@justjoshn/pi-pstack 0.15.36-pi.13 → 0.15.36-pi.15

package/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -1,5 +1,24 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## [0.15.36-pi.15] - 2026-11-04
+
+- Match watched shell output before a newline or process exit. Count every occurrence within a chunk and retain matches across chunk boundaries.
+- Match the captured observer's batching, minimum debounce, completion flush, and 100-occurrence limit notice.
+- Decode stdout and stderr independently so split UTF-8 characters reach the output file and monitor intact.
+- Pin `re2js` 1.2.2 for output-watch patterns. Invalid patterns warn without stopping the command. A missing dependency leaves unrelated tools available but rejects a valid requested watch before the command runs.
+- Record the pinned reference, original-component comparisons, and open requirements in `parity/pstack-full-parity-2026-11-04/`. Whole-plugin parity remains `NOT VERIFIED`.
+
+## [0.15.36-pi.14] - 2026-11-04
+
+Each item below was checked against Cursor CLI 2026.10.22 with pstack and cursor-team-kit loaded, through live captures. `parity/pstack-native-parity-2026-11-04/` in the repository records the evidence and the decisions.
+
+- Add background shells: `bash_background` runs a command in the background, or after a foreground wait, writes `terminals/<id>.txt` with a status header and an exit footer, and sends a `kind: shell` notification when the command ends or prints a watched line. `AwaitShell` polls, waits for a pattern, or sleeps. pstack's babysit watcher, worktree-cleanup scan, PR review canvas server, and event-gated `/loop` wakes use them. The host section sends commands that can run for minutes to `bash_background`, because `bash` waits until a command ends.
+- Run the Linux read-only shell under bubblewrap with a seccomp filter that bubblewrap loads itself, so readonly subagents get a working shell on Ubuntu 24.04 and later. Writes, the network, and Unix sockets stay blocked. macOS keeps sandbox-runtime.
+- Tell the agent to run a loop's prompt once in the turn that arms it, as Cursor's loop skill does.
+- Remove `AskQuestion` from subagents.
+- State today's date in the host section.
+- Restore upstream text in the architect runner prompt and arena where the port had added instructions with no host reason.
+
 ## [0.15.36-pi.13] - 2026-11-04
 
 - Parse leading word intervals and preserve multiline prompts in `/loop`.

package/README.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # pstack for Pi (pi-pstack)
 
-pi-pstack is pstack 0.15.36 for Pi 1.5.0: rigorous agent workflows (`/poteto-mode` and its playbooks), the principle skills, and the review, research, and verification skills, plus the full soft-dependency team-kit set (`deslop`, `control-cli`, `control-ui`, CI/PR helpers, thermo-nuclear review, and the rest) vendored in so you do not install a separate team-kit package. A small extension provides the host features the skills call by name: `/name` skill commands, `/mode`, `/plan`, the `Task` subagent tool with local worktree workers, forks, and `agent_status`, `TodoWrite`, `AskQuestion`, `GenerateImage`, `SwitchMode`, the model rule, `/loop`, subscriptions and webhook routines, and `visualize`.
+pi-pstack is pstack 0.15.36 for Pi 1.5.0: rigorous agent workflows (`/poteto-mode` and its playbooks), the principle skills, and the review, research, and verification skills, plus the full soft-dependency team-kit set (`deslop`, `control-cli`, `control-ui`, CI/PR helpers, thermo-nuclear review, and the rest) vendored in so you do not install a separate team-kit package. A small extension provides the host features the skills call by name: `/name` skill commands, `/mode`, `/plan`, the `Task` subagent tool with local worktree workers, forks, and `agent_status`, background shells (`bash_background` and `AwaitShell`), `TodoWrite`, `AskQuestion`, `GenerateImage`, `SwitchMode`, the model rule, `/loop`, subscriptions and webhook routines, and `visualize`.
 
 ## Get set up
 
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ pi-pstack is pstack 0.15.36 for Pi 1.5.0: rigorous agent workflows (`/poteto-mod
    pi install ./extensions/pi-pstack
    ```
 
-   Pi does not install dependencies for a local package, so `bun install` (or `npm install` in `extensions/pi-pstack`) fetches `@anthropic-ai/sandbox-runtime` for the read-only shell (readonly subagents and `/plan`) and `yaml` for plan metadata. If sandbox-runtime is missing, a read-only shell command fails instead of running unsandboxed. On Linux the sandbox also needs `bubblewrap`, `socat`, and `ripgrep` (`sudo apt install bubblewrap socat ripgrep`), and Ubuntu 24.04 and later need the user-namespace change under Limits. macOS uses the built-in `sandbox-exec`. pi-pstack needs Node 22.19 or newer. To try it for one session without installing, run `pi -e ./extensions/pi-pstack`. To install the published package instead, run `pi install npm:@justjoshn/pi-pstack`.
