#!/usr/bin/env python3 """Tarbuckle — named invocation. v2 §9: "Named invocation: the steward calls it by name, the executor or jurist yields the floor, the fool answers at length." ⚠ RUN IT YOURSELF. The point of this surface is that it does not pass through the executor. In Claude Code, type: ! python3 ~/dotfiles/scripts/tarbuckle-invoke.py Anything the executor relays is the executor's paraphrase of a fool; this is the fool. ⚠ THE NET IS WIDENED, EXPLICITLY, AND ONLY IN THE ONE DIMENSION §9 NAMES. Steward's ruling, 2026-08-25: "widen it explicitly and say so, but never relax silence-on-violation." §9 licenses LENGTH for this surface and nothing else, so: word ceiling 9 -> 180 (§9: "answers at length") one-line rule on -> off (a paragraph is the point) no advice · no questions · no 'we' · no vocabulary of lack · no addresses UNCHANGED, and not parameterised anywhere ⚠ AND LENGTH IS WHERE THE NO-TRUTH-VALUE GUARD IS MOST AT RISK. A fool given a paragraph will elaborate, and elaboration is how a gesture becomes a claim. That is the door §2 calls design failure. The prompt therefore spends most of its constraint budget here rather than on register, and a violation is still SILENCE. """ import os import subprocess import sys import time sys.path.insert(0, os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))) from tarbuckle_mumble_shim import (acceptable, soul_register, session_material, # noqa: E402 source_lacks, muted, log_event, # noqa: E402 echoes_soul, REJECTS) MAX_WORDS_INVOKED = 180 # §9's "at length", made a number TIMEOUT_S = 90 # the steward is deliberately waiting; he may take longer TRANSCRIPTS = os.path.expanduser("~/.claude/projects/-Users-davidglidden") def newest_transcript() -> str: """The session he is in the room for. Found, not passed, so this runs standalone.""" try: best, best_m = "", -1.0 for f in os.listdir(TRANSCRIPTS): if not f.endswith(".jsonl"): continue q = os.path.join(TRANSCRIPTS, f) m = os.path.getmtime(q) if m > best_m: best, best_m = q, m return best except OSError: return "" def build_prompt(register: str, material: str, question: str) -> str: asked = (f"\nHe has been asked, by name: {question}\n" if question else "\nHe has been called by name, and nothing more was said.\n") return f"""You are Tarbuckle. Your character, filed and unalterable: {register} The work you are in the room for: {material} {asked} ⚠ THE SAMPLE LINES ABOVE ARE ILLUSTRATIONS OF REGISTER, NOT VOCABULARY. Do not reuse them, any phrase from them, or their subject matter — no thumbs, no handles, no blades unless the session is about them. Everything you say must come from the session above. If it would suit any other session equally well, it is wrong. You have been given the floor. Answer at length — this is the exception to your one line, and the only one. Speak as yourself, not about yourself. Absolute constraints, none of which the floor suspends: - ⚠ NOTHING YOU SAY MAY HAVE A TRUTH VALUE. Nobody may be able to open a file and check it, agree with it, or refute it. Do not name files, items, counts of open things, dates, commits, or anything with an address. Do not report state. At length this is harder and it matters more: an elaboration that becomes a claim makes you a checker, and a checker is the one thing you are not. - No advice — no 'should', no 'try', no 'must'. No questions. Never the word 'we'. - No vocabulary of lack: no 'gone', no 'if only', no 'used to be', no 'missing'. - Do not explain yourself, do not summarise the work, and do not ask whether it landed. - Stay under {MAX_WORDS_INVOKED} words. Speak.""" def log_silence(why: str, line: str) -> None: try: import json with open(REJECTS, "a") as fh: fh.write(json.dumps({"t": time.strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z"), "kind": "invoked", "why": why, "line": line[:400]}) + "\n") except Exception: pass def main() -> int: if muted(): return 0 question = " ".join(a for a in sys.argv[1:] if not a.startswith("--")).strip() register = soul_register() if not register: print("(no soul on disk; nothing to yield the floor to)", file=sys.stderr) return 1 material = session_material(newest_transcript(), budget=9000) if not material.strip(): print("(no session in the room)", file=sys.stderr) return 1 env = dict(os.environ, TARBUCKLE_CHILD="1") try: r = subprocess.run(["claude", "-p", build_prompt(register, material, question)], capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=TIMEOUT_S, env=env) except subprocess.TimeoutExpired: log_silence(f"invoked generation exceeded {TIMEOUT_S}s", "") log_event("invoke", "silent") return 0 except Exception: return 1 line = (r.stdout or "").strip() ok, why = acceptable(line, max_words=MAX_WORDS_INVOKED, one_line=False) if