fix(plugin): the hooks need no jq and no tac (#4107)

Every hook opened `command -v jq >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0`, so on a machine
without jq the operator got no session context, no rules, no prior art and no
process sync — and not one word saying why, because `exit 0` is
indistinguishable from "ran fine, nothing to say". jq is absent by default on
macOS, on the Debian/Ubuntu slim images, on Alpine and in most CI containers.
That is not a prerequisite to document; it is the plugin handing its own
packaging problem to whoever installs it.

`tac` was worse: GNU-only, so the prior-art hook's enclosing-definition arm
did nothing at all on every Mac, silently, from the day it shipped. It is not
replaced but removed — scribe_defs judges each line independently, so
extracting forward and taking `tail -1` is the same answer as reversing and
taking the head, and it drops the early-exit `head` that #4042 was filed for.

No server contract changed, so a lagging plugin cache keeps working.

  scribe_json.awk   JSON -> IDX<TAB>PATH<TAB>VALUE. Two modes: `whole` for an
                    event or a response body, `lines` for a transcript, where
                    an unparseable record is dropped and the rest still read —
                    the `map(try fromjson catch empty)` the jq program opened
                    with. Arrays also report their LENGTH at `[#]`, which is
                    what keeps "zero notes" distinct from "no answer" (#2932).
  scribe_turn.awk   the turn-bounding program, replacing the thirty lines of
                    jq in the Stop hook.
  scribe_defs.sh    scribe_json_flat / _pick / _list / _len / _list_minus read,
                    scribe_json_out writes the envelope (five copies of one
                    shape, gone), scribe_urlenc replaces `jq -sRr '@uri'`.

Percent-encoding goes through `od -tu1` rather than an awk character loop on
purpose: awk's idea of a character follows the locale, so gawk reads an
accented letter as one and mawk as two, and an encoder built on substr() would
emit a different URL depending on which awk is installed. Encoding is defined
on bytes. Verified byte-identical to `jq -sRr '@uri'`.

Measured, not assumed. The per-event path costs 8ms against jq's 3ms. The
transcript path was 70x slower until two fixes: the Stop hook now finds where
the turn starts with a fixed-string grep before parsing (a needle carrying
unescaped quotes cannot occur inside a JSON string, so it matches only at a
record's top level — checked against a full JSON parse of a 27MB transcript:
152 prompt records, 152 matches, no misses, no extras), and the parser reads
each token out of a 1024-byte window instead of copying the rest of the buffer
per token, which was quadratic in line length on the 400KB tool results a
transcript carries.

Differential-tested against the jq program it replaces over 724 windows cut
from three real transcripts — 724 identical, 0 mismatched, 45 of them
exercising a real task close and a real reply. That sweep is what caught
`scribe_turn.awk` never setting FS, which truncated every multi-word reply at
its first space and was invisible to a test whose replies were all empty.

check_plugin.py's `jq -R` lint becomes a guard against either binary coming
back, and three smoke checks lose their `shutil.which("jq")` skip. jq is not
in `ci-python` either, so those three announced a skip on every CI run and had
never once run there: removing the dependency from the product also closed a
permanent hole in its verification. They pass now across all ten hooks.

tests/test_hook_json_reader.py is a differential against Python's `json` over
nested objects, arrays, unicode, escapes, control characters, empty cases and
a value longer than the token window, plus the envelope, the encoder and the
turn analyzer. 139 cases.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01821k5B3Ysecp9fNYs92Kuy

plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "name": "scribe",
   "description": "Scribe for Claude Code: connects the scribe MCP server, adds the hooks that deliver live project state and relevant records at the right moment, ships the shared client-neutral Scribe skills (using-scribe, writing-plans, reporting-back, systematic-debugging, verification, brainstorming, reusing-code, shape-accounting), and syncs your saved Scribe Processes as skills (/scribe:sync).",
-  "version": "2026.09.20.0317",
+  "version": "2026.09.20.1620",
   "author": {
     "name": "Bryan Van Deusen"
   },

plugin/hooks/scribe_after_write.sh

@@ -31,7 +31,6 @@
 #   SCRIBE_URL / SCRIBE_TOKEN override for the settings.json dogfooding path.
 set -uo pipefail
 
-command -v jq  >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
 command -v git >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
 
 # shellcheck source=plugin/hooks/scribe_defs.sh
@@ -39,10 +38,11 @@ command -v git >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
 
 # PostToolUse delivers { session_id, cwd, tool_name, tool_input, tool_response }.
 event=$(cat 2>/dev/null || true)
-tool_name=$(printf '%s' "$event" | jq -r '.tool_name // empty' 2>/dev/null) || exit 0
+event_flat=$(printf '%s' "$event" | scribe_json_flat)
+tool_name=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.tool_name')
 [ "$tool_name" = "Bash" ] || exit 0
-session_id=$(printf '%s' "$event" | jq -r '.session_id // empty' 2>/dev/null) || session_id=""
+session_id=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.session_id')
-event_cwd=$(printf '%s' "$event" | jq -r '.cwd // empty' 2>/dev/null) || event_cwd=""
+event_cwd=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.cwd')
 work_dir=${event_cwd:-${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:-$PWD}}
 repo_root=$(git -C "$work_dir" rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null) || exit 0
 [ -n "$repo_root" ] || exit 0
@@ -153,12 +153,12 @@ while IFS= read -r rel_path; do
   unreached_context=""
   if [ -n "$url" ] && [ -n "$token" ]; then
     q=$(printf '%s' "$code" | head -c 1200)
-    path_enc=$(printf '%s' "$rel_path" | jq -sRr '@uri' 2>/dev/null) || path_enc=""
+    path_enc=$(printf '%s' "$rel_path" | scribe_urlenc) || path_enc=""
-    code_enc=$(printf '%s' "$q" | jq -sRr '@uri' 2>/dev/null) || code_enc=""
+    code_enc=$(printf '%s' "$q" | scribe_urlenc) || code_enc=""
     shapes_q=""
     enc=$(printf '%s\n' "$names" \
       | awk -F'\t' 'NF>=2 {printf "%s%s:%s", (n++?",":""), $1, $2}' \
-      | jq -sRr '@uri' 2>/dev/null) || enc=""
+      | scribe_urlenc) || enc=""
     [ -n "$enc" ] && shapes_q="&shapes=${enc}"
     exclude_q=""; sync_exclude_q=""; derive_exclude_q=""
     if [ -f "$idfile" ]; then
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ while IFS= read -r rel_path; do
       [ -n "$sync_seen" ] && sync_exclude_q="&exclude_sync_ids=${sync_seen}"
     fi
     if [ -f "$derivefile" ]; then
-      derive_seen=$(tr '\n' ',' < "$derivefile" 2>/dev/null | sed 's/,$//' | jq -sRr '@uri' 2>/dev/null) || derive_seen=""
+      derive_seen=$(tr '\n' ',' < "$derivefile" 2>/dev/null | sed 's/,$//' | scribe_urlenc) || derive_seen=""
       [ -n "$derive_seen" ] && derive_exclude_q="&exclude_derive=${derive_seen}"
     fi
     # The rules marker is gone with the resident set it aged (milestone 394).
@@ -197,12 +197,14 @@ while IFS= read -r rel_path; do
         unreached_context=$(scribe_unreached "$state_dir" "$safe_sid" 8 "$rel_path")
       fi
     fi
+    body_flat=""
     if [ -n "$body" ]; then
-      context=$(printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '.context // empty' 2>/dev/null) || context=""
+      body_flat=$(printf '%s' "$body" | scribe_json_flat)
+      context=$(scribe_json_pick "$body_flat" '.context')
       if [ -n "$context" ]; then
-        printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '((.note_ids // []) - (.sync_note_ids // []))[]?' 2>/dev/null >> "$idfile" || true
+        scribe_json_list_minus "$body_flat" '.note_ids' '.sync_note_ids' >> "$idfile" || true
-        printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '(.sync_note_ids // [])[]?' 2>/dev/null >> "$syncfile" || true
+        scribe_json_list "$body_flat" '.sync_note_ids' >> "$syncfile" || true
-        printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '(.derive_keys // [])[]?' 2>/dev/null >> "$derivefile" || true
+        scribe_json_list "$body_flat" '.derive_keys' >> "$derivefile" || true
         # Several files in one call may name the same family: keep each
         # token once, so the next request's exclude list stays exact.
         for f in "$idfile" "$syncfile" "$derivefile"; do
@@ -217,7 +219,7 @@ while IFS= read -r rel_path; do
   # call that did not answer; "nothing recorded" is a claim only an answer
   # can back.
   if [ -n "$local_lines" ] && [ "$reached" != 0 ]; then
-    n_recorded=$(printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '.note_ids | length' 2>/dev/null) || n_recorded=0
+    n_recorded=$(scribe_json_len "$body_flat" '.note_ids')
     if [ "${n_recorded:-0}" = "0" ] || [ "$n_recorded" = "" ]; then
       local_context="${local_context}"$'\n'"> None of those existing copies is recorded in Scribe. If the version just written is the canonical one — or this edit is consolidating the copies — record it now with create_snippet so the next session is offered it instead of writing another copy."
     fi
@@ -238,6 +240,5 @@ while IFS= read -r rel_path; do
 done <<< "$changed"
 
 [ -n "$combined" ] || exit 0
-jq -n --arg c "$combined" \
+scribe_json_out PostToolUse "$combined"
-  '{hookSpecificOutput: {hookEventName: "PostToolUse", additionalContext: $c}}'
 exit 0

plugin/hooks/scribe_autoinject.sh

@@ -38,14 +38,17 @@ set -uo pipefail
 # shellcheck source=plugin/hooks/scribe_defs.sh
 . "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/scribe_defs.sh"
 
-command -v jq   >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
 command -v curl >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
 
 # UserPromptSubmit delivers a JSON event on stdin: { prompt, session_id, cwd, ... }
+# Parsed ONCE into flat lines and then queried three times (#4107): a prompt is
+# the largest payload any hook reads, and re-parsing it per field is three
+# passes over the same text.
 event=$(cat 2>/dev/null || true)
-prompt=$(printf '%s' "$event" | jq -r '.prompt // empty' 2>/dev/null) || prompt=""
+event_flat=$(printf '%s' "$event" | scribe_json_flat)
-session_id=$(printf '%s' "$event" | jq -r '.session_id // empty' 2>/dev/null) || session_id=""
+prompt=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.prompt')
-event_cwd=$(printf '%s' "$event" | jq -r '.cwd // empty' 2>/dev/null) || event_cwd=""
+session_id=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.session_id')
+event_cwd=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.cwd')
 
 # Nothing to retrieve against.
 [ -n "$prompt" ] || exit 0
@@ -59,11 +62,14 @@ scribe_config || exit 0
 # prior-art hook's code cap; this copy was missed when that one was fixed, and
 # scripts/check_plugin.py caught it.
 q=$(printf '%s' "$prompt" | head -c 2000)
-# `-sRr`, not `-rR`: jq -R reads LINE BY LINE, so a multi-line prompt encoded as
+# Encoded whole, never line by line. The predecessor here was `jq -rR`, which
-# several lines joined by raw newlines and the request died. Single-line prompts
+# reads a line at a time: a multi-line prompt came back as several separately
+# encoded lines joined by raw newlines and the request died. Single-line prompts
 # worked, which is why this looked healthy — the long, substantial prompts most
-# worth retrieving against were exactly the ones silently dropped. -s slurps.
+# worth retrieving against were exactly the ones silently dropped. scribe_urlenc
-q_enc=$(printf '%s' "$q" | jq -sRr '@uri' 2>/dev/null) || exit 0
+# reads bytes and has no notion of a line.
+q_enc=$(printf '%s' "$q" | scribe_urlenc) || exit 0
+[ -n "$q_enc" ] || exit 0
 
 # Scope to this directory's project — a `.scribe` marker, else the git remote.
 repo_dir=${event_cwd:-${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:-$PWD}}
@@ -109,22 +115,22 @@ body=$(curl -fsS --max-time 5 \
   "${url%/}/api/plugin/retrieve?q=${q_enc}${repo_q}${exclude_q}" 2>/dev/null) || exit 0
 [ -n "$body" ] || exit 0
 
-context=$(printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '.context // empty' 2>/dev/null) || exit 0
+body_flat=$(printf '%s' "$body" | scribe_json_flat)
+context=$(scribe_json_pick "$body_flat" '.context')
 [ -n "$context" ] || exit 0
 
