research_only`.
+Five missions on the container/ZeroClaw tier, local stack. Runs 1–3 are
+`research_only`; run 3 uses the **same task text as run 2**, so the only
+variable is the scorer. Run 4 is `research_and_code` against a real repository,
+because a research mission writes no code and makes no commits — the TDD and
+commit checks could never fire on one.
 
-| | run 1 | run 2 |
+| | run 1 | run 2 | run 3 | run 4 |
-|---|---|---|
+|---|---|---|---|---|
-| distinct skills delivered | 3 | **9** |
+| date | 08-19 | 08-19 | 08-21 | 08-21 |
-| total deliveries (per role prompt) | 3 | 14 |
+| workflow | research | research | research | **code** |
-| phantom "skills" scored | **2** | 0 |
+| distinct skills delivered | 3 | 9 | 9 | 9 |
+| total deliveries (per role prompt) | 3 | 14 | 14 | 28 |
+| phantom "skills" scored | **2** | 0 | 0 | 0 |
+| tool calls recorded | 0 | 0 | **49** | **33** |
+| writes outside `/mission/repo` | ? | ? | 0 | 0 |
 
-Run 1's phantom entries are the finding of the run, described below.
+Run 3, per skill (all `source_kind=builtin`; no agent-authored skill has been
-
-Run 2, per skill (all `source_kind=builtin`; no agent-authored skill has been
 delivered yet):
 
 | skill | deliveries | compliance | boundary |
 |---|---|---|---|
 | `int-xx-marker-protocol` | 1 | **pass** | n/a |
-| `small-focused-commits` | 4 | n/a | n/a |
+| `workspace-repo-commit-protocol` | 2 | n/a | **pass** *(from 12 write paths)* |
+| `small-focused-commits` | 4 | n/a | n/a *(no commit ran)* |
 | `cargo-test-driven-development` | 2 | n/a | n/a |
-| `workspace-repo-commit-protocol` | 2 | n/a | n/a |
+| `tdd-red-green-refactor` | 1 | n/a | n/a |
 | `decompose-int-items` | 1 | n/a | n/a |
 | `write-rust-current-edition` | 1 | n/a | n/a |
 | `code-review-checklist` | 1 | n/a | n/a |
 | `criterion-benchmarking` | 1 | n/a | n/a |
-| `tdd-red-green-refactor` | 1 | n/a | n/a |
 
-**n = 2 runs. No spread is reported because two runs cannot establish one.**
+**n = 5 runs. No spread is reported because five cannot establish one.** This
-This is a baseline in the sense of "the first honest number", not in the sense
+is a baseline in the sense of "the first honest number", not in the sense of
-of `metrics-baseline-comparison.md`, which requires enough runs to see the noise
+`metrics-baseline-comparison.md`, which requires enough runs to see the noise
-floor before any change is judged against it. Do not compare a future number to
+floor before any change is judged against it.
-this one without first establishing that floor.
+
+`workspace-repo-commit-protocol`'s pass is the one score that materially
+improved: it now rests on twelve recorded `Write`/`Edit` paths, every one under
+`/mission/repo`, instead of on the absence of a string in prose.
+
+### Run 4 — the first run that could have violated the new checks
+
+`research_and_code` against `clawmates-delivery-scratch`, task: add a `slugify`
+utility and commit it. The task says nothing about testing; priming it would
+have measured the prompt rather than the skill.
+
+| skill | deliveries | compliance | boundary |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| `int-xx-marker-protocol` | 2 | **pass** | n/a |
+| `workspace-repo-commit-protocol` | 4 | n/a | **pass** |
+| `cargo-test-driven-development` | 4 | **not observable** | n/a |
+| `tdd-red-green-refactor` | 2 | **not observable** | n/a |
+| `small-focused-commits` | 8 | n/a | n/a |
+| the other four | 2 each | n/a | n/a |
+
+The agents edited `src/lib.rs` once, ran `cargo test` five times, and committed
+with `INT-01` on the subject. Every one of 33 tool calls stayed inside
+`/mission/repo`.
+
+**The TDD verdict is `not_observable`, and that is the honest answer rather
+than a gap in the run.** The single `Edit` to `src/lib.rs` added the
+implementation *and* a `#[cfg(test)] mod tests` block, then the tests ran. In
+Rust the unit test lives in the file under test, so "wrote the file, then ran
+the test" is exactly what writing the failing test first looks like from the
+outside. The check therefore detects one thing only — **a phase that wrote
+source and never ran a test at all** — and cannot confirm red-first. That is a
+real limit of scoring TDD from tool ordering, and it applies to the most common
+Rust shape, not an edge case.
+
+#### The parsing bug run 4 found
+
+Claude Code writes a multi-line commit message as
+
+```
+git commit -m "$(cat <<'EOF'
+INT-01 Add slugify function to src/lib.rs
+…
+EOF
+)"
+```
+
+and `commit_subjects` read the first line of the `-m` value — which is the
+heredoc *opener*, `$(cat <<'EOF'`. Every commit check was scoring a string the
+agent never wrote. It happened to score no violation, because `$(cat <<'EOF'`
+is not one of the never-merge messages; that is luck, not a check. Fixed, with
+a regression test built from the exact command in `mission_events`.
+
+The verdicts in the table above are unchanged by the fix — the real subject,
+`INT-01 Add slugify function to src/lib.rs`, is not a never-merge message
+either — so the table reproduces against the shipped scorer.
 
 ## What the measurement found
 
-Four defects, none of which any test or log would have surfaced.
+### 1–4: the 2026-08-19 findings
 
-### 1. The prompt format made its own record unparseable
+Four defects, none of which any test or log would have surfaced: the prompt
+format made its own record unparseable (`## <name>` against markdown bodies);
+a prompt was recorded that was never sent; a pinned skill taught
+`/workspace/repo`, a path the platform does not mount; and
+`int-xx-marker-protocol` documented a `PLAN_COMPLETE` marker the parser had
+never implemented. All four are fixed, with guards in
+`skills_loader::contradiction_tests` and `topology_exec`. The detail is in this
+file's git history.
 
-Skills were introduced with `## <name>`, and skill bodies are markdown full of
+### 5. The tool tap recorded the name and discarded the argument
-`##` headings. Run 1 duly scored **"Sizing heuristic"** and **"The output
-shape"** — both subheadings inside `decompose-int-items` — as skills with no
-catalogue row.
 
-Fixed with an unambiguous `--- SKILL: <name> ---` marker, and both writers now
+The first container-tier mission with telemetry recorded `Bash × 6` and not one
-share one renderer so the reader cannot drift from the writer.
+of them said what it ran. `vm_tool_tap::parse` read `tool_input` to pull the
+path out of it and dropped the rest.
 
