Grinder

Grinder — autonomous looped repo work

Self-driving repo workflow. Plan a work unit, council the plan, revise, implement, test, council the staged diff, commit. Repeat. Wake-up between iterations is driven by background-task completion notifications. State survives auto-compact via Claude Code's task tool.

The grinder is opinionated by design — it locks in defaults so the runner doesn't make new judgment calls every loop. The interesting decisions happen at planning and severity gating; everything else is mechanics.

Companion skill: cordy — how to drive cordy councils. The grinder uses cordy idioms; don't re-explain them here.

Inputs the user must provide

1. The work — described however you want. A file (PHASES.md, ROADMAP.md, BACKLOG.md), an inline list in the trigger message, a "what's next" recommendation from a prior turn, a paragraph of prose, a single goal that decomposes naturally. The grinder reads what's given and serializes it into work units.
2. The repo — runs in CWD; works on whatever branch is current. Don't switch branches.
3. Done criteria — what "complete" looks like. Without this the loop has no terminal condition that isn't "stuck".

Use what's already there. If the prior turn (or a referenced file) already articulates the work units — a 3-bucket recommendation, phases A through F, a numbered punch-list — serialize those units as-is. Don't re-decompose. The user did the planning; your job is to execute.

If the work is genuinely vague ("clean up the codebase"), ask once for specificity, then proceed.

Initial setup — TaskCreate the world

Before the first wake ping fires, do this in order:

1. Cordy preflight

cordy daemon start 2>&1 || true       # idempotent
cordy --ephemeral drivers --json

Count drivers with probe.available: true. Fewer than 2 → halt with STATUS.md. Note which drivers are up; that's the default panel.

2. Capture baseline

git rev-parse HEAD                    # baselineSha
<discovered test command>             # baseline test counts

See "Tests pass = ?" below for runner discovery. Capture {passed, failed, skipped} and the failure set as knownFailures (those are pre-existing, not regressions).

3. TaskCreate the work-unit hierarchy

One parent task per work unit. Name it with the unit identifier as the user described it — "Phase B: resource pools become ruleset-driven", "Bucket 1: build cyberpunk ruleset", etc. Use the user's vocabulary (phase, bucket, item, milestone), not the skill's.

Sub-tasks per work unit, in execution order:

• draft plan
• plan council
• revise plan (only if council surfaces findings)
• implement
• test
• diff council
• revise impl (only if council surfaces findings)
• commit

Mark all as pending. Only the first sub-task of the first work unit will go in_progress immediately.

Example shape (matching what the user actually sees in the task panel):

◻ Phase B: resource pools become ruleset-driven
  ◻ B: draft plan
  ◻ B: plan council
  ◻ B: implement
  ◻ B: test
  ◻ B: diff council
  ◻ B: commit
◻ Phase C: combat formulas become hookable
  ◻ C: draft plan
  ...

4. Auxiliary state files (create lazily)

Some state can't fit in tasks — baseline info, accumulated changelog entries, deferred findings, halt reports. These live under <repo>/.cordyceps/grinder/:

<repo>/.cordyceps/grinder/
  baseline.json           — {baselineSha, baselineTests, panel,
                             droppedDrivers, consecutiveFailures}
  changelog-pending.md    — accumulated entries for end-of-run release
  DEFERRED.md             — deferred low-severity findings
  STATUS.md               — written on halt only

Don't create files preemptively — write them as the run produces content. STATUS.md should be absent during a normal run.

5. Gitignore housekeeping

If <repo>/.gitignore exists and doesn't contain .cordyceps/, append it. Don't create a .gitignore if absent (project may have intentionally omitted it).

6. Mark first sub-task in_progress, begin

Now you're in the loop.

Wake-up recovery — every wake reads tasks first

TaskList()

Decision tree:

Crash recovery: working tree dirty AND in_progress sub-task doesn't match the diff. Run git diff <baselineSha>; if the diff matches what the recorded sub-task would produce, attempt to resume. If ambiguous, write STATUS.md "ambiguous recovery — needs human" and halt.

