#!/usr/bin/env python3 """Tarbuckle — the mumble generator. Runs DETACHED; never inside the status line. Doctrine: v2 §8 (three tiers), §9 (one line, filed nowhere), and PENDING-152 AMENDMENT 6, which settles the three-way separation: Material — the live session. Register — the soul, §7. Occasion — the refresh tick. "The model supplies the words, in the soul's register, about the session." ⚠ THE UTTERANCE MUST HAVE NO TRUTH VALUE. The criterion is NOT "checkable in principle" — it is whether an ADJUDICATION PATH EXISTS (AMENDMENT 6, superseding the executor's own earlier test). "PENDING-4 has been open since April" has a path: open the file. Once a path exists the trio walks it, the fool acquires a truth value, and it is a checker again — which §2 says means the design has failed. "Scoring without signal" has no path: it is a gesture at a shape, not a claim. That is the whole safety. ⚠ THE REGISTER IS NOT DUPLICATED HERE. The soul is read from its filed artifact at run time. Pasting it into this file would create a parallel version of a governed record, which is the context-rot failure CLAUDE.md names outright. If the soul cannot be read, NOTHING IS GENERATED — honest degradation, not a fallback voice. Latency measured 2026-08-25: ~11 s for a headless call. That is why this is detached and why the status line never waits on it. """ import json import os import re import subprocess import sys import time SOUL = os.path.expanduser( "~/dotfiles/claude/governance/fool/seed/FOOL-SOUL-2026-08-25.md") SLOT = os.path.expanduser("~/.claude/state/tarbuckle-slot.json") REJECTS = os.path.expanduser("~/.claude/state/tarbuckle-rejects.jsonl") MIN_WORDS, MAX_WORDS = 3, 9 # observed Thistleweld register: three to nine words # From the soul's own "What he never does", mechanically enforced. The model is asked # for the register; this is the net under it. A violation yields SILENCE, never a # repaired line — rewriting the fool's words would make the executor its editor. BANNED = ( r"\bshould\b", r"\btry\b", r"\bmust\b", # advice r"\bgone\b", r"\bif only\b", r"\bused to be\b", r"\bmissing\b", # vocabulary of lack r"\bwe\b", # never says 'we' about the work r"\?", # never asks ) def source_lacks(path: str, *parts: str) -> bool: """True if the joined needle does NOT appear in `path`. ⚠ THE NEEDLE IS ASSEMBLED FROM PARTS, AND THAT IS THE ENTIRE POINT. A control that writes its needle as a literal PLANTS that literal in the very file it searches, so it can only ever fail. That bug was written twice in one session — the second time by the party who had just fixed the first, minutes earlier, while watching for it. Correcting it a second time by hand would have been the same one-off; this is the mechanism, so the shape cannot be written again by accident. """ return "".join(parts) not in open(path, encoding="utf-8").read() def soul_register() -> str | None: """The soul, verbatim, from the filed artifact. None if unreadable.""" try: body = open(SOUL, encoding="utf-8").read() except OSError: return None m = re.search(r"```markdown\n(.*?)\n```", body, re.S) return m.group(1) if m else None def session_material(transcript_path: str, budget: int = 6000) -> str: """The tail of the live session. Bounded, and tool output is dropped. Deliberately NOT the docket. AMENDMENT 6: the docket has a forum and the session does not, which is why the session is safe material and PENDING.md is not. """ try: lines = open(transcript_path, encoding="utf-8", errors="replace").readlines() except OSError: return "" out = [] for ln in reversed(lines[-400:]): try: rec = json.loads(ln) except Exception: continue if rec.get("type") not in ("user", "assistant"): continue msg = rec.get("message") or {} content = msg.get("content") text = "" if isinstance(content, str): text = content elif isinstance(content, list): text = " ".join(c.get("text", "") for c in content if isinstance(c, dict) and c.get("type") == "text") text = text.strip() if not text: continue out.append(f"{rec['type']}: {text[:600]}") if sum(len(s) for s in out) > budget: break return "\n".join(reversed(out)) def build_prompt(kind: str, register: str, material: str) -> str: weight = ("Something at the shape of the work, not its detail." if kind == "notable" else "An ordinary passing remark. Small.") return f"""You are writing ONE line as Tarbuckle. His character, filed and unalterable: {register} Here is the tail of the session he is in the room for: {material} {weight} Write ONE line in his voice. Absolute constraints: - Between {MIN_WORDS} and {MAX_WORDS} words. One clause. Present tense. Flat, no lift. - IT MUST HAVE NO TRUTH VALUE. Nobody must be able to open a file and check it, agree with it, or refute it. Put two things next to each other so a shape shows. Do not state a fact about the work, the record, the code, or the docket. - No advice, no questions, no warning of consequences, no explanation, no second line. - Never the word 'we'. No vocabulary of lack. - Do not name files, items, numbers of open things, or anything with an address. Output the line and nothing else. No quotes, no preamble.""" def acceptable(line: str) -> tuple[bool, str]: if not line or "\n" in line.strip(): return False, "not one line" n = len(line.split()) if not (MIN_WORDS <= n <= MAX_WORDS): return False, f"{n} words" for pat in BANNED: if re.search(pat, line, re.I): return False, f"banned {pat}" return True, "" def main() -> int: kind = sys.argv[1] if len(sys.argv) > 1 else "aside" transcript = sys.argv[2] if len(sys.argv) > 2 else "" register = soul_register() if not register: return 1 # no soul, no voice. Deliberately no fallback. material = session_material(transcript) if not material.strip(): return 1 env = dict(os.environ, TARBUCKLE_CHILD="1") # precautionary; see body script try: r = subprocess.run(["claude", "-p", build_prompt(kind, register, material)], capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=120, env=env) except Exception: return 1 line = (r.stdout or "").strip().strip('"').strip() ok, why = acceptable(line) if not ok: try: with open(REJECTS, "a") as fh: fh.write(json.dumps({"t": time.strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z"), "kind": kind, "why": why, "line": line[:200]}) + "\n") except Exception: pass return 1 # silence. The draw was already consumed. try: os.makedirs(os.path.dirname(SLOT), exist_ok=True) with open(SLOT, "w") as fh: json.dump({"utterance": line, "kind": kind, "written": int(time.time())}, fh) except Exception: return 1 return 0 def selftest() -> int: checks, failed = [], [] def ck(name, cond): checks.append(name) if not cond: failed.append(name) # A1 — the register is READ, not duplicated. One canonical source. reg = soul_register() ck("A1 soul readable from its filed artifact", bool(reg)) ck("A1 soul is the real thing", bool(reg) and "Tarbuckle" in reg and "SUCCESSION" in reg) # ⚠ The needle is BUILT rather than written, because the first version of this # control failed against itself: the literal phrase it searched for was placed in # the file BY the search. Same class as the hand-typed link canary whose only # finding was the pattern inside its own specification. ck("A1n this file does not contain a copy of the soul", source_lacks(__file__, "registrar rather than ", "a guardian")) ck("A1nn the predicate can fail", not source_lacks(__file__, "soul_", "register")) # A2 — the acceptability net. Positive AND negative controls on every clause. ck("A2 accepts an in-register line", acceptable("Fourth time. First one was better.")[0]) ck("A2 accepts a short collision", acceptable("Two names, one thing.")[0]) ck("A2n rejects too few words", not acceptable("Yes.")[0]) ck("A2n rejects too many words", not acceptable(" ".join(["word"] * (MAX_WORDS + 1)))[0]) ck("A2n rejects advice", not acceptable("You should check that again now.")[0]) ck("A2n rejects a question", not acceptable("How is that going for you?")[0]) ck("A2n rejects vocabulary of lack", not acceptable("The third one is missing now.")[0]) ck("A2n rejects 'we'", not acceptable("We did the second part first.")[0]) ck("A2n rejects two lines", not acceptable("First line here.\nSecond line here.")[0]) # A3 — the prompt carries the no-truth-value constraint verbatim, not by intention. p = build_prompt("aside", "SOUL", "MATERIAL") ck("A3 prompt states no truth value", "NO TRUTH VALUE" in p) ck("A3 prompt forbids addresses", "anything with an address" in p) ck("A3 prompt embeds the register", "SOUL" in p) ck("A3 notable differs from aside", build_prompt("notable", "S", "M") != build_prompt("aside", "S", "M")) # A4 — material is the session, never the docket. # Structural, not textual: the module's file constants are the only things it # opens, so assert none of them addresses the docket. paths = (SOUL, SLOT, REJECTS) ck("A4 material paths are session/soul only", not any(("PENDING" in q or "REVIEWED" in q) for q in paths)) ck("A4n the predicate can fail", any(("PENDING" in q) for q in paths + ("/x/PENDING.md",))) 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())