ok and echoes_soul(line, register): ok, why = False, f"recited the soul: {echoes_soul(line, register)!r}" if not ok: log_silence(why, line) log_event("invoke", "silent") # ⚠ THE LINE IS STILL WITHHELD — silence-on-violation is not relaxed, and the # rejected text is never printed. But the INSTRUMENT reports its own state. # # Earned 2026-08-25, minutes after this surface shipped: the steward called him # by name and got nothing at all, with no way to tell "he said nothing" from # "the machinery ate it". On the unasked surfaces silence IS the design, because # nobody asked. HERE SOMEONE ASKED. Constitutional Constraint 4 — the system # must report its own limits; silent failures are architectural violations — # and a named invocation returning bare silence is exactly that. # # stderr, so his voice keeps stdout to itself. print(f"(called; nothing passed the net — {why}. logged, not shown.)", file=sys.stderr) return 0 log_event("invoke", "spoke") print(line) return 0 def selftest() -> int: checks, failed = [], [] def ck(name, cond): checks.append(name) if not cond: failed.append(name) src = open(__file__, encoding="utf-8").read() # I1 — the widening is explicit, named, and one-dimensional. ck("I1 net imported, not redefined", source_lacks(__file__, "def ", "acceptable(")) ck("I1n the predicate can fail", not source_lacks(__file__, "def ", "main(")) ck("I1 widening is passed at the call site", "max_words=MAX_WORDS_INVOKED" in src and "one_line=False" in src) # I2 — THE CLAUSES SURVIVE THE WIDENING. This is the steward's ruling, executable. long_ok = " ".join(["word"] * 100) ck("I2 length is admitted", acceptable(long_ok, max_words=MAX_WORDS_INVOKED, one_line=False)[0]) ck("I2 paragraphs are admitted", acceptable("First part here.\nSecond part here.", max_words=MAX_WORDS_INVOKED, one_line=False)[0]) ck("I2n advice still rejected at length", not acceptable("You should " + long_ok, max_words=MAX_WORDS_INVOKED, one_line=False)[0]) ck("I2n questions still rejected at length", not acceptable(long_ok + " and how is that going?", max_words=MAX_WORDS_INVOKED, one_line=False)[0]) ck("I2n 'we' still rejected at length", not acceptable("We " + long_ok, max_words=MAX_WORDS_INVOKED, one_line=False)[0]) ck("I2n vocabulary of lack still rejected at length", not acceptable(long_ok + " gone", max_words=MAX_WORDS_INVOKED, one_line=False)[0]) ck("I2n the ceiling still bites", not acceptable(" ".join(["word"] * (MAX_WORDS_INVOKED + 1)), max_words=MAX_WORDS_INVOKED, one_line=False)[0]) # I3 — the no-truth-value guard is where the prompt spends its budget. p = build_prompt("SOUL", "MATERIAL", "") # Tests the SUBSTANCE, not a literal: the phrase must be present AND negated. # The first version asserted a literal the prompt did not use, which would have # passed happily on any rewording that dropped the constraint entirely. up = p.upper() ck("I3 prompt forbids truth value", "TRUTH VALUE" in up and any(neg in up for neg in ("NOTHING", "NO ", "MAY NOT", "NOT"))) ck("I3n the predicate can fail", not ("TRUTH VALUE" in "A PROMPT WITH NO SUCH CONSTRAINT".upper())) ck("I3 prompt forbids addresses and state", "anything with an address" in p and "Do not report state" in p) ck("I3 prompt names the length risk", "makes you a checker" in p) ck("I3 a question is carried when given", "by name: what now" in build_prompt("S", "M", "what now")) ck("I3n bare invocation says so", "nothing more was said" in build_prompt("S", "M", "")) # I4 — silence on violation survives here too. # I5 — the asked/unasked distinction, executable. ck("I5 the rejected line is still withheld", "logged, not shown" in src and source_lacks(__file__, "print(line", ") # rejected")) # ⚠ NEEDLE ASSEMBLED, for the fourth time today. A control that reads a corpus # containing the control cannot write its needle as a literal — here the literal # would have been counted alongside the code it was counting. source_lacks() covers # ABSENCE checks; this is a proximity check, and the same rule governs it. _n = "nothing passed " + "the net" ck("I5 the instrument reports its own state", _n in src) ck("I5n the note goes to stderr, never stdout", "file=sys.stderr" in src[src.index(_n): src.index(_n) + 120]) ck("I5nn the proximity predicate can fail", "file=sys.stderr" not in src[src.index(_n): src.index(_n) + 5]) ck("I4 violation path is silence, not repair", "log_silence(why, line)" in src and source_lacks(__file__, "def ", "repair(")) for name in checks: print(f" {'FAIL' if name in failed else 'ok '} {name}") print(f"{len(checks) - len(failed)}/{len(checks)} controls passed") if failed: print("INSTRUMENT NOT VERIFIED") return 1 return 0 if __name__ == "__main__": if "--selftest" in sys.argv: sys.exit(selftest()) sys.exit(main())