plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "name": "scribe",
   "description": "Scribe system-of-record for Claude Code: MCP tools over your notes/tasks/projects/rules, a session-start push channel that surfaces your always-on rules + active-project context, process-skills (writing-plans, systematic-debugging, verification, brainstorming, reusing-code), and your saved Scribe Processes auto-surfaced as skills (/scribe:sync). Replaces superpowers + file-memory with one app-backed plugin.",
-  "version": "2026.09.09.0408",
+  "version": "2026.09.10.0221",
   "author": {
     "name": "Bryan Van Deusen"
   },

plugin/hooks/scribe_defs.sh

@@ -16,6 +16,9 @@
 #   scribe_reached STATE SID   the server answered: the next outage speaks again
 #   scribe_config              sets `url` + `token` from the env, returns 0
 #                              only if BOTH are usable (#2278)
+#   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
 #
 # Sourced, not executed: `. "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/scribe_defs.sh"`.
 
@@ -175,3 +178,103 @@ scribe_unreached() {
 scribe_reached() {
   rm -f "$1/$2.unreached" 2>/dev/null || true
 }
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# THE RULE EXCLUSION LEDGER, and how entries in it AGE (#3751).
+#
+# Two hooks write this file and two read it, which is the whole reason the
+# parsing lives here: `scribe_prior_art.sh` and `scribe_tool_rules.sh` share
+# one ledger so a rule named by one arm is not re-offered by the other, and a
+# format only one of them understood would break that on the first read.
+#
+# WHAT PROBLEM AGEING SOLVES. #3749 clears the ledger when an EVENT destroys
+# context — a compaction or a /clear. This is the case with no event at all: a
+# long session where the rule was named two hundred turns ago and has simply
+# fallen out of attention. It is #3702's argument at the tier level (present in
+# context and salient at the moment are different properties) applied to time
+# instead of to tier.
+#
+# PER-ENTRY TIMESTAMPS, NOT A FILE MTIME. Clearing the whole ledger when the
+# file is old is one line of shell and wrong in exactly the session that needs
+# it: a single recent write keeps every stale id alive, and the ids that go
+# stale first are the ones from the rules that fire most.
+#
+# WALL TIME, NOT A TURN COUNT, and the trade is real rather than dismissed. A
+# turn count is a truer model of salience — an idle session does not forget —
+# but a hook has no turn number without keeping its own counter, which is a
+# second piece of session state to write, read, clear on compaction and get
+# wrong. Wall time is available from `date` and costs nothing. The failure mode
+# it accepts is a session left idle over lunch treating its rules as forgotten,
+# which produces one extra full line per rule and no other harm.
+_SCRIBE_RULE_TTL=2700
+
+# 45 MINUTES, and the reasoning rather than the number (rule 32).
+#
+# There is no data on this yet, so it is a judgement made to be revised — the
+# telemetry that would settle it is the one #3807 just built, and a reading of
+# how often an aged-out rule gets PULLED after it returns is what should move
+# this.
+#
+# Too short and the exclusion stops existing and the repetition it prevents
+# comes back. Too long and it never fires at all in a session short enough to
+# matter. 45 minutes is about one working stretch on a single task: long enough
+# that a rule does not re-announce itself while you are still doing the thing
+# it governs, short enough that a multi-hour session gets a genuine refresh
+# rather than one 9am mention.
+#
+# Being wrong on the short side is now the cheaper error, which is why this
+# leans short. Since #3750 an excluded rule is REFERENCED rather than withheld,
+# so the ledger is no longer the only thing standing between a session and a
+# rule it has forgotten — an expired entry costs one full line instead of one
+# short one, and the exclusion re-arms the moment it is spent.
+
+# Live ids from a ledger, comma-joined for `exclude_rule_ids`. Empty output for
+# a missing, empty or fully-aged file — the callers already treat "" as "send
+# no exclusions".
+#
+# THE LAST ENTRY FOR AN ID WINS, and this is what stops a rule ping-ponging.
+# The file is append-only, so a rule that ages out, gets surfaced fresh and is
+# appended again has TWO lines. Reading the first would leave it permanently
+# expired and it would re-announce itself on every single call from then on —
+# the loudest possible failure, from the mechanism meant to quieten things.
+# Appends are chronological, so the last line for an id is its most recent.
+#
+# A BARE ID — no tab, no timestamp — IS LIVE. That is the pre-#3751 format, and
+# a session in flight when this ships has a ledger full of them. Treating
+# unknown as expired would make every one of those sessions re-announce every
+# rule it had already been told, all at once, which is precisely the noise this
+# exists to prevent. Unknown means "not measured" and never "old" — the same
+# null discipline the retrieval_logs columns use. Those entries simply never
+# age, which is bounded: the session ends.
+scribe_rules_live() {
+  local f="$1" now
+  [ -n "$f" ] && [ -f "$f" ] || return 0
+  now=$(date +%s 2>/dev/null) || now=0
+  awk -F'\t' -v now="$now" -v ttl="$_SCRIBE_RULE_TTL" '
+    {
+      id = $1
+      gsub(/[^0-9]/, "", id)
+      if (id == "") next
+      if (!(id in seen)) { seen[id] = 1; seq[++n] = id }
+      stamp[id] = ($2 ~ /^[0-9]+$/) ? $2 : ""
+    }
+    END {
+      out = ""
+      for (i = 1; i <= n; i++) {
+        id = seq[i]
+        if (stamp[id] != "" && now > 0 && (now - stamp[id]) > ttl) continue
+        out = out (out == "" ? "" : ",") id
+      }
+      print out
+    }
+  ' "$f" 2>/dev/null || true
+}
+
+# Append surfaced ids, stamped. Reads ids on stdin, one per line — the shape
+# `jq -r '(.rule_ids // [])[]?'` already produces at both call sites.
+scribe_rules_append() {
+  local f="$1" now
+  [ -n "$f" ] || return 0
+  now=$(date +%s 2>/dev/null) || now=0
+  awk -v ts="$now" 'NF { print $1 "\t" ts }' >> "$f" 2>/dev/null || true
+}