-### 2. A prompt was recorded that was never sent
+Every behavioural question was therefore unanswerable from a record that looked
+complete — which is the recurring shape, not a new one. Fixed host-side: the
+arguments were always in the tap file.
 
-The phase prompt was recorded at the dispatch fork, before the tier was chosen.
+### 6. Two more skills contradicted the platform
-The container tier does not send that text — it sends the bare task and appends
-skills per turn. So every container mission logged a `solo` prompt that reached
-no agent.
 
-A provenance record of something that did not happen is worse than no record: it
+Same class as finding 3, and both found by reading the source of truth before
-is the wrong answer, delivered confidently. Recording now happens inside each
+writing a check against it.
-tier, and a test asserts every launcher records the prompt it actually sends.
 
-### 3. A pinned skill contradicted the platform in the same prompt
+- **`decompose-int-items` taught `PLAN_COMPLETE: INT-01..05`.** An id is
+  strictly `INT-` plus digits, so the range form is rejected outright: the plan
+  pass records nothing while every item stays open. A live planner emitted
+  exactly that line.
+- **`workspace-repo-commit-protocol` claimed the task-card parser advances
+  mission state on the INT id in your commit subject.** Nothing in the platform
+  reads commit messages. `task_card_parser::apply_for_run` reads `run_events` —
+  the agent's turn output. An agent that believed this would commit with the id,
+  never emit `COMPLETED: INT-NN`, and leave the mission open on an item it had
+  already finished.
 
-`workspace-repo-commit-protocol` told agents that **`/workspace/repo`** was "the
+`no_skill_shows_a_marker_the_parser_would_reject` now runs the real parser over
-ONLY path where source-modifying edits belong". The platform mounts and
+every marker in every skill's fenced blocks, negative-controlled against the
-advertises **`/mission/repo`** — 26 references in the code; `/workspace/repo`
+range form.
-appears in none. The skill is bound on **29 role bindings** and was delivered
-twice in run 2, so agents received the real path in the tool preamble and a
-skill contradicting it a few hundred tokens later.
 
-It also instructed `file_read` / `file_write` / `shell` — ZeroClaw's tool names,
+### 7. A repo-less research mission is staffed with a Rust SDLC crew
-the exact ones `phase_task_text` was fixed to stop advertising after five agents
-on one mission spent 7.4k tokens describing the mismatch instead of working.
 
-An agent that obeyed this skill wrote source into a directory nothing collects,
+This is the finding of run 3, and it explains most of the `not_applicable`
-and reached for tools its subprocess does not expose. Rewritten against what the
+column above.
-code actually does, with two guards in `skills_loader::contradiction_tests`: no
-skill may name a repo path the platform does not mount, and none may instruct a
-tool the agent does not have. Both negative-controlled.
 
-This is the same shape as the finding below and it is worth stating as a class:
+`templates/workflows/research_only.toml` declares `requires_repo = false` and a
-**the skills were never checked against the platform they describe.** Nothing
+single `research` phase — and `default_team_template = "rust_sdlc"`. So the
-compared them, so a skill could contradict the prompt it ships inside and stay
+mission was staffed with **planner, coder, tester, reviewer, committer**, and
-that way indefinitely.
+each received the skills its role is bound to:
 
-### 4. The skill documents a marker the platform never implemented
+```
+coder     :: write-rust-current-edition, cargo-test-driven-development,
+             workspace-repo-commit-protocol, small-focused-commits,
+             int-xx-marker-protocol
+tester    :: cargo-test-driven-development, criterion-benchmarking,
+             tdd-red-green-refactor
+committer :: workspace-repo-commit-protocol, small-focused-commits
+reviewer  :: code-review-checklist, small-focused-commits
+planner   :: decompose-int-items, small-focused-commits
+```
 
-`int-xx-marker-protocol` lists `PLAN_COMPLETE: INT-NN` in its ladder.
+There is no repository, nothing to test, nothing to review and nothing to
-`task_card_parser` has **no such kind** and never has. An agent following the
+commit. Four of the five roles have no work, and 50KB of prompt (~12.6k tokens)
-skill exactly emits a marker that is silently ignored.
+is spent staffing them.
 
-Observed live: run 2's planner emitted `PLAN_COMPLETE: INT-01..02`, which is
+**The skills are correctly bound to the roles. The roles are wrong for the
-also the range form — on the kinds that *are* parsed, that yields the id
+workflow.** That distinction matters: a reader who saw only "7 of 9 skills
-`INT-01..02`, a task card for an item that does not exist while the two real
+scored not_applicable" would conclude the skills are useless, when what the
-items stay open.
+number actually measures is a staffing default.
 
-**This is a skill/implementation mismatch, not an agent failure**, and it is
+**Fixed the same day, and measured again as run 5.** `research_only` now
-precisely what this measurement exists to find: the agent did what it was told,
+defaults to a new `topic_research` team, and `default_phase_teams` lets a
-and what it was told was wrong. Both shapes are now scored as failures; the
+recipe staff each phase *purpose* separately — `research_and_code` and
-underlying reconciliation — implement `PLAN_COMPLETE` or remove it from the
+`security_hardening` give their research phases the research team and keep
-skill — is deliberately left as a decision rather than guessed at here.
+`rust_sdlc` for coding. `benchmark` and `refactor` were checked and left alone:
+one coding-purpose phase each, correctly staffed already.
+
+Run 5 is run 3's task, re-run against the new staffing:
+
+| | run 3 | run 5 |
+|---|---|---|
+| roles staffed | 5 | **3** |
+| distinct skills delivered | 9 | **4** |
+| total deliveries | 14 | **4** |
+| prompt bytes across roles | 50,449 | **24,065** |
+| skills applicable to the phase | 1 of 9 | **4 of 4** |
+
+**Read the last row carefully, and not the ones above it.** The *scores* barely
+moved: run 5 has one `pass` and three `not_applicable`. What changed is what
+`not_applicable` now means. In run 3 it mostly meant "this skill had nothing to
+do with what this phase was doing"; in run 5 it means "this skill's procedure
+has no machine-checkable consequence" — which is the honest, permanent reason,
+and the one this measurement was designed to report.
+
+Cutting the prompt in half is real but incidental. The finding is that the
+denominator was wrong: seven of the nine skills in run 3 were never applicable,
+so any ratio computed over them measured staffing, not skill use.
+
+The agents also produced exactly the structure the new team's task specifies —
+`research/questions.md`, `research/evidence.md`, `research/REPORT.md` — with
+zero writes outside `/mission/repo`.
+
+### 8. The check that got it wrong first
+
+Run 3's first scoring reported `cargo-test-driven-development` and
+`tdd-red-green-refactor` as **compliance = fail**: files were written and no
+test ever ran.
+
+That verdict was wrong, and wrong in the way this whole document exists to
+prevent. The phase wrote fifteen markdown notes and a helper script. There was
+no code to test-drive. Reporting it as an agent failure would have been a system
+defect wearing an agent's name — and it would have buried the real finding,
+which is finding 7 above.
+
+The check is now scoped to files with a source extension in the languages the
+skill itself names. It is recorded here rather than quietly corrected, because
+a measurement that hides its own false positives cannot be trusted about
+anyone else's.
 