+   Pi does not install dependencies for a local package, so `bun install` (or `npm install` in `extensions/pi-pstack`) fetches `yaml` for plan metadata and, for the macOS read-only shell (readonly subagents and `/plan`), `@anthropic-ai/sandbox-runtime`. On Linux the read-only shell runs `bubblewrap` from the system instead (`sudo apt install bubblewrap`), with no user-namespace change on Ubuntu 24.04 and later. Where no sandbox can start, a read-only shell command fails instead of running unsandboxed. macOS uses the built-in `sandbox-exec`. pi-pstack needs Node 22.19 or newer. To try it for one session without installing, run `pi -e ./extensions/pi-pstack`. To install the published package instead, run `pi install npm:@justjoshn/pi-pstack`.
    Installing loads pi-pstack's tools and system-prompt sections at once, but no skill runs until you invoke it. 61 workflow skills stay out of the model's automatic skill list. Setup, create-skill, and the team-kit shipping and review skills (`deslop`, `control-cli`, `control-ui`, CI and PR helpers, and the rest of that set) can load from your words alone.
 2. Run `/setup-pstack`. It lists the models the `Task` tool can use, asks for a reasoning budget, maps a model to each role, and writes the model rule. A new rule applies from the next request.
 3. Start real work with `/poteto-mode`, a goal, and a check that can pass or fail.
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ Remove the package with `pi remove ./extensions/pi-pstack`. Its state lives in `
 | `/poteto-mode <task>` | The skill attaches to that one message. Every skill Pi loaded works this way: pstack's (`/how`, `/why`, `/arena`, `/interrogate`, `/principle-prove-it-works`, `/deslop`) and your own, such as a `/<handle>-mode` skill from `/automate-me`. `/skill:<name>` works too. |
 | `/mode poteto-mode [task]` | Keeps the skill in context on every turn until you leave the mode: the skill rides every request in its own system-prompt section, which Pi re-sends only when it changes. The first request after entry says the user entered the mode, later requests carry a reminder that names the skill file, and the request after `/mode off` or a switch to another mode says the user left it. The footer shows a badge with the skill's `icon` and `color` metadata, such as a yellow `♛ mode: poteto-mode` (other skills get `⚡`). `/mode off` exits and `/mode` reports. Any loaded skill can back a mode. |
 | `/plan [task]` | Plan mode: the agent researches with read-only tools (`read`, `grep`, `find`, `ls`, the sandboxed `bash_readonly`, `AskQuestion`, `TodoWrite`, `agent_status`, `Task`, whose launches run readonly: a fresh one runs here with no worktree, and a resume or fork stays where its agent ran, and `stop_agent`), asks its clarifying questions early, and presents the plan with `CreatePlan` (`plan`, `name`, `overview`, `todos`, `is_project`, `phases`). `CreatePlan` writes the plan file under `<pstack dir>/plans/` (`<name>-<8 hex>.plan.md`: the chat id in a comment, the todos as front matter, then the plan), one file per plan name in a chat. Todo dependencies and project phases stay in the file. Building imports the file's unfinished root todos into the session, including edits made during review. Worktree builders import their own lists before the first model request and retain the associated plan on resume. Later writable `TodoWrite` status updates synchronize those root todos without rewriting other metadata or the plan body. An omitted status imports as pending and is inserted when the todo is updated. A readonly resume keeps its todo changes inside the session. `edit` and `write` work on markdown files only, so the agent refines the plan in its file. After a run that saved a plan, an interactive session asks `Yes, build locally`, `Yes, build in cloud` (in a git repository: a background isolated worker builds it on its own branch), or `No, propose changes`. `/plan build` builds the saved plan too, and `/plan off` restores your tools. A bare `/plan` enters plan mode. The footer shows `plan`. |
-| `/loop 30m <prompt>` | Runs the prompt now, then again every 30 minutes from each fire, so a long run does not push the next tick out. A tick that comes due while a run is still going fires once when that run settles; several missed ticks still fire once. The interval can come first or last, written as `30m`, `10 minutes`, or `every 10 minutes`. Without an interval the agent picks each wake with the `Loop` tool, and the loop ends when it picks none and no background subagent is still running. Different prompts create independent loops. The same prompt replaces its schedule. `/loop` lists them. `/loop stop` ends the only loop, or `/loop stop <id>` selects one when several are running. Escape during a run ends the session's loops. `Loop` results include the loop ID in text and details; pass `loop_id` to wake, stop, or replace one of several loops. The prompt can be a skill command, such as `/loop 1h /poteto-mode run the audit tick`. When a playbook says to arm `/loop`, the agent starts it with the `Loop` tool. Intervals go up to 24 days. |
