# M5c-2 implementation plan: Honcho, the read path

> For the implementer: each task file is one closed task for one fresh session. Read `AGENTS.md`,
> then the task file, and do exactly that task. The driver is `tools/run-plan.sh`.

**Goal:** the agent reads what the fleet knows. `recall` searches the other agents' trusted
workspaces and the fleet workspace alongside the local index, each source on its own limit, and
a new core tool, `ask_memory`, asks Honcho's dialectic about one or two workspaces. What comes back
is labelled, and taints the session, as a local `recall` hit does.

**Architecture:** `bxcore` gains `ask_memory`'s arguments; `brokerd` runs it as a built-in memory
tool with its own wait; `loopd` declares it as a core tool with its own wait; `memoryd` gains
read-only Honcho clients, turns Honcho's messages and conclusions into `recall` items, runs its
Honcho sources and chats outside its state lock, and answers `ask_memory`.

**Tech stack:** Rust 1.98.1, edition 2024; `roncho` 1.0.0 (already a dependency of `memoryd`,
`features = ["tls"]`); no new crate.

**Spec:** `docs/specs/2026-09-27-m5c-honcho.md`, sections 3, 8, 9, 10 and 13, as amended on
2026-09-28 (`8e56261`).

## The owner's decisions (2026-09-28)

1. **Queries from any session.** `recall` searches Honcho, and `ask_memory` asks it, from a
   session of any class, `secret` included: Honcho stores no query, and on rift a query reaches
   only the owner's hosts. It is an assumption about rift's configuration, written into the spec
   (section 8) and `docs/egress.md`. A query holding a known-prefix secret is refused before
   anything is sent.
2. **Two workspaces per `ask_memory` call**, both asked at once, so both answer inside
   `brokerd`'s wait; the model asks again for more.
3. **New recordings from rift** for the fake server (task 00), in a throwaway workspace deleted
   afterwards, as in M5c-1. They changed two things (spec, `891f413`): `ask_memory`
   always asks at `minimal`, since a `low` chat on rift returned raw tool-call markup; and a
   Honcho hit is kept only when it shares a term with the query, since search has no relevance
   cutoff.

## What the code already has, and what it lacks

- A session keeps the tools array it was created with (`loopd`'s baseline is saved at the start
  and sent on every request): `ask_memory` appears in sessions started after deployment, and no
  epoch code is needed.
- `brokerd` waits 30 s for any memory tool (`memory_port.rs`, `MEMORY_WAIT`), and `loopd` 120 s for
  any tool (`[broker] timeout_ms`). Neither has a per-tool wait; `ask_memory` needs 170 s and 180 s
  (spec 9).
- `memoryd` holds its one state lock for the whole of a `recall`. Honcho searches (5 s) and chats
  (150 s) must run outside it, or every `memory` call waits behind them.
- M5c-1's `Clients` are the sync worker's, for writes, and move into its thread. Reading needs
  its own clients: one per `[[honcho.read]]` workspace, the fleet, and the agent's own two (for
  `ask_memory`).
- `roncho`'s blocking client has what is needed: `search_workspace`, `query_conclusions` (it
  requires the observer and the observed) and `workspace_chat`.

## Global constraints

- Roles depend on `bxcore` only; `memoryd` also on `roncho`. No `unsafe`, no async runtime.
- Every `roncho` client is built with `.without_config_file()`; keys come from
  `bxcore::secrets` and are never logged; errors are logged by kind and status only.
- Text from Honcho is neutralised on arrival, put on one indented line, and capped: 600
  characters for a `recall` hit, as a local snippet, and 2,000 for an `ask_memory` answer; a
  result's labels raise the session as a local hit's do. Local `recall` items take the same form
  (task 07).
- No Honcho call runs under `memoryd`'s state lock.
- Without a `[honcho]` section, `recall` is exactly M5b's and `ask_memory` answers that Honcho is
  not configured.
- No file the implementer reads holds a chat-template tag whole (T33), nor a fake key whole.
- Every path a given test creates is removed by a guard (T44); every process a test starts has a
  deadline.
- Each task gives its baseline and its gate count with what the count includes (T50, T53); the
  branch line is a check, never `git switch` (T51); import changes are single added lines (T54);
  whitespace-checked literals are marked on every edit (T55); the task's table of `roncho`'s API
  is complete, and the Cargo registry is off limits (T56).

