@event4u/agent-config 12.0.0 → 12.1.0

package/src/scripts/_lib/skill_catalogue.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,862 @@
+/**
+ * skill_catalogue — the pure measurement library behind `capture_skill_catalogue`.
+ *
+ * Split out of the CLI for one concrete reason: `install.ts` needs the
+ * deploy-time truncation warning, `install.ts` is an esbuild bundle entry, and
+ * a bundled module carrying a top-level `process.exit()` runs that exit when a
+ * CONSUMER loads the installer — the entry guard cannot tell it apart, because
+ * inside a bundle the bundle IS `process.argv[1]`. So everything importable
+ * lives here, with no CLI entry and no top-level exit, and the CLI re-exports
+ * it.
+ *
+ * capture_skill_catalogue — make the skill-catalogue delivery defect countable.
+ *
+ * THE HOST BOUNDARY, STATED FIRST BECAUSE IT DECIDES THE SHAPE OF THIS TOOL.
+ * The round-6 census asked for a `session_start` concern that logs the injected
+ * catalogue block. A concern cannot do that. The dispatcher envelope carries
+ * `session_id`, `source`, `cwd`, `transcript_path` — the injected catalogue is
+ * part of the request's system payload, and `preamble_byte_census.ts` already
+ * verified independently that no local transcript or file carries it. A hook
+ * that "captures the catalogue" would therefore be capturing something else and
+ * reporting it under that name, which is worse than not measuring.
+ *
+ * So the capture is deliberately two-sided, and each side is labelled with what
+ * it actually is:
+ *
+ *   PROJECTION (deterministic) — what the projected skill tree offers the host:
+ *   per entry, whether a `description:` exists, how long it is, which
+ *   frontmatter keys it carries, and its position in the sorted catalogue. This
+ *   is the host's INPUT and it is fully file-measurable.
+ *
+ *   OBSERVATION — which entries actually arrived, and how many did not. This
+ *   side has TWO sources and every record says which one it came from:
+ *
+ *     `self-report` — an agent reading its own context lists the bare names.
+ *     Only the agent can see this. It is not enforcement and nothing here
+ *     pretends otherwise. This is the claude-shaped path.
+ *
+ *     `host-event` — the host publishes its own truncation on a machine
+ *     channel. `codex exec --json` emits an `item.completed` error event whose
+ *     message states how many entries it dropped, so the count is READ, never
+ *     transcribed. This is the codex-shaped path and it is deterministic.
+ *
+ *   Hosts do not truncate the same way, so a record also carries a
+ *   `truncation_mode`: `per-entry` (some entries arrive bare, others full —
+ *   claude) versus `budget-strip-and-drop` (every description stripped, then N
+ *   entries dropped wholesale — codex). Pooling the two into one verdict would
+ *   average two different mechanisms into a number describing neither, so the
+ *   report is always per host.
+ *
+ * The join of the two answers the question the census could not: not "how many
+ * are bare" but WHICH PROPERTY separates bare from described. That is the
+ * selector, and it is what a delivery fix has to act on. A positional
+ * head-N hypothesis is one candidate among several and this tool is built to
+ * falsify it rather than assume it — the first observation recorded against
+ * this repo showed entries far past position 40 carrying full descriptions
+ * while an earlier one was bare, which no head-N budget explains.
+ *
+ * PRIVACY BY CONSTRUCTION. An observation record carries skill names, integer
+ * counts, a host label and two closed enums. The record type has no field able
+ * to hold prompt text, file bodies, paths outside the catalogue, or user
+ * content — the same shape `domain-safety-pii` § Surface 2 requires of a log
+ * event. The codex path reads a host message and keeps only the integer in it;
+ * the message text itself never reaches a record. Do not widen it with a
+ * free-form field.
+ *
+ * A ZERO IS NEVER INFERRED FROM SILENCE. If the host's budget event is absent
+ * or unparseable — reworded upstream, or removed — the capture fails loudly
+ * rather than recording `dropped: 0`, because a broken parser and a fixed
+ * defect would otherwise look identical. Recording a genuine no-truncation run
+ * takes an explicit `--assert-no-truncation`.
+ *
+ * Exit codes: 0 report produced · 1 usage/IO error, an empty catalogue root
+ * (a catalogue scan that found nothing must never read as a clean result), or
+ * an unreadable host observation.