 ## Honest limits
 
-- **Two runs, one tier, one workflow.** Nothing here generalises to the microVM
+- **Five runs, one tier, two workflows.** Nothing here generalises to the
-  or session tiers yet, and this document should not be read as if it does.
+  microVM or session tiers.
-- **Most skills score `not_applicable`** on both observable axes. That is not a
+- **The TDD check is one-sided and the common Rust case is undecidable.** It
-  pass. It means we cannot currently tell whether those skills changed anything.
+  catches "wrote source, never ran a test". It cannot confirm red-first,
-  `workspace-repo-commit-protocol` now has a Boundary check (writing outside
+  because a Rust unit test lives in the file under test — see run 4.
-  `/mission/repo`); `small-focused-commits` and `tdd-red-green-refactor` remain
+- **Four runs, and run 4 is the only coding one.** The commit checks have been
-  candidates, and both need the repository diff rather than the turn text.
+  *reached* live exactly once.
-- **No agent-authored skill has been measured.** Self-authoring shipped in the
+- **Tool calls carry no agent attribution.** `record_vm_tools` writes
-  same pass; `source_kind` is carried through the scorer specifically so a
+  `agent_id: None` — the container tier's tap is per-container, and all five
-  rising score on agent-authored skills is visible rather than averaged in.
+  roles share one container. Every score above is therefore per-**mission**,
+  not per-role, and the World's per-agent view gets nothing from it. Mapping
+  the hook payload's `session_id` back to a turn would fix it.
+- **Most skills still score `not_applicable`** on both observable axes. That is
+  not a pass. See finding 7 for why the number is what it is.
+- **No agent-authored skill has been measured.** `source_kind` is carried
+  through the scorer specifically so a rising score on agent-authored skills is
+  visible rather than averaged in.
 - **Evidence expires.** Mission events are reaped after 7 days unless
-  `retain_events_until` is set. Both runs here are held for 90 days. An empty
+  `retain_events_until` is set; `scripts/skill-use-run.sh` holds every run for
-  score means "no evidence", never "no compliance", and the API says so in its
+  90 days so it stays re-scorable when the scorer changes again — which is
-  payload rather than leaving the caller to infer it.
+  exactly what happened to run 3. An empty score means "no evidence", never "no
+  compliance", and the API says so in its payload.
+
+## Reproducing
+
+```
+scripts/skill-use-run.sh "<title>" "<task>"      # run and score
+scripts/skill-use-run.sh --score <mission-id>    # re-score, no new run
+```
+
+Local stack only. Production auth is Clerk and a mission cannot be launched
+from a terminal there — which is also why, as of 2026-08-21, **production has
+never run a mission at all** (`select count(*) from missions` → 0).

docs/TOOL-CALL-ARCHITECTURE.md

@@ -26,17 +26,32 @@ a security posture, and it is the one we have.
 
 ## Observe versus gate — they are different, and both are partial
 
+As of 2026-08-21, with the container-tier hooks shipped:
+
 | Path | Has tools | We observe | We gate |
 |---|---|---|---|
-| Solo microVM | yes | **yes** — `vm_tool_tap` | no |
+| Solo microVM | yes | **yes** — `vm_tool_tap` | **yes** — `vm_tool_gate` |
-| Composed microVM | yes | **yes** — same tap | no |
+| Composed microVM | yes | **yes** — same tap | **yes** — same gate |
 | Direct session | yes | **no mechanism at all** | no |
-| Container / ZeroClaw | yes (see below) | mechanism exists, receives nothing | no |
+| Container / ZeroClaw | yes (see below) | **yes** — `container_tool_hooks` | **yes** — same |
+
+The direct-session row is the only remaining gap, and it is dormant:
+`CLAWMATES_MISSION_EXECUTOR` is unset in production, so that tier never runs.
+Checking that before building a tap for it is the reason there is no tap for it.
 
 `vm_tool_tap` installs a **`PostToolUse`** hook, which fires *after* the tool has
 already run, and `exit 0`s unconditionally because a non-zero `PostToolUse`
 talks back to the model. It is telemetry and says so. It is structurally
-incapable of gating.
+incapable of gating — which is why the gate is a separate `PreToolUse` hook
+rather than a stricter version of this one.
+
+**What the tap records.** Until 2026-08-21 it kept the tool's name and the path
+its arguments named, and threw the arguments themselves away. A phase that
+recorded `Bash × 6` could not answer whether it ran the tests, whether it
+committed, or whether it called an API a skill forbids. It now keeps the
+arguments, bounded: file bodies become a byte count, over-long strings are
+truncated with a marker. That is what makes `skill_use` able to score behaviour
+rather than the agent's own account of it.
 
 The §15 `GatePolicy` has exactly **one** enforcement site — `Runtime::drive`,
 the chat loop — and its approvals are keyed to `(session_id, message_id)`, which
@@ -71,7 +86,81 @@ event: result success
 
 The calls are fully observable. We ask for the wrong output format.
 