 # Remember the surfaced ids so they aren't injected again this session.
 if [ -n "$idfile" ]; then
-  printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '.note_ids[]? // empty' 2>/dev/null >> "$idfile" || true
+  scribe_json_list "$body_flat" '.note_ids' >> "$idfile" || true
 fi
 # Rules onto the SHARED ledger, stamped so they can age out. Only FRESH ids
 # come back in rule_ids (#3752) — a rule rendered as a repeat is already on
 # the ledger, and re-appending it would keep pushing its stamp forward so it
 # never aged at all.
 if [ -n "$rulefile" ]; then
-  printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '.rule_ids[]? // empty' 2>/dev/null \
+  scribe_json_list "$body_flat" '.rule_ids' \
     | scribe_rules_append "$rulefile"
 fi
 
-jq -n --arg c "$context" \
+scribe_json_out UserPromptSubmit "$context"
-  '{hookSpecificOutput: {hookEventName: "UserPromptSubmit", additionalContext: $c}}'
 exit 0

plugin/hooks/scribe_defs.sh

@@ -19,6 +19,10 @@
 #   scribe_rules_live FILE     live rule ids from the exclusion ledger,
 #                              comma-joined; entries age out (#3751)
 #   scribe_rules_append FILE   stdin ids -> the ledger, timestamped
+#   scribe_json_flat           stdin JSON -> IDX<TAB>PATH<TAB>VALUE lines,
+#                              queried with scribe_json_pick / _list / _len.
+#                              scribe_json_out writes the hook envelope,
+#                              scribe_urlenc percent-encodes. No jq (#4107).
 #   scribe_scope_query DIR     `project_id=N` or `repo=<enc>` for DIR — the
 #                              project-scope key EVERY hook sends (#4085).
 #                              Helpers: scribe_marker_file, scribe_url_host,
@@ -39,6 +43,216 @@ scribe_skip_path() {
   return 1
 }
 
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# JSON AND URL-ENCODING, WITHOUT jq (#4107).
+#
+# Until this section every hook opened `command -v jq >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0`
+# and a machine without jq got no session context, no rules, no prior art and
+# no process sync — silently, because `exit 0` is indistinguishable from "ran
+# fine, nothing to say". That is the plugin pushing its own packaging problem
+# onto whoever installs it, and it is the same silence #4085 existed to remove.
+# jq is absent by default on macOS, on the Debian/Ubuntu slim images, on Alpine
+# and in most CI containers. awk, sed, tr and od are POSIX; every one of them
+# is already required by code above this line.
+#
+# scribe_json.awk does the parsing and carries the format. These are the four
+# jobs the hooks actually had jq for:
+#
+#   READ    scribe_json_flat / _flat_lines turn stdin into `IDX<TAB>PATH<TAB>
+#           VALUE` lines ONCE, and scribe_json_pick / _list / _len query that
+#           text. Parse once, query many: a hook reads four fields off one
+#           event, and re-parsing per field is four passes over a payload that
+#           may be an entire source file.
+#   WRITE   scribe_json_out emits the hookSpecificOutput envelope, which is the
+#           one piece of JSON these hooks produce.
+#   ENCODE  scribe_urlenc replaces `jq -sRr '@uri'`, byte-exact for UTF-8.
+#   DECODE  scribe_json_unescape turns a raw JSON string body into text.
+
+_scribe_self=${BASH_SOURCE[0]:-$0}
+# shellcheck disable=SC1007  # `CDPATH= cd` scopes one variable to one command
+SCRIBE_HOOK_DIR=$(CDPATH= cd -- "$(dirname -- "$_scribe_self")" 2>/dev/null && pwd) \
+  || SCRIBE_HOOK_DIR=$(dirname -- "$_scribe_self")
+
+# One JSON value on stdin → flat lines. Empty output means it did not parse.
+scribe_json_flat() {
+  awk -f "$SCRIBE_HOOK_DIR/scribe_json.awk" 2>/dev/null || true
+}
+
+# JSONL on stdin → flat lines, IDX counting the records that PARSED. A line
+# that does not parse is dropped and the rest are still read.
+scribe_json_flat_lines() {
+  awk -v mode=lines -f "$SCRIBE_HOOK_DIR/scribe_json.awk" 2>/dev/null || true
+}
+
+# $1 flat text, $2 exact path → the decoded scalar, or "" if absent.
+#
+# `null` READS AS ABSENT, matching the `// empty` every call site used to carry.
+# A field the server left null and one it never sent mean the same thing to
+# every caller here, and the shells downstream test `[ -n "$x" ]`.
+scribe_json_pick() {
+  printf '%s\n' "${1:-}" \
+    | awk -F'\t' -v p="$2" '$2 == p { if ($3 != "null") print $3; exit }' 2>/dev/null \
+    | scribe_json_unescape
+}
+
+# $1 flat text, $2 array path → each element decoded, one per line. Elements
+# are ids and keys here, so a value containing a newline is not a case that
+# arises; one would split into two lines.
+scribe_json_list() {
+  printf '%s\n' "${1:-}" \
+    | awk -F'\t' -v p="$2" '
+        BEGIN { plen = length(p) }
+        substr($2, 1, plen) == p {
+          rest = substr($2, plen + 1)
+          if (rest ~ /^\[[0-9]+\]$/ && $3 != "null") print $3
+        }' 2>/dev/null \
+    | scribe_json_unescape
+}
+
+# $1 flat text, $2 array path, $3 array path to SUBTRACT → the elements of $2
+# that are not in $3, in order. The reuse and sync channels are two classes of
+# one answer and each has its own session ledger, so the ids that go in the
+# reuse file are precisely `note_ids` minus `sync_note_ids` — jq wrote that as
+# `(.note_ids // []) - (.sync_note_ids // [])`.
+scribe_json_list_minus() {
+  local keep
+  keep=$(scribe_json_list "$1" "$3")
+  scribe_json_list "$1" "$2" \
+    | awk -v drop="$keep" '
+        BEGIN { n = split(drop, a, "\n"); for (i = 1; i <= n; i++) if (a[i] != "") s[a[i]] = 1 }
+        NF && !($0 in s)' 2>/dev/null || true
+}
+
+# $1 flat text, $2 array path → its length. "" when the path is not an array,
+# which is NOT the same as 0 — see the `[#]` note in scribe_json.awk.
+scribe_json_len() {
+  printf '%s\n' "${1:-}" \
+    | awk -F'\t' -v p="$2" '$2 == p "[#]" { print $3; exit }' 2>/dev/null
+}
+
+# Raw JSON string bodies on stdin → text. One line in, one value out.
+scribe_json_unescape() {
+  awk '
+    function hex4(h,   i, c, d, v) {
+      v = 0
+      for (i = 1; i <= 4; i++) {
+        c = tolower(substr(h, i, 1))
+        d = index("0123456789abcdef", c) - 1
+        if (d < 0) return -1
+        v = v * 16 + d
+      }
+      return v
+    }
+    {
+      v = $0
+      if (index(v, "\\") == 0) { print v; next }
+      o = ""
+      i = 1
+      L = length(v)
+      while (i <= L) {
+        c = substr(v, i, 1)
+        if (c != "\\") { o = o c; i++; continue }
+        d = substr(v, i + 1, 1)
+        i += 2
+        if (d == "n") o = o "\n"
+        else if (d == "t") o = o "\t"
+        else if (d == "r") o = o "\r"
+        else if (d == "b") o = o sprintf("%c", 8)
+        else if (d == "f") o = o sprintf("%c", 12)
+        else if (d == "u") {
+          hi = hex4(substr(v, i, 4))
+          if (hi < 0) { o = o "\\u"; continue }
+          i += 4
+          # A surrogate PAIR is one character written as two escapes; decoding
+          # the halves separately yields two replacement characters instead.
+          if (hi >= 55296 && hi <= 56319 && substr(v, i, 2) == "\\u") {
+            lo = hex4(substr(v, i + 2, 4))
+            if (lo >= 56320 && lo <= 57343) {
+              hi = 65536 + (hi - 55296) * 1024 + (lo - 56320)
+              i += 6
+            }
+          }
+          o = o sprintf("%c", hi)
+        }
+        else o = o d
+      }
+      print o
+    }' 2>/dev/null || true
+}
+
+# Text on stdin → a JSON string BODY (escaped, no surrounding quotes, one line).
+#
+# split/join rather than gsub: gsub reads `\` and `&` in its replacement as
+# metacharacters, so emitting a literal backslash through it takes a
+# quadruple-escape whose meaning varies between awks. Plain concatenation has
+# no such reading, and getting this wrong corrupts every injected context that
+# happens to contain a Windows path or a regex.
+scribe_json_escape() {
+  awk '
+    function rep(str, sep, with,   parts, cnt, i, o) {
+      cnt = split(str, parts, sep)
+      o = parts[1]
+      for (i = 2; i <= cnt; i++) o = o with parts[i]
+      return o
+    }
+    {
+      line = $0
+      line = rep(line, "\\\\", "\\\\")
+      line = rep(line, "\"", "\\\"")
+      line = rep(line, "\t", "\\t")
+      line = rep(line, "\r", "\\r")
+      # EVERY OTHER CONTROL CHARACTER TOO, or the envelope is not JSON. A raw
+      # byte below 0x20 inside a string is invalid, and Claude Code discards
+      # the whole hook output rather than the one field — so a single stray
+      # character anywhere in an injected context costs the entire injection.
+      # jq escaped these; a writer that knew only about tab and carriage
+      # return would have regressed quietly, on the rare input nobody thinks
+      # to test by hand.
+      for (c = 1; c < 32; c++) {
+        if (c == 9 || c == 10 || c == 13) continue
+        ctl = sprintf("%c", c)
+        if (index(line, ctl)) line = rep(line, ctl, sprintf("\\u%04x", c))
+      }
+      if (NR > 1) printf "\\n"
+      printf "%s", line
+    }' 2>/dev/null || true
+}
+
+# The one JSON document these hooks WRITE: $1 hook event name, $2 the context.
+# Every hook emitted this through `jq -n --arg c`, five copies of one shape.
+scribe_json_out() {
+  local esc
+  esc=$(printf '%s' "$2" | scribe_json_escape) || return 0
+  printf '{"hookSpecificOutput":{"hookEventName":"%s","additionalContext":"%s"}}\n' \
+    "$1" "$esc"
+}
+
+# stdin → percent-encoded, replacing `jq -sRr '@uri'`.
+#
+# THROUGH `od`, NOT A CHARACTER LOOP IN awk, and the reason is the bug this
+# would otherwise reintroduce. awk's idea of a "character" follows the locale:
+# in a UTF-8 locale gawk reads é as one character and mawk as two bytes, so any
+# encoder built on substr() produces a different URL on the same input
+# depending on which awk is installed. Percent-encoding is defined on BYTES. od
+# -tu1 gives bytes, on every platform, and the only characters passed through
+# unencoded are the unreserved ASCII set — which every awk agrees about.
+#
+# Slightly more aggressive than jq's `@uri`, which leaves `!~*'()` alone. Those
+# are legal either way and the server decodes both identically.
+scribe_urlenc() {
+  od -An -v -tu1 2>/dev/null \
+    | awk '{
+        for (i = 1; i <= NF; i++) {
+          b = $i + 0
+          if ((b >= 48 && b <= 57) || (b >= 65 && b <= 90) ||
+              (b >= 97 && b <= 122) || b == 45 || b == 46 || b == 95 || b == 126)
+            printf "%s", sprintf("%c", b)
+          else
+            printf "%%%02X", b
+        }
+      }' 2>/dev/null || true
+}
+
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # kind<TAB>name for each thing a piece of code DEFINES, in source order. One
 # program, two consumers: the local duplicate arm (every definition in the
@@ -281,7 +495,7 @@ scribe_rules_live() {
 }
 