+ */
+
+import * as fs from 'node:fs';
+import * as path from 'node:path';
+
+/** Catalogue roots tried in order; the first that exists wins. */
+export const DEFAULT_CATALOGUE_ROOTS = ['.claude/skills', 'src/skills'] as const;
+
+/** Where observations accumulate. Append-only, one JSON object per line. */
+export const OBSERVATION_LOG = path.join(
+    'agents',
+    'evidence',
+    'metrics',
+    'skill-catalogue.jsonl',
+);
+
+export interface CatalogueEntry {
+    /** Skill directory name — the identifier the host lists. */
+    name: string;
+    /** 1-based position in the alphabetically sorted catalogue. */
+    position: number;
+    /** Whether the projected SKILL.md declares a `description:`. */
+    hasDescription: boolean;
+    /** Character length of the declared description; 0 when absent. */
+    descriptionLength: number;
+    /**
+     * The declared description itself, folded. In-memory only — this is the
+     * projection half, which is file content the host is handed, and it is
+     * what makes a byte-accurate volume measurement possible. It is NEVER
+     * copied into an `ObservationRecord`; see the privacy paragraph.
+     */
+    description: string;
+    /** Top-level frontmatter keys the entry declares. */
+    frontmatterKeys: string[];
+}
+
+export interface SelectorCandidate {
+    /** Stable identifier for the property under test. */
+    id: string;
+    /** Human-readable statement of what the property is. */
+    describes: string;
+    /** True when the property's values are disjoint across the two groups. */
+    separates: boolean;
+    /** Why it does or does not separate, in one line. */
+    detail: string;
+}
+
+export interface SelectorReport {
+    catalogueRoot: string;
+    entriesTotal: number;
+    observedBare: string[];
+    observedDescribed: string[];
+    /** Observed names that the projection does not know. */
+    unknownObserved: string[];
+    candidates: SelectorCandidate[];
+    verdict: 'selector-found' | 'no-selector' | 'insufficient-observation';
+}
+
+/** Frontmatter block between the leading `---` fences, or "" when absent. */
+function frontmatterOf(content: string): string {
+    if (!content.startsWith('---')) return '';
+    const end = content.indexOf('\n---', 3);
+    if (end === -1) return '';
+    return content.slice(3, end);
+}
+
+/**
+ * Top-level keys of a frontmatter block. Deliberately shallow: a nested key is
+ * not a property the host's catalogue selector could plausibly read, and a full
+ * YAML parse would drag a dependency into a measurement tool.
+ */
+function topLevelKeys(frontmatter: string): string[] {
+    const keys: string[] = [];
+    for (const line of frontmatter.split('\n')) {
+        const match = /^([A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_-]*):/.exec(line);
+        if (match) keys.push(match[1]!);
+    }
+    return keys;
+}
+
+/**
+ * The declared description with surrounding quotes stripped, or "".
+ *
+ * A block scalar (`description: >-` / `|`) puts the text on the FOLLOWING
+ * lines, so taking the remainder of the header line would yield the
+ * two-character indicator and report `descriptionLength: 2`. That would feed
+ * the length-based selector candidate noise, and a length threshold could be
+ * reported or refuted on it. Block scalars are therefore folded properly.
+ */
+function descriptionOf(frontmatter: string): string {
+    const lines = frontmatter.split('\n');
+    for (let i = 0; i < lines.length; i += 1) {
+        const match = /^description:\s*(.*)$/.exec(lines[i]!);
+        if (!match) continue;
+        const rest = match[1]!.trim();
+
+        if (/^[|>][-+]?\d*$/.test(rest)) {
+            const body: string[] = [];
+            for (let j = i + 1; j < lines.length; j += 1) {
+                const line = lines[j]!;
+                if (line.trim() === '') {
+                    body.push('');
+                    continue;
+                }
+                if (!/^\s/.test(line)) break; // dedented, so the block ended
+                body.push(line.trim());
+            }
+            return body.join(' ').trim();
+        }
+
+        return rest.replace(/^["']|["']$/g, '');
+    }
+    return '';
+}
+
+/**
+ * Read every `<root>/<name>/SKILL.md` into a catalogue entry, sorted by name —
+ * the order a host listing follows and therefore the order a positional
+ * hypothesis is measured against.
+ */
+export function readProjectedCatalogue(root: string): CatalogueEntry[] {
+    // Membership is decided by "does <name>/SKILL.md resolve", never by
+    // `Dirent.isDirectory()`. The host-facing projection is a tree of SYMLINKS
+    // into `dist/agent-src/skills/`, and a Dirent for a symlink reports
+    // `isDirectory() === false` — that filter silently read 47 of 289 entries
+    // and reported the result as a complete catalogue. `existsSync` follows
+    // the link, so the scan sees what the host sees.
