341c85381c
Migrated from hermes/hermes-config (now archived). Contents: SOUL.md — Inscription 1, the immutable conscience config.yaml — live Hermes harness configuration memories/ — persistent agent memory + user profile skins/ — timmy.yaml + trismegistus.yaml personalities playbooks/ — 6 specialist agent configs cron/ — scheduled job definitions docs/design-log/ — historical design decisions FALSEWORK.md — API cost management strategy channel_directory.json — platform channel mappings Applied as side-car to Hermes harness. No hacking on the harness.
92 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
92 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
# Delegation Cycle 1 — Retrospective
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## Date: 2026-03-15
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## Orchestrator: Hermes
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## Implementer: Kimi (kimi-k2.5, Moonshot servers)
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---
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## Tasks Attempted
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| Task | Issue | Branch | Status | Outcome |
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|------|-------|--------|--------|---------|
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| Decompose _maybe_distill() | #151 | refactor/151-maybe-distill | ✅ PR #160 | Clean first-pass, 1426 tests pass |
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| SQLite context managers | #148 | fix/148-sqlite-context-managers | ❌ Deferred | Kimi timed out 3x, changes lost to /tmp cleanup |
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## What Worked
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**#151 was a perfect Kimi task:**
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- Single file (thinking.py), clear decomposition target
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- Specific "done when" criteria (under 30 lines, tests pass)
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- Kimi produced clean code on first pass
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- Constants moved to module level, helpers well-named
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- 1426 tests pass, no behavior change
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- Total time: ~2 minutes for Kimi, ~5 minutes for review+commit+PR
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**The two-attempt rule:**
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- Applied correctly — after Kimi's second timeout on #148, I took over
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- Prevented infinite retry loops
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## What Failed
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**#148 was too large for Kimi:**
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- 22 call sites across 16 files
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- Kimi converted ~11 files on first pass but missed several
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- Timed out at 300s on second pass
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- Third attempt also timed out
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- Changes lost when /tmp worktrees were cleaned by macOS
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**Worktree location mistake:**
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- Initially created worktrees in /tmp/
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- macOS cleaned them between terminal calls
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- Lost Kimi's partial work (17 files, -800/+705 lines)
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- Fixed: moved worktrees to ~/worktrees/ (persistent)
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**Kimi's timeout pattern:**
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- Kimi spends significant time reading files and planning
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- On large tasks (16+ files), planning alone can exceed 300s
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- The --print flag doesn't give progress visibility
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- No way to tell if Kimi is stuck vs working
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## Metrics
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| Metric | Value |
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|--------|-------|
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| Tasks dispatched | 2 |
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| Tasks completed (PR created) | 1 |
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| Tasks deferred | 1 |
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| First-pass acceptance rate | 50% (1/2) |
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| Kimi invocations | 4 (1 for #151, 3 for #148) |
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| Total Kimi time | ~12 min (2 + 5 + 5 + timeout) |
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| Tests run | 3x (1426 pass each) |
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| Lines changed (accepted) | +127 / -95 |
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## Lessons Learned
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1. **Task size matters enormously.** #151 (1 file, 109 lines) was perfect. #148 (16 files, 22 call sites) was too big. Kimi's sweet spot is confirmed: 1-3 files, <150 lines of diff.
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2. **Split big tasks.** #148 should have been split into 4-5 sub-tasks of 3-4 files each. "Convert sqlite connections in timmy/" as one task, "dashboard/" as another, etc.
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3. **Never use /tmp for worktrees.** macOS cleans /tmp aggressively. Use ~/worktrees/ instead.
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4. **Kimi doesn't commit reliably.** Even when told to commit, it may not. Always verify with git log after Kimi runs. Commit on behalf of Kimi if the work is good.
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5. **Timeout of 300s is borderline.** For 3+ file tasks, 300s may not be enough. Consider 600s for medium tasks. But the real fix is smaller tasks, not bigger timeouts.
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6. **The two-attempt rule works.** It prevented me from burning 3+ cycles on a task that needed restructuring, not retrying.
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## Changes for Cycle 2
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- [ ] Split #148 into 4 sub-tasks by directory
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- [ ] Use ~/worktrees/ exclusively (never /tmp)
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- [ ] Set 180s timeout for small tasks, 300s for medium
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- [ ] Always verify Kimi committed before moving on
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- [ ] Commit Kimi's work immediately even if incomplete
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## Deliverables
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- PR #160: refactor: decompose _maybe_distill() into focused helpers (#151)
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- Branch: refactor/151-maybe-distill
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- Tests: 1426 pass, 76% coverage
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- Ready to merge
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