Cipher Living System — Build Spec

1. State Bus (.aide/cipher-state.jsonl)

Every meaningful event appends one JSON line. All components query relevant entries. Replaces scattered logs with unified queryable state.

Event types:

• approval {tool, path, decision}
• rejection {tool, path, reason}
• gate {gate, passed, duration_ms}
• ship {commit_sha, files_count, intent}
• phase {from, to, engine}
• preference {pattern, direction}
• error {source, message}

Query helper: readState(workspace, {type?, since?, limit?}) returns filtered entries newest-first.

2. Sandbox Execution Loop

When TASK produces file edits:

1. Copy affected files to .aide/sandboxes/current/
2. Run verify commands against sandbox copies (existing task service)
3. If all pass → present diff for approval (existing flow)
4. If fail → collect errors, feed back to model for retry (max 3 attempts)
5. Log full cycle to cipher-state.jsonl
6. Only verified diffs reach SHIP panel

Implementation: extend planAndBuild's approve handler. After apply, instead of showing diff immediately: write to scratch, verify, retry if needed, THEN apply to real files and show diff. Uses existing task-service run() for verification.

3. Learned Injection

buildScaffold() reads last N approved patterns from cipher-state.jsonl where type=preference or type=approval with high confidence. Injects as:

[learned] Operator prefers async/await over promise chains
[learned] Auth module uses JWT tokens — follow existing pattern

Cap at 10 lines. Only entries seen >=3 times (confidence threshold).

4. Files to modify

• harness/cipher-state.mjs (NEW): readState/appendState helpers
• app.js: wire state recording into approval/rejection/save flows
• daemon/server.mjs: expose GET /api/cipher/state (tail query)
• harness/scaffold.mjs: read learned entries in composeScaffold
• scripts/run-harness-battery.mjs: no change (battery measures outcome)

Verification

• Unit: state round-trip (append -> query -> filter by type/since)
• Live: approve a TASK edit -> state entry exists -> next scaffold includes it
• Regression: battery delta unchanged (state bus adds no latency to chat path)