 # Append surfaced ids, stamped. Reads ids on stdin, one per line — the shape
-# `jq -r '(.rule_ids // [])[]?'` already produces at both call sites.
+# `scribe_json_list "$flat" '.rule_ids'` already produces at both call sites.
 scribe_rules_append() {
   local f="$1" now
   [ -n "$f" ] || return 0
@@ -425,19 +639,20 @@ scribe_url_host() {
 # `set -u` these hooks all run with aborts the hook and costs the whole
 # session's context — a failure far larger than the message it was fetching.
 scribe_marker_read() {
-  local f="$1" id inst want
+  local f="$1" flat id inst want
   [ -n "$f" ] && [ -f "$f" ] || { printf '\t'; return 0; }
-  command -v jq >/dev/null 2>&1 || { printf '\t'; return 0; }
+  flat=$(scribe_json_flat < "$f") || flat=""
-  # A bare integer is valid JSON, so one filter reads both forms.
+  # Both accepted forms, read off one parse: the object's `project_id`, or —
-  id=$(jq -r 'if type=="number" then (.|floor|tostring)
+  # for the bare integer someone writes by hand — the root scalar, whose path
-              elif type=="object" then (.project_id // empty | tostring)
+  # is the empty string because it sits under no key.
-              else empty end' "$f" 2>/dev/null) || id=""
+  id=$(scribe_json_pick "$flat" '.project_id')
+  [ -n "$id" ] || id=$(scribe_json_pick "$flat" '')
   case "$id" in ''|*[!0-9]*) id="" ;; esac
   if [ -z "$id" ] || [ "$id" = "0" ]; then
     printf '\tnames no project_id'
     return 0
   fi
-  inst=$(jq -r 'if type=="object" then (.instance // empty) else empty end' "$f" 2>/dev/null) || inst=""
+  inst=$(scribe_json_pick "$flat" '.instance')
   if [ -n "$inst" ]; then
     want=$(scribe_url_host "${url:-}")
     inst=$(scribe_url_host "$inst")
@@ -468,7 +683,6 @@ scribe_scope_query() {
   fi
   repo=$(git -C "$dir" remote get-url origin 2>/dev/null || true)
   [ -n "$repo" ] || return 0
-  command -v jq >/dev/null 2>&1 || return 0
+  enc=$(printf '%s' "$repo" | scribe_urlenc) || enc=""
-  enc=$(printf '%s' "$repo" | jq -sRr '@uri' 2>/dev/null) || enc=""
   [ -n "$enc" ] && printf 'repo=%s' "$enc"
 }

plugin/hooks/scribe_json.awk

@@ -0,0 +1,217 @@
+# Scribe plugin — JSON, read without jq (#4107).
+#
+# WHY THIS FILE EXISTS. Every hook here parsed JSON with `jq`, and every hook
+# opened with `command -v jq >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0`. jq is not installed by
+# default on macOS, on Debian/Ubuntu base images, on Alpine, or in most CI
+# containers — so on a machine without it the operator got no session context,
+# no rules, no prior art and no process sync, and not one word saying why. That
+# is not a missing prerequisite to document; it is the plugin pushing its own
+# packaging problem onto whoever installs it. awk is POSIX: it is present as
+# gawk, mawk, nawk or busybox awk everywhere a shell is.
+#
+# WHAT IT DOES. Reads JSON on stdin, writes one line per SCALAR:
+#
+#     IDX <TAB> PATH <TAB> VALUE
+#
+#     1	.prompt	write the tests first
+#     1	.tool_input.file_path	/src/app.py
+#     1	.note_ids[0]	4107
+#     1	.note_ids[#]	3
+#
+# IDX   1-based index of the top-level JSON value (always 1 unless mode=lines).
+# PATH  dot/bracket path. Array indices are 0-based.
+# VALUE for a string, the RAW JSON-escaped body with the quotes stripped — not
+#       the decoded text. Decoding here would let a newline or a tab inside a
+#       value break the line format that makes this readable from shell. The
+#       caller decodes what it actually uses, with `scribe_json_unescape`.
+#       Numbers, `true`, `false` and `null` are emitted literally.
+#
+# EVERY ARRAY ALSO EMITS `PATH[#]` with its LENGTH, including an empty one —
+# which is what makes "the server answered with zero notes" distinguishable
+# from "the server did not answer", a distinction #2932 built a whole outage
+# marker around. An empty object emits `PATH{#}` 0 for the same reason.
+#
+# TWO MODES, because the two jobs have opposite failure behaviour:
+#
+#   mode=whole  (default) the entire input is ONE JSON value, possibly spread
+#               over many lines. A parse error produces no output at all.
+#               This is a hook event on stdin, or a server response body.
+#
+#   mode=lines  the input is JSONL — one JSON value per line — and a line that
+#               does not parse is DROPPED, the rest still read. This is the
+#               transcript in scribe_report_check.sh, where the window starts
+#               mid-record by construction: `tail -n 3000` cuts wherever it
+#               cuts, and the first line is routinely half a record. It is
+#               exactly the `map(try fromjson catch empty)` the jq program it
+#               replaces opened with. IDX counts lines that PARSED, so the
+#               ordering a turn is bounded by is unaffected by the dropped one.
+#
+# A KEY CONTAINING `.` OR `[` WOULD MAKE AN AMBIGUOUS PATH. Nothing in the two
+# JSON dialects this reads — Claude Code hook events and Scribe's own API — has
+# one, and inventing an escaping scheme for a case neither producer can emit
+# would cost every caller a decode for nothing. Stated so the next person hits
+# a comment rather than a mystery.
+
+function skipws(   c) {
+  while (pos <= n) {
+    c = substr(s, pos, 1)
+    if (c == " " || c == "\t" || c == "\n" || c == "\r") pos++
+    else return
+  }
+}
+
+# Values are emitted one per line, so a literal control character inside a
+# string — invalid JSON, but producers emit it — must not become a line break
+# that silently splits one value into two records.
+function emit(path, val) {
+  ocount++
+  opath[ocount] = path
+  oval[ocount] = tame(val)
+}
+
+function tame(v) {
+  if (index(v, "\n")) v = rep(v, "\n", "\\n")
+  if (index(v, "\r")) v = rep(v, "\r", "\\r")
+  if (index(v, "\t")) v = rep(v, "\t", "\\t")
+  return v
+}
+
+# Replace every occurrence of a literal separator, via split/join rather than
+# gsub: gsub's replacement string treats `\` and `&` as metacharacters, so
+# emitting a literal backslash through it needs a quadruple-escape whose
+# meaning varies by awk. Concatenation has no such reading.
+function rep(str, sep, with,   parts, cnt, i, o) {
+  cnt = split(str, parts, sep)
+  o = parts[1]
+  for (i = 2; i <= cnt; i++) o = o with parts[i]
+  return o
+}
+
+function parse_value(path,   c) {
+  if (failed) return
+  skipws()
+  if (pos > n) { failed = 1; return }
+  c = substr(s, pos, 1)
+  if (c == "{") { parse_object(path); return }
+  if (c == "[") { parse_array(path); return }
+  if (c == "\"") { emit(path, parse_string()); return }
+  parse_literal(path)
+}
+
+# HOW FAR AHEAD A TOKEN IS READ, and why there is a limit at all.
+#
+# awk has no way to match a regex STARTING AT AN OFFSET, so reading a token
+# means copying the rest of the buffer and anchoring with `^`. Do that per
+# token and the cost is quadratic in the length of the line: a transcript
+# record carrying a 400KB tool result has a hundred small tokens after it, and
+# each one copied the whole 400KB again. Measured: ten such lines, 500KB in
+# total, took 2.2s — while 291 ordinary lines totalling 684KB took 0.38s.
+#
+# So an ordinary token is read out of a WINDOW, and only a token that does not
+# fit in one pays for the whole remainder — once, for itself, rather than once
+# for every token that follows it. 1024 is where the curve flattens, measured
+# over a real 1.19MB turn: 8192 → 800ms, 2048 → 425ms, 1024 → 351ms, 256 →
+# 315ms, every one of them producing byte-identical output. Below 1024 the
+# gain stops paying for the long values that then miss the window.
+#
+# A MATCH INSIDE THE WINDOW IS ALWAYS THE TRUE TOKEN, which is what makes this
+# safe rather than merely fast. Every quote inside a JSON string is escaped, so
+# the `\\.` branch consumes it; an unescaped `"` can only be the real closing
+# quote. A window that cuts a string short therefore yields no match at all —
+# it cannot yield a WRONG one — and the wide read below handles it.
+#
+# SET IN `BEGIN`, and it has to be there. A bare assignment at file scope
+# is not a statement to awk, it is a PATTERN — a truthy expression with no
+# action — so every input record took the default action and was ECHOED to
+# stdout. Nothing downstream matched the echoed line, so it cost only noise
+# until a test compared this parser's output against Python's and found one
+# row too many.
+
+function parse_string(   rest, tok) {
+  rest = substr(s, pos, WINDOW)
+  if (match(rest, /^"([^"\\]|\\.)*"/) == 0) {
+    rest = substr(s, pos)
+    if (match(rest, /^"([^"\\]|\\.)*"/) == 0) { failed = 1; return "" }
+  }
+  tok = substr(rest, 2, RLENGTH - 2)
+  pos += RLENGTH
+  return tok
+}
+
+function parse_literal(path,   rest) {
+  rest = substr(s, pos, WINDOW)
+  if (match(rest, /^(-?[0-9]+(\.[0-9]+)?([eE][-+]?[0-9]+)?|true|false|null)/) == 0) {
+    failed = 1
+    return
+  }
+  emit(path, substr(rest, 1, RLENGTH))
+  pos += RLENGTH
+}
+
+function parse_object(path,   key, c) {
+  pos++
+  skipws()
+  if (substr(s, pos, 1) == "}") { pos++; emit(path "{#}", 0); return }
+  while (1) {
+    skipws()
+    if (substr(s, pos, 1) != "\"") { failed = 1; return }
+    key = parse_string()
+    if (failed) return
+    skipws()
+    if (substr(s, pos, 1) != ":") { failed = 1; return }
+    pos++
+    parse_value(path "." key)
+    if (failed) return
+    skipws()
+    c = substr(s, pos, 1)
+    if (c == ",") { pos++; continue }
+    if (c == "}") { pos++; return }
+    failed = 1
+    return
+  }
+}
+
+function parse_array(path,   i, c) {
+  pos++
+  i = 0
+  skipws()
+  if (substr(s, pos, 1) == "]") { pos++; emit(path "[#]", 0); return }
+  while (1) {
+    parse_value(path "[" i "]")
+    if (failed) return
+    i++
+    skipws()
+    c = substr(s, pos, 1)
+    if (c == ",") { pos++; continue }
+    if (c == "]") { pos++; emit(path "[#]", i); return }
+    failed = 1
+    return
+  }
+}
+
+# Parse the buffer in `s` as one value. Emits nothing unless it parses whole.
+function run(   i) {
+  n = length(s)
+  pos = 1
+  failed = 0
+  ocount = 0
+  parse_value("")
+  if (!failed) { skipws(); if (pos <= n) failed = 1 }
+  if (failed) { ocount = 0; return 0 }
+  idx++
+  for (i = 1; i <= ocount; i++) printf "%d\t%s\t%s\n", idx, opath[i], oval[i]
+  ocount = 0
+  return 1
+}
+
+BEGIN { idx = 0; WINDOW = 1024 }
+
+mode == "lines" { s = $0; run(); next }
+
+{ buf = buf $0 "\n" }
+
+END {
+  if (mode == "lines") exit 0
+  s = buf
+  run()
+}

plugin/hooks/scribe_prior_art.sh

@@ -33,29 +33,34 @@
 #   SCRIBE_URL / SCRIBE_TOKEN override for the settings.json dogfooding path.
 set -uo pipefail
 
-command -v jq   >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
 command -v curl >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
 
+# Shared with the after-write hook (#2901): the prose/data skip list, the
+# definition extractor and the local by-name duplicate arm live in
+# scribe_defs.sh so the two hooks cannot drift apart. Sourced FIRST because the
+# JSON reader is there too now (#4107).
+# shellcheck source=plugin/hooks/scribe_defs.sh
+. "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/scribe_defs.sh"
+
 # PreToolUse delivers { session_id, cwd, tool_name, tool_input: {...}, ... }
+# One parse, five fields. `.tool_input.content` on a Write is the entire file
+# being written, so parsing per field would mean reading it five times.
 event=$(cat 2>/dev/null || true)
-file_path=$(printf '%s' "$event" | jq -r '.tool_input.file_path // empty' 2>/dev/null) || exit 0
+event_flat=$(printf '%s' "$event" | scribe_json_flat)
-session_id=$(printf '%s' "$event" | jq -r '.session_id // empty' 2>/dev/null) || session_id=""
+file_path=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.tool_input.file_path')
-event_cwd=$(printf '%s' "$event" | jq -r '.cwd // empty' 2>/dev/null) || event_cwd=""
+session_id=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.session_id')
+event_cwd=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.cwd')
 
 [ -n "$file_path" ] || exit 0
 
 # The code about to be written. Write and Edit name this field differently, and
 # the names have changed across Claude Code versions — take whichever is present
 # rather than betting on one shape.
-code=$(printf '%s' "$event" | jq -r '
+code=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.tool_input.content')
-  .tool_input.content // .tool_input.file_content //
+[ -n "$code" ] || code=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.tool_input.file_content')
-  .tool_input.new_string // .tool_input.new_str // empty' 2>/dev/null) || code=""
+[ -n "$code" ] || code=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.tool_input.new_string')
+[ -n "$code" ] || code=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.tool_input.new_str')
 