+    const names = fs
+        .readdirSync(root)
+        .filter((n) => fs.existsSync(path.join(root, n, 'SKILL.md')))
+        .sort();
+
+    return names.map((name, index) => {
+        const content = fs.readFileSync(path.join(root, name, 'SKILL.md'), 'utf-8');
+        const frontmatter = frontmatterOf(content);
+        const description = descriptionOf(frontmatter);
+        return {
+            name,
+            position: index + 1,
+            hasDescription: description.length > 0,
+            descriptionLength: description.length,
+            description,
+            frontmatterKeys: topLevelKeys(frontmatter),
+        };
+    });
+}
+
+/** True when two number sets occupy disjoint ranges in either direction. */
+function rangesAreDisjoint(a: number[], b: number[]): boolean {
+    if (a.length === 0 || b.length === 0) return false;
+    const maxA = Math.max(...a);
+    const minA = Math.min(...a);
+    const maxB = Math.max(...b);
+    const minB = Math.min(...b);
+    return maxA < minB || maxB < minA;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Join the projection against an observation and report which property, if
+ * any, separates the bare entries from the described ones.
+ *
+ * `observedBare` is the list of entries a live session saw without a
+ * description. Everything else in the projection is treated as observed
+ * described, which is the honest reading of a whole-catalogue observation —
+ * a partial observation would need its own described list, so the caller
+ * passes one when it has it.
+ */
+export function analyzeSelector(
+    projected: CatalogueEntry[],
+    observedBare: readonly string[],
+    observedDescribed?: readonly string[],
+): Omit<SelectorReport, 'catalogueRoot'> {
+    const known = new Map(projected.map((e) => [e.name, e]));
+    const bare = observedBare.filter((n) => known.has(n));
+    const describedInput =
+        observedDescribed ?? projected.map((e) => e.name).filter((n) => !bare.includes(n));
+    const described = describedInput.filter((n) => known.has(n));
+
+    // Both self-reported lists are validated, not only the bare one: a typo in
+    // --described silently shrank the described set and weakened the analysis,
+    // while the same typo in --observed was surfaced.
+    const unknownObserved = [
+        ...new Set([
+            ...observedBare.filter((n) => !known.has(n)),
+            ...(observedDescribed ?? []).filter((n) => !known.has(n)),
+        ]),
+    ].sort();
+
+    const base = {
+        entriesTotal: projected.length,
+        observedBare: [...bare].sort(),
+        observedDescribed: [...described].sort(),
+        unknownObserved,
+    };
+
+    if (bare.length === 0 || described.length === 0) {
+        return {
+            ...base,
+            candidates: [],
+            verdict: 'insufficient-observation' as const,
+        };
+    }
+
+    const bareEntries = bare.map((n) => known.get(n)!);
+    const describedEntries = described.map((n) => known.get(n)!);
+    const candidates: SelectorCandidate[] = [];
+
+    // 1. The projection itself — does the entry even declare a description?
+    const bareWithDesc = bareEntries.filter((e) => e.hasDescription).length;
+    const describedWithoutDesc = describedEntries.filter((e) => !e.hasDescription).length;
+    candidates.push({
+        id: 'declares-description',
+        describes: 'the projected SKILL.md declares a `description:`',
+        separates: bareWithDesc === 0 && describedWithoutDesc === 0,
+        detail: `${bareWithDesc}/${bareEntries.length} bare entries declare one; ${describedWithoutDesc}/${describedEntries.length} described entries do not`,
+    });
+
+    // 2. The head-N hypothesis the census proposed — falsifiable here.
+    const barePositions = bareEntries.map((e) => e.position);
+    const describedPositions = describedEntries.map((e) => e.position);
+    const positional = Math.max(...describedPositions) < Math.min(...barePositions);
+    candidates.push({
+        id: 'positional-head',
+        describes: 'every described entry sorts before every bare entry (a head-N budget)',
+        separates: positional,
+        detail: positional
+            ? `described top out at #${Math.max(...describedPositions)}, bare start at #${Math.min(...barePositions)}`
+            : `described reach #${Math.max(...describedPositions)} while bare start at #${Math.min(...barePositions)} — the ranges overlap, so no head-N cut explains this`,
+    });
+
+    // 3. Description length as a budget proxy.