-## The door already exists, and we never plugged it in
+## The door is deployed — 2026-08-21
+
+Proven against the real binary in the runtime container, which is a two-minute
+loop rather than the ten-minute rebuild-and-run-a-mission one I reached for
+first:
+
+```
+claude -p --mcp-config <doc> --strict-mcp-config "List the MCP resources you can see"
+  → lists skill:global/a11y-checklist, … (see the count caveat below)
+
+claude -p … "Read skill:global/workspace-repo-commit-protocol, reply with its first heading"
+  → # Mission repo + commit protocol
+```
+
+Connect, list and **read** all work. `mission_orchestrator::install_skills_door`
+writes the document at launch (mode `0600`, under `/root`, never the checkout)
+and points the daemon at it in the same step.
+
+**No `--allowedTools` change was needed.** That question was left open rather
+than guessed, and the guess would have been wrong in an expensive way: the
+daemon exposes no config read, so "adding" the MCP tools would have meant
+overwriting the seed's `tools` list and stripping `Write` and `Bash` from every
+mission agent — to solve a problem that does not exist.
+
+### It needed a credential first, and that was not "config"
+
+The section below called this "config, not code". That was wrong, and the reason
+is authentication. `/mcp/skills` authenticated via `AuthService::authenticate`,
+which returns a full `AuthedUser` carrying the user's role; there was no
+narrower credential in the system. The document sits in a file the agent can
+`cat` — it runs `Bash` with egress — so the documented approach meant handing an
+**owner-privileged API token to something explicitly untrusted**. Checked before
+concluding: no such credential was in a mission container, so it would have been
+a new exposure rather than an existing one.
+
+`auth_sessions.scope` fixes it. `authenticate` delegates to
+`authenticate_scoped(token, SCOPE_FULL)`, so every existing caller rejects a
+narrow token and a route opts in by name; `/mcp/skills` is the only opt-in.
+Measured live with one token:
+
+```
+POST /mcp/skills   → 53 skill resources
+GET  /api/missions → 401
+```
+
+### And confirmed from inside a real mission
+
+Run 8, all three agents, per-agent attributed:
+
+```
+Pedro  ListMcpResourcesTool  ReadMcpResourceTool  Write …
+Ebele  ListMcpResourcesTool  ReadMcpResourceTool  Read …
+Ahmad  ListMcpResourcesTool  ReadMcpResourceTool  Write …
+```
+
+The agent's own report: *"53 MCP resources are available, all from the
+`clawmates_skills` server … `skill:global/workspace-repo-commit-protocol` was
+read and its first heading is `# Mission repo + commit protocol`."*
+
+**Count caveat, and it is the usual lesson.** The first probe's transcript said
+"58 MCP resources" and that number went into this document as though it were a
+measurement. It was the model's own paraphrase. The authoritative count is 53 —
+`resources/list` returns 53 and `SELECT count(*) FROM skills` is 53. A model's
+self-report is not an observation, which this project has now learned three
+separate times.
+
+### What this does NOT yet buy
+
+**Trigger is still not measured.** `pinned_skills_text` still inlines full skill
+bodies, so the agent is still handed skills rather than reaching for them. The
+door makes retrieval *possible*; Trigger becomes real only when delivery
+switches to progressive disclosure — and that could regress Compliance, so it
+wants an A/B rather than a flip.
+
+## How it looked before it was plugged in
 
 `claude_cli.rs` is **ours** — upstream `zeroclaw-labs/zeroclaw` has no such file.
 So is the feature that solves this, our own commit

migrations/0081_auth_session_scope.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+-- Give a session a SCOPE, so a credential can be handed to something that is
+-- not a person.
+--
+-- `AuthService::authenticate` returns a full `AuthedUser` carrying the user's
+-- role. There is no narrower credential in the system, so any component that
+-- needs to call the ClawMates API must be given one that can do everything the
+-- user can.
+--
+-- That is the blocker on deploying the MCP door to mission agents
+-- (`docs/TOOL-CALL-ARCHITECTURE.md` §3, which calls it "config, not code").
+-- Reaching `/mcp/skills` from a mission container means putting a bearer token
+-- in a file inside that container — and mission agents run arbitrary `Bash`
+-- with egress and no read gate, which is the platform's own documented
+-- security posture. An owner-scoped token there turns "the agent runs commands
+-- in a sandbox" into "the agent drives the whole API as the owner".
+--
+-- Verified before building this: no such credential is in a mission container
+-- today. The runtime's config.toml has no `[mcp.servers]` block and no bearer,
+-- so this would be a NEW exposure rather than an existing one.
+--
+-- FAIL CLOSED. The default is 'full', so every existing row and every existing
+-- caller behaves exactly as before; `authenticate` REJECTS anything else, and a
+-- route must opt in by asking for the scope it accepts. A scope added later and
+-- wired nowhere therefore grants nothing, which is the safe direction for the
+-- mistake most likely to be made here.
+ALTER TABLE auth_sessions
+    ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS scope TEXT NOT NULL DEFAULT 'full';
+
+COMMENT ON COLUMN auth_sessions.scope IS
+    'full = a person''s session, accepted everywhere. Anything else is a narrow credential accepted only by routes that name that scope (see AuthService::authenticate_scoped). Never widen a token in place; mint a new one.';
+
+-- The lookup is by token_hash and already indexed; this supports auditing and
+-- revoking a whole class of narrow credential at once (e.g. every skills token
+-- for a workspace after a leak).
+CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS auth_sessions_scope_idx
+    ON auth_sessions (scope)
+    WHERE scope <> 'full';