-# Shared with the after-write hook (#2901): the prose/data skip list, the
-# definition extractor and the local by-name duplicate arm live in
-# scribe_defs.sh so the two hooks cannot drift apart.
-# shellcheck source=plugin/hooks/scribe_defs.sh
-. "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/scribe_defs.sh"
 scribe_skip_path "$file_path" && exit 0
 
 # Snippet locations are recorded repo-relative, so send a repo-relative path —
@@ -102,15 +107,24 @@ fi
 # no pulled canon in play, nothing is recorded. Titles only still — this sends
 # names, not bodies.
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+#
+# THE ENCLOSING DEFINITION IS THE LAST ONE AT OR ABOVE THE EDIT, and taking it
+# needs no `tac`. This read `head -n $ln | tac | scribe_defs | head -1` — reverse
+# the lines, extract, take the first. `tac` is GNU-only: it is absent on macOS
+# (whose equivalent is `tail -r`), so the guard below it meant this arm did
+# nothing at all on every Mac, silently, since the day it shipped. scribe_defs
+# judges each line independently, so reversing first and taking the head is the
+# same answer as extracting forward and taking the tail — and `tail` also drops
+# the `head -1` whose early exit is the SIGPIPE trap #4042 was filed for.
 shapes="$names"
-if [ -z "$shapes" ] && [ -f "$file_path" ] && command -v tac >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+if [ -z "$shapes" ] && [ -f "$file_path" ]; then
-  old_first=$(printf '%s' "$event" \
+  old_first=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.tool_input.old_string')
-    | jq -r '.tool_input.old_string // .tool_input.old_str // empty' 2>/dev/null \
+  [ -n "$old_first" ] || old_first=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.tool_input.old_str')
-    | grep -m1 -v '^[[:space:]]*$' || true)
+  old_first=$(printf '%s' "$old_first" | grep -m1 -v '^[[:space:]]*$' || true)
   if [ -n "$old_first" ]; then
     ln=$(grep -nF -m1 -- "$old_first" "$file_path" 2>/dev/null | cut -d: -f1) || ln=""
     if [ -n "$ln" ]; then
-      shapes=$(head -n "$ln" "$file_path" | tac | scribe_defs | head -1 || true)
+      shapes=$(head -n "$ln" "$file_path" | scribe_defs | tail -1 || true)
     fi
   fi
 fi
@@ -118,7 +132,7 @@ shapes_q=""
 if [ -n "$shapes" ]; then
   enc=$(printf '%s\n' "$shapes" \
     | awk -F'\t' 'NF>=2 {printf "%s%s:%s", (n++?",":""), $1, $2}' \
-    | jq -sRr '@uri' 2>/dev/null) || enc=""
+    | scribe_urlenc) || enc=""
   [ -n "$enc" ] && shapes_q="&shapes=${enc}"
 fi
 
@@ -127,8 +141,7 @@ scribe_config || :   # sets url/token; unconfigured is handled just below
 # arm above already ran and may have something to say.
 if [ -z "$url" ] || [ -z "$token" ]; then
   if [ -n "$local_context" ]; then
-    jq -n --arg c "$local_context" \
+    scribe_json_out PreToolUse "$local_context"
-      '{hookSpecificOutput: {hookEventName: "PreToolUse", additionalContext: $c}}'
   fi
   exit 0
 fi
@@ -142,13 +155,15 @@ fi
 # built a URL from the whole payload. head -c caps the total, which is the point.
 q=$(printf '%s' "$code" | head -c 1200)
 
-# `-sRr`, not `-rR`: jq -R reads input LINE BY LINE, so a multi-line payload came
+# Encoded whole, never line by line. The predecessor (`jq -rR`) read input LINE
-# back as several separately-encoded lines joined by raw newlines — an invalid
+# BY LINE, so a multi-line payload came back as several separately-encoded lines
-# URL that made curl fail, and this hook then exited 0 in silence. -s slurps the
+# joined by raw newlines — an invalid URL that made curl fail, and this hook then
-# whole input into one string first. Newlines are exactly what code contains, so
+# exited 0 in silence. Newlines are exactly what code contains, so this hook
-# this hook could never have worked without it (issue #2198 / #2082).
+# could never have worked that way (issue #2198 / #2082). scribe_urlenc reads
-path_enc=$(printf '%s' "$rel_path" | jq -sRr '@uri' 2>/dev/null) || exit 0
+# bytes and has no notion of a line.
-code_enc=$(printf '%s' "$q" | jq -sRr '@uri' 2>/dev/null) || code_enc=""
+path_enc=$(printf '%s' "$rel_path" | scribe_urlenc)
+[ -n "$path_enc" ] || exit 0
+code_enc=$(printf '%s' "$q" | scribe_urlenc)
 
 # Scope to this directory's project — a `.scribe` marker, else the git remote.
 scope=$(scribe_scope_query "$lookup_dir")
@@ -199,7 +214,7 @@ if [ -n "$session_id" ]; then
     [ -n "$sync_seen" ] && sync_exclude_q="&exclude_sync_ids=${sync_seen}"
   fi
   if [ -f "$derivefile" ]; then
-    derive_seen=$(tr '\n' ',' < "$derivefile" 2>/dev/null | sed 's/,$//' | jq -sRr '@uri' 2>/dev/null) || derive_seen=""
+    derive_seen=$(tr '\n' ',' < "$derivefile" 2>/dev/null | sed 's/,$//' | scribe_urlenc) || derive_seen=""
     [ -n "$derive_seen" ] && derive_exclude_q="&exclude_derive=${derive_seen}"
   fi
   # Ageing, not a flat read (#3751), and the ONLY ledger here that ages: the
@@ -227,24 +242,25 @@ else
 fi
 
 context=""
+body_flat=""
 if [ -n "$body" ]; then
-  context=$(printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '.context // empty' 2>/dev/null) || context=""
+  body_flat=$(printf '%s' "$body" | scribe_json_flat)
+  context=$(scribe_json_pick "$body_flat" '.context')
   # Remember what was surfaced so it isn't shown again this session — each
   # class into its own channel: sync ids (snippets recording the edited file)
   # to the sync file, everything else to the reuse file.
   if [ -n "$context" ]; then
     if [ -n "$idfile" ]; then
-      printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '((.note_ids // []) - (.sync_note_ids // []))[]?' 2>/dev/null >> "$idfile" || true
+      scribe_json_list_minus "$body_flat" '.note_ids' '.sync_note_ids' >> "$idfile" || true
     fi
     if [ -n "$syncfile" ]; then
-      printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '(.sync_note_ids // [])[]?' 2>/dev/null >> "$syncfile" || true
+      scribe_json_list "$body_flat" '.sync_note_ids' >> "$syncfile" || true
     fi
     if [ -n "$rulefile" ]; then
-      printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '(.rule_ids // [])[]?' 2>/dev/null \
+      scribe_json_list "$body_flat" '.rule_ids' | scribe_rules_append "$rulefile"
-        | scribe_rules_append "$rulefile"
     fi
     if [ -n "$derivefile" ]; then
-      printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '(.derive_keys // [])[]?' 2>/dev/null >> "$derivefile" || true
+      scribe_json_list "$body_flat" '.derive_keys' >> "$derivefile" || true
     fi
   fi
 fi
@@ -259,7 +275,7 @@ fi
 # of those copies is recorded" is a claim only an answer can back — the
 # unreached line says what actually happened instead.
 if [ -n "$local_lines" ] && [ "$reached" = 1 ]; then
-  n_recorded=$(printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '.note_ids | length' 2>/dev/null) || n_recorded=0
+  n_recorded=$(scribe_json_len "$body_flat" '.note_ids')
   if [ "${n_recorded:-0}" = "0" ] || [ "$n_recorded" = "" ]; then
     local_context="${local_context}"$'\n'"> None of those existing copies is recorded in Scribe. If the version being written is the canonical one — or this edit is consolidating the copies — record it now with create_snippet (name, code, when-to-reach-for-it, location) so the next session is offered it instead of writing another copy."
   fi
@@ -280,6 +296,5 @@ fi
 [ -n "$combined" ] || exit 0
 
 # No permissionDecision: this is a nudge, not a gate. The write goes ahead.
-jq -n --arg c "$combined" \
+scribe_json_out PreToolUse "$combined"
-  '{hookSpecificOutput: {hookEventName: "PreToolUse", additionalContext: $c}}'
 exit 0

plugin/hooks/scribe_record_opened.sh

@@ -39,23 +39,21 @@
 # here is one extra line, in the direction that shows more rather than less.
 set -uo pipefail
 
+# shellcheck source=plugin/hooks/scribe_defs.sh
+. "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/scribe_defs.sh"
+
 event=$(cat 2>/dev/null || true)
 [ -n "$event" ] || exit 0
 
-# No jq, no ledger — and no complaint. Every other hook degrades the same way
+event_flat=$(printf '%s' "$event" | scribe_json_flat)
-# rather than printing a tooling error in front of the operator's work (#4107
+session_id=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.session_id')
-# tracks making that dependency honest; this is not the place to diverge).
-command -v jq >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
-
-session_id=$(printf '%s' "$event" | jq -r '.session_id // empty' 2>/dev/null) || session_id=""
 [ -n "$session_id" ] || exit 0
 
 # The matcher in hooks.json already narrows to the get_rule tools, but the
 # server segment of an MCP tool name varies with how the plugin was installed,
 # so the id is read from whichever field is actually present rather than from
 # an assumed tool name. An event that carries none simply records nothing.
-rule_id=$(printf '%s' "$event" \
+rule_id=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.tool_input.rule_id')
-  | jq -r '(.tool_input.rule_id // empty) | tostring' 2>/dev/null) || rule_id=""
 rule_id=$(printf '%s' "$rule_id" | tr -cd '0-9')
 [ -n "$rule_id" ] || exit 0
 
@@ -67,9 +65,6 @@ state_dir="${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/scribe-priorart"
 mkdir -p "$state_dir" 2>/dev/null || true
 safe_sid=$(printf '%s' "$session_id" | tr -c 'A-Za-z0-9._-' '_')
 
-# shellcheck source=plugin/hooks/scribe_defs.sh
-. "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/scribe_defs.sh"
-
 # Stamped and append-only, exactly like the naming ledger — so the same reader
 # (`scribe_rules_live`) ages both, and the last entry for an id wins.
 printf '%s\n' "$rule_id" | scribe_rules_append "$state_dir/${safe_sid}.opened.ids"

plugin/hooks/scribe_report_check.sh

@@ -50,7 +50,6 @@
 #   SCRIBE_URL / SCRIBE_TOKEN override for the settings.json dogfooding path.
 set -uo pipefail
 
-command -v jq   >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
 command -v curl >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
 
 # shellcheck source=plugin/hooks/scribe_defs.sh
@@ -58,11 +57,12 @@ command -v curl >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
 
 # Stop delivers { session_id, transcript_path, cwd, hook_event_name, stop_hook_active }.
 event=$(cat 2>/dev/null || true)
-transcript=$(printf '%s' "$event" | jq -r '.transcript_path // empty' 2>/dev/null) || exit 0
+event_flat=$(printf '%s' "$event" | scribe_json_flat)
+transcript=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.transcript_path')
 [ -n "$transcript" ] && [ -f "$transcript" ] || exit 0
-session_id=$(printf '%s' "$event" | jq -r '.session_id // empty' 2>/dev/null) || session_id=""
+session_id=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.session_id')
-active=$(printf '%s' "$event" | jq -r '.stop_hook_active // false' 2>/dev/null) || active="false"
+active=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.stop_hook_active')
-event_cwd=$(printf '%s' "$event" | jq -r '.cwd // empty' 2>/dev/null) || event_cwd=""
+event_cwd=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.cwd')
 
 safe_sid=$(printf '%s' "${session_id:-nosession}" | tr -c 'A-Za-z0-9._-' '_')
 state_dir="${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/scribe-reportcheck"
@@ -78,48 +78,67 @@ grep -q -E '"name":[[:space:]]*"([^"]*__)?(update|create)_task"' < <(tail -c 200
   exit 0
 }
 