+| `/loop 30m <prompt>` | Runs the prompt now, then again every 30 minutes from each fire, so a long run does not push the next tick out. A tick that comes due while a run is still going fires once when that run settles; several missed ticks still fire once. The interval can come first or last, written as `30m`, `10 minutes`, or `every 10 minutes`. Without an interval the agent picks each wake with the `Loop` tool, and the loop ends when it picks none and no background subagent or background shell is still running. A run that waits on an event (CI finishing, a ref moving, a log line) starts a watcher with `bash_background`, whose notification wakes the agent, and keeps a long wake as the fallback. Different prompts create independent loops. The same prompt replaces its schedule. `/loop` lists them. `/loop stop` ends the only loop, or `/loop stop <id>` selects one when several are running. Escape during a run ends the session's loops. `Loop` results include the loop ID in text and details; pass `loop_id` to wake, stop, or replace one of several loops. The prompt can be a skill command, such as `/loop 1h /poteto-mode run the audit tick`. When a playbook says to arm `/loop`, the agent runs the prompt once in that turn and starts the loop with the `Loop` tool, whose first scheduled run comes after the interval or wake. Intervals go up to 24 days. |
 | `/routines` | Lists webhook routines with their URL, credential file, and status. |
 | `/setup-pstack` | Configures the per-role models. |
 | `/poteto-help <question>` | Answers a question about pstack and hands you a prompt to send. |
@@ -48,9 +48,9 @@ Remove the package with `pi remove ./extensions/pi-pstack`. Its state lives in `
 | Subagent types | The built-in `generalPurpose` (default) and `explore` (a file-search specialist the caller tells how thorough to be, with `grep`, `find`, and `ls` on and no `Task`), then `poteto-agent` (a background delegate that reads poteto-mode first), `ci-watcher` (a background PR check watcher), `comment-sicko`, and `thermo-nuclear-code-quality-review`, the last four read from `agents/*.md`. Unknown types fail with the list. |
 | Models | A Pi model spec such as `claude-opus-5-5:xhigh` or `xai/grok-4.7:high`, model parameters such as `claude-opus-5-5[effort=high]` or `grok-4.7[fast=true]` (picks a listed `-fast` id of that model), `fast` for the parent model's listed `-fast` variant when it has one, else the parent model, or `inherit`, `inherit-parent`, `auto`, or nothing for the parent model. A model Pi does not list, or a thinking level the model does not support, fails with the allowed list. A bare model id that several providers offer resolves to the parent chat's provider when it offers that id, and otherwise fails with the choices. Older rules that wrote `claude-opus-5-5-xhigh` still resolve. The system prompt's `pstack_subagents` section lists the types, the parent model, and the models with their levels. |
 | Isolated workers (`environment: "cloud"`) | The subagent runs in a new git worktree at `<pstack dir>/workspaces/<workspace folder>/worktrees/<agent id>` on branch `pstack/<agent id>`, from `cloud_base_branch` (`origin/<branch>` when that remote-tracking ref exists, else a local branch or other ref) or your HEAD commit, so uncommitted changes do not reach it. The result and the card name the branch to merge, and `resume` and `fork` run in the same worktree. It fails clearly outside a git repository, in a repository with no commits, or when the base does not resolve. The worker shares the root chat's workspace state, so it sees the same projects, stores, and subagent transcripts. It also shares this machine's ports, processes, writable caches, simulators, and credentials. Assign separate ports, output directories, and writable caches to concurrent runtime lanes. `swarm` and `orchestrate` spawn worktree workers by default. |
-| `readonly: true` | The child gets `read`, `grep`, `find`, `ls`, `TodoWrite`, and a read-only `bash`, and no MCP. That shell runs each command in an OS sandbox ([`@anthropic-ai/sandbox-runtime`](https://github.com/anthropics/sandbox-runtime): `sandbox-exec` on macOS, bubblewrap on Linux) that blocks every file write and all network access, so `git log` works and `touch` or `curl` fail. Where no sandbox can start, the command fails rather than running unsandboxed. Readonly is not credential isolation. The child still inherits environment variables and can read credential files through its read tools. |
+| `readonly: true` | The child gets `read`, `grep`, `find`, `ls`, `TodoWrite`, and a read-only `bash`, and no MCP or background shell. That shell runs each command in an OS sandbox that blocks every file write, all network access, and Unix sockets, so `git log` works and `touch` or `curl` fail. On Linux it is `bubblewrap` with every namespace unshared, the filesystem bound read-only, and a seccomp filter that refuses `socket(AF_UNIX)` and `io_uring_setup`; on macOS it is [`@anthropic-ai/sandbox-runtime`](https://github.com/anthropics/sandbox-runtime)'s `sandbox-exec` policy. Where no sandbox can start, the command fails rather than running unsandboxed. Readonly is not credential isolation. The child still inherits environment variables and can read credential files through its read tools. |
 | `TodoWrite` | `todos` with `id`, `content`, `status`, and `merge`. Its description says when to keep a list, the four states, and one task in progress at a time. The list follows the session branch, shows above the editor, and rides every request's system prompt. Plan-imported lists persist as branch entries. Their dependencies survive status-only updates, and matching plan-file statuses are synchronized. |
-| `AskQuestion` | `title`, and per question `id`, `prompt`, `options` (at least two, each `id`, `label`, optional `description`), and `allow_multiple`, through Pi's select dialog. It is for decisions only the user can make, and a recommended option goes first with `(Recommended)`. Every question ends with `Other: (type to answer)`; a typed answer comes back as `other` with its text. In print and JSON runs, including subagents, each question comes back skipped. |