+    const lengthSeparates = rangesAreDisjoint(
+        bareEntries.map((e) => e.descriptionLength),
+        describedEntries.map((e) => e.descriptionLength),
+    );
+    candidates.push({
+        id: 'description-length',
+        describes: 'description length ranges do not overlap between the groups',
+        separates: lengthSeparates,
+        detail: lengthSeparates
+            ? 'a length threshold separates the two groups'
+            : 'length ranges overlap',
+    });
+
+    // 4. Any frontmatter key whose presence tracks the split exactly.
+    const allKeys = new Set<string>();
+    for (const entry of projected) for (const key of entry.frontmatterKeys) allKeys.add(key);
+    for (const key of [...allKeys].sort()) {
+        const bareHas = bareEntries.filter((e) => e.frontmatterKeys.includes(key)).length;
+        const describedHas = describedEntries.filter((e) =>
+            e.frontmatterKeys.includes(key),
+        ).length;
+        const separates =
+            (bareHas === 0 && describedHas === describedEntries.length) ||
+            (describedHas === 0 && bareHas === bareEntries.length);
+        if (!separates) continue;
+        candidates.push({
+            id: `frontmatter:${key}`,
+            describes: `presence of the \`${key}:\` frontmatter key`,
+            separates: true,
+            detail: `bare ${bareHas}/${bareEntries.length}, described ${describedHas}/${describedEntries.length}`,
+        });
+    }
+
+    return {
+        ...base,
+        candidates,
+        verdict: candidates.some((c) => c.separates)
+            ? ('selector-found' as const)
+            : ('no-selector' as const),
+    };
+}
+
+/**
+ * How a host truncates. The two known mechanisms are not variants of one
+ * number, so a record that does not say which one it measured cannot be
+ * compared against one that measured the other.
+ *
+ * `per-entry` — some entries arrive with their description, others arrive as
+ * bare names. Which is which is the selector question `analyzeSelector` asks.
+ *
+ * `budget-strip-and-drop` — the host strips EVERY description, then drops N
+ * entries from the list entirely. There is no per-entry selector to find; the
+ * quantity that matters is N.
+ */
+export type TruncationMode = 'per-entry' | 'budget-strip-and-drop';
+
+/** Where the observation half came from. See the header. */
+export type ObservationSource = 'self-report' | 'host-event';
+
+/** One append-only observation record. No field can hold free-form content. */
+export interface ObservationRecord {
+    schema: 1;
+    observed_at: string;
+    host: string;
+    entries_total: number;
+    bare_count: number;
+    described_count: number;
+    bare_names: string[];
+    verdict: SelectorReport['verdict'];
+    separating_candidates: string[];
+    /**
+     * Absent on a schema-1 record written before hosts were distinguished.
+     * Absent reads as `per-entry`, which is what those records measured — see
+     * `truncationModeOf`. Never default it to the codex mode: that would
+     * retroactively relabel an observation nobody took.
+     */
+    truncation_mode?: TruncationMode;
+    /** Absent on records written before the two sources were distinguished. */
+    observation_source?: ObservationSource;
+    /**
+     * Skills projected at this observation — the ONLY population the drop
+     * tracks. `entries_total` counts every artefact, and a controlled probe
+     * (2026-08-15) moved the host's dropped count by 0 when 60 commands were
+     * added and by +53 when 60 skills were. Comparing artefact totals would
+     * fire on command growth that causes no truncation at all.
+     */
+    projected_skill_count?: number;
+    /**
+     * Entries the host dropped wholesale, read from the host's own event.
+     * Only ever present on a `budget-strip-and-drop` record — a `per-entry`
+     * host publishes no such count, and inventing one is the failure the
+     * header's zero-is-never-inferred paragraph forbids.
+     */
+    dropped_count?: number;
+}
+
+/** The mode a record measured; absent reads as the pre-codex `per-entry`. */
+export function truncationModeOf(record: ObservationRecord): TruncationMode {
+    return record.truncation_mode ?? 'per-entry';
+}
+
+/** The source a record came from; absent reads as the pre-codex self-report. */
+export function observationSourceOf(record: ObservationRecord): ObservationSource {
+    return record.observation_source ?? 'self-report';
+}
+
+export function buildObservationRecord(
+    report: SelectorReport,
+    host: string,
+    observedAt: string,
+): ObservationRecord {
+    return {
+        schema: 1,
+        observed_at: observedAt,
+        host,
+        entries_total: report.entriesTotal,
+        bare_count: report.observedBare.length,
+        described_count: report.observedDescribed.length,
+        bare_names: report.observedBare,
+        verdict: report.verdict,
+        separating_candidates: report.candidates.filter((c) => c.separates).map((c) => c.id),
+        truncation_mode: 'per-entry',
+        observation_source: 'self-report',
+    };
+}
+
+/* ------------------------------------------------------------------ *
+ * The host-event path — codex publishes its own truncation.