-# The turn, parsed once. A window of recent lines, slurped raw and split inside
+# The turn, parsed once. A window of recent lines, flattened record by record
-# jq (a line-by-line `-R` read is the #2198 trap). A first line cut mid-record
+# and then read by scribe_turn.awk, which carries the turn-bounding rules. A
-# fails to parse and is dropped. If the window holds no prompt, the turn cannot
+# line that does not parse is dropped and the rest are still read — the first
-# be bounded, so the hook reports nothing and stays out of the way.
+# line of a `tail -n 3000` window is routinely half a record. If the window
-facts=$(tail -n 3000 "$transcript" 2>/dev/null | jq -sRc '
+# holds no prompt, the turn cannot be bounded, so the hook reports nothing and
-  split("\n") | map(try fromjson catch empty)
+# stays out of the way.
-  | map(select((.isSidechain // false) | not))
+window() { tail -n 3000 "$transcript" 2>/dev/null; }
-  | . as $lines
+turn_facts() { window | tail -n +"${1:-1}" | scribe_json_flat_lines \
-  | [range(0; length) | select(
+  | awk -f "$SCRIBE_HOOK_DIR/scribe_turn.awk" 2>/dev/null; }
-      $lines[.].type == "user" and ($lines[.].isMeta // false | not)
-      and ($lines[.].message.content | type) == "string")] as $prompts
-  | if ($prompts | length) == 0 then {bounded: false} else
-    $lines[($prompts | last) + 1:] as $turn
-    | [ $turn[] | select(.type == "assistant") | .message.content[]?
-        | select(.type == "tool_use"
-                 and ((.name // "") | test("(^|__)(update|create)_task$"))
-                 and (.input.status? == "done"))
-        | {id, task: (.input.task_id? // null)} ] as $closes
-    | [ $turn[] | select(.type == "user") | .message.content[]?
-        | select(type == "object" and .type == "tool_result" and .is_error == true)
-        | .tool_use_id ] as $errors
-    | [ $closes[] | select(.id as $i | ($errors | index($i)) | not) ] as $closed
-    | ([range(0; $turn | length) | select(
-          $turn[.].type == "user"
-          or ($turn[.].type == "assistant"
-              and ([$turn[.].message.content[]?.type] | index("tool_use"))))]
-        | last // -1) as $last_act
-    | {bounded: true,
-       closed: ($closed | length),
-       task_ids: [$closed[].task | select(. != null)],
-       reply: ([ $turn[$last_act + 1:][] | select(.type == "assistant")
-                 | .message.content[]? | select(.type == "text") | .text ] | join("\n"))}
-    end' 2>/dev/null) || exit 0
 
-[ "$(printf '%s' "$facts" | jq -r '.bounded // false')" = "true" ] || exit 0
+# WHERE THE TURN STARTS, FOUND BEFORE PARSING RATHER THAN AFTER. The window is
-closed=$(printf '%s' "$facts" | jq -r '.closed // 0')
+# 3000 lines and routinely 7MB, of which a turn is the last few hundred lines
+# and about a sixth of the bytes — the rest is tool results this check never
+# looks at. The predecessor parsed all of it and threw most away, which jq
+# could afford and a parser written in awk cannot: measured at 6.5s for a 7MB
+# window against 94ms, on a hook that runs at the end of every turn.
+#
+# So grep — C, and reading a FIXED string — narrows first. A prompt record is
+# `"type":"user"` whose `content` is a STRING; a tool result is the same type
+# with an ARRAY, and the two are told apart by the character after `"content":`.
+#
+# WHY A FIXED STRING IS EXACT HERE, and not the usual regex-over-JSON guess.
+# Every quote inside a JSON string is backslash-escaped, so a needle carrying
+# UNESCAPED quotes cannot occur inside any string value — it can only match at
+# a record's own top level. `"message":{"role":"user","content":"` therefore
+# matches real prompt records and nothing else. Measured over a 27MB transcript
+# against a full JSON parse: 152 prompt records, 152 matches, no misses and no
+# extras. The looser `"content":"` matched 1101 lines, because a tool_result
+# block has a `content` key of its own — which is the trap this avoids.
+#
+# THE LAST MATCH, not a few before it, because the margin is not free: the
+# lines between two prompts are mostly tool results, and backing off three
+# matches took the window from 53KB to 1.3MB and the parse from 21ms to 2.6s.
+# The fallback below is the safety net instead — it is exact where a margin is
+# only approximate, and it costs nothing in the case that actually happens.
+#
+# The needle assumes a key ORDER that a future Claude Code could change. If it
+# does, grep matches nothing, `start` stays 1, and the whole window is read the
+# slow way — correct, and slow, which is the right way round for a check that
+# can block a stop.
+start=$(window | grep -n -F '"message":{"role":"user","content":"' 2>/dev/null \
+  | cut -d: -f1 | awk 'END { if (NR) print $0 }')
+case "$start" in ''|*[!0-9]*) start=1 ;; esac
+
+facts=$(turn_facts "$start")
+fact() { printf '%s\n' "$facts" | awk -F'\t' -v k="$1" '$1 == k { print substr($0, index($0, "\t") + 1); exit }'; }
+
+if [ "$(fact bounded)" != "1" ] && [ "$start" != "1" ]; then
+  facts=$(turn_facts 1)
+fi
+
+[ "$(fact bounded)" = "1" ] || exit 0
+closed=$(fact closed)
 if [ "${closed:-0}" = "0" ]; then
   rm -f "$marker" 2>/dev/null || true
   exit 0
 fi
-reply=$(printf '%s' "$facts" | jq -r '.reply // ""')
+# Escaped on one line coming out of awk, so the format survives a multi-line
-task_ids=$(printf '%s' "$facts" | jq -r '.task_ids | map(tostring) | join(",")')
+# reply; decoded here, once, where it is about to be read as text.
+reply=$(fact reply | scribe_json_unescape)
+task_ids=$(fact task_ids)
 
 # The reply may not be written to the transcript yet when the hook fires. An
 # empty reply is "cannot tell", not "missing everything" — stay out of the way.
@@ -146,7 +165,7 @@ report() {
   q="outcome=$1&task_ids=${task_ids}"
   m=$(IFS=,; printf '%s' "${missing[*]:-}")
   if [ -n "$m" ]; then
-    enc=$(printf '%s' "$m" | jq -sRr '@uri' 2>/dev/null) || enc=""
+    enc=$(printf '%s' "$m" | scribe_urlenc) || enc=""
     q="${q}&missing=${enc}"
   fi
   scope=$(scribe_scope_query "${event_cwd:-${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:-$PWD}}")
@@ -176,8 +195,8 @@ fi
 # a hook carries timing and transport). No reason back → nothing recorded →
 # no block.
 answer=$(report blocked) || exit 0
-reason=$(printf '%s' "$answer" | jq -r '.reason // empty' 2>/dev/null) || reason=""
+reason=$(scribe_json_pick "$(printf '%s' "$answer" | scribe_json_flat)" '.reason')
 [ -n "$reason" ] || exit 0
 : > "$marker" 2>/dev/null || true
-jq -n --arg r "$reason" '{decision: "block", reason: $r}'
+printf '{"decision":"block","reason":"%s"}\n' "$(printf '%s' "$reason" | scribe_json_escape)"
 exit 0

plugin/hooks/scribe_session_context.sh

@@ -49,8 +49,6 @@ set -uo pipefail
 # shellcheck source=plugin/hooks/scribe_defs.sh
 . "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/scribe_defs.sh"
 
-command -v jq >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0   # needed to emit the JSON envelope safely
-
 # `CDPATH= cd` is deliberate, not a typo'd assignment: it runs this one `cd`
 # with CDPATH empty, so an operator whose CDPATH happens to contain a matching
 # directory name can't send us somewhere else — and `cd` won't echo the resolved
@@ -60,7 +58,8 @@ here=$(CDPATH= cd -- "$(dirname -- "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd) || exit 0
 
 # SessionStart delivers a JSON event on stdin; `source` is startup|resume|compact|clear.
 event=$(cat 2>/dev/null || true)
-source=$(printf '%s' "$event" | jq -r '.source // empty' 2>/dev/null) || source=""
+event_flat=$(printf '%s' "$event" | scribe_json_flat)
+source=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.source')
 
 # --- The rule ledger outlives the context it describes (#3749) ---
 #
@@ -127,7 +126,7 @@ source=$(printf '%s' "$event" | jq -r '.source // empty' 2>/dev/null) || source=
 # missed exactly the arm that fires most.
 case "$source" in
   compact|clear)
-    sid=$(printf '%s' "$event" | jq -r '.session_id // empty' 2>/dev/null) || sid=""
+    sid=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.session_id')
     if [ -n "$sid" ]; then
       safe_sid=$(printf '%s' "$sid" | tr -c 'A-Za-z0-9._-' '_')
       scribe_clear_session_ledgers "$safe_sid"
@@ -163,7 +162,7 @@ prepend() { if [ -n "$out" ]; then out="$1"$'\n\n---\n\n'"${out}"; else out="$1"
 # appears there.
 manifest="$here/../.claude-plugin/plugin.json"
 if [ -f "$manifest" ]; then
-  plugin_version=$(jq -r '.version // empty' "$manifest" 2>/dev/null) || plugin_version=""
+  plugin_version=$(scribe_json_pick "$(scribe_json_flat < "$manifest")" '.version')
   if [ -n "$plugin_version" ]; then
     append "> Scribe plugin **v${plugin_version}** is executing in this session. A fix merged after this version has not reached it — the marketplace clone updates on its own, but the cache that runs only refreshes when the manifest version changes."
   fi
@@ -193,7 +192,11 @@ if [ -n "$url" ] && [ -n "$token" ] && command -v curl >/dev/null 2>&1; then
   body=$(curl -fsS --max-time 8 \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer ${token}" \
     "${url%/}/api/plugin/context${q}" 2>/dev/null) || body=""
-  [ -n "$body" ] && dyn=$(printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '.context // empty' 2>/dev/null)
+  body_flat=""
+  if [ -n "$body" ]; then
+    body_flat=$(printf '%s' "$body" | scribe_json_flat)
+    dyn=$(scribe_json_pick "$body_flat" '.context')
+  fi
   # The rules marker is gone with the resident set it described
   # (milestone 394). Nothing is preloaded, so there is no set whose
   # drift a later write could be told about — a rule is retrieved at
@@ -227,7 +230,7 @@ fi
 # server reports whether a project resolved, and this hook — which knows what
 # it sent and why — turns that into the sentence the operator can act on. The
 # repo case is left to the server's existing "bind this repo" hint.
-if [ -n "$dyn" ] && [ -z "$(printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '.project.id // empty' 2>/dev/null)" ]; then
+if [ -n "$dyn" ] && [ -z "$(scribe_json_pick "$body_flat" '.project.id')" ]; then
   host=$(scribe_url_host "$url")
   if [ -n "$marker_why" ]; then
     append "> ⚠️ Scribe: the marker file \`${marker}\` ${marker_why}, so no project context was loaded. Fix the file, or ignore it and bind this directory another way."
@@ -246,6 +249,5 @@ fi
 # Nothing at all to inject → stay silent.
 [ -n "$out" ] || exit 0
 
-jq -n --arg c "$out" \
+scribe_json_out SessionStart "$out"
-  '{hookSpecificOutput: {hookEventName: "SessionStart", additionalContext: $c}}'
 exit 0

plugin/hooks/scribe_sync_processes.sh

@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@ set -uo pipefail
 # shellcheck source=plugin/hooks/scribe_defs.sh
 . "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/scribe_defs.sh"
 
-command -v jq >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
 command -v curl >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
 
 scribe_config || exit 0
@@ -36,8 +35,12 @@ body=$(curl -fsS --max-time 8 \
   "${url%/}/api/plugin/processes" 2>/dev/null) || exit 0
 [ -n "$body" ] || exit 0
 
-count=$(printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '.processes | length' 2>/dev/null) || exit 0
+body_flat=$(printf '%s' "$body" | scribe_json_flat)
-[ -n "$count" ] && [ "$count" != "null" ] || exit 0
+# The array's LENGTH, which is "" when `.processes` is not an array at all —
+# a different answer from 0, and the one that means the response was not what
+# this hook expects.
+count=$(scribe_json_len "$body_flat" '.processes')
+case "$count" in ''|*[!0-9]*) exit 0 ;; esac
 
 skills_dir="${HOME}/.claude/skills"
 mkdir -p "$skills_dir" 2>/dev/null || exit 0
@@ -47,9 +50,9 @@ managed=" "
 
 i=0
 while [ "$i" -lt "$count" ]; do
-  name=$(printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r ".processes[$i].name // empty" 2>/dev/null)
+  name=$(scribe_json_pick "$body_flat" ".processes[$i].name")
-  slug=$(printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r ".processes[$i].slug // empty" 2>/dev/null)
+  slug=$(scribe_json_pick "$body_flat" ".processes[$i].slug")
-  desc=$(printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r ".processes[$i].description // empty" 2>/dev/null)
+  desc=$(scribe_json_pick "$body_flat" ".processes[$i].description")
   i=$((i + 1))
   [ -n "$slug" ] && [ -n "$name" ] || continue
 

plugin/hooks/scribe_tool_rules.sh

@@ -20,31 +20,31 @@
 # Env:
 #   SCRIBE_URL / SCRIBE_TOKEN override for the settings.json dogfooding path.
 