+| `AskQuestion` | `title`, and per question `id`, `prompt`, `options` (at least two, each `id`, `label`, optional `description`), and `allow_multiple`, through Pi's select dialog. It is for decisions only the user can make, and a recommended option goes first with `(Recommended)`. Every question ends with `Other: (type to answer)`; a typed answer comes back as `other` with its text. In print and JSON runs each question comes back skipped. Subagents have no `AskQuestion`. |
 | Always-applied rules | The two team-kit rules are in `pstack_host` as their shipped text on every request, alongside the same rules as hidden skills. |
 | The model rule | `<pstack dir>/pstack-models.md`, plain Markdown with one line per role, added to every request's system prompt. A `pstack-models.mdc` from an earlier version is moved there once, without its frontmatter, and kept as `pstack-models.mdc.migrated`. |
 | Subscriptions | `subscribe_github_pr` (`scope` `pr` with `prUrl`, `repo` with `repo`, or `author` with `author` and `repo`) polls with `gh` every 60 seconds and wakes the chat when a PR's state, head, mergeability, review decision, reviews, or comments change, or when a check concludes or its conclusion changes; the first poll is a baseline. `subscribe_timer` takes a `name`, a `prompt`, and a 5-field `cron` or `delaySeconds`, either with `once`; `sessionStrategy` `wake_self` queues a wake for this owning session. With `new_session`, a live owner starts a background Task and receives its notification. An offline owner permits a detached run with a recorded outcome. Both reuse the model, thinking level, and project-trust decision the timer was created with. Re-subscribing an existing timer name returns `created: false`. `list_subscriptions` and `unsubscribe` manage them. The authoritative registry is `<pstack dir>/durable/<workspace>/subscriptions.json`. Any session in that workspace can list or cancel subscriptions. Session history does not recreate cancelled or completed subscriptions. Owner-directed events wait for the creating session rather than waking another workspace session. A detached run records its own final message, shown by `list_subscriptions`. A timer does not expire unless `expiresInHours` says so (at most 30 days); `0` means no expiry. A GitHub watch keeps a 7-day default because it is this port's own surface. |
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ Remove the package with `pi remove ./extensions/pi-pstack`. Its state lives in `
 | `visualize` | `title`, `kind` (`bar` or `line`), `labels`, `series` (`name`, `values`), and `unit` render a Unicode chart in the result and write a standalone SVG to the session's artifacts folder. |
 | Transcripts | The system prompt names this workspace's Pi session directory, the current session file, and this workspace's subagent transcripts. |
 | `GenerateImage` | Generates an image (`description` of at least six words, `filename`, `reference_image_paths`, `aspect_ratio`) on Pi's image models through `ctx.modelRegistry.generateImages()`. It is offered when an image model is available (for example an OpenRouter image model), not to readonly subagents or in plan mode, and saves each image to the session's artifacts folder. Without an image model, the host section tells skills to draw a Mermaid diagram instead. |
+| Background shells | `bash_background` (`command`, `description`, `block_until_ms`, `notify_on_output` with `pattern`, `reason`, and `debounce_ms`, `working_directory`) runs a command in the background, or waits up to `block_until_ms` for it and then moves it there. Output goes to `<pstack dir>/workspaces/<workspace folder>/terminals/<shell id>.txt`, which starts with a header (pid, cwd, command, title, status, started_at, and running_for_ms, refreshed every 5 seconds) and ends with an exit footer. After the turn, a `<system_notification>` with a `kind: shell` task block arrives when the command finishes (`status: success`, `error` with `exit_code=N`, or `aborted`) and when a line matches `notify_on_output` (the first match at once, later ones counted and sent after each `debounce_ms` window, at least 5 seconds). `AwaitShell` (`shell_id`, `block_until_ms`, `pattern`) polls or waits on a job, or sleeps without one; seeing a job end there skips its notification. Print and JSON runs wait for their jobs before they exit. Ending the session stops running jobs. Readonly subagents and plan mode do not get these tools. |
 | `SwitchMode` | `target_mode_id` (`plan` or `agent`) and `explanation`. The agent proposes entering or leaving plan mode, and the switch happens only after you confirm it. Offered in interactive and RPC sessions. |
 
 Subagent transcripts are Pi sessions in `<pstack dir>/workspaces/<workspace folder>/subagents/`, with the agent ID in each file name, next to a small record that `resume`, `fork`, and `agent_status` read. Records belong to the main chat's shared workspace state, so the root chat can act on a descendant that ran in a worktree. Children inherit your installed extensions and MCP servers, and local ones run in your working directory. Give each local subagent that writes its own git worktree, or launch it with `environment: "cloud"`, because a child process does not isolate the filesystem. A child exits on its own if its parent Pi process dies.