+ * ------------------------------------------------------------------ */
+
+/** What a host's own budget event states. Integers only, by construction. */
+export interface HostBudgetEvent {
+    /** Entries the host dropped from the model-visible list. */
+    droppedCount: number;
+    /** Whether the host also stripped descriptions from what survived. */
+    descriptionsStripped: boolean;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Read a host budget event out of a `codex exec --json` stream.
+ *
+ * Parses the STRUCTURED event, never the human-readable warning line: the
+ * pretty line is presentation and may be reworded or dropped without notice,
+ * while the JSON channel is the host's machine contract. Observed shape
+ * (2026-08-15, codex CLI):
+ *
+ *   {"type":"item.completed","item":{"id":"item_0","type":"error",
+ *    "message":"Exceeded skills context budget. All skill descriptions were
+ *    removed and 393 additional skills were not included in the
+ *    model-visible skills list."}}
+ *
+ * Returns `null` when no such event is present. `null` means UNKNOWN, never
+ * zero — the caller decides whether the run genuinely did not truncate, and
+ * says so explicitly. A line that is not JSON is skipped rather than fatal:
+ * the stream is interleaved with the CLI's own plain-text chatter.
+ */
+export function parseHostBudgetEvent(stream: string): HostBudgetEvent | null {
+    for (const line of stream.split('\n')) {
+        const trimmed = line.trim();
+        if (!trimmed.startsWith('{')) continue;
+
+        let parsed: unknown;
+        try {
+            parsed = JSON.parse(trimmed);
+        } catch {
+            continue;
+        }
+
+        const item = (parsed as { item?: { type?: unknown; message?: unknown } }).item;
+        if (item === undefined || item === null || item.type !== 'error') continue;
+        const message = typeof item.message === 'string' ? item.message : '';
+        if (!/skills context budget/i.test(message)) continue;
+
+        const dropped = /(\d+)\s+additional skills were not included/i.exec(message);
+        if (!dropped) {
+            // The event fired and its shape changed. Reporting this as "no
+            // truncation" would turn an upstream rewording into a clean bill
+            // of health, so it is an unknown like any other.
+            return null;
+        }
+
+        return {
+            droppedCount: Number.parseInt(dropped[1]!, 10),
+            descriptionsStripped: /descriptions were removed/i.test(message),
+        };
+    }
+    return null;
+}
+
+/**
+ * An observation built from the host's own event rather than from a self-report.
+ *
+ * `entriesOffered` is the deterministic projection half — how many artefacts
+ * the host was given. `bare_count` is the whole surviving set when the host
+ * stripped every description, which is exactly what the codex message states;
+ * there is no per-entry list to record, so `bare_names` stays empty rather
+ * than being filled with a guess.
+ */
+export function buildHostEventRecord(
+    host: string,
+    observedAt: string,
+    entriesOffered: number,
+    event: HostBudgetEvent,
+    projectedSkillCount?: number,
+): ObservationRecord {
+    return {
+        schema: 1,
+        observed_at: observedAt,
+        host,
+        // OUR projection, not the host's denominator. Measured 2026-08-15 they
+        // are not the same number and there is no way to read the host's:
+        // `~/.codex` projects 297 skills + 200 commands = 497 by this tool's
+        // count, while the host reported dropping 393 — and a controlled +60
+        // commands moved that by ZERO. Whatever codex counts, it is not this.
+        // So `entries_total - dropped_count` is NOT a delivered count, and
+        // nothing here computes one: a subtraction across two different
+        // denominators produces a confident number describing neither.
+        entries_total: entriesOffered,
+        bare_count: 0,
+        described_count: 0,
+        bare_names: [],
+        // There is nothing to separate: the host did not choose per entry, it
+        // stripped all of them. `no-selector` would read as "we looked and
+        // found none", which is not what happened.
+        verdict: 'insufficient-observation',
+        separating_candidates: [],
+        truncation_mode: 'budget-strip-and-drop',
+        observation_source: 'host-event',
+        dropped_count: event.droppedCount,
+        ...(projectedSkillCount === undefined ? {} : { projected_skill_count: projectedSkillCount }),
+    };
+}
+
+/* ------------------------------------------------------------------ *
+ * The projection half, per host — volume, not just entry count.