## Tasks

Every task below has been written, replayed from its text and checked; the gate count is the
passed total of `cargo test --workspace` plus one, for the ignored `end_to_end` test the gate
runs on its own. Before task 01 it is 1364 (talos, rustc 1.98.1, clippy of the same release).

| # | Delivers | Crates | Gate after | Mutations tried, caught |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00 | (done by the design model, `718e66d`) recordings from rift: workspace search with a limit and with no match, conclusion queries for two peers, and what a missing workspace answers | memoryd fixtures | 1364 | (none: fixtures only) |
| 01 | Wire: `AskMemoryArgs { question, workspaces }`, its name and its checks (question at most 2,000 characters; one or two workspace names, no repeats, each 1 to 512 characters as `memoryd`'s name rule) | bxcore | 1372 | 23, 23 |
| 02 | `brokerd`: `ask_memory` as a built-in memory tool (name, parsing, the grant `builtin-ask-memory`, owner grants naming it refused, routing to `memoryd`); its answer's labels raise the session | brokerd | 1381 | 17, 17 |
| 03 | `brokerd`: a per-tool wait on `memoryd`, 170 s for `ask_memory` (`ASK_MEMORY_WAIT`) and 30 s for the others, chosen by `MemoryPort::wait_for` | brokerd | 1384 | 10, 10 |
| 04 | `loopd`: `ask_memory`'s schema as a core tool in a new registry; a per-tool wait on `brokerd`, 180 s for `ask_memory` and `[broker] timeout_ms` for the others; the system prompt's line on memory tools | loopd | 1394 | 19, 19 |
| 05 | `memoryd`: read clients, one per `[[honcho.read]]` workspace, the fleet and the agent's own two, with a 5 s limit for searches and 150 s for chat; each source's label; `recall_sources` and `resolve`; `own`, `untrusted` and `fleet` reserved as read agents' names | memoryd | 1403 | 24, 24 |
| 06 | `memoryd`, pure: Honcho messages and conclusions as `recall` items (tag, source name, class, neutralised, capped), kept only when they share a term with the query, interleaved with the local hits to `k`, the local index first | memoryd | 1414 | 22, 22 |
| 07 | `memoryd`: local `recall` items in task 06's form, one indented line each, through one shared `snippet` and `item`; `recall::local` gives the items, their count and their label apart (T37) | memoryd | 1418 | 15, 15 |
| 08 | `memoryd`: `recall`'s Honcho part (`honcho/search.rs`): every source of `recall_sources` at once, each on its own thread with a limit of 5 s from the start; a read agent's workspace is a search and two conclusion queries; `<source>: unavailable`; a query holding a secret asks nothing; the answer from the local items and Honcho's, with the stricter label | memoryd | 1430 | 19, 19 |
| 09 | `memoryd`: `recall` with `[honcho]` runs the local part under the state lock and the Honcho part outside it; the readers taken at start; without `[honcho]`, `recall` as before | memoryd | 1434 | 8, 8 |
| 10 | `memoryd`: `ask_memory`: workspace names checked against `[honcho]`, both chats at once, each answer tagged and capped, labels, `<workspace>: unavailable`; a question holding a secret sends nothing | memoryd | 1444 | 18, 18 |
| 11 | `memoryd`, making room: `reindex` and `admin` move unchanged from `serve.rs` to `serve/admin.rs`, with tests for four of their behaviours no test pinned | memoryd | 1448 | 8, 8 |
| 12 | `memoryd` serves `ask_memory` beside `recall` and `memory`, never under the state lock; its arguments checked again; without `[honcho]`, a sentence as the result; no new fail-closed state, so no runbook entry, and `bxctl` unchanged | memoryd | 1454 | 9, 9 |

After task 12, the design model runs the M5c-2 device check (spec 13) on straylight, rift and the
owner's Mattermost: a second `memoryd` under its own name writes a fleet note that `recall` finds,
tagged `memory-tainted`, turning the session untrusted; `ask_memory` answers from the agent's own
trusted workspace within its limit; with rift down, `recall` answers from the local index with
`unavailable` lines. The baseline is measured again against the 3,000-token budget
(`make verify-device`).