The per-work-unit loop

┌─ for each work unit (parent task) ──────────────────────────┐
│                                                             │
│  1. baseline               → SHA + test counts (per-unit)   │
│  2. draft plan             → plan content; mark sub done    │
│  3. plan council           → cordy council, background       │
│  4. revise plan (≤2)       → integrate findings              │
│  5. implement              → edit files; no scope creep      │
│  6. test                   → vs baseline; new failures→revert│
│  7. diff council           → cordy diff --staged, background │
│  8. revise impl (≤2)       → fix critical/sec/medium/quick   │
│  9. commit                 → conventional msg; no attribution│
│ 10. wake ping              → background sleep+echo           │
│ 11. mark unit complete     → next work unit's tasks begin    │
│                                                             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

TaskUpdate to in_progress when starting each sub-task; completed when finishing. Status changes are the breadcrumbs that let wake-up recover.

Step 1 — capture per-unit baseline

Each work unit gets a fresh baseline (the previous unit's commit becomes the new baseline). Update baseline.json:

git rev-parse HEAD                    # new baselineSha
<test command>                        # may differ from initial baseline

This gates regression detection. New failures vs. this unit's baseline = regression caused by this unit.

Step 2 — draft plan

Mark draft plan sub-task in_progress.

For substantive work units, the plan structure that produces good council critique:

• Goal — what this unit ships (one paragraph)
• Files in scope — specific paths the impl is allowed to touch
• Approach — high-level strategy
• Test plan — which tests will exercise the new code
• Acceptance — what makes the unit done

For trivial units (one-line fixes, doc-only changes), skip the template; a paragraph in the task description is enough.

Write to a tempfile when councilling:

cat > /tmp/grinder-${UNIT_ID}-plan.md <<'PLAN'
...
PLAN

Mark draft plan completed; mark plan council in_progress.

Step 3 — plan council

Council the plan via cordy. Use the cordy skill's host-as-chair pattern:

cordy council review /tmp/grinder-${UNIT_ID}-plan.md \
  --panel codex,gemini,claude:opus \
  --no-chair --timeout 600 --json \
  > /tmp/grinder-${UNIT_ID}-plan-council.json 2>&1

Run with the Bash tool's run_in_background: true. The wake notification fires when the council finishes — don't poll, don't Monitor-stream (cordy buffers per-reviewer output until all reviewers finish; there are no intermediate frames).

While the council runs in background, you can do useful prep (read related files, draft scaffolding for the impl). When the notification lands, read reviews[]. You're the chair (host-as-chair).

Mark plan council completed.

Step 4 — revise plan (only if needed)

Council findings are advisory. Rules:

If no findings worth addressing → skip revising; mark revise plan as completed (with a brief note) and proceed.

If findings warrant changes:

• Mark revise plan in_progress
• Integrate the changes
• Optionally re-run the council if changes were substantive
• Cap at 2 council rounds total per gate. After round 2, decide and proceed.
• Mark revise plan completed.

If round 2 surfaces fundamental disagreement (a reviewer flags the unit as wrong-direction with substantive reasoning you can't refute) → write STATUS.md and halt. Don't bulldoze structural objections.

Step 5 — implement

Mark implement in_progress.

Edit only files named in the plan's "Files in scope" + their direct imports. "While I'm here" cleanup is forbidden — backlog it to DEFERRED.md.

If implementation reveals a need for files outside scope:

• Transitively required (a type used by an in-scope file) → allow.
• Separate concern → STOP. Update the plan with the scope change, decide whether to extend this unit (rare) or split it (default — add a new work unit, advance the current one to "blocked", continue).

Mark implement completed.

Step 6 — test

Mark test in_progress. Run the test command. Compare to baseline:

For long test suites (5+ minutes): run with run_in_background: true, do other prep, wake when tests finish.

Mark test completed.

Step 7 — diff council

Mark diff council in_progress. Stage exactly what's intended for this commit:

git add <files-from-plan>
git status                    # confirm staged matches intent
git diff --staged --stat      # double-check what reviewers will see

Then run the diff council on staged-only:

cordy council diff --staged \
  --panel codex,gemini,claude:opus \
  --no-chair --timeout 600 --json \
  > /tmp/grinder-${UNIT_ID}-diff-council.json 2>&1

Background + wake-on-completion.

If unstaged changes exist post-implementation that weren't staged — cruft escaped scope — halt and surface. The grinder shouldn't silently leave or revert unexplained changes.

Mark diff council completed.

Step 8 — revise impl (only if needed)

Severity gate for the diff council:

If nothing to revise → skip; mark sub-task completed, proceed.