plugin/hooks/scribe_prior_art.sh

@@ -204,11 +204,12 @@ if [ -n "$session_id" ]; then
     derive_seen=$(tr '\n' ',' < "$derivefile" 2>/dev/null | sed 's/,$//' | jq -sRr '@uri' 2>/dev/null) || derive_seen=""
     [ -n "$derive_seen" ] && derive_exclude_q="&exclude_derive=${derive_seen}"
   fi
-  if [ -f "$rulefile" ]; then
+  # Ageing, not a flat read (#3751), and the ONLY ledger here that ages: the
-    rule_seen=$(tr '\n' ',' < "$rulefile" 2>/dev/null | sed 's/,$//')
+  # note channels above are a different question with a different answer, and
+  # this arm's sibling hook reads the same rule file through the same helper.
+  rule_seen=$(scribe_rules_live "$rulefile")
   [ -n "$rule_seen" ] && rule_exclude_q="&exclude_rule_ids=${rule_seen}"
 fi
-fi
 
 # Not `|| exit 0`: an unreachable instance must not discard a local finding
 # that needed no instance to produce. And not silence either (#2932): a call
@@ -239,7 +240,8 @@ if [ -n "$body" ]; then
       printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '(.sync_note_ids // [])[]?' 2>/dev/null >> "$syncfile" || true
     fi
     if [ -n "$rulefile" ]; then
-      printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '(.rule_ids // [])[]?' 2>/dev/null >> "$rulefile" || true
+      printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '(.rule_ids // [])[]?' 2>/dev/null \
+        | scribe_rules_append "$rulefile"
     fi
     if [ -n "$derivefile" ]; then
       printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '(.derive_keys // [])[]?' 2>/dev/null >> "$derivefile" || true

plugin/hooks/scribe_tool_rules.sh

@@ -86,11 +86,11 @@ rule_exclude_q=""
 if [ -n "$session_id" ]; then
   safe_sid=$(printf '%s' "$session_id" | tr -c 'A-Za-z0-9._-' '_')
   rulefile="$state_dir/${safe_sid}.rules.ids"
-  if [ -f "$rulefile" ]; then
+  # Ageing, not a flat read (#3751): an id named two hours ago is not one the
-    rule_seen=$(tr '\n' ',' < "$rulefile" 2>/dev/null | sed 's/,$//')
+  # session is still holding. scribe_rules_live carries the reasoning.
+  rule_seen=$(scribe_rules_live "$rulefile")
   [ -n "$rule_seen" ] && rule_exclude_q="&exclude_rule_ids=${rule_seen}"
 fi
-fi
 