-command -v jq   >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
 command -v curl >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
 
+# Sourced FIRST, because the JSON reader below lives there (#4107). It defines
+# functions and clears `url`/`token`; nothing here runs before it is needed.
+# shellcheck source=plugin/hooks/scribe_defs.sh
+. "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/scribe_defs.sh"
+
 # PreToolUse delivers { session_id, cwd, tool_name, tool_input: {...}, ... }
 event=$(cat 2>/dev/null || true)
-tool_name=$(printf '%s' "$event" | jq -r '.tool_name // empty' 2>/dev/null) || exit 0
+event_flat=$(printf '%s' "$event" | scribe_json_flat)
-session_id=$(printf '%s' "$event" | jq -r '.session_id // empty' 2>/dev/null) || session_id=""
+tool_name=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.tool_name')
-event_cwd=$(printf '%s' "$event" | jq -r '.cwd // empty' 2>/dev/null) || event_cwd=""
+session_id=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.session_id')
+event_cwd=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.cwd')
 
 [ -n "$tool_name" ] || exit 0
 
 # The action, as text. `.command` is Bash's field; the fallbacks let the matcher
 # in hooks.json widen to other tools without this script changing — which is the
 # whole reason the server side takes a name and a string rather than a schema.
-command_text=$(printf '%s' "$event" | jq -r '
+command_text=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.tool_input.command')
-  .tool_input.command //
+[ -n "$command_text" ] || command_text=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.tool_input.url')
-  .tool_input.url //
+[ -n "$command_text" ] || command_text=$(scribe_json_pick "$event_flat" '.tool_input.prompt')
-  .tool_input.prompt //
-  empty' 2>/dev/null) || command_text=""
 
 [ -n "$command_text" ] || exit 0
 
-# shellcheck source=plugin/hooks/scribe_defs.sh
-. "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/scribe_defs.sh"
-
 # scribe_config, not a hand-rolled pair of parameter expansions: it also treats
 # an UNEXPANDED `${...}` placeholder as unset, which would otherwise be sent as
 # a garbage Bearer token and 401 on every call (#2198's class).
@@ -56,10 +56,12 @@ scribe_config || exit 0
 # place. `head -c`, never `cut -c`: cut truncates each LINE and caps nothing.
 command_text=$(printf '%s' "$command_text" | head -c 2000)
 
-# -sRr, never -rR: jq -R without -s reads LINE BY LINE, so a multi-line command
+# Whole, never line by line: the predecessor (`jq -rR`) encoded a multi-line
-# would encode per line and join with raw newlines — an invalid URL.
+# command one line at a time and joined them with raw newlines — an invalid URL.
-cmd_enc=$(printf '%s' "$command_text" | jq -sRr '@uri' 2>/dev/null) || exit 0
+# scribe_urlenc reads bytes and has no notion of a line.
-tool_enc=$(printf '%s' "$tool_name" | jq -sRr '@uri' 2>/dev/null) || exit 0
+cmd_enc=$(printf '%s' "$command_text" | scribe_urlenc)
+tool_enc=$(printf '%s' "$tool_name" | scribe_urlenc)
+[ -n "$cmd_enc" ] && [ -n "$tool_enc" ] || exit 0
 
 repo_q=""
 lookup_dir=${event_cwd:-${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:-$PWD}}
@@ -98,19 +100,14 @@ body=$(curl -fsS --max-time 5 \
   -H "Authorization: Bearer ${token}" \
   "${url%/}/api/plugin/tool-rules?tool=${tool_enc}&command=${cmd_enc}${repo_q}${rule_exclude_q}" 2>/dev/null) || exit 0
 
-context=$(printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '.context // empty' 2>/dev/null) || exit 0
+body_flat=$(printf '%s' "$body" | scribe_json_flat)
+context=$(scribe_json_pick "$body_flat" '.context')
 [ -n "$context" ] || exit 0
 
 # Remember what was named so it is not repeated this session.
 if [ -n "$rulefile" ]; then
-  printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '(.rule_ids // [])[]?' 2>/dev/null \
+  scribe_json_list "$body_flat" '.rule_ids' | scribe_rules_append "$rulefile"
-    | scribe_rules_append "$rulefile"
 fi
 
-jq -cn --arg ctx "$context" '{
+scribe_json_out PreToolUse "$context"
-  hookSpecificOutput: {
-    hookEventName: "PreToolUse",
-    additionalContext: $ctx
-  }
-}' 2>/dev/null || true
 exit 0

plugin/hooks/scribe_turn.awk

@@ -0,0 +1,108 @@
+# Scribe plugin — what happened in the LAST TURN of a transcript (#4107).
+#
+# Reads the flat `IDX<TAB>PATH<TAB>VALUE` stream that scribe_json.awk produces
+# in `mode=lines` from a Claude Code transcript, and answers the four questions
+# scribe_report_check.sh asks. It replaces a thirty-line jq program; the shape
+# of the answer is unchanged, so the hook around it reads the same.
+#
+#   bounded   1 if a user prompt was found in the window, else empty. A window
+#             with no prompt cannot be cut into a turn, and the hook then says
+#             nothing rather than guessing — `tail -n 3000` cuts wherever it
+#             cuts, and a turn that began before the cut is not this hook's.
+#   closed    how many task-closing tool calls SUCCEEDED in that turn.
+#   task_ids  their task ids, comma-joined, for the server to record.
+#   reply     the assistant text after the last action, STILL JSON-ESCAPED and
+#             on one line. The caller decodes it with scribe_json_unescape —
+#             decoding here would put newlines into a line-oriented format.
+#
+# A SIDECHAIN IS NOT THIS SESSION. Subagent records interleave into the same
+# file, and a subagent closing a task is not the operator's session closing
+# one — counting those made the check fire on turns that closed nothing.
+#
+# A CLOSE THAT ERRORED IS NOT A CLOSE, which is why the error pass runs first:
+# the tool_result carrying `is_error` arrives in a LATER record than the
+# tool_use it refutes, so a single forward pass would have already counted it.
+
+# TAB-SEPARATED, and stated rather than assumed. Under awk's default splitting
+# a value is cut at its first SPACE, so `$3` of a reply line was the reply's
+# first word — the kind of defect that hides completely behind a test whose
+# replies are all empty. Found by differential-testing this against the jq
+# program it replaces, over real transcript windows (#4107).
+BEGIN { FS = "\t" }
+
+{
+  i = $1 + 0
+  if (i > maxidx) maxidx = i
+  p = $2
+  if (p == ".type") { f[i, "type"] = $3; next }
+  if (p == ".isSidechain") { f[i, "side"] = $3; next }
+  if (p == ".isMeta") { f[i, "meta"] = $3; next }
+  # `.message.content` as a SCALAR is what marks a real user prompt; a tool
+  # result carries an array at the same path, and counting one as a prompt
+  # would cut the turn at the wrong place.
+  if (p == ".message.content") { if ($3 != "null") f[i, "str"] = 1; next }
+  if (substr(p, 1, 17) != ".message.content[") next
+  rest = substr(p, 18)
+  if (rest == "#]") { nb[i] = $3 + 0; next }
+  c = index(rest, "]")
+  if (c < 2) next
+  b[i, substr(rest, 1, c - 1) + 0, substr(rest, c + 1)] = $3
+}
+
+function is_mine(i) {
+  return (f[i, "side"] != "true")
+}
+
+function has_tool_use(i,   j) {
+  for (j = 0; j < nb[i]; j++) if (b[i, j, ".type"] == "tool_use") return 1
+  return 0
+}
+
+END {
+  for (i = 1; i <= maxidx; i++)
+    if (is_mine(i) && f[i, "type"] == "user" && f[i, "meta"] != "true" && f[i, "str"] == 1)
+      prompt = i
+  if (!prompt) { print "bounded\t"; exit 0 }
+
+  for (i = prompt + 1; i <= maxidx; i++) {
+    if (!is_mine(i) || f[i, "type"] != "user") continue
+    for (j = 0; j < nb[i]; j++)
+      if (b[i, j, ".type"] == "tool_result" && b[i, j, ".is_error"] == "true")
+        errored[b[i, j, ".tool_use_id"]] = 1
+  }
+
+  for (i = prompt + 1; i <= maxidx; i++) {
+    if (!is_mine(i) || f[i, "type"] != "assistant") continue
+    for (j = 0; j < nb[i]; j++) {
+      if (b[i, j, ".type"] != "tool_use") continue
+      if (b[i, j, ".name"] !~ /(^|__)(update|create)_task$/) continue
+      if (b[i, j, ".input.status"] != "done") continue
+      if (b[i, j, ".id"] in errored) continue
+      closed++
+      t = b[i, j, ".input.task_id"]
+      if (t != "") ids = ids (ids == "" ? "" : ",") t
+    }
+  }
+
+  # Where the WORK stopped and the report began. Everything after the last
+  # action is the reply being checked; text emitted between two tool calls is
+  # narration mid-work, not a report, and holding it to the report shape would
+  # block turns that did report properly at the end.
+  act = prompt
+  for (i = prompt + 1; i <= maxidx; i++) {
+    if (!is_mine(i)) continue
+    if (f[i, "type"] == "user" || (f[i, "type"] == "assistant" && has_tool_use(i))) act = i
+  }
+
+  for (i = act + 1; i <= maxidx; i++) {
+    if (!is_mine(i) || f[i, "type"] != "assistant") continue
+    for (j = 0; j < nb[i]; j++)
+      if (b[i, j, ".type"] == "text")
+        reply = reply (reply == "" ? "" : "\\n") b[i, j, ".text"]
+  }
+
+  printf "bounded\t1\n"
+  printf "closed\t%d\n", closed + 0
+  printf "task_ids\t%s\n", ids
+  printf "reply\t%s\n", reply
+}

scripts/check_plugin.py

@@ -28,18 +28,23 @@ forgetting to run it is still possible. What changed is that forgetting is now
 LOUD — a red lane on the batch that forgot, instead of a silent no-op found
 weeks later when somebody says "I don't think it updated" (#2220).
 
-shellcheck and jq are NOT in `ci-python` (verified against CI-runner's Dockerfile
+shellcheck is NOT in `ci-python` (verified against CI-runner's Dockerfile and
-and scripts/install-common.sh, not from memory — rule #37). CI installs both
+scripts/install-common.sh, not from memory — rule #37). CI installs it per-job,
-per-job, which is what CI-runner's own docs/process.md prescribes for a dep with
+which is what CI-runner's own docs/process.md prescribes for a dep with a
-a single consumer: "If only one project needs the dep, prefer that project
+single consumer: "If only one project needs the dep, prefer that project
 installing it per-job in their workflow — at least until a second consumer
 arrives." Promotion into the image is filed as an issue there rather than
 assumed here.
 
-Both are optional at runtime: without shellcheck the lint step is SKIPPED and
+It is optional at runtime: without shellcheck the lint step is SKIPPED and says
-says so, and without jq the smoke test is skipped. A skipped check announces
+so. A skipped check announces itself loudly, because a check that quietly
-itself loudly, because a check that quietly no-ops is the failure mode this
+no-ops is the failure mode this whole file exists to prevent.
-whole file exists to prevent.
+
+jq USED TO BE IN THAT SAME SENTENCE, and the smoke tests below skipped
+themselves without it. Since jq is not in `ci-python` either, that meant three
+of them announced a skip on every CI run and had never actually run there. The
+hooks need no jq now (#4107), so those checks run unconditionally — removing a
+dependency from the product removed a permanent hole in its verification.
 
