Finite Time 2026-10-09

Publish the current skill source, including the changes since the previous packaged release, 2026-10-07.

• Close the escape hatch: the mark is where the whole task is due (#4). A new section, Fitting: the task and the mark are fixed at the opening, the price is the only thing the agent changes, and what compresses is the process, never the deliverable. "The rest does not fit" belongs to the opening line alone, with the arithmetic; the admission test refuses prices, never work; the mark reached with anything undone returns missed, never into the reserve and never early; the command means back with the thing done.
• The objective-accuracy caveats left the skill for the README and CONTRIBUTING, which now state the split: the README is objective for the human, the skill is load for the agent.
• README, method notes, examples, and the behavioral cases follow: allowance and allocation language gave way to the priced mark, and three cases are new (room-before-the-mark, mark-short-at-opening, burn-faster-than-forecast). The edition was read by two adversarial reviewers and rehearsed on three cases; the record is in the changelog and in #4.

The ZIP contains SKILL.md, TIME-LENS.md, usage.py, and LICENSE. Back up your personalized TIME-LENS.md before updating and restore it over the new seed afterward.

Validation: repository/package checks passed; archive members match the release source byte for byte; npx skills add demidko/finite-time installs this edition. Verify the download with SHA256SUMS.

Finite Time 2026-10-07

Publish the current skill source, including the changes since the previous packaged release, 2026-10-06.4.

• Combine the Fable protocol with the Astra harness work: live quota readings for Claude Code and Codex, native used/left notation, carried time estimates, and calibrated pacing.
• Refine opening, reserve, and return rules, with explicit harness selection and bounded app-server reads.
• Treat quota exhaustion as the agent’s horizon and the chosen mark as a deadline, as clarified in #2 and delivered in #3.

The ZIP contains SKILL.md, TIME-LENS.md, usage.py, and LICENSE. Back up your personalized TIME-LENS.md before updating and restore it afterward.

Validation: repository/package checks passed; archive members match the release source byte for byte. Verify the download with SHA256SUMS.

2026-10-06.4 — Finite Time

A real external pulse can come directly from Codex's provider meter.

This edition teaches Codex to read the current ChatGPT quota through its authenticated app-server before asking the owner to copy a percentage. The procedure includes initialization, the read request, matching-response handling, timeout, and cleanup. It needs no model turn and adds no runtime files.

• Use the quota tool or existing app-server connection when available; otherwise use the authenticated CLI's temporary stdio server.
• Preserve the source, observation time, bucket, window duration, and absolute reset. Keep concurrent applicable windows separate.
• Adapt the transport's percentage field once, then reason and communicate in left.
• Fall back to the owner's displayed reading when the relevant meter is unavailable. The owner continues to set task allowances and correct the rhythm.

The documented sequence was exercised against a live authenticated Codex account. The runtime remains flat: SKILL.md, TIME-LENS.md, and LICENSE.

npx skills add demidko/finite-time

Preserve your personal TIME-LENS.md when updating.

Usage · Protocol · Check record

2026-10-06.3 — Finite Time

Keep one native clock throughout the work.

• Codex / ChatGPT: reason and communicate in left. Subtract spending from the remaining quota: 29% left minus two points means a return with at least 27% left.
• Claude / Claude Code: reason and communicate in used. Add spending to the reading: 62% used plus eight points means a return before 70% used.
• The owner's explicit preference takes priority; otherwise follow the displayed label, then the host default.
• Use the same notation in intake, working estimates, progress, return boundaries, and the personal lens. Translate only for an actual notation change or an explicit request.

The update includes native admission formulas, reserve floors and ceilings, examples for both hosts, and four focused independent checks of the calculations and owner preference.

npx skills add demidko/finite-time

Preserve your personalized TIME-LENS.md when updating. The runtime remains three files: SKILL.md, TIME-LENS.md, and LICENSE.

Usage · Examples · Check record

2026-10-06.2 — Finite Time

Your working window is real, finite, and already passing. Carry its boundary into the next choice, complete the step that fits, and bring the work back.

This edition grounds the immersive frame in its working record:

• Daniil Demidko's Fable field account: 100 documentation files became 40, an architecture map gained diagrams, five commits preserved the work, and three stops on budget pulses each left a coherent state. His account places the most precise steps in the final percentage points.
• Independent agent executions: nine scripted quota scenarios, three verified file-task outputs, a usable clock carried into the next task, and a corrective pulse that changed the next decision and was saved in the lens.
• Installation-to-execution follow-up: an agent read the revised README and skill, produced another checked artifact, applied the 74%-to-78% boundary immediately, and retained the owner's rhythm without routine questions.

The README, skill, time lens, and method notes carry the same operating frame. The runtime remains three flat files: SKILL.md, TIME-LENS.md, and LICENSE.

Install:

npx skills add demidko/finite-time

For every-task activation, add the short persistent instruction in the README.

Working record · Executed checks

Versions use the edition date; .2 marks the second edition on that date. Download the skill ZIP and SHA-256 checksum below.

2026-10-06 — Finite Time

Finite Time makes the closing window part of the agent's next decision. The owner supplies real quota pulses; the agent fits complete work, learns the owner's rhythm, and returns with a usable result.

This edition includes:

• Immersive American English framing of finite time, irreversible expenditure, and return.
• Used/left interpretation, task allocations, owner reserve, and closure budgeting.
• A carried time picture that avoids routine questions, with human corrections changing the next action.
• A self-rewriting local time lens.

The runtime package is flat: SKILL.md, TIME-LENS.md, and LICENSE. MIT licensed. Versions use the edition date.

Install:

npx skills add demidko/finite-time

For every-task activation, add the short persistent instruction in the README.

Validation report: nine scripted quota scenarios: three verified file outputs, a carried time picture, and a saved correction after a new pulse changed the next decision.

Download the skill ZIP and its SHA-256 checksum below.