scripts/skill-use-run.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,137 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Run one mission on the LOCAL stack and score its Skill-Use.
+#
+# The first Skill-Use baseline (docs/SKILL-USE-BASELINE.md, 2026-08-19) was
+# produced by a throwaway script that no longer exists, so the second
+# measurement could not be run the same way as the first — which is most of
+# what makes two numbers comparable. This file is that script, kept.
+#
+# It talks to the local stack only. Production auth is Clerk and a mission
+# cannot be launched from a terminal there.
+#
+# Usage:
+#   scripts/skill-use-run.sh "<title>" "<task description>"
+#   scripts/skill-use-run.sh --score <mission-id>     # re-score, no new run
+#
+# Environment:
+#   API           local server         (default http://127.0.0.1:8080)
+#   PG            local postgres ctr   (default clawmates-postgres-1)
+#   OWNER         account to mint for  (default [email protected])
+#   TEMPLATE      workflow recipe      (default research_only)
+#   REPO_ID       repository to check out; required by the coding recipes, and
+#                 the only way the TDD and commit checks can ever fire — a
+#                 repo-less run writes markdown and commits nothing
+#   TIMEOUT       seconds to wait      (default 1800)
+#   RETAIN_DAYS   hold events this long so the run stays re-scorable (default 90)
+
+set -uo pipefail
+
+API="${API:-http://127.0.0.1:8080}"
+PG="${PG:-clawmates-postgres-1}"
+OWNER="${OWNER:-om[email protected]}"
+TEMPLATE="${TEMPLATE:-research_only}"
+TIMEOUT="${TIMEOUT:-1800}"
+RETAIN_DAYS="${RETAIN_DAYS:-90}"
+
+psql_() { docker exec "$PG" psql -U postgres -d clawmates -tAc "$1"; }
+
+# A session minted straight into the table, as scripts/verify-mission-delivery.sh
+# does. Not a shortcut around auth: it is the same row `POST /api/auth/login`
+# writes, and it avoids putting the owner's password in a process list.
+mint_session() {
+  local secret hash rows
+  secret="skilluse-$(openssl rand -hex 16)"
+  hash=$(printf '%s' "$secret" | openssl dgst -sha256 -binary \
+    | openssl base64 -A | tr '+/' '-_' | tr -d '=')
+  rows=$(psql_ "insert into auth_sessions (user_id, token_hash, expires_at)
+                select id, '$hash', now() + interval '120 minutes'
+                from users where email='$OWNER' limit 1 returning 1;" \
+         2>/dev/null | head -1 | tr -d '[:space:]')
+  [ "$rows" = "1" ] || { echo "no session for $OWNER (no such user?)" >&2; return 1; }
+  printf '%s' "$secret"
+}
+
+# Body on STDIN, never interpolated into the command: a task description
+# containing an apostrophe is the normal case, not the edge case.
+api() { # api <token> <METHOD> <path> [json]
+  local t="$1" m="$2" p="$3" b="${4:-}"
+  if [ -n "$b" ]; then
+    printf '%s' "$b" | curl -s -X "$m" \
+      -H "Authorization: Bearer $t" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
+      -d @- "$API$p"
+  else
+    curl -s -X "$m" -H "Authorization: Bearer $t" "$API$p"
+  fi
+}
+
+jqv() { python3 -c "import sys,json;d=json.load(sys.stdin);print(d$1)"; }
+
+score() { # score <token> <mission-id>
+  local token="$1" id="$2"
+  echo
+  echo "── what the agents DID ─────────────────────────────────────"
+  psql_ "select kind || '  ' || coalesce(target,'') ||
+                coalesce('  ' || left(detail->>'input', 160), '')
+           from mission_events
+          where mission_id='$id' and kind in ('tool.call','file.touch')
+          order by id;"
+  echo
+  echo "── Skill-Use ───────────────────────────────────────────────"
+  api "$token" GET "/api/missions/$id/skill-use" | python3 -m json.tool
+}
+
+token=$(mint_session) || exit 1
+
+if [ "${1:-}" = "--score" ]; then
+  score "$token" "${2:?mission id}"
+  exit 0
+fi
+
+TITLE="${1:?title}"
+TASK="${2:?task description}"
+
+body=$(python3 - "$TITLE" "$TASK" "$TEMPLATE" "${REPO_ID:-}" <<'PY'
+import json, sys
+req = {
+    "title": sys.argv[1],
+    "description": sys.argv[2],
+    "template_kind": sys.argv[3],
+}
+if sys.argv[4]:
+    req["repo_id"] = sys.argv[4]
+print(json.dumps(req))
+PY
+)
+
+created=$(api "$token" POST /api/missions "$body")
+id=$(printf '%s' "$created" | jqv "['id']" 2>/dev/null)
+[ -n "${id:-}" ] || { echo "create failed: $created" >&2; exit 1; }
+echo "mission $id  ($TITLE)"
+
+# Hold the evidence before the run starts. Mission events are reaped after 7
+# days, and a measurement whose evidence expires cannot be re-scored when the
+# scorer changes — which it just did.
+psql_ "update missions set retain_events_until = now() + interval '$RETAIN_DAYS days'
+        where id='$id';" >/dev/null
+
+launched=$(api "$token" PATCH "/api/missions/$id/status" '{"status":"running"}')
+printf '%s' "$launched" | grep -q '"status"' \
+  || { echo "launch failed: $launched" >&2; exit 1; }
+
+deadline=$(( $(date +%s) + TIMEOUT ))
+status=running
+while [ "$(date +%s)" -lt "$deadline" ]; do
+  status=$(psql_ "select status from missions where id='$id';" | tr -d '[:space:]')
+  case "$status" in
+    completed|failed|cancelled) break ;;
+  esac
+  printf '\r  %s  %ss elapsed  ' "$status" "$(( $(date +%s) - (deadline - TIMEOUT) ))"
+  sleep 15
+done
+echo
+echo "mission finished: $status"
+
+# The container tier's tap is drained by phase_runner on a tick AFTER the phase
+# completes. Give it one.
+sleep 30
+score "$token" "$id"

skills/foundation/decompose-int-items.md

@@ -57,7 +57,13 @@ At the end of the planning turn, emit:
 TASK: INT-01 — <title>
 TASK: INT-02 — <title>
 ...
-PLAN_COMPLETE: INT-01..05
+PLAN_COMPLETE: INT-01
+PLAN_COMPLETE: INT-02
 ```
 
 The parser creates `mission_tasks` rows for each TASK line. `PLAN_COMPLETE` records that the plan pass finished so the mission's coding phase can begin iterating.
+
+**One id per line — never a range.** This section used to show
+`PLAN_COMPLETE: INT-01..05`, and a live planner emitted exactly that. An id is
+strictly `INT-` followed by digits, so the range form is rejected outright and
+the whole plan pass records nothing while every item stays open.

skills/foundation/workspace-repo-commit-protocol.md

@@ -48,8 +48,12 @@ Refs: INT-NN
 "
 ```
 
-- **Put the INT-XX marker on the subject line.** The task-card parser advances
+- **Put the INT-XX id on the subject line.** This is for the humans and for
-  mission state on it.
+  `git log --oneline` — nothing in the platform reads your commit messages.
+  Mission state advances on the marker you emit **in your turn output**
+  (`COMPLETED: INT-NN`, below), which is the only text the task-card parser
+  reads. Committing with the id and never emitting the marker leaves the
+  mission open on an item you have already finished.
 - **One INT per commit** unless the change genuinely cannot be split. Split when
   in doubt: a commit covering three items cannot be reverted for one of them.
 - **Never `--force`, never rewrite pushed history** without an explicit

templates/teams/codebase_research.toml

@@ -27,8 +27,9 @@ history. Look for:
   - Abandoned experiments (branches with orphan commits still visible
     in reflog) — note the theory of why they were dropped
 
-Output goes to the Obsidian vault under `Codebases/<repo>/History.md` as
+Output goes to `/mission/repo/Codebases/<repo>/History.md` — inside the
-a timeline with dated inflection points + one-paragraph explanations.
+mission's own checkout, which is what the platform collects. There is no
+separate vault mounted. Write it as a timeline with dated inflection points + one-paragraph explanations.
 Never invent motives; when a commit's rationale is unclear, mark it
 `[unknown motive]`.
 """
@@ -130,8 +131,10 @@ skills = ["obsidian-vault-conventions", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol", "small
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the VAULT SCRIBE of a Codebase Research team.
 
-You own the Obsidian vault index for this codebase. Every other role
+You own the note index for this codebase. Every other role writes to
-writes to `Codebases/<repo>/*.md`; you keep the vault navigable:
+`/mission/repo/Codebases/<repo>/*.md` — inside the mission's own
+checkout, which is what the platform collects; there is no separate vault
+mounted. You keep it navigable:
 
   - Maintain `Codebases/<repo>/README.md` as the entrypoint with
     wikilinks to History, Architecture, Flows, and any subpages
@@ -141,8 +144,9 @@ writes to `Codebases/<repo>/*.md`; you keep the vault navigable:
     so cross-repo searches surface useful hits
   - Merge overlapping notes; delete drafts explicitly marked SUPERSEDED
 
-Commit the vault changes in small, purposeful PRs. Never squash multiple
+Commit in small, purposeful commits on the mission's own branch — the
-authors' contributions into one commit.
+platform delivers by diffing this checkout and does not open PRs. Never
+squash multiple authors' contributions into one commit.
 """
 brain_seed      = """
 # Vault scribe memory seed

templates/teams/frontend.toml

@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ skills = ["tailwind-v4-idioms", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol", "int-xx-marker
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the CODER of a Frontend team.
 
