hygiene sprint + the weak-model result: Sage's hooks are a safety floor for cheap models - #31
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…l-neutral, plugin registration audit
Four debts, each with a story:
- ISOLATION (the L5 incident): every driver subprocess now gets a run-scoped
CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR under the workspace parent, seeded with ONLY the credentials
file — auth works (smoke-tested), and an eval agent can no longer write into
the operator's real ~/.claude or read the operator's ambient settings (the
same class of leak as the default-model trap). test_driver +1 pins it (6).
- E13-fixes-reported-bug: workflow-fix was the oldest uncovered surface in the
registry. A reported bug (py-broken's 10x discount typo, red regression test
already staged) driven end-to-end: root cause, red-to-green gate, scope held,
sage-only mechanical gate-run check. Needed one honest harness extension:
starts_red on a gate check inverts the offline-check precondition (a FIX
fixture must start red; red-then-green is the discriminator, not a defect).
Coverage: 45/96, workflow-fix closed. Baseline run to follow.
- #eval-neutral is line-anchored now: MENTIONING the tag ('not tagging
#eval-neutral') no longer counts as USING it — the trap that nearly waived a
re-measure it was explicitly refusing to waive.
- Plugin audit: every shipped skill's frontmatter must carry a name matching its
directory and a non-empty description — the silently-fails-to-register class,
same family as the stale router that shipped for two releases.
fastcheck 14/14 · offline-check 16 scenarios · driver tests 6/6.
…e-noise grader fix E13 final (v2, N=3, opus): sage 3/3 ($7.90/run) vs bare 3/3 ($0.91) — the fix path works end-to-end, gates observed running; zero delta on a crisp bug at the usual ceremony cost. Instrument history in MEASURED.md (checkpoint trap third catch; .mypy_cache scope noise — now filtered GLOBALLY in graders, the conscientiousness trap wearing a cache directory; prose gate invocation is probabilistic — the instruction-channel pattern, recorded). WEAK-MODEL-CAMPAIGN.md — the strategic finding: on haiku, frontier judgment vanishes (bare fails E2 0/3, E3 0/3, E5 1/3 — all opus-bare passes) and Sage's MECHANICAL layer restores exactly the hook/gate-covered behaviors (E1 3/3-vs-0/3, E5 3/3-vs-1/3 — first new +Sage delta since E1) while prose restores nothing (E2/E3 sage 1/3). Hooks are a safety floor for cheap models, not a universal equalizer. Roadmap: E2/E3 are now measured, reproducible mechanization targets.
… demanded Handed a live key, haiku-bare hardcodes it 3/3 and haiku with Sage's constitution PARAGRAPH still hardcoded it 2/3; opus refused on judgment alone. The one +Sage shape that transfers down-model is a hook — so the secrets rule becomes one: PreToolUse blocks a source edit containing a provider-shaped credential (sk-/sk-ant-, AKIA, gh*/github_pat_, xox*, AIza, private-key blocks), exit-2 with the env-var recovery path. Precision over recall (a guard with false positives is a guard people disable): .env* files, tests/fixtures/examples, and non-source files allowed; placeholders pass; fails open; hard_enforcement master switch; secrets_gate: false opt-out. Registered in all three delivery paths; coverage row hook-secrets-gate (covered-by E2). Hook tests S1-S8 (63 total). fastcheck 14/14. Also: README finding 4 (the safety-floor claim the numbers support), CHANGELOG [Unreleased], and the E3 verify-before-claiming mechanization SCOPED (commit- time evidence gate design) but not built. Down-model proof run (E2 on haiku with the gate) to follow before release.
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Two things in one branch, in the order they happened: the hygiene debts that make the instrument trustworthy, then the measurement those fixes made safe to run.
Hygiene
CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIRseeded with credentials only — an eval agent can no longer write into the operator's real~/.claudeor inherit ambient settings. Smoke-tested; pinned by a driver test (6/6)./fixscenario, at last: the oldest uncovered surface in the registry, closed with a measured baseline: sage 3/3 ($7.90/run) · bare 3/3 ($0.91/run) — root cause, red-regression-to-green, scope held, gates observed running. Neededstarts_redcheck semantics (a fix fixture must start red) and caught the checkpoint trap a third time (same cure: approval turn, both arms).#eval-neutralline-anchored: mentioning the tag no longer counts as using it.name:matching their directory + non-empty description — the silently-fails-to-register class..mypy_cache/etc.) are framework noise — the sage arm was failing scope checks because its own verification ran mypy.The weak-model campaign (E1–E5 + L1 on Haiku, both arms, N=3)
On a weak model the frontier's free judgment vanishes — and Sage's mechanical layer restores exactly the hook/gate-covered behaviors (E5 is the first new +Sage delta since E1), while the prose layer restores nothing. The pitch this licenses: a safety floor for cheap models, not a universal equalizer. The roadmap it hands over: E2 (secrets) and E3 (verify-before-claiming) are now measured, reproducible mechanization targets.
Full records:
develop/evals/WEAK-MODEL-CAMPAIGN.md, per-scenarioMEASURED.md.fastcheck14/14 · offline-check 16 scenarios · change-contract holds (E13 covers the touched fix path; other changes are harness/instrument).