nightshift/docs/writer-and-coder.md

Writer And Coder Compatibility Audit

Date: 2026-05-22

Summary

The recent writer workflow changes do not intentionally alter the code-generation templates or their stage routing.

During this audit, one possible shared-pipeline regression was found and fixed: generic file_writer stages were compacting large previous outputs on the first attempt. Since coding templates use file_writer for implementation, that could have reduced coding context before the implementer saw it. The behavior now preserves full first-attempt previous outputs while still stripping wrapped agent prompts from prior agent artifacts.

After that correction, the automated test suite passes.

Writer Changes Reviewed

• Tutorial novel added a scene editor repair path:
  • failed continuity/style review routes to edit_scene
  • edited scene is normalized, validated, applied, then routed back to review
  • passing style_review skips editor and routes to update_state
• Tutorial novel prompts now include stricter pronoun and state-update guidance.
• State update file-writer stages receive focused current state context.
• Scene editor file-writer stages receive current_scene_file.
• Agent invocations now write a sibling JSON artifact for reliable stdout/stderr extraction.
• Pipeline config now supports optional on_status routing. The older on_pass key remains as a deprecated alias for on_status.pass.

Coding Impact Findings

Finding 1: Coding templates were not directly changed

No non-novel project template files changed in the current diff:

• basic
• real-simple
• real-long-running
• tutorial-deaddrop
• tutorial-imageboard
• tutorial-lisp

The new editor agent and review repair routing are only configured in tutorial-novel/nightshift.yaml.

Finding 2: on_status is inert for existing coding configs

on_status defaults to None, so existing coding templates keep their prior linear pass behavior unless they explicitly opt in.

Passing review stages still ignore model-provided next_stage values. This preserves the existing safety behavior where reviewers cannot jump around the pipeline on a pass unless the config has an explicit on_status.pass or legacy on_pass.

Finding 3: Code writer stages still use the same direct patch path

code_writer stages still:

• call the configured agent
• parse stdout as a unified diff
• support lookup-request reruns
• write implementation summaries
• feed patch normalizer/validator/apply stages as before

The JSON agent artifact change only changes how NightShift reads agent stdout internally; it does not change the prompt contract or patch contract.

Finding 4: File-writer implementers had one possible context regression; fixed

Potential issue found:

• _file_writer_previous_outputs had started compacting large previous outputs even on first attempt.
• Coding templates such as DeadDrop use file_writer for implementation.
• That could have shortened planner/context output before the implementer saw it.

Fix applied:

• First-attempt file_writer stages now preserve full previous outputs.
• Retry attempts still compact large previous outputs to control prompt bloat.
• Wrapped agent artifacts still strip down to stdout so old prompts do not pollute later prompts.

Regression coverage added:

• test_file_writer_first_attempt_preserves_large_previous_outputs

Finding 5: State/editor special context branches are narrowly gated

The new context enrichment branches are guarded by stage shape:

• state update branch only applies to file_writer stages whose allowed paths are state files:
  • story/plot-state.md
  • story/characters.md
  • story/timeline.md
  • story/unresolved-threads.md
• scene editor branch only applies to file_writer stages whose id starts with edit_ and whose allowed paths include story/chapters

Normal coding implementer stages such as implement, implement_junior, and implement_senior do not match either branch.

Template Validation Notes

Validated successfully:

• basic
• tutorial-deaddrop
• tutorial-novel

Validation still fails for these templates because debugger is configured but .nightshift/agents/debugger.md is missing:

• real-simple
• real-long-running
• tutorial-imageboard
• tutorial-lisp

Those failures are not caused by the writer changes; there is no current diff in those template directories.

Verification

Focused tests:

python -m pytest tests/test_pipeline.py tests/test_config.py tests/test_agents.py -q

Result:

71 passed, 4 subtests passed

Full suite:

python -m pytest -q

Result:

196 passed, 4 subtests passed

Conclusion

After the first-attempt file-writer context fix, I do not see evidence that the writer workflow changes degrade code generation. The shared changes are either opt-in (on_status), artifact-reading improvements (JSON stdout), or narrowly gated to novel state/editor stages.

Remaining non-writer issue: several coding-oriented templates still reference a missing debugger.md prompt. That should be handled separately from this writer/coder compatibility pass.