+ * ------------------------------------------------------------------ */
+
+/** What one host root is offered. Every number is file-measured. */
+export interface CatalogueVolume {
+    host: string;
+    root: string;
+    skillEntries: number;
+    commandEntries: number;
+    /** Everything the host lists — the number its budget is spent on. */
+    artefacts: number;
+    /** Bytes of declared `description:` text across the skill entries. */
+    descriptionBytes: number;
+}
+
+/** Every `*.md` under a root, at any depth. */
+function markdownFilesUnder(root: string): string[] {
+    if (!fs.existsSync(root)) return [];
+    const out: string[] = [];
+    const walk = (dir: string): void => {
+        for (const entry of fs.readdirSync(dir, { withFileTypes: true })) {
+            const full = path.join(dir, entry.name);
+            if (fs.statSync(full).isDirectory()) walk(full);
+            else if (entry.name.endsWith('.md')) out.push(full);
+        }
+    };
+    walk(root);
+    return out;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Measure what a host root actually offers.
+ *
+ * `root` is the host's own config directory (`~/.codex`, `~/.claude`), not a
+ * skills directory — the budget is spent on the whole catalogue, and counting
+ * skills alone would understate it by the command set.
+ */
+export function measureCatalogueVolume(host: string, root: string): CatalogueVolume {
+    const skillsRoot = path.join(root, 'skills');
+    const skills = fs.existsSync(skillsRoot) ? readProjectedCatalogue(skillsRoot) : [];
+    const commandEntries = markdownFilesUnder(path.join(root, 'commands')).length;
+    return {
+        host,
+        root,
+        skillEntries: skills.length,
+        commandEntries,
+        artefacts: skills.length + commandEntries,
+        descriptionBytes: skills.reduce((sum, e) => sum + Buffer.byteLength(e.description), 0),
+    };
+}
+
+/* ------------------------------------------------------------------ *
+ * Known limits — read off recorded observations, never invented.
+ * ------------------------------------------------------------------ */
+
+/**
+ * A truncation this estate has actually OBSERVED for one host.
+ *
+ * Deliberately not "the host's limit". Two of its three numbers would have to
+ * come from the host to call it that, and only one does. What is recorded is
+ * the honest pair: at a projection of `projectedVolume`, the host said it
+ * dropped `droppedEntries`. No delivered count is derived — see
+ * `buildHostEventRecord` for why the subtraction is invalid.
+ *
+ * Built only from a `budget-strip-and-drop` observation, because only that
+ * mode publishes a count. A `per-entry` host reports which entries arrived
+ * bare, which is a selector fact and not a truncation quantity, so such a host
+ * yields nothing here and produces no warning. That asymmetry is the point:
+ * an unmeasured host gets no invented number.
+ */
+export interface KnownHostLimit {
+    host: string;
+    /** Entries the host itself said it dropped. */
+    droppedEntries: number;
+    /** What THIS tool projected for that host at that observation. */
+    projectedVolume: number;
+    /**
+     * SKILLS projected at that observation — the comparable quantity.
+     * Absent on a record written before the skill-only count existed, and
+     * absence is load-bearing: without it the observation is not comparable
+     * and yields no eligibility (see `migrationEligibility`).
+     */
+    projectedSkills: number | null;
+    observedAt: string;
+}
+
+/** The most recent observed truncation per host. */
+export function knownHostLimits(records: readonly ObservationRecord[]): Map<string, KnownHostLimit> {
+    const out = new Map<string, KnownHostLimit>();
+    for (const record of records) {
+        if (truncationModeOf(record) !== 'budget-strip-and-drop') continue;
+        if (typeof record.dropped_count !== 'number') continue;
+        if (record.dropped_count <= 0) continue;
+        const previous = out.get(record.host);
+        if (previous !== undefined && previous.observedAt > record.observed_at) continue;
+        out.set(record.host, {
+            host: record.host,
+            droppedEntries: record.dropped_count,
+            projectedVolume: record.entries_total,
+            projectedSkills: record.projected_skill_count ?? null,
+            observedAt: record.observed_at,
+        });
+    }
+    return out;
+}
+
+/**
+ * The deploy-time warning, or `null` when this deploy is smaller than the one
+ * that was measured truncating — or when nothing has been measured at all.
+ *
+ * Warns, never blocks: over-shipping is the safe direction and a consumer who
+ * accepts truncation is making a legitimate choice. Naming the command is the
+ * point — a number with no way to reproduce it is noise.