-Working directory /workspace/repo. Implement per the DESIGNER's spec.
+Working directory /mission/repo. Implement per the DESIGNER's spec.
 Type strictness > convenience — no `any`, no `as` escapes without a
 comment explaining why.
 """

templates/teams/insight_research.toml

@@ -17,14 +17,17 @@ skills = ["git-log-forensics", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the IMPLEMENTATION TRACKER of an Insight Research team.
 
-Cross-reference the `Papers/` vault with our repos' commit history to
+Cross-reference the `Papers/` notes with the commit history of the ONE
-build a mapping of "which papers we've actually implemented." Signals:
+repository this mission checked out at `/mission/repo`. A mission binds a
+single repo (`missions.repo_id`), so "our repos" plural is not something
+you can reach — scope every claim to this checkout and say which repo it
+is. Signals:
 
   - Commit messages that name a paper, method, or algorithm
   - README / docs sections that credit a source
   - Comments in code that cite `(Author et al., YEAR)`
 
-Output goes to `Insights/implementation-map.md` — a table:
+Output goes to `/mission/repo/Insights/implementation-map.md` — a table:
 `{ paper, repo, first-commit-ref, form (verbatim / adapted / inspired) }`.
 Never claim we implemented something without a direct code / commit
 citation.

templates/teams/mobile.toml

@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ skills = ["expo-managed-vs-bare", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol", "int-xx-mark
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the CODER of a Mobile team.
 
-Working directory /workspace/repo. Prefer Expo's managed workflow;
+Working directory /mission/repo. Prefer Expo's managed workflow;
 justify any drop to bare workflow. All new native modules ship with
 both iOS + Android implementations in the same PR.
 """

templates/teams/papers_research.toml

@@ -13,7 +13,13 @@ version          = 1
 [[roles]]
 slot            = "domain_scout"
 order_idx       = 0
-skills = ["arxiv-daily", "web-search-triage", "decompose-int-items"]
+# `arxiv-daily` was bound here and is the wrong skill for this team. Its
+# `when_to_use` is "you are working with a harvest manifest in a Continuous
+# Research mission", and its content is "Do not search arXiv yourself — the
+# harvest already ran." This team HAS no harvest manifest (the platform only
+# writes one for `continuous_research`), and searching is this role's entire
+# job. The scout was being told not to do the thing it exists to do.
+skills = ["web-search-triage", "decompose-int-items"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the DOMAIN SCOUT of a Papers & Online Research team.
 
@@ -26,7 +32,8 @@ conference proceedings pages. For each candidate, capture:
   - Citation count (Semantic Scholar) as a proxy for signal
   - Abstract verbatim (no paraphrase)
 
-Output goes to `Papers/<topic>/candidates.jsonl` — one line per paper.
+Output goes to `/mission/repo/Papers/<topic>/candidates.jsonl` — one line
+per paper. That checkout is the only place this mission delivers from.
 Never drop candidates because "they look weak"; the reader filters.
 Deduplicate by DOI/arXiv id.
 """
@@ -53,8 +60,21 @@ skills = ["structured-paper-summary", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol"]
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the PAPER READER of a Papers & Online Research team.
 
-For each candidate from the scout, fetch the PDF, extract text, and
+For each candidate from the scout, read as much of the paper as you can
-produce a structured summary:
+reach and produce a structured summary.
+
+WHAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY READ. Your container has `curl` and `python3` and
+NO pdf-to-text tool — no pdftotext, no mutool, no pypdf. Verified, not
+assumed. So:
+
+  - arXiv: `curl` the `/abs/` page for the full abstract, and try
+    `https://ar5iv.org/abs/<id>` for an HTML rendering of the full text.
+  - Anything else: the landing page, and the HTML version if one exists.
+  - A paper that exists only as a PDF is `[read: abstract only]`. That is
+    a REAL outcome, not a tool failure — say which it was, because a
+    reader cannot otherwise tell your fallback from a broken fetch.
+
+The summary:
 
   - Problem statement (1-2 sentences)
   - Method — new technique, not the recap of prior work
@@ -62,10 +82,8 @@ produce a structured summary:
   - Assumptions / limitations the authors themselves flag
   - Adjacent papers cited that we should also pull
 
-Output goes to `Papers/<topic>/<paper-slug>.md` with frontmatter
+Output goes to `/mission/repo/Papers/<topic>/<paper-slug>.md` with
-carrying full metadata. Never summarize from the abstract alone; if the
+frontmatter carrying full metadata.
-PDF is unavailable, mark the paper `[read: abstract only]` in a
-warning callout.
 """
 brain_seed      = """
 # Paper reader memory seed
@@ -98,15 +116,16 @@ You own `Papers/`. Enforce structure:
   - A per-topic `README.md` index summarizes the strongest 3 papers,
     the most-cited paper, and the open questions
 
-Commit in small, purposeful PRs. Never delete a paper note without
+Commit in small, purposeful commits on the mission's own branch — the
-explicit operator sign-off — even a weak paper is a signal about the
+platform delivers by diffing this checkout and does not open PRs. Never
-field's shape.
+delete a paper note without explicit operator sign-off; even a weak paper
+is a signal about the field's shape.
 """
 brain_seed      = """
 # Library curator memory seed
 
 ## Vault shape
-- `Papers/<topic>/README.md` is the entrypoint. `Papers/<topic>/<slug>.md`
+- `/mission/repo/Papers/<topic>/README.md` is the entrypoint; `<slug>.md`
   are the leaf notes.
 - Tags: `#paper/<topic>`, `#paper/method/<class>`, `#paper/reproducible`.
 

templates/teams/rust_sdlc.toml

@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ skills = ["write-rust-current-edition", "cargo-test-driven-development", "worksp
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the CODER of a Rust SDLC team.
 
-Your working directory is /workspace/repo. All edits happen there.
+Your working directory is /mission/repo. All edits happen there.
 Follow the PLANNER's INT-XX brief:
   - implement the change end-to-end
   - keep files under 1500 LOC (see mission config)
@@ -121,12 +121,23 @@ You are the COMMITTER of a Rust SDLC team.
 
