Deliver sub-skill instructions to persistent ClaudeSession turns (closes #477)#478
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…oses #477) Before this fix, the persistent-session code paths in claude_start / claude_run sent only fido_dir/prompt to the session. fido_dir/system — which contains the sub-skill instructions (setup.md, task.md, etc.) — was built by build_prompt but never delivered. Claude saw only the bare context ("Request: ...", "Repo: ...") without any instructions, produced empty output, and find_or_create_pr raised "setup produced no tasks". The watchdog restarted the thread, the same failure repeated, and fido piled up abandoned branches. Extract the concatenation into _session_turn_prompt() and use it for both setup (claude_start) and task (claude_run) paths through the persistent session. Tests updated to expect the combined message.
…em file (closes #477) Before this fix, the persistent ClaudeSession code paths in claude_start / claude_run sent only fido_dir/prompt to the session. The sub-skill instructions (setup.md, task.md, etc.) — built into fido_dir/system by build_prompt — were never delivered, so claude saw only the bare context ("Request: ...", "Repo: ...") with no instructions, produced empty output, and find_or_create_pr raised "setup produced no tasks". The persistent session's system prompt is already persona.md, so we shouldn't prepend the full fido_dir/system (persona+skill) — that would duplicate the persona. Instead, build_prompt now also writes fido_dir/skill containing just the sub-skill content, and _session_turn_prompt prepends that (not the full system) to the per-turn user message. Apply to both claude_start (setup) and claude_run (task/ci/threads) persistent-session paths. Tests updated.
rhencke
approved these changes
Apr 14, 2026
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Fixes the "setup produced no tasks" regression from #456.
Problem
When the persistent `ClaudeSession` was introduced in #456, `claude_start` / `claude_run` started sending only `fido_dir/prompt` (context) to the session. The sub-skill instructions — `setup.md`, `task.md`, `ci.md`, `comments.md`, `resume.md` — were built into `fido_dir/system` by `build_prompt` but never delivered to the session.
Claude saw only the bare "Request: ... Repo: ... Branch: ..." with no instructions, produced empty output, and `find_or_create_pr` raised `setup produced no tasks`. Observed live after #475 landed: fido stuck on #465, watchdog kept restarting, three abandoned branches.
Fix
The persistent session already has `persona.md` as its system prompt, so prepending the full `fido_dir/system` (persona + sub-skill) would duplicate the persona. Instead:
Tests updated: `_setup_fido_dir` fixtures now write `skill`, and the `session_path_sends_prompt_content` tests expect the combined `\n\n---\n\n` body.
100% coverage, suite passes.
Closes #477.