@@ -78,7 +79,8 @@ Subagent transcripts are Pi sessions in `<pstack dir>/workspaces/<workspace fold
 - Depth limits apply to `Task`. A writable subagent can still start `pi` through `bash`, and that process is outside the depth limit and parent watchdog.
 - A child loads your installed extensions plus this package. If you run one checkout with `-e` while a different checkout of pi-pstack is installed, the child loads both and fails on duplicate tools; use one copy, or a separate `PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR`, as `live:e2e` does.
 - Subagents run headless in RPC mode, so an extension that asks for permission through a dialog cannot ask there.
-- The read-only shell sandboxes shell subprocesses only. Earlier macOS and Ubuntu CI runs do not verify the stricter Unix-socket policy. On Linux it needs `bubblewrap`, `socat`, and `ripgrep`. Ubuntu 24.04 and later restrict unprivileged user namespaces: either add an AppArmor profile that grants `userns` to `bwrap`, or run `sudo sysctl -w kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns=0`, which lifts the restriction for every program on the machine. Unix sockets stay blocked because a host socket service can mutate files or access the network on a command's behalf. Linux also needs sandbox-runtime's bundled `apply-seccomp` helper and permission to create its nested user, PID, and mount namespaces. A missing helper or a namespace refusal blocks the shell command. The shell never falls back to permitting host sockets. Do not treat a readonly child as a credential boundary. Environment variables and readable credential files are still available to its read tools.
+- The read-only shell sandboxes shell subprocesses only. On Linux it needs `bubblewrap` that can create its user namespace (Ubuntu's default `bwrap` AppArmor profile allows that) on x86-64 or arm64; bubblewrap loads the seccomp filter itself, so no nested namespace is needed. A missing `bwrap`, another architecture, or a namespace refusal blocks the shell command. Unix sockets stay blocked because a host socket service can mutate files or access the network on a command's behalf, and the shell never falls back to permitting them. Do not treat a readonly child as a credential boundary. Environment variables and readable credential files are still available to its read tools.
+- A subagent's background shells stop when the subagent finishes, and its launch result says so, because a subagent is its own process. A print or JSON run waits for its background shells, with no timeout of its own, so a job that never ends keeps the run open.
 - Whether a model follows a playbook is the model's call.
 - Workspace folders follow Pi's session-folder naming, so two paths that differ only by `/` versus `-` share a folder. Resume and fork refuse an agent whose record names the other directory, except that a record created inside this workspace's own worktrees belongs to this workspace. Subscription reads and mutations also reject a registry owned by the other workspace.
 - The run lock that keeps one writer per agent ID names the process writing the transcript. A lock file without a readable pid counts as held; the error names the file to delete. `agent_status` shows such an agent as `idle`. A token-directory lease beside the PID file serializes stale-lock recovery. A dead process or an unreaped Linux zombie does not count as a live writer. Older installed versions without the lease do not participate in this protection.

package/docs/guide/01-setup.md

@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ bun install
 pi install ./extensions/pi-pstack
 ```
 
-`pi install <path-to-pi-pstack>` loads the package in place, so keep the checkout where it is. To install the published package instead, run `pi install npm:@justjoshn/pi-pstack`. On Linux, the read-only shell also needs `bubblewrap`, `socat`, and `ripgrep`, as the package README explains. Start Pi, and the pstack commands appear in the `/` menu.
