[levifig]

Summary

The continuity digest's unresolved-blockers list only grew. A blocker cleared only when someone logged an unblock with exactly the same scope, and scopes are often generic (ship, review), so that rarely happened. On 2026-10-22 this repository had 24 open blocks; 13 of them cite work that has since merged or closed, and blocks sharing a scope hid behind the newest one.

• An agent can now resolve one block by its entry id: loaf journal log "unblock(<block id>): <what cleared it>". Only that block is resolved; other blocks with the same scope stay open. The block itself is never edited. unblock(<scope>) still resolves every open block with that scope.
• Each open block is listed on its own line with the id that resolves it, plus a one-line hint on how to resolve one.
• An unblock that names an unknown entry, an entry that isn't a block, or a block that was already resolved is refused with a clear message and writes nothing. Under --from-hook it warns instead, as unmatched unblocks already did.
• The default digest lists blockers from the last 30 days and counts older ones next to the command that lists them all. This is fix: keep the continuity digest within harness injection limits #422's compact digest, so it applies to the plain CLI, every SessionStart hook and post-compaction resumption. --layer unresolved-blockers still lists every blocker in full. --json keeps its fields and adds stale_count and a per-item stale flag.
• Ship now resolves, by id, the journal blockers a landing cleared. Implement resolves those about resumed work that no longer hold.

Native work

Implements #420.

Verification

Ran on c5276d8, which is #420 rebased onto main after #422 landed, with the 30-day collapse moved into #422's renderer and the re-review nits fixed. The first round on 89da3ba is superseded.

• Fixture tests for unblock by id. An id unblock clears exactly that block and leaves another block with the same scope open. An exact-scope unblock still works, also after id unblocks. Refusals cover:

  • unknown ids (minted and legacy formats);
  • non-block ids;
  • already-resolved blocks;
  • imported blocks with no scope.

  Refusals write nothing, and a block whose scope merely looks like an id is resolved by that scope. Tests: TestJournalUnblockByEntryIDResolvesExactlyThatBlock, TestJournalUnblockByIDThenScopeLeavesNoStrayDiagnostics, TestJournalUnblockEdgeShapesAgreeWithTheDigest, TestJournalLogUnblockByEntryIDAndBlockerLayerIDs. The existing exact-scope tests pass unchanged.

• Fixture tests for the age limit. With a fixed clock, blocks more than 30 UTC calendar days old are flagged and counted, including past the shown page. The day boundary is exact: 30 days is still listed, 31 is not. Tests: TestJournalContextFlagsBlockersOlderThanTheAgeLimit and TestJournalContextAgeDaysCountsUTCCalendarDays.

  • TestJournalContextDefaultPathsAgeRealBlockersByTheReadClock logs real blocks and moves the read clock forward. Through the plain CLI and the Claude Code SessionStart hook, the digest then shows showing 0 of 2 (more: … --limit 2; 2 older than 30 days not listed) with no block ids, while --layer unresolved-blockers lists both.
  • TestJournalContextDefaultDigestCountsStaleBlockersInsteadOfListingThem covers the mixed and all-stale renders.

• Resolving this repository's stale blockers: not run live. The check ran on a byte copy of the live journal, which was kept read-only. On the copy, 13 blocks were resolved by id: 11 cite merged or closed work (Verify native work before entering implementation #267/chore: retire legacy Amp modes and forced delegation #314, Record harness provenance and local gateway outcomes (#286) #361, build: emit JavaScript adapters and require Node 24+ #308 ×3, Retire the inert Amp loaf-modes plugin #309, fix: label implementation threads as implementer #280, fix: isolate CI tests and prioritize local verification #253, feat: integrate the vNext Loaf baseline #225, docs: codify shippable Git history #212) and 2 record their own resolution. The digest then reads unresolved-blockers: showing 0 of 11 (more: … --limit 11; 11 older than 30 days not listed), with no diagnostics, at 4,229 bytes. The live run waits for a decision; see the Ship comment.

• Skill changes pass the authoring checklist. Ship and Implement edits are body-only, use harness-neutral prose and the skill's own journal command form, and change no frontmatter, sidecars or references; the journal template's links are unchanged. The dist/ and plugins/ copies are regenerated and committed.

• env -u LOAF_DB make verify-local passes on c5276d8.

Also ran:

• Before the fix: the installed binary refused unblock(<id>) ("no matching block exists"), and its layer showed only the newest ship block, without an id.
• Dogfood on throwaway state: with an isolated LOAF_DB, unblock by id resolved one of two ship blocks. The three bad cases were refused with their messages and exit 1.
• Live digest, read-only: with 7d9ea21, which has the same renderer output as c5276d8 whenever a blocker is listed, it is 5,944 bytes. It lists 7 recent blockers with the resolve hint and counts 17 older ones.
• Changelog coverage: loaf check issue-changelog passes for Let agents resolve journal blockers by entry and stop listing stale ones #420 against origin/main.

Ship

Pending Ship review.

Migration / risks

• No schema change. An id unblock is an ordinary unblock entry whose scope is the block's id.
• Older binaries: an id unblock shows up as an unmatched-unblock diagnostic, and the block stays listed, until the reading binary has this change. Upgrade the installed loaf before resolving the live journal's blockers by id.
• Count change: the blockers layer now counts each open block, so it can be larger than the old per-scope count (24 instead of 19 here). previous_unblock_id now names the unblock that last resolved a block with the same scope before this one opened.
• Age limit: a real blocker older than 30 days drops out of the default digest. The count line and its command keep it reachable.