 Usage:
     python3 scripts/check_plugin.py                # all checks
@@ -197,16 +202,24 @@ PATTERNS: list[tuple[re.Pattern, str, str]] = [
         "hook then does nothing, silently.",
     ),
     (
-        # -R without -s: reads input line by line, so a multi-line payload is
+        # NEITHER OF THESE MAY COME BACK (#4107). This replaced a narrower rule
-        # encoded per line and joined with raw newlines. The class is a-r + t-z
+        # about `jq -R` being line-oriented, which is now moot in the only way
-        # (i.e. every letter EXCEPT `s`) so `-rR` is caught and `-sRr` is not —
+        # that rule could become moot: there is no jq left to pass flags to.
-        # an earlier a-q spelling silently excluded `r` and missed the real
+        #
-        # defect, which is exactly the flag combination that shipped.
+        # The wider rule is the one worth having. jq is absent by default on
-        re.compile(r"jq\s+-(?:[a-rt-zA-Z]*R[a-rt-zA-Z]*)\s"),
+        # macOS, on the Debian/Ubuntu slim images, on Alpine and in most CI
-        "line-oriented jq -R",
+        # containers; `tac` is GNU-only and absent on macOS. Every hook used to
-        "jq -R reads input LINE BY LINE. Encoding a multi-line payload that way "
+        # guard itself with `command -v jq || exit 0`, so a machine without it
-        "produces separate encoded lines joined by raw newlines — an invalid "
+        # got no context, no rules, no prior art and no process sync, silently —
-        "URL. Use -s (slurp) as well, e.g. `jq -sRr '@uri'`.",
+        # `exit 0` is indistinguishable from "nothing to say". A hook may use
+        # only what POSIX guarantees; scribe_defs.sh has the readers.
+        re.compile(r"(?<![\w./-])(jq|tac)(?![\w./-])"),
+        "jq or tac in a hook",
+        "A hook may depend only on what POSIX guarantees — jq is not installed "
+        "by default anywhere the plugin is likely to land, and tac is GNU-only. "
+        "Read JSON with scribe_json_flat / _pick / _list / _len, write it with "
+        "scribe_json_out, encode with scribe_urlenc; to take the LAST match of "
+        "a filter, pipe to `tail -1` instead of reversing with tac (#4107).",
     ),
     (
         # `$(producer | head -N) || var=""` — the fallback OUTSIDE the
@@ -398,13 +411,13 @@ def _run_hook(script: Path, event: str, env_extra: dict[str, str]) -> subprocess
 
 
 def check_fail_open() -> None:
-    if not shutil.which("jq"):
+    # No jq gate any more (#4107). This check used to skip itself when jq was
-        # Without jq every hook bails at its first line, so this would pass
+    # missing, because without it every hook bailed at line 1 and the check
-        # while exercising nothing. Say so rather than bank a green tick.
+    # would have passed while exercising nothing. jq is NOT in `ci-python`, so
-        skip("jq not installed — the hooks would exit at line 1, so this "
+    # what that actually meant is that this smoke test announced a skip on
-             "check would pass without testing anything")
+    # every CI run and never once ran there. The hooks now need only POSIX
-        return
+    # tools, so it runs everywhere — which is the point of the change it is
-
+    # testing.
     scenarios = [
         ("unconfigured", {}),
         # Connection refused immediately — exercises the unreachable-instance
@@ -467,8 +480,8 @@ def check_local_prior_art_needs_no_instance() -> None:
     nothing to say, and speaking when there is — both with no instance at all.
     """
     script = HOOKS_DIR / "scribe_prior_art.sh"
-    if not script.is_file() or not shutil.which("jq"):
+    if not script.is_file():
-        skip("prior-art local arm: hook or jq missing")
+        skip("prior-art local arm: hook missing")
         return
 
     # A definition this repo really does contain, written into a DIFFERENT file
@@ -510,8 +523,8 @@ def check_session_context_reports_its_version() -> None:
     would be missing exactly when it is wanted.
     """
     script = HOOKS_DIR / "scribe_session_context.sh"
-    if not script.is_file() or not shutil.which("jq"):
+    if not script.is_file():
-        skip("version marker: hook or jq missing")
+        skip("version marker: hook missing")
         return
 
     manifest_v = manifest_version()

tests/test_after_write_hook.py

@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ HOOK = PLUGIN / "hooks" / "scribe_after_write.sh"
 
 
 def _env(tmp_path, url="http://127.0.0.1:9"):
-    for tool in ("git", "jq", "curl", "bash"):
+    for tool in ("git", "curl", "bash"):
         if shutil.which(tool) is None:
             pytest.skip(f"hook runtime tool {tool!r} not installed")
     return {"PATH": os.environ["PATH"], "SCRIBE_URL": url, "SCRIBE_TOKEN": "t",

tests/test_hook_json_reader.py

@@ -0,0 +1,380 @@
+"""JSON, read and written by the hooks without jq (#4107).
+
+WHAT THIS REPLACED, AND WHY IT NEEDS TESTING AT ALL. Every hook used to open
+`command -v jq >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0`, so on a machine without jq the
+operator got no session context, no rules, no prior art and no process sync,
+and not one word saying why — `exit 0` is indistinguishable from "ran fine,
+nothing to say". jq is absent by default on macOS, on the Debian/Ubuntu slim
+images, on Alpine and in most CI containers. The parser that replaced it is
+`plugin/hooks/scribe_json.awk`, written in POSIX awk, and a parser is exactly
+the kind of thing that works on the six documents you tried it on.
+
+So the centre of this file is a DIFFERENTIAL against Python's `json`: the same
+documents, flattened by both, compared. A reader that agrees with a real JSON
+implementation on nested objects, arrays, escapes, unicode and the empty cases
+is one the hooks can be handed an arbitrary event with.
+
+The rest pins the three jobs around it — writing the hook envelope,
+percent-encoding a URL, and bounding a turn in a transcript — and that each
+guard here can fail (rule 167).
+"""
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import json
+import re
+import shutil
+import subprocess
+from pathlib import Path
+from urllib.parse import quote
+
+import pytest
+
+HOOKS = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1] / "plugin" / "hooks"
+DEFS = HOOKS / "scribe_defs.sh"
+PARSER = HOOKS / "scribe_json.awk"
+TURN = HOOKS / "scribe_turn.awk"
+
+
+def _need(*tools):
+    for t in tools:
+        if shutil.which(t) is None:
+            pytest.skip(f"hook runtime tool {t!r} not installed")
+
+
+def sh(script: str, stdin: str = "") -> str:
+    """Run a snippet with scribe_defs.sh sourced, under the hooks' own flags.
+
+    BYTES IN, BYTES OUT, decoded here — NOT `text=True`. Text mode turns on
+    universal newlines, which rewrites a carriage return in the output to a
+    newline before the assertion ever sees it. A test of an escaper cannot
+    quietly normalise the characters it exists to check: the first version of
+    this file did, and reported a round-trip failure that was entirely its own.
+    """
+    _need("bash", "awk")
+    r = subprocess.run(
+        ["bash", "-c", f'set -uo pipefail\n. "{DEFS}"\n{script}'],
+        input=stdin.encode(), capture_output=True,
+    )
+    assert r.returncode == 0, f"exit {r.returncode}: {r.stderr.decode()}"
+    return r.stdout.decode()
+
+
+def flat(doc: str, mode: str = "whole") -> list[tuple[str, str, str]]:
+    _need("awk")
+    r = subprocess.run(["awk", "-v", f"mode={mode}", "-f", str(PARSER)],
+                       input=doc.encode(), capture_output=True)
+    assert r.returncode == 0, r.stderr.decode()
+    return [tuple(line.split("\t", 2)) for line in r.stdout.decode().split("\n") if line]
+
+
+# --------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# The differential: this parser against Python's.
+
+def reference_flatten(value, path="", out=None):
+    """What scribe_json.awk is specified to emit, computed with `json`.
+
+    A string's VALUE is its RAW escaped body — the parser deliberately does not
+    decode, because a newline inside a value would break the line format the
+    shell reads it back with. Every array also reports its LENGTH at `[#]`,
+    including an empty one, and an empty object reports `{#}` 0 — that is what
+    lets a caller tell "the server answered with zero notes" from "the server
+    did not answer", which #2932 built an outage marker around.
+    """
+    out = [] if out is None else out
+    if isinstance(value, dict):
+        if not value:
+            out.append((path + "{#}", "0"))
+        for k, v in value.items():
+            reference_flatten(v, f"{path}.{k}", out)
+    elif isinstance(value, list):
+        for i, v in enumerate(value):
+            reference_flatten(v, f"{path}[{i}]", out)
+        out.append((path + "[#]", str(len(value))))
+    elif isinstance(value, str):
+        out.append((path, json.dumps(value, ensure_ascii=False)[1:-1]))
+    elif value is None:
+        out.append((path, "null"))
+    elif isinstance(value, bool):
+        out.append((path, "true" if value else "false"))
+    else:
+        out.append((path, json.dumps(value)))
+    return out
+
+
+NASTY = [
+    "plain",
+    "",
+    'has "quotes" inside',
+    "back \\ slash and \\\\ two",
+    "line one\nline two\nline three",
+    "tab\there and\ttwice",
+    "carriage\rreturn",
+    "héllo wörld — em dash",
+    "emoji \U0001f600 and \U0001f9ea and a ZWJ \U0001f469‍\U0001f4bb",
+    'mixed: "q" \\ \n \t é \U0001f600',
+    "a" * 3000,                       # longer than the parser's token WINDOW
+    '{"looks":"like json"}',          # JSON inside a string must not be parsed
+    "trailing backslash \\",
+    " bell and  unit-sep",
+]
+
+DOCUMENTS = [
+    {"prompt": "write the tests first", "session_id": "abc-1", "cwd": "/x/y"},
+    {"tool_input": {"file_path": "/a/b.py", "content": "def f():\n    pass\n"}},
+    {"note_ids": [1, 2, 3], "sync_note_ids": [], "rule_ids": [9]},
+    {"context": "", "n": None, "ok": True, "no": False, "num": -12.5, "exp": 1000.0},
+    {"processes": [{"name": "A", "slug": "a"}, {"name": "B", "slug": "b"}]},
+    {"deep": {"a": {"b": {"c": {"d": [{"e": "f"}]}}}}},
+    {"empty_obj": {}, "empty_arr": [], "nested_empty": {"x": []}},
+    {"message": {"role": "user", "content": [{"type": "text", "text": "hi"}]}},
+    2,
+    "bare string",
+    [1, [2, [3, []]]],
+] + [{"v": s} for s in NASTY] + [{"k": {"inner": s, "arr": [s, s]}} for s in NASTY]
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("doc", DOCUMENTS, ids=range(len(DOCUMENTS)))
+def test_the_parser_agrees_with_a_real_json_implementation(doc):
+    encoded = json.dumps(doc, ensure_ascii=False)
+    got = [(p, v) for _idx, p, v in flat(encoded)]
+    assert got == reference_flatten(doc)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("doc", DOCUMENTS, ids=range(len(DOCUMENTS)))
+def test_the_parser_reads_a_pretty_printed_document_the_same_way(doc):
+    """Whole mode accumulates until the value is complete, so a document spread
+    over many lines reads identically to the compact form. Claude Code writes
+    compact events today; betting on that is how a reader breaks quietly."""
+    compact = [(p, v) for _i, p, v in flat(json.dumps(doc, ensure_ascii=False))]
+    pretty = [(p, v) for _i, p, v in flat(json.dumps(doc, indent=2, ensure_ascii=False))]
+    assert compact == pretty
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("value", NASTY)
+def test_a_value_survives_the_round_trip_the_hooks_actually_make(value):
+    """Parse, pick, decode — what every hook does to read one field. The 3000
+    character entry matters most: it is longer than the parser's token window,
+    so it takes the wide-read fallback rather than the fast path."""
+    doc = json.dumps({"tool_input": {"content": value}}, ensure_ascii=False)
+    got = sh('flat=$(scribe_json_flat); scribe_json_pick "$flat" \'.tool_input.content\'',
+             stdin=doc)
+    assert got.rstrip("\n") == value.rstrip("\n")
+
+
+# --------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Reading: the shell side.
+
+def test_pick_list_and_len_read_what_the_server_sends():
+    body = json.dumps({"context": "some markdown", "note_ids": [11, 22, 33],
+                       "sync_note_ids": [22], "derive_keys": ["k1", "k2"],
+                       "rule_ids": [], "project": {"id": 7}})
+    out = sh(r"""
+        flat=$(scribe_json_flat)
+        echo "ctx=$(scribe_json_pick "$flat" '.context')"
+        echo "pid=$(scribe_json_pick "$flat" '.project.id')"
+        echo "notes=$(scribe_json_list "$flat" '.note_ids' | tr '\n' ',')"
+        echo "keys=$(scribe_json_list "$flat" '.derive_keys' | tr '\n' ',')"
+        echo "n=$(scribe_json_len "$flat" '.note_ids')"
+        echo "rules_n=$(scribe_json_len "$flat" '.rule_ids')"
+        echo "minus=$(scribe_json_list_minus "$flat" '.note_ids' '.sync_note_ids' | tr '\n' ',')"
+    """, stdin=body)
+    got = dict(line.split("=", 1) for line in out.splitlines())
+    assert got == {"ctx": "some markdown", "pid": "7", "notes": "11,22,33,",
+                   "keys": "k1,k2,", "n": "3", "rules_n": "0", "minus": "11,33,"}
+
+
+def test_an_absent_field_and_a_null_field_both_read_as_empty():
+    """`// empty` is what every call site carried, and the shells downstream
+    test `[ -n "$x" ]`. A field the server left null and one it never sent mean
+    the same thing to all of them."""
+    out = sh(r"""
+        flat=$(scribe_json_flat)
+        printf '[%s][%s][%s]\n' "$(scribe_json_pick "$flat" '.nothing')" \
+            "$(scribe_json_pick "$flat" '.nulled')" "$(scribe_json_pick "$flat" '.real')"
+    """, stdin=json.dumps({"nulled": None, "real": "here"}))
+    assert out.strip() == "[][][here]"
+
+
+def test_an_absent_array_length_is_empty_not_zero():
+    """NOT the same answer as 0, and the distinction is load-bearing: the
+    record nudge fires when the server said "zero notes" and must not fire
+    when the server said nothing at all (#2932)."""
+    out = sh(r"""flat=$(scribe_json_flat)
+                 printf '[%s][%s]\n' "$(scribe_json_len "$flat" '.note_ids')" \
+                                     "$(scribe_json_len "$flat" '.missing')" """,
+             stdin=json.dumps({"note_ids": []}))
+    assert out.strip() == "[0][]"
+
+
+def test_a_document_that_does_not_parse_yields_nothing():
+    for broken in ['{"a":', '{"a" 1}', "not json at all", '{"a":1}{"b":2}', ""]:
+        assert flat(broken) == [], broken
+
+
+def test_lines_mode_drops_only_the_record_that_did_not_parse():
+    """`tail -n 3000` of a transcript cuts wherever it cuts, so the first line
+    is routinely half a record. This is the `map(try fromjson catch empty)`
+    the jq program it replaces opened with."""
+    doc = "\n".join(['ent":"truncated"}',
+                     json.dumps({"type": "user", "n": 1}),
+                     "{ also broken",
+                     json.dumps({"type": "assistant", "n": 2})])
+    rows = flat(doc, mode="lines")
+    assert [r for r in rows if r[1] == ".n"] == [("1", ".n", "1"), ("2", ".n", "2")]
+
+
+# --------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Writing, and encoding.
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("value", NASTY)
+def test_the_hook_envelope_is_valid_json_carrying_the_exact_context(value):
+    """The one JSON document these hooks WRITE. Five hooks emitted it through
+    `jq -n --arg c`; getting the escaping wrong corrupts every injected context
+    that contains a Windows path, a regex or a quoted word."""
+    out = sh('scribe_json_out PreToolUse "$(cat)"', stdin=value)
+    parsed = json.loads(out)
+    assert parsed["hookSpecificOutput"]["hookEventName"] == "PreToolUse"
+    assert parsed["hookSpecificOutput"]["additionalContext"] == value.rstrip("\n")
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("value", NASTY + ["a b&c=d", "~!*()", "/path/to?q=1#f", "100%"])
+def test_urlenc_percent_encodes_exactly_the_unreserved_set(value):
+    """Byte-exact, which is why it goes through `od` rather than an awk
+    character loop: awk's idea of a character follows the locale, so gawk reads
+    an accented letter as one and mawk as two, and an encoder built on substr()
+    would produce a different URL depending on which awk is installed.
+    Percent-encoding is defined on BYTES."""
+    got = sh("scribe_urlenc", stdin=value)
+    assert got == quote(value, safe="")
+
+
+def test_urlenc_and_the_envelope_can_fail():
+    """Rule 167 — a guard that cannot fail is decoration. If the escaper were a
+    no-op, this pair would be the assertion that noticed."""
+    assert sh("scribe_urlenc", stdin="a b") != "a b"
+    raw = sh('scribe_json_out PreToolUse "$(cat)"', stdin='he said "hi"')
+    assert '\\"hi\\"' in raw, raw
+
+
+# --------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# The transcript turn, which is the largest thing jq was doing here.
+
+def _turn(records: list[dict]) -> dict:
+    _need("awk")
+    doc = "\n".join(json.dumps(r) for r in records) + "\n"
+    p1 = subprocess.run(["awk", "-v", "mode=lines", "-f", str(PARSER)],
+                        input=doc, capture_output=True, text=True)
+    assert p1.returncode == 0, p1.stderr
+    p2 = subprocess.run(["awk", "-f", str(TURN)], input=p1.stdout,
+                        capture_output=True, text=True)
+    assert p2.returncode == 0, p2.stderr
+    out = {}
+    for line in p2.stdout.splitlines():
+        k, _, v = line.partition("\t")
+        out[k] = v
+    return out
+
+
+def _prompt(text="do the thing", **kw):
+    return {"type": "user", "message": {"role": "user", "content": text}, **kw}
+
+
+def _close(tid="t1", task_id=41, status="done", name="mcp__x__update_task", **kw):
+    return {"type": "assistant", "message": {"content": [
+        {"type": "tool_use", "id": tid, "name": name,
+         "input": {"task_id": task_id, "status": status}}]}, **kw}
+
+
+def _text(body, **kw):
+    return {"type": "assistant",
+            "message": {"content": [{"type": "text", "text": body}]}, **kw}
+
+
+def _error(tid="t1"):
+    return {"type": "user", "message": {"content": [
+        {"type": "tool_result", "tool_use_id": tid, "is_error": True}]}}
+
+
+def test_a_window_with_no_prompt_is_not_bounded():
+    assert _turn([_close(), _text("done")])["bounded"] == ""
+
+
+def test_the_turn_starts_at_the_last_prompt():
+    facts = _turn([_prompt("first"), _close("t1", 11), _prompt("second"),
+                   _close("t2", 22), _text("report")])
+    assert facts["bounded"] == "1"
+    assert facts["closed"] == "1"
+    assert facts["task_ids"] == "22"
+
+
+def test_a_close_that_errored_is_not_a_close():
+    """The tool_result carrying `is_error` arrives in a LATER record than the
+    tool_use it refutes, so a single forward pass would already have counted
+    it. Closing a task that failed to write must not count as closing it."""
+    assert _turn([_prompt(), _close("t1", 41), _error("t1"), _text("r")])["closed"] == "0"
+    assert _turn([_prompt(), _close("t1", 41), _error("t9"), _text("r")])["closed"] == "1"
+
+
+def test_a_subagents_work_is_not_this_sessions():
+    """Sidechain records interleave into the same file. A subagent closing a
+    task is not the operator's session closing one, and counting those made the
+    check fire on turns that closed nothing."""
+    assert _turn([_prompt(), _close("t1", 41, isSidechain=True), _text("r")])["closed"] == "0"
+    side = _turn([_prompt(), _prompt("subagent asked", isSidechain=True),
+                  _close("t1", 41), _text("r")])
+    assert side["closed"] == "1", "a sidechain PROMPT must not re-cut the turn"
+
+
+def test_a_meta_record_does_not_start_a_turn():
+    facts = _turn([_prompt("real"), _close("t1", 41),
+                   _prompt("injected", isMeta=True), _text("report")])
+    assert facts["closed"] == "1"
+
+
+def test_the_reply_is_the_text_after_the_last_action_and_keeps_its_newlines():
+    """Text emitted BETWEEN two tool calls is narration mid-work, not a report;
+    holding it to the report shape would block turns that did report properly
+    at the end. The reply comes back still escaped and on one line, so the
+    format survives a multi-line answer."""
+    facts = _turn([_prompt(), _text("thinking out loud"), _close("t1", 41),
+                   _text("line one\nline two"), _text("line three")])
+    assert facts["reply"] == "line one\\nline two\\nline three"
+    decoded = sh("scribe_json_unescape", stdin=facts["reply"])
+    assert decoded == "line one\nline two\nline three\n"
+    assert "thinking out loud" not in decoded
+
+
+def test_a_tool_result_does_not_read_as_a_prompt():
+    """A prompt's `message.content` is a STRING; a tool result carries an ARRAY
+    at the same path. Counting one as a prompt would cut the turn in the wrong
+    place — which is the whole bounding decision."""
+    facts = _turn([_prompt("real"), _close("t1", 41), _error("t9"), _text("report")])
+    assert facts["closed"] == "1" and facts["task_ids"] == "41"
+
+
+def test_the_turn_guards_can_fail():
+    """Rule 167. If the analyzer counted everything, or nothing, these are the
+    assertions that would notice."""
+    assert _turn([_prompt(), _close("t1", 41), _text("r")])["closed"] == "1"
+    assert _turn([_prompt(), _text("r")])["closed"] == "0"
+
+
+# --------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# And the dependency itself.
+
+def test_no_hook_reaches_for_jq_or_tac():
+    """The point of all of the above. A hook may use only what POSIX
+    guarantees: jq is not installed by default on macOS, the Debian/Ubuntu slim
+    images, Alpine or most CI containers, and tac is GNU-only — absent on macOS,
+    where the prior-art hook's enclosing-definition arm silently did nothing
+    from the day it shipped. Comment lines are exempt: several hooks now name
+    the old form so the next reader knows what changed."""
+    banned = re.compile(r"(?<![\w./-])(jq|tac)(?![\w./-])")
+    offenders = []
+    for script in sorted(HOOKS.glob("*.sh")) + sorted(HOOKS.glob("*.awk")):
+        for n, line in enumerate(script.read_text().splitlines(), 1):
+            if line.lstrip().startswith("#"):
+                continue
+            if banned.search(line):
+                offenders.append(f"{script.name}:{n}: {line.strip()}")
+    assert not offenders, "\n".join(offenders)