 # `|| exit 0` here, unlike the prior-art hook: there is no local arm whose
 # finding would be discarded, and an outage line before every command is worse
@@ -104,7 +104,8 @@ context=$(printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '.context // empty' 2>/dev/null) || 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 >> "$rulefile" || true
+  printf '%s' "$body" | jq -r '(.rule_ids // [])[]?' 2>/dev/null \
+    | scribe_rules_append "$rulefile"
 fi
 
 jq -cn --arg ctx "$context" '{

tests/test_rule_ledger_ageing.py

@@ -0,0 +1,216 @@
+"""Entries in the rule exclusion ledger age out (#3751).
+
+WHY THIS EXISTS
+
+#3749 clears the ledger when an EVENT destroys context — a compaction, a
+/clear. This covers the case with no event at all: a long session where a rule
+was named two hundred turns ago and has simply fallen out of attention. Same
+argument #3702 made at the tier level (present in context and salient at the
+moment are different properties), applied to time instead of to tier.
+
+WHAT IS PINNED, AND WHAT DELIBERATELY IS NOT
+
+Not the TTL's value. 2700 is a judgement made to be revised once there is
+telemetry to revise it with, and a test asserting `== 2700` would turn a
+legitimate tuning change into a red build — which is how a number nobody may
+touch gets one. The tests read the constant out of the shell and assert the
+PROPERTY around it, so any TTL works and only a broken comparison fails.
+
+Runs the real shell, like `test_session_context_ledger` and the after-write
+hook's tests, and deliberately with no SCRIBE_URL/SCRIBE_TOKEN: ageing is
+local, keyless and networkless, and must work on an instance that is
+unreachable or was never configured.
+"""
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import os
+import re
+import shutil
+import subprocess
+import time
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import pytest
+
+PLUGIN = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1] / "plugin" / "hooks"
+DEFS = PLUGIN / "scribe_defs.sh"
+
+
+def _ttl() -> int:
+    """The TTL as the shell defines it — never a copy of the number."""
+    m = re.search(r"^_SCRIBE_RULE_TTL=(\d+)", DEFS.read_text(), re.M)
+    assert m, "_SCRIBE_RULE_TTL is gone from scribe_defs.sh"
+    return int(m.group(1))
+
+
+def _live(ledger: Path) -> list[str]:
+    """`scribe_rules_live` against a real ledger, as the hooks call it."""
+    for tool in ("bash", "awk"):
+        if shutil.which(tool) is None:
+            pytest.skip(f"hook runtime tool {tool!r} not installed")
+    proc = subprocess.run(
+        ["bash", "-c", f'. "{DEFS}"; scribe_rules_live "{ledger}"'],
+        capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=30,
+        env={"PATH": os.environ["PATH"]},  # no credentials — see the docstring
+    )
+    assert proc.returncode == 0, proc.stderr
+    out = proc.stdout.strip()
+    return out.split(",") if out else []
+
+
+def _write_ledger(ledger: Path, entries: list[tuple[str, int | None]]) -> None:
+    """A ledger written in AGES rather than absolute stamps.
+
+    Named for what it is: `tests/helpers._now` is a datetime for record
+    fixtures and this file wants the shell's epoch, so they are deliberately
+    not the same helper and deliberately not the same name. `time.time()`
+    rather than shelling out to `date` — both read the one system clock, so
+    the subprocess bought nothing.
+    """
+    now = int(time.time())
+    ledger.write_text("".join(
+        f"{rid}\n" if ago is None else f"{rid}\t{now - ago}\n"
+        for rid, ago in entries
+    ))
+
+
+def test_an_old_entry_ages_out_and_a_recent_one_does_not(tmp_path):
+    """BOTH DIRECTIONS IN ONE ASSERTION (rule 167), because either half alone
+    passes against a broken implementation.
+
+    A test that only checks the old id is gone passes against a helper that
+    returns nothing at all — which would drop every exclusion and bring back
+    the repetition the ledger exists to prevent. A test that only checks the
+    recent id survives passes against the flat `tr '\\n' ','` read this
+    replaces, i.e. against the defect itself.
+    """
+    ttl = _ttl()
+    ledger = tmp_path / "s.rules.ids"
+    _write_ledger(ledger, [("156", ttl + 600), ("168", 60)])
+
+    assert _live(ledger) == ["168"], (
+        f"expected the entry {ttl + 600}s old to age out and the 60s-old one "
+        f"to survive (TTL {ttl}s). An empty list means nothing is excluded any "
+        f"more; both ids means nothing ages."
+    )
+
+
+def test_a_repeatedly_surfaced_rule_appears_once_in_the_exclusion_list(tmp_path):
+    """List hygiene, and it is not cosmetic.
+
+    The ledger is append-only, so a rule surfaced five times has five lines.
+    The output is spliced straight into `&exclude_rule_ids=` and parsed by the
+    server as a list; duplicates make that list grow without bound over a long
+    session, and a trailing or doubled comma is an empty element the parser has
+    to decide what to do with. Neither is visible from the hint.