Out of scope

• Resolving the live journal's stale blockers. That is the 13 unblock(<id>) entries listed in the agent notes, to log once the installed loaf includes this change.
• The digest size budget (Fit the continuity digest to each harness's injection budget #345) and item ages in general (Show how old digest items are and flag a stale project synthesis #419).

Fixes #420

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Agent notes

• Model: resolveJournalBlocks in internal/state/journal_blockers.go replays block/unblock rows oldest first. An unblock whose key is an earlier block's id resolves that block; any other unblock resolves the open blocks with exactly its scope. The digest (queryBlockerCandidates) and the write check (validateJournalUnblockTx) both use it, and the write check tests the cases in the same order, so an accepted write always resolves something on replay.
• Codes: journal-unmatched-unblock (unchanged, scope), journal-unblock-already-resolved, journal-unblock-unknown-entry, journal-unblock-not-a-block. All use JournalUnmatchedUnblockError, so the human, --json and --from-hook paths are unchanged.
• Id shapes: UUIDv7 and journal…:<24 hex> legacy ids. A key matching an open block's exact scope is treated as a scope before the unknown-id rejection.
• Age: journalContextAgeDays counts whole UTC calendar days, so output is stable within a read date. A block is stale past JournalContextBlockerStaleDays (30), the project knowledge staleness default. JournalContextOptions.Now is the clock; zero means now.
• Rendering: writeJournalBlockerLayerHuman in internal/cli/journal.go. When Fit the continuity digest to each harness's injection budget #345 lands its default-digest renderer, the collapse moves there; TestJournalContextDefaultDigestCountsStaleBlockersInsteadOfListingThem guards it.
• Live-journal resolution, after upgrade:
  • 01a135f2-ef67-7633-a0cd-76124843b02d (Verify native work before entering implementation #267 closed, chore: retire legacy Amp modes and forced delegation #314 merged)
  • 01a1339c-fe66-7421-9ea1-7592945316a3 (Record harness provenance and local gateway outcomes (#286) #361 merged)
  • 01a0d363-135d-7f32-9b3f-7916db3332aa, 01a0d34e-5cca-751e-884e-9806cf880cca, 01a0d10a-f150-7bee-a6c4-de204986df0d (build: emit JavaScript adapters and require Node 24+ #308 merged)
  • 01a0ce89-5d21-719c-a7f7-f0624b9f5bef (chore: retire legacy Amp modes and forced delegation #314 merged)
  • 01a0cb50-a232-7936-b0b5-f7ef6f2d1fb2 (Retire the inert Amp loaf-modes plugin #309 closed)
  • 01a09656-2c30-799c-b45e-57ffc3628cad (fix: label implementation threads as implementer #280 merged)
  • 01a08dcb-d2d9-79fd-a223-b37ec92dd577 (fix: isolate CI tests and prioritize local verification #253 merged)
  • 01a06d11-afa7-7d68-a0f9-ff6cb12c07fb (feat: integrate the vNext Loaf baseline #225 merged)
  • 01a05ee8-01d8-7b29-a608-6f90152eba20 (docs: codify shippable Git history #212 closed)
  • journal:e7f33b7b5a173a4647f33f55, journal:4a96fb42dddb0cd52b2f5147 (self-resolved)

[levifig]

Ship: request changes on 89da3ba. An independent reviewer found no code defects. The write check and the digest agree in every case it traced. One Verification box on #420 isn't met as written, and the PR still has to move onto #422's new digest renderer.

• Box 3, "In this repository, resolve the stale blockers by id", is unticked again. It ran only on a byte copy of the live journal. Running it live before the installed loaf is upgraded would add 13 unmatched-unblock diagnostics to every session-start digest. Levi decides whether to defer it with a reason on the box or run it live now.
• The review's fixable findings are done in cbdbbce.
• fix: keep the continuity digest within harness injection limits #422 (Fit the continuity digest to each harness's injection budget #345) lands first. This PR then rebases onto it and moves the 30-day blocker collapse into its renderer, with a test that drives the real default path.

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Agent notes

• Reviewed: 89da3ba0 by a fresh read-only reviewer against Let agents resolve journal blockers by entry and stop listing stale ones #420; criteria DoD 1–6 and V1, V2, V4 met, V5 claimed (verify-local on 89da3ba), V3 not met as written.
• Fixed in cbdbbce1:
  • Implement names loaf journal context --layer unresolved-blockers, because the default digest only counts blockers older than 30 days.
  • Ship step 4 runs independently of local reconciliation.
  • The not-a-block message reads "its type is X, not block", and a scope-less imported block gets its own message.
  • The count line says "list them".
  • New tests: id-shaped scope, scope-less block, historical duplicate id unblock (read-time diagnostic), and a truncated collapsed page.
• Accepted as is: the --limit cap at 100 (paging continues past it); RFC3339Nano string ordering (pre-existing, same assumption as the old check); mixed old and new binaries (covered by the upgrade-first note).
• Still owed before merge: box 3 decision; rebase onto fix: keep the continuity digest within harness injection limits #422 and port; re-run env -u LOAF_DB make verify-local and re-review the delta.