 Only run when TEST_PASS and REVIEW_APPROVE have both been emitted for
 the current INT item. Then:
-  cd /workspace/repo
+  cd /mission/repo
+  git status                     # what did the team actually touch
   git add -A
-  git commit -m "<INT-NN> <title>\n\n<one-paragraph rationale>"
+  git commit -m "INT-NN <title>
-  git push
 
-Emit `COMPLETED: INT-<NN>` on its own line when done — the mission
+<one paragraph on WHY, not what>
-loop advances on that marker.
+
+Refs: INT-NN
+"
+
+Push ONLY if the mission's task says to. Most missions deliver by having
+the platform diff this checkout, and a phase that pushes when it should
+not is harder to undo than one that did not.
+
+Emit `COMPLETED: INT-NN` on its own line when done — the mission loop
+advances on that marker, and it advances on nothing else. The INT id in
+the commit subject is for `git log --oneline`; the platform does not read
+commit messages.
 """
 brain_seed = ""

templates/teams/threejs.toml

@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ skills = ["threejs-perf-and-teardown", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol", "int-xx
 system_prompt   = """
 You are the CODER of a three.js team.
 
-Working directory /workspace/repo. Prefer InstancedMesh over per-node
+Working directory /mission/repo. Prefer InstancedMesh over per-node
 Meshes. Dispose geometries + textures on scene teardown — memory leaks
 show up as tab crashes.
 """

templates/teams/topic_research.toml

@@ -0,0 +1,173 @@
+key              = "topic_research"
+name             = "Topic Research"
+description      = "Answer a question and write it up. Frames the brief into answerable sub-questions, gathers evidence from the open web, checks every claim against a source, and delivers one markdown report."
+stack            = ["research", "writing", "evidence"]
+category         = "research"
+default_topology = "pipeline"
+risk_profile     = "research_web_readonly"
+mcp_bundles      = ["clawmates_door", "clawmates_skills"]
+version          = 1
+
+# ── Why this template exists ─────────────────────────────────────────
+#
+# `research_only` — repo-less, one research phase, "produce a styled MD
+# artifact" — defaulted to `rust_sdlc`. So a mission that writes markdown was
+# staffed with a planner, a coder, a tester, a reviewer and a committer, four of
+# whom had nothing to do, and each of them received the code-and-commit skills
+# its role is bound to. Measured on 2026-08-21: 9 distinct skills delivered
+# across 5 role prompts, ~50KB, of which one was applicable. That is the whole
+# reason most skills score `not_applicable` in `docs/SKILL-USE-BASELINE.md` —
+# the skills were correctly bound to their roles, and the roles were wrong for
+# the workflow.
+#
+# None of the three existing research templates fits either: `papers_research`
+# builds a paper library, `insight_research` cross-references a vault against a
+# repo's history, and `codebase_research` needs a codebase. All three answer a
+# narrower question than "research this and write it up".
+#
+# ── On the skills bound below ────────────────────────────────────────
+#
+# Four, and each was checked against its own `when_to_use` before binding.
+# Two obvious candidates were deliberately NOT bound:
+#
+#   `executive-summary-writing` — requires every item to name "the project,
+#   file or open question it touches" and says an item touching none "does not
+#   belong in the digest". On a standalone topic report there may be no project
+#   at all, so this would instruct the writer to discard the deliverable.
+#
+#   `signal-to-noise-ranking` — scores Relevance by connection to "a named
+#   project", which systematically down-ranks everything on a mission that
+#   names none.
+#
+# Both are right for `continuous_research`, which always has projects in the
+# brief. Binding them here would repeat the defect this template was written to
+# fix: `papers_research` had `arxiv-daily` on its domain scout, a skill whose
+# entire content is "do not search arXiv yourself", bound to the role whose job
+# is searching.
+
+[[roles]]
+slot            = "lead_researcher"
+order_idx       = 0
+skills = ["web-search-triage"]
+system_prompt   = """
+You are the LEAD RESEARCHER of a Topic Research team.
+
+Start by turning the mission brief into the 3-6 questions that actually
+have to be answered for the brief to be satisfied. Write them down first,
+in `/mission/repo/research/questions.md`, before gathering anything — a
+sweep with no question behind it returns whatever the search engine felt
+like ranking.
+
+Then gather. `curl` through Bash is how you reach a page; there is no
+browser and no search MCP. Work from sources you can cite by URL, and
+capture the passage you are relying on verbatim rather than your
+recollection of it.
+
+Put the evidence in `/mission/repo/research/evidence.md`, one entry per
+source: the URL, the date you fetched it, the quoted passage, and which
+of your questions it bears on. An entry that bears on no question does
+not belong in the file.
+
+If the brief is too vague to frame — no topic, no question, no scope —
+say that plainly in questions.md and stop. A report written against a
+guess about what was wanted is worse than one sentence saying the brief
+was unusable.
+"""
+brain_seed      = """
+# Lead researcher memory seed
+
+## Framing
+- The questions come first and in writing. If you cannot write the
+  question, you are not ready to search for the answer.
+- A question that cannot be answered wrong is not a question. "Is X
+  good?" is not; "What does X cost at 10k requests/sec?" is.
+
+## Redlines
+- Never cite a source you did not fetch. A plausible URL is not a source.
+- Quote the passage. A summary of a source, filed as the evidence FOR a
+  claim, is the claim citing itself.
+"""
+
+[[roles]]
+slot            = "evidence_checker"
+order_idx       = 1
+skills = ["structured-paper-summary"]
+system_prompt   = """
+You are the EVIDENCE CHECKER of a Topic Research team.
+
+Read `/mission/repo/research/evidence.md` against the questions in
+questions.md and decide, per claim, whether the quoted passage actually
+supports it. You are the only role that is not trying to produce an
+answer, and that is the point.
+
+Write `/mission/repo/research/verification.md`. For each claim:
+
+  - SUPPORTED — the passage says it. Quote the words that do.
+  - OVERSTATED — the source says something weaker. Say what it says.
+  - UNSUPPORTED — no passage backs this. It does not reach the report.
+
+Check the source too, not only the quote: who published it, when, and
+whether they had an interest in the result. A vendor benchmark showing
+the vendor winning is evidence of something, but not of what it claims.
+
+Finding that most claims are supported is a real result. Do not
+manufacture objections to look useful — but an UNSUPPORTED claim that
+you let through is the one failure of this role that matters.
+"""
+brain_seed      = """
+# Evidence checker memory seed
+
+## Discipline
+- Read the quote, not the claim. The gap between them is the entire job.
+- "The paper says X" and "the paper's abstract says X" are different
+  findings. So are "measured" and "projected".
+
+## Redlines
+- Never upgrade OVERSTATED to SUPPORTED because the claim is probably
+  true. Probably-true with no source is UNSUPPORTED.
+"""
+
+[[roles]]
+slot            = "report_writer"
+order_idx       = 2
+skills = ["scientific-writing-conventions", "workspace-repo-commit-protocol"]
+system_prompt   = """
+You are the REPORT WRITER of a Topic Research team.
+
+Write `/mission/repo/research/REPORT.md`. That file is the mission's
+deliverable — on a mission with no repository, `/mission/repo` is a
+scratch workspace and everything left there is collected and published as
+the artifact, so a report written anywhere else is not delivered.
+
+Structure it as the answer, not as a tour of the process:
+
+  - Open with what the answer IS, in a paragraph a reader can act on.
+  - Then each question from questions.md, with its answer and the
+    sources that support it.
+  - Then what you could not establish. This section is not an admission,
+    it is a finding: a reader needs to know which parts of the answer are
+    load-bearing and which are open.
+
+Use ONLY claims the checker marked SUPPORTED. An OVERSTATED claim may
+appear in its weaker form, worded as the source worded it. An
+UNSUPPORTED claim does not appear at all — not hedged, not softened.
+
+Cite inline with the URL. A reader who cannot follow a claim back to its
+source has to take your word for it, and the whole point of the checker's
+pass was that they should not have to.
+"""
+brain_seed      = """
+# Report writer memory seed
+
+## Shape
+- The answer goes first. A report that builds to its conclusion is a
+  report that will be read to the second paragraph.
+- Say the specific thing. "Roughly a third slower above 10k rows" beats
+  "may impact performance at scale".
+
+## Redlines
+- Do not restore a claim the checker rejected. If you believe it is true
+  and unsupported, write it in the open-questions section as an open
+  question.
+- Do not pad to length. A short report that answers the brief is finished.
+"""