+ */
+export function catalogueLimitWarning(
+    volume: CatalogueVolume,
+    limit: KnownHostLimit | undefined,
+): string | null {
+    if (limit === undefined) return null;
+    // SKILLS, not artefacts. The council's correction, and it rests on this
+    // estate's own probe: +60 commands moved the host's dropped count by 0.
+    // An artefact-total comparison would warn on command growth that truncates
+    // nothing. An observation with no skill count is not comparable, so it
+    // yields no warning rather than a guess.
+    if (limit.projectedSkills === null) return null;
+    if (volume.skillEntries < limit.projectedSkills) return null;
+    return (
+        `${volume.host}: deploying ${volume.skillEntries} skills. ` +
+        `This host reported dropping ${limit.droppedEntries} entries from the ` +
+        `model-visible list when last measured (${limit.observedAt}, at ` +
+        `${limit.projectedSkills} skills) — that much never reaches the model. ` +
+        'Explain: `agent-config exec capture_skill_catalogue --limits`'
+    );
+}
+
+/* ------------------------------------------------------------------ *
+ * Migration eligibility — AI council, 2026-08-15, 2/2 converged.
+ * ------------------------------------------------------------------ */
+
+/**
+ * Why an install is (not) eligible to be ASKED about scoped projection.
+ *
+ * Eligibility is deliberately separate from whether a prompt can be shown.
+ * The council's refinement: an install can qualify while the session is
+ * non-interactive, and collapsing the two would make "not asked because CI"
+ * indistinguishable from "not asked because it does not qualify".
+ */
+export interface MigrationEligibility {
+    eligible: boolean;
+    /** Machine-readable reason, always set — including on the eligible path. */
+    reason:
+        | 'eligible'
+        | 'no-observation-for-host'
+        | 'observation-not-comparable'
+        | 'no-truncation-observed'
+        | 'already-scoped'
+        | 'below-observed-skill-volume';
+    /** Populated only when eligible, for the message. */
+    droppedEntries?: number;
+    observedAt?: string;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Is this install worth asking about?
+ *
+ * `currentSkillCount` is the SKILL population only, and that is the whole
+ * correction the council made to the original predicate. A controlled probe
+ * (2026-08-15) moved the host's dropped count by 0 when 60 command files were
+ * added and by +53 when 60 skills were, so a comparison over total artefacts
+ * would fire on command growth that truncates nothing.
+ *
+ * An observation with no recorded skill count is NOT comparable — the two
+ * numbers would be counted by different rules — and returns
+ * `observation-not-comparable` rather than being coerced into a verdict.
+ * Never extrapolate from another host.
+ */
+export function migrationEligibility(
+    host: string,
+    resolvedMode: 'scoped' | 'legacy-all',
+    currentSkillCount: number,
+    limits: ReadonlyMap<string, KnownHostLimit>,
+): MigrationEligibility {
+    if (resolvedMode === 'scoped') return { eligible: false, reason: 'already-scoped' };
+    const limit = limits.get(host);
+    if (limit === undefined) return { eligible: false, reason: 'no-observation-for-host' };
+    if (limit.projectedSkills === null) return { eligible: false, reason: 'observation-not-comparable' };
+    if (limit.droppedEntries <= 0) return { eligible: false, reason: 'no-truncation-observed' };
+    if (currentSkillCount < limit.projectedSkills) {
+        return { eligible: false, reason: 'below-observed-skill-volume' };
+    }
+    return {
+        eligible: true,
+        reason: 'eligible',
+        droppedEntries: limit.droppedEntries,
+        observedAt: limit.observedAt,
+    };
+}
+
+/**
+ * The prompt body. Returns lines; WRITES NOTHING, by contract.
+ *
+ * `projection.mode` is settings class C, so `settings:set` refuses it by
+ * construction and only a human edit or the GUI write route may set it. The
+ * message therefore never offers a CLI write — suggesting one would send the
+ * reader to a command guaranteed to reject them, which the council caught in
+ * the first draft of this text.