+`pi install <path-to-pi-pstack>` loads the package in place, so keep the checkout where it is. To install the published package instead, run `pi install npm:@justjoshn/pi-pstack`. On Linux, the read-only shell also needs `bubblewrap`, as the package README explains. Start Pi, and the pstack commands appear in the `/` menu.
 
 ## Pick your models
 

package/docs/parity-status.md

@@ -45,6 +45,20 @@ A live Cursor CLI session with both plugins loaded produced these contracts.
 
 Pi returns the child's final text with a transcript path and usage, and reports background completion as a `pstack/task` notification. The payload shape differs because the hosts are different; the observable workflow, a subagent result arriving after the parent turn, is preserved.
 
+## Repairs in 0.15.36-pi.14
+
+An independent audit on 2026-11-04 compared every reference file and probed Cursor CLI 2026.10.22 live. The repository's `parity/pstack-native-parity-2026-11-04/` holds the notes, decision log, inventory, and the scripts; `.audit/pstack-native-parity-2026-11-04/cursor/` holds the raw Cursor captures.
+
+- **Background shells.** Cursor's `Shell` runs a command in the background (`block_until_ms: 0`, or after the wait runs out), writes `terminals/<id>.txt` with a status header and an exit footer, notifies after the turn when the command ends (`kind: shell`) and on each `notify_on_output` match (the first at once, later ones counted per debounce window), and `AwaitShell` polls, waits for a pattern, or sleeps. pstack leans on it: babysit's "watcher output drives wakeups", worktree-cleanup's "background it", pr-review-canvas's "run this backgrounded", and the event-gated branch of Cursor's `/loop`. pi-pstack had no background shell. `bash_background` and `AwaitShell` now reproduce the captured texts, header layout (173 bytes for the probed job), and notification shapes. Two choices differ from one observation each. A job whose end `AwaitShell` saw sends no completion notice, as Cursor's AwaitShell description promises, though one Cursor run sent a duplicate. A subagent's jobs stop when the subagent ends, because a Pi subagent is its own process; Cursor ran the job on and reported it `aborted` to the parent.
+- **Linux read-only shell.** sandbox-runtime's seccomp helper needs a nested user namespace, which Ubuntu 24.04 and later refuse by default (`kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns=1`), so every readonly subagent on such a host had no shell. Cursor documents readonly as "no file edits, no state-changing shell commands", so read-only commands must work. Linux now runs `bwrap` directly with every namespace unshared, `/` bound read-only, and a generated seccomp filter (`bwrap --seccomp`) that refuses `socket(AF_UNIX)` and `io_uring_setup`. Writes, TCP, and Unix sockets stay refused; `git log` works. macOS keeps sandbox-runtime.
+- **`/loop` arming.** Cursor's loop skill runs the prompt once when the loop is armed. The host section and the `Loop` tool now say to do that in the arming turn; the first scheduled run still comes after the interval or wake.
+- **Subagents have no `AskQuestion`.** Cursor's generalPurpose subagent listed no such tool (`subagent-tools.jsonl`), and one asked to call it replied that it does not exist (`subagent-askquestion.jsonl`).
+- **Today's date.** Cursor's user info states "Today's date" in every chat (`context-paths.jsonl`). Pi's system prompt has no date, so `pstack_host` now states it in the same form.
+- **Long commands.** Cursor's `Shell` moves a command to the background after its 30-second foreground window. Pi's `bash` waits until the command ends, so the host section sends watchers, polling scripts, and servers to `bash_background`.
+- **Text.** The architect runner prompt is upstream's again, and arena drops a port-assignment sentence and a `cloud` instruction that no host difference required. Arena keeps upstream's `composer-*`/`cursor-grok-*` family rule.
+
+Observed, not changed: Cursor CLI 2026.10.22 does not load plugin rules (team-kit's two always-applied rules) or name an agent store or Projects in its context (`context-paths.jsonl`); pi-pstack keeps both, because pstack's text relies on them.
+
 ## Reconstruction repairs in 0.15.36-pi.13
 
 The repository's `parity/pstack-reconstruction-2026-11-04/` holds the reference inventory, baseline and treatment receipts, and decision log. These repairs do not establish that every workflow has been observed on both hosts.
@@ -119,7 +133,8 @@ These are not closed by extension code.
 - **Background workers stop when the chat exits.** A Pi subagent is a child process of the chat, so quitting or shutting the session stops the agents it started and reports how many. Whether a Cursor background subagent outlives its parent is unobserved; the CLI changelog says cancelling the prompt stops its subagents, and only the cloud-agent product promises work after the laptop closes. A `new_session` subscription fire is Pi's one detached path, and it starts a fresh run rather than continuing a subagent.