tests/test_plugin_version_mint.py

@@ -282,6 +282,11 @@ def test_the_shipped_manifest_carries_a_minted_version():
 def test_the_session_context_hook_still_reads_the_version_field():
     """The marker #2220 asked for. The value's SHAPE changed, not the field or
     its reader — if this had to move, the derivation went somewhere it should
-    not have."""
+    not have.
+
+    The READER changed once, in #4107: `jq -r '.version'` became
+    `scribe_json_pick ... '.version'` when the hooks stopped depending on jq.
+    What this pins is unchanged — that the hook still reads `.version` out of
+    the manifest rather than deriving the string some other way."""
     hook = (check_plugin.HOOKS_DIR / "scribe_session_context.sh").read_text()
-    assert re.search(r"jq\s+-r\s+'\.version", hook)
+    assert re.search(r"scribe_json_pick[^\n]*'\.version'", hook)

tests/test_report_check_hook.py

@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ REASON = "SERVER REASON: rewrite as a completion report"
 
 
 def _env(tmp_path, url="http://127.0.0.1:9"):
-    for tool in ("jq", "curl", "bash"):
+    for tool in ("curl", "bash"):
         if shutil.which(tool) is None:
             pytest.skip(f"hook runtime tool {tool!r} not installed")
     return {"PATH": os.environ["PATH"], "SCRIBE_URL": url, "SCRIBE_TOKEN": "t",

tests/test_rule_opened_ledger.py

@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ def test_held_outranks_seen_regardless_of_kind():
 # ── the recorder ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
 def _run_recorder(event: dict, tmp: Path) -> Path:
-    for tool in ("bash", "jq"):
+    for tool in ("bash",):
         if shutil.which(tool) is None:
             pytest.skip(f"hook runtime tool {tool!r} not installed")
     env = {"PATH": os.environ["PATH"], "HOME": str(tmp), "TMPDIR": str(tmp)}

tests/test_scribe_marker.py

@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ INSTANCE = "https://scribe.example.com"
 
 
 def _sh(script: str, cwd: Path, env_extra: dict | None = None) -> str:
-    for tool in ("bash", "jq"):
+    for tool in ("bash",):
         if shutil.which(tool) is None:
             pytest.skip(f"hook runtime tool {tool!r} not installed")
     env = {"PATH": os.environ["PATH"], "HOME": str(cwd)}

tests/test_session_context_ledger.py

@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ def _env(tmp_path):
     the clear happens with no credentials and no network at all — so sharing a
     helper would mean testing this case in an environment that cannot show it.
     """
-    for tool in ("jq", "bash"):
+    for tool in ("bash",):
         if shutil.which(tool) is None:
             pytest.skip(f"hook runtime tool {tool!r} not installed")
     # No SCRIBE_URL / SCRIBE_TOKEN on purpose — see the module docstring.

tests/test_session_ledger_clear.py

@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ def _swept_dirs() -> set[str]:
 
 def _run_session_start(source: str, tmp: Path) -> Path:
     """Run the SessionStart hook for real, with the ledger directories filled."""
-    for tool in ("bash", "jq"):
+    for tool in ("bash",):
         if shutil.which(tool) is None:
             pytest.skip(f"hook runtime tool {tool!r} not installed")
 

tests/test_write_path_trigger.py

@@ -1108,7 +1108,7 @@ def _hook_runtime_env():
     import os
     import shutil
 
-    for tool in ("git", "jq", "curl", "bash"):
+    for tool in ("git", "curl", "bash"):
         if shutil.which(tool) is None:
             pytest.skip(f"hook runtime tool {tool!r} not installed")
     return {"PATH": os.environ["PATH"],