templates/workflows/research_and_code.toml

@@ -5,11 +5,23 @@ requires_repo = true
 
 default_team_template = "rust_sdlc"
 
+# Per-purpose staffing. The research phase's `task` below spends a paragraph
+# telling the team NOT to change source files, because `rust_sdlc` gave that
+# phase a coder, a tester and a committer and they did what coders do — mission
+# 01a00c57 shipped both INT items during RESEARCH (+276/-57) and the coding
+# phase then opened a clean tree and delivered +0/-0. Prose was the only lever
+# available; staffing is the actual one. The `task` stays as the belt to this
+# braces.
+[default_phase_teams]
+research = "topic_research"
+coding   = "rust_sdlc"
+
 [[phases]]
 kind      = "research"
 order_idx = 0
 [phases.config]
-produces         = ["md", "pdf"]
+# `pdf` names a format nothing generates — artifacts are served as Markdown.
+produces         = ["md"]
 default_topology = "hub_spoke"
 # Research PLANS; coding BUILDS. Without this the split is a fiction:
 # `rust_sdlc` gives the research team coding roles and a writable

templates/workflows/research_only.toml

@@ -1,19 +1,54 @@
 key         = "research_only"
 title       = "Research only"
-blurb       = "Produce a styled MD + PDF artifact in the workspace. One-shot or scheduled."
+blurb       = "Answer a question and deliver a sourced markdown report. One-shot or scheduled."
 requires_repo = false
 
 # Phases run in order. Each entry gets a `mission_phases` row on
 # mission create; the orchestrator dispatches per-kind executors.
-default_team_template = "rust_sdlc"
+#
+# `rust_sdlc` until 2026-08-21, which staffed this repo-less markdown mission
+# with a planner, a coder, a tester, a reviewer and a committer — four of whom
+# had nothing to do, each carrying the code-and-commit skills its role is bound
+# to. Measured: 9 distinct skills across 5 role prompts, ~50KB, one applicable.
+# See docs/SKILL-USE-BASELINE.md finding 7.
+default_team_template = "topic_research"
 
 [[phases]]
 kind      = "research"
 order_idx = 0
 # Phase-scoped config, merged into mission_phases.config on insert.
 [phases.config]
-produces         = ["md", "pdf"]
+# `pdf` dropped — PDF rendering was removed from the delivery path and
+# artifacts are served as Markdown, so asking for it named a format nothing
+# generates. `security_hardening` was corrected for this; this recipe was not.
+produces         = ["md"]
 default_topology = "hub_spoke"
+# This recipe had NEITHER of the two keys below, which is the same defect
+# `benchmark`, `security_hardening` and `research_and_code` were each fixed
+# for: a phase with no `done_when` never enters `evaluating`, is never judged,
+# and reports `completed` whatever it did. The empty-delivery rule still caught
+# a phase that wrote nothing at all (`research` is in PRODUCING_KINDS), so the
+# gap was narrower here — a mission that wrote one junk file went green.
+task = """
+Answer the mission brief and deliver a sourced report.
+
+There is no repository on this mission. `/mission/repo` is your workspace, everything you leave there is collected and published as the mission's artifact, and anything written anywhere else is not delivered.
+
+Work in three passes and leave the trail behind: research/questions.md (what actually has to be answered), research/evidence.md (the sources, quoted, with the URL and the date fetched), and research/REPORT.md (the answer).
+
+Cite every claim to a source you actually fetched. A claim you believe but cannot source belongs in the report's open-questions section, named as open — not hedged into the body, and not dropped silently.
+
+If the brief is too vague to answer, say so in research/REPORT.md and say what you would need. That is a real result. A report written against a guess about what was wanted is worse than one sentence saying the brief was unusable.
+"""
+# Wording follows the measured rule: say what the file must CONTAIN. Positional
+# phrasing, or "and nothing else", makes the judge invent requirements it was
+# never given.
+done_when = "research/REPORT.md exists and answers the mission brief, with each claim in it carrying the URL of a source, and a section naming what could not be established"
+max_iterations = 2
+# Nothing is compiled here, so `on_green_tests` would gate on a suite that does
+# not exist. There is also usually nothing to commit — a repo-less mission
+# delivers by collection, not by diff.
+commit_policy = "always"
 
 # Which team template is the "sensible default" for the picker when
 # the user hasn't explicitly picked one. UI honors this.

templates/workflows/security_hardening.toml

@@ -5,6 +5,14 @@ requires_repo = true
 
 default_team_template = "rust_sdlc"
 
+# The middle phase turns findings into a patch strategy — reading, judging and
+# writing, not coding. It gets the research team; the scan and the fix keep the
+# SDLC crew, which is the right shape for both.
+[default_phase_teams]
+research = "topic_research"
+security = "rust_sdlc"
+coding   = "rust_sdlc"
+
 # ── What is real here, and what is decoration ────────────────────────
 #
 # The scanners themselves are REAL: `gitleaks`, `trivy`, `semgrep` and