1.9.8 - faster, cheaper goal loops

OSpec 1.9.8 removes the goal controller's cadence and token overhead: a lease-refreshing ospec loop poll replaces tick-after-every-wait and periodic heartbeats, evidence-complete work settles in the same tick, re-reviews verify only the repaired findings, and the execution shape now matches the task-graph shape (serial bottlenecks may run controller-inline; optimistic review gating keeps dependents flowing while reviews run).

New

• ospec loop poll [goal] [--json] is a lightweight liveness poll between full ticks: it refreshes every claimed lease (an explicit poll renews even after a long idle wait, so no periodic heartbeat command is needed) and reports tickNow, so the controller runs a full loop run --once only when something actually changed. The native wait contract adds idleMaxWaitMs (10 minutes) for the case where the pending batch is the only outstanding work.
• ospec loop configure --review-gating strict|optimistic (default strict): optimistic lets dependent tasks dispatch while an upstream task review is still running; the task's own review requirement and the final-review gate still require every approval. Classic changes have no loop configuration and are unaffected.
• Serial-bottleneck detection: when a single implementation dispatch is the only ready work and every remaining task waits on it, the batch reports serialBottleneck and the controller may implement that task directly in the current session (executor id controller-inline) instead of paying subagent spawn, wait, and context-rebuild overhead for zero parallel payoff; task and final reviews remain independent subagents.

Improved

• Claimed pending work whose authoritative durable evidence is already complete now auto-settles in the same tick instead of waiting an extra claim/result round-trip; a later loop result only tops up token usage, and the pathological expire-and-requeue path for evidence-complete work is gone.
• Task re-reviews after a NEEDS_CHANGES round carry a Post-Repair Delta Review section (the prior findings plus a verify-the-repair scope) so the fresh reviewer stops re-auditing the whole task, matching the existing planning delta re-review.
• loop run --once --compact-json is token-lean: lease-lean itemStates, capped feedback strings, and an embedded graph summary (task counts, pending reviews) that replaces extra ospec execute status calls; dispatch and review packets shrink their embedded project session brief to a three-line pointer block.
• Waiting is no longer reported as blocked: planning-repair polling names the in-flight repair instead of a misleading "no snapshot change", and bootstrap classifies tasks that are only waiting on running work or pending task reviews as needs_worker_completion instead of bootstrap_blocked.
• The combined planning review treats an unjustified fully serial depends_on chain as a finding, steering planners toward wider graphs that can actually use parallel dispatch.

Docs

• The codex goal skill and the four-language execution-protocol and ai-guide documents teach the poll protocol, idle waits, evidence auto-settlement, review gating, width maximization, and controller-inline execution.

Upgrade

npm install -g @clawplays/ospec-cli@1.9.8
ospec update

Full Changelog: 1.9.7...1.9.8