Add retention for continuation hook audit log

[marcusglee11]

Generated follow-up

Parent issue: #77
Roadmap issue: #74
Disposition: deferred

Objective

Add retention for continuation hook audit log

Context

The #77 checkpoints found ordinary-turn heartbeat and runner logging can grow without a bounded retention or rotation policy. This is useful ops hardening, but not required for Autonomous Work Chain v0 follow-up-loop closure.

Disposition packet

disposition: deferred
reason: Log retention is real operational debt but not required for #77 parent closure.
owner_or_lane: deferred
parent_issue: https://github.com/marcusglee11/LifeOS/issues/77
child_issue: null
blocks_parent_closure: false
unblock_condition: null
next_action: defer
evidence_ref: https://github.com/marcusglee11/LifeOS/issues/77

[marcusglee11]

Issue #100 implementation receipt

Status: PRs opened; not complete/mergeable-as-done yet. Do not close on state alone.

Branches / PRs:

• Hermes Agent implementation: build/issue-100-continuation-audit-retention-upgrade
  • PR: https://github.com/marcusglee11/hermes-agent/pull/11
  • head SHA: 1ffb7eeb27370f645abeb34591aa06ff92e97f4e
• LifeOS Context v1 tracking: build/issue-100-continuation-audit-retention
  • PR: Track continuation audit retention workstream #105
  • head SHA: 9ea8f51348a566249943959ea905bec32e123055

Touched files:

• hermes-agent/agent/workstream_continuation_hook.py
• hermes-agent/tests/agent/test_workstream_continuation_hook.py
• LifeOS/artifacts/workstreams.yaml
• LifeOS/artifacts/workstreams/continuation_audit_retention/state.yaml

Implementation summary:

• Located the actual continuation hook audit writer in the Hermes Agent upgrade branch, not LifeOS runtime code.
• Added append-time JSONL retention with default max 2,000 retained records via HERMES_WORKSTREAM_AUDIT_LOG_MAX_RECORDS.
• Added file-lock serialization around append + retention to avoid concurrent hook runs erasing newest audit evidence.
• Retention covers the shared continuation audit writer, so both dry-run audit and runner JSONL logs are capped.
• No scheduler/cron/chained/background cleanup was added.

Validation evidence:

• Hermes Agent focused tests: /home/cabra/.hermes/hermes-agent/.venv/bin/python -m pytest -q tests/agent/test_workstream_continuation_hook.py → 13 passed.
• Hermes Agent lint: ruff check agent/workstream_continuation_hook.py tests/agent/test_workstream_continuation_hook.py → passed.
• Hermes Agent git diff --check → passed.
• LifeOS Context v1 validate: python3 scripts/workflow/workstream_context.py validate --state artifacts/workstreams/continuation_audit_retention/state.yaml → ok=true.
• LifeOS resume prompt: python3 scripts/workflow/workstream_context.py emit-resume-prompt --state artifacts/workstreams/continuation_audit_retention/state.yaml → emitted refs/summaries-only prompt.
• LifeOS changed-scope gate: python3 scripts/workflow/quality_gate.py check --scope changed --changed-file artifacts/workstreams.yaml --changed-file artifacts/workstreams/continuation_audit_retention/state.yaml --json → passed; 0 blocking failures; yamllint advisory unavailable locally.
• Added-line secret scans → no hits.
• Fresh-context blocker review → no merge blockers after file-lock fix.

Context Management v1 dogfood:

• Helped: canonical artifacts/workstreams/continuation_audit_retention/state.yaml survived compaction and kept resume state grounded without using .context/active_work.yaml as authority.
• Helped: validate/emit-resume-prompt gave a compact restart surface with refs/summaries instead of evidence bodies.
• Got in the way: no mutation commands, so status/preflight/refs updates required hand-editing YAML.
• Got in the way: schema is clean for one canonical repo but awkward for this cross-repo implementation, where LifeOS owns the issue/state and Hermes Agent owns the actual hook code.
• Follow-up recommendation: add mutation commands for status/preflight/refs/phase transitions and first-class external implementation refs.

Fresh-context review result:

• Initial review found a real blocker: append+retention read/modify/write could race under concurrent hook runs.
• Fixed with file-lock serialization.
• Re-review verdict: no blockers.

Completion truth caveat:

• state.yaml proves continuation context only. It does not prove completion.
• Completion still requires PR/CI readback, merge/main-readback for the implementation branch, and this issue receipt.
• Current PR state: Hermes Agent PR has no checks reported; LifeOS PR checks were still queued/in-progress at readback.
• No merge performed. Marcus approval still required before merge/closure.

[marcusglee11]

Final closure receipt — issue #100

Status: complete. Controlled closure performed after AA review, implementation merge, tracking merge, CI, and main/readback evidence.

Merge/readback

• Hermes Agent implementation PR: https://github.com/marcusglee11/hermes-agent/pull/11

  • reviewed head: 1ffb7eeb27370f645abeb34591aa06ff92e97f4e
  • merge commit: c5c71e981b855c2757f4ef7ef2e7aa1d74feb63a
  • base branch readback: upgrade/hermes-runtime-20260428 head is c5c71e981b855c2757f4ef7ef2e7aa1d74feb63a
  • implementation readback confirmed the merged file contains DEFAULT_AUDIT_LOG_MAX_RECORDS = 2000, HERMES_WORKSTREAM_AUDIT_LOG_MAX_RECORDS, and _jsonl_lock.

• LifeOS tracking PR: Track continuation audit retention workstream #105

  • final head: 0423bf861199b37a372d9a4c7548282db598830b
  • merge commit: 9b0ed4342b865fe3b6f8b10d081525750fd059b3
  • origin/main readback: 9b0ed4342b865fe3b6f8b10d081525750fd059b3
  • closing refs were cleared before merge; issue closure is deliberate via this receipt.

CI / validation

• Hermes Agent focused verification before merge:

  • /home/cabra/.hermes/hermes-agent/.venv/bin/python -m pytest -q tests/agent/test_workstream_continuation_hook.py → 13 passed
  • touched-file ruff → passed
  • git diff --check → passed
  • added-line secret scan → no hits
  • fresh-context re-review after lock fix → no blockers

• LifeOS PR Track continuation audit retention workstream #105 CI before merge:

  • Test Suite Python 3.11 → SUCCESS
  • Test Suite Python 3.12 → SUCCESS
  • Quality Gate → SUCCESS
  • Documentation Validation → SUCCESS
  • Validate Artefact Index → SUCCESS

• LifeOS main after merge:

  • LifeOS CI run: https://github.com/marcusglee11/LifeOS/actions/runs/25172690277 → SUCCESS at head 9b0ed4342b865fe3b6f8b10d081525750fd059b3
  • detached origin/main worktree validation: python3 scripts/workflow/workstream_context.py validate --state artifacts/workstreams/continuation_audit_retention/state.yaml → ok=true
  • resume prompt emitted from merged main state.

AA review

AA verdict: APPROVE_WITH_FOLLOWUP.
Required changes: none.
Merge blockers: none.

Follow-ups recorded, not blocking this issue:

1. Add byte/field-size guardrails for audit records.
2. Clarify non-POSIX runtime support or add cross-platform locking.
3. Decide whether non-positive retention env values should remain an escape hatch or fall back to default.

Completion truth

Completion truth is GitHub PR/CI/main-readback plus this issue receipt, not state.yaml alone.

Issue #100 is now ready to close as completed.