# Submit Smoke

> clawback submit-mechanism smoke

- Skill: `zapgun-ai/submit-smoke` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add zapgun-ai/submit-smoke`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/zapgun-ai/submit-smoke/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: zapgun-ai (https://skillmd.com/u/zapgun-ai)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/zapgun-ai/submit-smoke

---


# clawback submit-mechanism smoke

Run `.skills/submit-smoke/scripts/submit_smoke.sh` from the project root. It is the fast gate that
answers ONE question before a real benchmark: **does Enter actually submit?**

## Why this exists

The driver used to write `${prompt}\r` in a single chunk; Claude Code's
bracketed-paste path coalesced it and the `\r` landed as a newline INSIDE the
input box, so ~6 of 8 turns silently never ran. The box sat at "turn 0%" and
the settle-on-silence heuristic could not tell "claude finished" from "claude
never started." The fix (`benchmark/lib/turn_submit.js`) types the text,
pauses, sends Enter as its OWN keystroke, and CONFIRMS each turn against the
proxy's `--turn-log` before advancing — escalating `\r` -> `\n` -> `\r\n` only
when confirmation never arrives. This skill verifies that fix end to end on
real `claude`, cheaply, so a swallowed Enter can never silently under-drive a
headline run again.

## Usage

```bash
# default: 3 turns, passthrough, Haiku, port 8799
.skills/submit-smoke/scripts/submit_smoke.sh

# bump the confirmation window for a slower model (Opus streams later):
.skills/submit-smoke/scripts/submit_smoke.sh --model claude-opus-4-7 --confirm-sec 20 --turns 3
```

## How to read the verdict

The script prints a verdict block and exits non-zero on FAIL:

- **driver said: `confirmed N/M turn`** — the driver's own tally (a turn is
  confirmed when a new non-ping turn-log record OR a sustained PTY output
  burst appears within `--confirm-sec`).
- **real turn-log recs: K** — non-ping `/v1/messages` records the proxy
  actually wrote. Because the arm is passthrough (no keep-alive pings), this
  is an exact count of turns that truly hit Anthropic.
- **Enter encodings that won** — a histogram. All `"\r"` means CR-as-its-own-
  keystroke submits once separated from the text (the happy path). Any
  `"\n"` / `"\r\n"` winning means CR alone still did not submit and the
  fallback carried it — a real finding to note before the big run.

**PASS** = `confirmed N/M` with N==M, AND real records >= turns, AND the
driver exited 0. Anything else is **FAIL** (it points you at `drive.log` and
`proxy.log` in the run dir).

## Cost & safety

Spends real Anthropic tokens for `--turns` turns via the real `claude`
binary — keep it tiny (default 3) and on Haiku. Runs on port **8799** by
default so it never collides with a dev proxy on 8787. Each run writes a
self-contained `runs/submit-smoke-<ts>/` (turn-log, proxy log, drive log,
state) at 0600.

## When to run it

- After editing `benchmark/bin/drive_pty.js` or `benchmark/lib/turn_submit.js`.
- After a `claude` CLI upgrade (the TUI's paste / keyboard handling can move).
- As the first step of any `.skills/ab` session — a green submit smoke is the
  precondition for trusting an A/B block's turn counts.