After 2 revision rounds with critical/security findings still unaddressed → halt and surface.

Step 9 — commit

Mark commit in_progress. Per CLAUDE.md commit hygiene:

• Conventional Commits: <type>(<scope>): <subject> under ~70 chars
• Body explains the technical why — no process attribution (no "council found", no "C1/R2 noted", no "after review", no "spawned panel surfaced X")
• No AI attribution
• Stage with intent (already done in Step 7)
• After commit: git show --stat HEAD to verify only intended files landed. If extra files appeared → git reset HEAD~1, redo cleanly.

Append a one-line entry to changelog-pending.md:

- fix(council): pin reviewer mode at spawn  (commit abc1234)
- feat(rulesets): add ruleset registry plugin  (commit def5678)

Mark commit completed.

Step 10 — wake ping

Last action before "ending" the loop iteration:

sleep 1 && echo "lazarus"

…run as a Bash tool background task (run_in_background: true). The completion notification wakes the next loop iteration.

This pattern survives auto-compact: the OS process is independent of the context window, the notification lands, the new context reads the task list and resumes.

If you launched a long test suite or council in background and it's still running when you'd otherwise fire a ping, don't fire a separate ping — the existing background task's completion is itself a wake signal.

Step 11 — mark work unit complete; advance

TaskUpdate the parent work-unit task to completed. The next work unit's first sub-task (draft plan) becomes the next pending item; the next wake will pick it up automatically.

If this was the last work unit, do the end-of-run release commit:

1. Read changelog-pending.md.
2. Bump version in the appropriate manifest:
   • package.json → version
   • Cargo.toml → [package] version
   • pyproject.toml → [project] version
   • plugin.json + marketplace.json (Claude Code plugins) → both
3. Patch bump unless work shipped breaking changes (pre-1.0: minor for any breaking change; post-1.0: major).
4. Move pending entries into CHANGELOG.md under a new ## [X.Y.Z] — YYYY-MM-DD section, ordered by Keep-a-Changelog category.
5. Atomic commit: version bump + CHANGELOG entry together.
6. Delete changelog-pending.md.
7. Write a final STATUS.md summarizing the run (units done, deferred count, commits made, tests passing).
8. Stop the loop — no wake ping.

Do NOT push, tag, or release in the loop. Those are explicit human operations.

Decision protocols

Council = advisory; runner is final

The runner reads council output, decides. The council has no veto.

• Critical/security findings → must address; override only with substantive technical rationale in the commit body (no council attribution).
• Style/maintainability → free to override silently.
• Block-ship verdict from a unanimous council → stop, surface, ask user. Do not silently override unanimous structural objection. Final-decision-maker means judging findings, not ignoring them.

Tests pass = ?

Discover the test runner from the manifest, in this order:

Pass = exit 0 + no new failures vs baseline + lint/build clean (run the project's lint and build commands too if they exist; same discovery pattern).

Revision deadlock

Cap revision rounds at 2 per gate (plan council, diff council). After round 2:

• Outstanding findings are critical/security and the runner can't resolve → halt with STATUS.md.
• Otherwise → runner decides, proceeds.

Don't loop indefinitely chasing reviewer agreement; reviewers from different families won't fully converge on subjective findings.

Constraints (non-negotiable)

No process attribution anywhere

Commits, code comments, CHANGELOG, PR bodies. No "per council", no "C1/R2", no "after review", no "spawned panel found X", no "chair recommendation", no "round-2 convergence". Describe the technical what changed and why. Comments only when logic is non-obvious.

This restates a global rule because the grinder is especially prone to slipping into review-stage shorthand — every unit ends in a council, and the temptation to write "fixed per chair" is strong. Resist.

Destructive ops have a grinder-context auto-pass

Auto mode normally prompts for destructive operations. The grinder's loop cannot pause for prompts. Inside the per-unit loop, these are pre-authorized:

• rm of git-tracked files (recoverable via git restore)
• git reset --hard <baselineSha> to revert a failed implementation
• Force-push to a non-main feature branch (in-progress branch cleanup)
• Schema migrations behind a feature flag

NOT auto-passed — still halt and write STATUS.md:

• rm -rf of untracked files
• Force-push to main / master / production branches
• Anything writing outside the repo
• Changes to CI workflows, secrets, or release pipelines
• Dropping database tables, deleting users, sending external messages, publishing packages

Scope cap

Implementation may touch only files named in the plan's "Files in scope" + their direct imports. Cleanup outside scope → backlog to DEFERRED.md. Resist scope creep.