+ */
+export function migrationPromptLines(
+    host: string,
+    eligibility: MigrationEligibility,
+    settingsPath: string,
+): string[] {
+    return [
+        `${host}: ${eligibility.droppedEntries} catalogue entries never reach the model.`,
+        `Measured on this machine (${eligibility.observedAt}). This install is on \`legacy-all\`,`,
+        'which ships everything and lets the host drop what does not fit — silently.',
+        '',
+        'Scoping the projection to your active packs is the alternative. Nothing here',
+        'changes it for you: `projection.mode` is yours to set, by hand or in the GUI.',
+        '',
+        `  edit  ${settingsPath}`,
+        '        projection:',
+        '          mode: scoped',
+        '',
+        '  or    agent-config config      (Settings → projection)',
+        '',
+        'Keeping `legacy-all` is a legitimate choice — this is a notification, not a gate.',
+    ];
+}
+
+/** Read the append-only observation log; a missing or broken line is skipped. */
+export function readObservationLog(logPath: string): ObservationRecord[] {
+    if (!fs.existsSync(logPath)) return [];
+    const out: ObservationRecord[] = [];
+    for (const line of fs.readFileSync(logPath, 'utf-8').split('\n')) {
+        const trimmed = line.trim();
+        if (trimmed.length === 0) continue;
+        try {
+            out.push(JSON.parse(trimmed) as ObservationRecord);
+        } catch {
+            continue;
+        }
+    }
+    return out;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Per-host verdicts — never one pooled verdict.
+ *
+ * Pooling a `per-entry` observation with a `budget-strip-and-drop` one would
+ * report a selector verdict over a host that has no per-entry selector, which
+ * is Risk 1 of the roadmap that asked for this field.
+ */
+export function formatPerHostVerdicts(records: readonly ObservationRecord[]): string {
+    if (records.length === 0) return 'no observations recorded yet.';
+    const byHost = new Map<string, ObservationRecord[]>();
+    for (const record of records) {
+        const bucket = byHost.get(record.host) ?? [];
+        bucket.push(record);
+        byHost.set(record.host, bucket);
+    }
+
+    const lines: string[] = [];
+    for (const host of [...byHost.keys()].sort()) {
+        const bucket = byHost.get(host)!;
+        const latest = bucket.reduce((a, b) => (a.observed_at >= b.observed_at ? a : b));
+        const mode = truncationModeOf(latest);
+        lines.push(
+            `${host}: ${bucket.length} observation(s) · mode ${mode} · ` +
+                `source ${observationSourceOf(latest)} · latest ${latest.observed_at}`,
+        );
+        lines.push(
+            mode === 'budget-strip-and-drop'
+                ? `   offered ${latest.entries_total}, dropped ${latest.dropped_count ?? 'unknown'} — ` +
+                      'no per-entry selector exists on this host; the quantity is the budget.'
+                : `   verdict ${latest.verdict} · ${latest.bare_count} bare of ${latest.entries_total}`,
+        );
+    }
+
+    const modes = new Set([...byHost.values()].map((b) => truncationModeOf(b[b.length - 1]!)));
+    lines.push('');
+    lines.push(
+        modes.size > 1
+            ? `hosts: ${byHost.size} · truncation modes DIFFER (${[...modes].sort().join(', ')}) — ` +
+                  'a pooled verdict across them would describe neither host.'
+            : `hosts: ${byHost.size} · all observed hosts truncate the same way (${[...modes][0] ?? 'none'}).`,
+    );
+    return lines.join('\n');
+}
+
+export function formatReport(report: SelectorReport): string {
+    const lines: string[] = [];
+    lines.push(`catalogue root: ${report.catalogueRoot}`);
+    lines.push(`entries: ${report.entriesTotal}`);
+    lines.push(
+        `observed: ${report.observedBare.length} bare · ${report.observedDescribed.length} described (self-reported)`,
+    );
+    if (report.unknownObserved.length > 0) {
+        lines.push(
+            `⚠️  ${report.unknownObserved.length} observed name(s) absent from the projection: ${report.unknownObserved.join(', ')}`,
+        );
+    }
+    if (report.verdict === 'insufficient-observation') {
+        lines.push('');
+        lines.push(
+            'verdict: insufficient-observation — an observation needs at least one bare AND one described entry to separate anything.',
+        );
+        return lines.join('\n');
+    }
+    lines.push('');
+    lines.push('selector candidates:');
+    for (const candidate of report.candidates) {
+        lines.push(`  ${candidate.separates ? '✅' : '❌'} ${candidate.id} — ${candidate.describes}`);
+        lines.push(`     ${candidate.detail}`);
+    }
+    lines.push('');
+    lines.push(
+        report.verdict === 'selector-found'
+            ? 'verdict: selector-found — a delivery fix can act on the separating property above.'
+            : 'verdict: no-selector — no measured property separates the groups; the selector is host-internal on this evidence. Publish the null rather than guessing a fix.',
+    );
+    return lines.join('\n');
+}