## Known flaky tests

**Fixed before the run:** `bxctl`'s `chat_approvals` test
`json_prints_only_json_and_never_asks_brokerd` failed once in 5 loaded runs of the whole workspace
while task 06 was checked: its helper wrote to the standard input of a `bxctl chat` that does not
read it and may already have exited, and unwrapped the broken pipe. The helper now accepts a
broken pipe on that write (master, after task 06); 0 failures in 100 loaded runs.

**Seen once, not reproduced:** while task 11 was checked, one run of `memoryd`'s whole suite
failed in `honcho_worker`'s `a_turn_too_long_for_one_batch_is_marked_failed`, and another in
several unrelated `memoryd` tests at once; 18 later runs of the whole suite (12 of them beside
8 busy loops) and 10 of that test alone passed. A session that sees a `memoryd` test outside its
task fail once, then pass on a rerun and in the gate, names it in its row's Notes and goes on
(AGENTS.md).

## Known limits

These are known, accepted for M5c-2, and not bugs to fix in a task:

- **A read agent's three calls share one limit.** `recall` asks another agent's workspace one
  call after another (a search, then the conclusions about the agent's peer and the owner's),
  all within that source's 5 s. A slow rift makes the whole source `unavailable`, not only its
  last call (task 08).
- **A missing read workspace looks empty.** Honcho answers a search or a conclusion query in a
  workspace that does not exist with 200 and no hits (recorded, fixtures 34 and 35), so a
  `[[honcho.read]]` entry with a wrong workspace name gives `recall` nothing, silently, not an
  `unavailable` line. `ask_memory`'s chat answers 404 there, so it does show `unavailable`.
- **`ask_memory` always asks at `minimal`.** A `low` chat recorded from rift on 2026-09-28
  returned the dialectic model's raw tool-call markup as its answer. Other levels stay off until
  rift answers them properly (spec, section 9).
- **Sessions from before the deployment keep their tools.** A session sends the baseline it
  saved when it started; one started before M5c-2 is deployed never sees `ask_memory` or the
  system prompt's new sentence, and keeps its cache (spec, section 9).
- **Queries from any session reach rift.** `recall` and `ask_memory` send their query or
  question to Honcho from a session of any class, `secret` included, on the assumption that
  Honcho stores no query and that rift reaches only the owner's hosts (spec, section 8,
  `docs/egress.md`). If rift ever uses a hosted model or exports telemetry, a `secret` session's
  queries must stop going there. A query holding a known-prefix secret is never sent.

## Before hand-over

Every task is worked through `docs/plans/CHECKLIST.md` with a reference in a scratch worktree
with its own build directory, replayed from its task text; mutations; `/tmp` compared around a
gate run; scratch files in the worktree's `.state/`; the whole workspace stressed under load
(T52); the reference moved to straylight as a bundle before the run. Task files name their log
row (T47). For every class or trust rule, each path that reads from Honcho gets a test at the
forbidden label (T58).

## Running it

The reference (`m5c2-ref`, tasks 01 to 12) is moved to straylight as a bundle and deleted here
before the run (T18). Then, from the repository root, with the OpenCode TUI closed:

```sh
git switch -c m5c2 master
OPENCODE_MODEL=straylight/ornith-1.5-35b-a3b RESUME=1 \
  SLOTS_URL='http://straylight:11434/slots?model=ornith-1.5-35b-a3b' \
  tools/run-plan.sh docs/plans/M5c2 01
```

After task 12, the gate count is 1454. Then the device check above, including
`make verify-device` for the token budget of the `m5c()` baseline (task 04).