Tempfile hygiene

Clean up /tmp/grinder-* and /tmp/council-* at end of each work unit. Over a 12-hour run these accumulate.

50-commit cap (CLAUDE.md)

Don't proactively manage. If hit, the grinder's git commit will fail; squash later as a release-prep task. Not worth interrupting the loop for.

Halt-and-report triggers

Write <repo>/.cordyceps/grinder/STATUS.md and stop the loop (no wake ping) on:

STATUS.md format:

# Grinder halted: <YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM>

## Trigger
<which trigger above>

## Context
<what work unit, what step, what was happening>

## What's complete
<commits made, units done>

## What's deferred (DEFERRED.md)
<count + categories>

## What's needed from you
<one specific question or decision>

Cordy preflight on every wake (not just startup)

cordy daemon start 2>&1 || true   # idempotent

DRIVERS=$(cordy --ephemeral drivers --json)
AVAILABLE=$(echo "$DRIVERS" | jq -r '[.[] | select(.probe.available)] | length')
[ "$AVAILABLE" -lt 2 ] && halt

If a panel member errored or parse-failed in the previous unit, drop it from the default panel for the rest of the run. Don't keep retrying a broken driver. Track in baseline.json.droppedDrivers[] with the reason.

If the daemon failed to start, retry once. Second failure → halt with STATUS.md.

Long-running councils — wake on completion, don't poll

Council reviews on real files take 5–15 minutes. Cordy buffers per-reviewer output until all reviewers finish, then writes one JSON blob in one shot.

• Run councils with Bash run_in_background: true.
• Do other useful work while waiting (preflight for the next step, read related files, draft the next unit's plan).
• Wake when the notification lands.
• Do not Monitor-stream — there are no intermediate events.
• Do not tail / wc -c poll — output is empty until the slowest reviewer returns.
• Do not sleep-loop — the auto-notification is the signal.

If a council hasn't notified in ≳1.5× the panel's max --timeout, something is genuinely stuck. Investigate, don't blindly retry.

DEFERRED.md format

# Deferred findings — generated by grinder

## Work unit: B (resource pools)

### style: Magic number 30000 in chunkByLines
Could be named MAX_CHUNK_BYTES (already defined elsewhere — minor
refactor).

### info: Comment in src/foo.ts:42 mentions deprecated API
Outdated reference; fix on next maintenance pass.

## Work unit: C (combat formulas)
...

The user reviews this at end of run and can spawn follow-up work or discard.

Anti-patterns

• Don't activate on single-task asks. The grinder is overhead for one feature.
• Don't re-decompose work the user already articulated. If they gave you "buckets 1, 2, 3" or "phases A through F", serialize those into tasks as-is. The user did the planning.
• Don't ask questions between work units. The roadmap is the contract; decide and proceed.
• Don't bulldoze unanimous structural council objections. The runner is final, but final means judging findings, not ignoring them.
• Don't commit unrelated drift. Stage with intent, verify with git show --stat HEAD.
• Don't write process attribution. No "council found X", no "per reviewer feedback". Technical why only.
• Don't bump the version on every commit. Version bump = end-of-run, single atomic change with CHANGELOG.
• Don't expand scope mid-unit to "fix something while I'm here". Backlog it.
• Don't poll background councils. Wake on notification.
• Don't keep retrying a peer that's been timing out / parse-failing for 2+ units. Drop it; proceed with the rest of the panel.
• Don't run if cordy isn't installed or fewer than 2 drivers are reachable. Single-driver "council" defeats the diversity benefit the whole skill is built around.
• Don't push, tag, or release from the loop. Those are explicit human operations.
• Don't fire multiple lazarus pings per loop iteration. One ping per "I'm done with this iteration" event. Multiple pings stack into thrash.
• Don't write a state.json with the work unit list. Tasks are the primary state. State files are for things tasks can't hold (baseline SHA, accumulated changelog entries, deferred findings, halt reports).
• Don't TaskCreate tasks before doing cordy preflight. If preflight fails (drivers missing, daemon broken), you'll have created tasks for a run that can't start. Halt cleanly first.