 - **A mode's skill rides the system prompt.** Cursor attaches the skill to the user message that enters the mode and keeps it durable in the conversation; its notices travel in user-message fields. Pi carries the skill and the notices in system-prompt sections, which reach the model on every request and survive compaction, so the model sees the same text in a different place.
 - **A fork needs an idle source.** Cursor exposes `fork` only on its internal and cloud-agent protos, never on the CLI Task schema, and no doc states whether a fork may start while the source runs. A Pi fork runs in the source's directory or worktree, so a running source is refused; the orchestrate playbook says to wait for its completion notification.
-- **Linux readonly shells require nested namespace support.** The stricter policy must block host Unix sockets as well as IP traffic and filesystem writes. On a host that refuses sandbox-runtime's seccomp helper, the command does not run. Earlier checks that permitted all Unix sockets are not evidence for this policy. Readonly also does not isolate environment credentials or files readable through the ordinary read tools.
+- **A subagent's background shells end with it.** Cursor runs a subagent inside the parent process, so a background shell it starts outlives the subagent's Task result and its notification reaches the parent (`subagent-bg-shell.jsonl`, status `aborted`). A Pi subagent is its own process, so its jobs stop when it finishes, and its launch result says so.
+- **Linux readonly shells need bubblewrap.** The policy blocks host Unix sockets as well as IP traffic and filesystem writes. bubblewrap must be able to create its user namespace (Ubuntu's `bwrap` AppArmor profile allows it); where it cannot, or on an architecture other than x86-64 or arm64, the command does not run. Readonly also does not isolate environment credentials or files readable through the ordinary read tools.
 - **Plan mode's restriction is stricter than the host's.** Cursor's plan mode keeps every tool and restricts by instruction: edit only markdown files, run only read-only commands. Pi enforces the same rules with a tool allowlist, markdown-only `edit` and `write`, and a sandboxed shell that also denies network, so `gh`, `curl`, and package queries can fail while planning. Allowing network in a read-only shell would also open a path for remote changes, so the sandbox keeps it closed.
 - **The plan review is a dialog, not a card.** Cursor renders the plan with a build menu. Pi shows the same three choices in a select dialog after the run that saved the plan, and "build in cloud" starts a background isolated worktree worker, Pi's counterpart to a cloud agent, rather than a remote VM.
 - **benny's default cadence still needs its owning session open.** `wake_self` timers and webhook routines park while the owner is offline. A timer or webhook routine created with `sessionStrategy: "new_session"` runs detached with no chat open, but a detached run is one-shot: it must do the work in that run, because a background `Task` ends with it. Cursor automations run in the cloud and can hand work to anything. So benny keeps `wake_self` by default and setup names the tradeoff before switching.

package/package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "@justjoshn/pi-pstack",
-  "version": "0.15.36-pi.13",
+  "version": "0.15.36-pi.15",
   "description": "pstack 0.15.36 for Pi with its soft-dependency team-kit skills vendored in: rigorous agent workflows and principles as Pi skills, with the host features they use: subagents, todos, modes, plan mode, the model rule, /loop, subscriptions and routines, AskQuestion, SwitchMode, image generation, and visualize",
   "type": "module",
   "license": "MIT",
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@
   },
   "dependencies": {
     "@anthropic-ai/sandbox-runtime": "0.0.79",
+    "re2js": "1.2.2",
     "yaml": "2.9.0"
   },
   "peerDependencies": {

package/skills/architect/references/runner-prompt.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Architect runner prompt
 
-The orchestrator passes this file through to every parallel candidate runner during Phase B and fills in the variable inputs around it: the task, the Phase A grounding artifacts, the isolated working directory, and the path to write outputs. The working directory is a git worktree when available, otherwise a per-runner subdirectory under the sketch dir. What matters is independence between candidates. Worktrees and scratch directories share the host machine. Use the distinct ports, output directories, and writable cache paths assigned in the brief for concurrent runtime candidates. Report a missing assignment before starting a conflicting process. If the design requires stronger machine isolation, report it as unavailable.
+The orchestrator passes this file through to every parallel candidate runner during Phase B and fills in the variable inputs around it: the task, the Phase A grounding artifacts, the isolated working directory, and the path to write outputs. The working directory is a git worktree when available, otherwise a per-runner subdirectory under the sketch dir. What matters is independence between candidates.
 
 You are producing one candidate design in architect's parallel exploration. Read the **architect** skill in full first. That's the workflow you're inside. Output a candidate design package: type sketch, function signatures, module map, and prose rationale shaped per [`rationale-template.md`](rationale-template.md).