+
+    (There was a boundary test here — `ttl` vs `ttl + 1`. It was racy by
+    construction: a ledger written at T is read at T+n, so the entry ages by
+    however long the subprocess took and the two cases swap. A one-second
+    distinction on a 45-minute window is also not a behaviour anyone can
+    observe, so it was pinning a flake rather than a property.)
+    """
+    ledger = tmp_path / "s.rules.ids"
+    _write_ledger(ledger, [("156", 60), ("168", 30), ("156", 10), ("156", 5)])
+
+    live = _live(ledger)
+    assert live == ["156", "168"], (
+        f"got {live}: an id repeated in the ledger must appear once in the "
+        f"exclusion list, in first-seen order"
+    )
+    raw = subprocess.run(
+        ["bash", "-c", f'. "{DEFS}"; scribe_rules_live "{ledger}"'],
+        capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=30,
+        env={"PATH": os.environ["PATH"]},
+    ).stdout.strip()
+    assert ",," not in raw and not raw.endswith(","), (
+        f"the exclusion list has an empty element: {raw!r}"
+    )
+
+
+def test_a_rule_that_ages_out_and_returns_does_not_ping_pong(tmp_path):
+    """THE FAILURE THIS COSTS THE MOST TO GET WRONG.
+
+    The ledger is append-only, so a rule that ages out, gets surfaced fresh and
+    is appended again has TWO lines. An implementation reading the FIRST leaves
+    it permanently expired — and it then re-announces itself on every single
+    call for the rest of the session. The mechanism meant to quieten things
+    becomes the loudest thing in the hint.
+    """
+    ttl = _ttl()
+    ledger = tmp_path / "s.rules.ids"
+    _write_ledger(ledger, [("156", ttl + 600)])
+
+    subprocess.run(
+        ["bash", "-c", f'. "{DEFS}"; printf \'156\\n\' | scribe_rules_append "{ledger}"'],
+        capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=30,
+        env={"PATH": os.environ["PATH"]},
+    )
+
+    assert _live(ledger) == ["156"], (
+        "a re-surfaced rule read as still expired; the most recent entry for "
+        "an id must win, or it re-announces itself on every call from here on"
+    )
+
+
+def test_a_bare_id_from_the_old_format_is_treated_as_live(tmp_path):
+    """The compatibility decision, asserted rather than described.
+
+    Every session in flight when this ships has a ledger of bare ids. Reading
+    unknown as EXPIRED would make all of them re-announce every rule they had
+    already been told, all at once — the exact noise this feature exists to
+    prevent, delivered by the feature itself on the day it ships.
+
+    Unknown means "not measured", never "old" — the same discipline the
+    nullable retrieval_logs columns use. Those entries never age, which is
+    bounded, because the session ends.
+    """
+    ttl = _ttl()
+    ledger = tmp_path / "s.rules.ids"
+    ledger.write_text("156\n168\n")
+    assert _live(ledger) == ["156", "168"]
+
+    # And a bare id keeps its own meaning next to a stale stamped one, rather
+    # than the file falling back to one format or the other wholesale.
+    _write_ledger(ledger, [("9", None), ("156", ttl + 600)])
+    assert _live(ledger) == ["9"]
+
+
+def test_a_missing_or_empty_ledger_excludes_nothing(tmp_path):
+    """Fail-open, like every other path in these hooks: no ledger means no
+    exclusions, not an error and not a stray comma the server would parse as
+    an id."""
+    assert _live(tmp_path / "never-written.rules.ids") == []
+    empty = tmp_path / "empty.rules.ids"
+    empty.write_text("")
+    assert _live(empty) == []
+
+
+def test_both_hooks_read_the_ledger_through_the_shared_helper():
+    """Structural, because the defect this would reintroduce is invisible.
+
+    Two hooks share one ledger so a rule named by one arm is not re-offered by
+    the other. If either goes back to reading the file flat, that hook stops
+    ageing while its sibling keeps ageing — the two disagree about which rules
+    are live, and nothing in the output says so.
+
+    Pinned on the flat-read SHAPE rather than on a helper name: a hook that
+    stops calling the helper but still ages correctly some other way is not a
+    defect, and a rename of the helper is not one either.
+    """
+    for name in ("scribe_prior_art.sh", "scribe_tool_rules.sh"):
+        src = (PLUGIN / name).read_text()
+        rule_reads = [
+            ln for ln in src.splitlines()
+            if "rulefile" in ln and "tr " in ln and r"'\n' ','" in ln
+        ]
+        assert not rule_reads, (
+            f"{name} reads the rule ledger flat again: {rule_reads}. That "
+            f"hook's exclusions would stop ageing while its sibling's keep "
+            f"ageing, and the two would disagree silently about which rules "
+            f"this session still holds."
+        )
+        assert "scribe_rules_live" in src, (
+            f"{name} no longer reads the rule ledger through the shared "
+            f"helper, so the two hooks can drift on the ledger format"
+        )