 

package/skills/arena/SKILL.md

@@ -14,12 +14,12 @@ Every candidate gets the same prompt, so the prompt is the contract.
 
 1. State the artifact each candidate is producing.
 2. Derive the rubric, 3-6 concrete gradeable criteria for what success looks like on *this* task. It is the picker's tool in Phase D. Candidates only see the task.
-3. Pick the runners. Use the `arena runners` line in the model rule at the path the system prompt names. If the rule or that line is missing, default to one each on `claude-opus-5-5:xhigh` and `grok-4.7[effort=xhigh,fast=true]`. An `auto` or `inherit-parent` entry in this line means the parent model, so omit `model` for it. If the Task tool rejects a configured entry, run that seat on its family's default and say so. Families go by the model id after the provider: `claude-*` and `grok-*`. If the family has no default, or the Task tool rejects that default, use the closest valid slug of the same family from its error message, or drop the seat and say so when there is none. If dropped seats leave fewer than two runners, add runners until there are two, or one when the line has one entry. Run each added runner on a remaining runner's model, or omit `model` so it runs on the parent model when none remain, and say so. Spawn more runners when the arena covers multiple design directions. Use the same model N times when the work is generation-bound rather than judgment-sensitive. Pick each subagent's reasoning level (the `:<level>` suffix), and fast or standard speed when the model has a `-fast` variant, for the job, per the Subagents section of the **poteto-mode** skill.
-4. Give each candidate its own output location (a git worktree where possible, otherwise `/tmp/arena-<slug>/candidate-<n>/`), per the **separate-before-serializing-shared-state** principle skill. Worktrees share this machine. Assign distinct ports, output directories, and writable cache paths for concurrent runtime candidates. If stronger machine isolation is required, report it as unavailable.
+3. Pick the runners. Use the `arena runners` line in the model rule at the path the system prompt names. If the rule or that line is missing, default to one each on `claude-opus-5-5:xhigh` and `grok-4.7[effort=xhigh,fast=true]`. An `auto` or `inherit-parent` entry in this line means the parent model, so omit `model` for it. If the Task tool rejects a configured entry, run that seat on its family's default and say so. Families go by the model id after the provider, by prefix: `claude-*`, and `grok-*` with `cursor-grok-*` and `composer-*`. A refused `composer-*` entry runs on `grok-4.7[effort=xhigh,fast=true]`. If the family has no default, or the Task tool rejects that default, use the closest valid slug of the same family from its error message, or drop the seat and say so when there is none. If dropped seats leave fewer than two runners, add runners until there are two, or one when the line has one entry. Run each added runner on a remaining runner's model, or omit `model` so it runs on the parent model when none remain, and say so. Spawn more runners when the arena covers multiple design directions. Use the same model N times when the work is generation-bound rather than judgment-sensitive. Pick each subagent's reasoning level (the `:<level>` suffix), and fast or standard speed when the model has a `-fast` variant, for the job, per the Subagents section of the **poteto-mode** skill.
+4. Give each candidate its own output location (a git worktree where possible, otherwise `/tmp/arena-<slug>/candidate-<n>/`), per the **separate-before-serializing-shared-state** principle skill.
 
 ## Phase B: Fan out
 
-Spawn all N subagents in one message with `run_in_background: true`, each with the task, the path to the shared grounding, its own output path, and instructions to produce the artifact and a short rationale naming the alternatives it considered and what it rejected. When the project is a git repository, pass `environment: "cloud"` so each candidate runs in its own worktree; otherwise keep each candidate's writes under its own output path.
+Spawn all N subagents in one message with `run_in_background: true`, each with the task, the path to the shared grounding, its own output path, and instructions to produce the artifact and a short rationale naming the alternatives it considered and what it rejected.
 
 If a candidate produces no output, proceed with N-1 and note the dropout.
 

package/src/ask.ts

@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import type { ExtensionAPI, ExtensionContext } from '@earendil-works/pi-coding-agent';
 import { type Static, Type } from 'typebox';
+import { childIdentity } from './child-env.ts';
 import { canAsk } from './modes.ts';
 
 export const DONE_LABEL = '✓ Done selecting';
@@ -122,6 +123,8 @@ export function registerAskQuestion(pi: ExtensionAPI): void {
     parameters: AskParams,
     exposure: 'model-only',
     executionMode: 'sequential',
+    // Cursor's subagents have no AskQuestion: their owner, not a person, reads what they produce.
+    defaultActive: childIdentity.depth === 0,
     annotations: { readOnlyHint: true, openWorldHint: false },
     async execute(_toolCallId, params, _signal, _onUpdate, ctx) {
       validateQuestions(params.questions);