phrazzld/trace

/trace

Capture the work record, not the raw conversation.

/trace is the durable session-lifecycle primitive. It writes sanitized JSONL records that link a unit of work to its backlog/spec, branch, commits, reviewer verdicts, QA evidence, demo evidence, transcript refs, and shipped commit/ref. The default store is .harness-kit/traces/work-records.jsonl.

Delegation Judgment

Trace append/preview commands are usually mechanical and may run direct solo. When the trace requires substantive evidence classification, provenance judgment, redaction-risk review, or conflicting artifact synthesis, delegate on judgment per the shared Roster contract: native subagents by default; add cross-model critics, roster providers, or sprite lanes (/sprites) only when they answer a distinct question. See harnesses/shared/AGENTS.md (Roster).

Local lane guidance: Use specialized lanes for evidence classifier, redaction-risk critic, and provenance verifier. Store refs and receipt ids, not raw provider transcripts.

Contract

• Local-first. No hosted transcript database and no network writes.
• Append-only. Do not rewrite commit history to add trace evidence.
• Store refs, not raw transcripts. Use /agent-transcript to render a scoped, redacted transcript excerpt before attaching it.
• Persist a transcript ref or a clear waiver reason. "No transcript available" is acceptable only when the work record says that plainly.
• Fail closed on obvious secrets: token/API-key/password/credential names, bearer strings, private customer-data labels, or secret-like metadata.
• Link evidence by path, PR section, Git note ref, receipt id, or URL. Do not paste raw provider transcripts into the JSONL row.

Helper

cargo run --locked -p harness-kit-checks -- trace-record append \
  --backlog 056 \
  --branch "$(git branch --show-current)" \
  --commit "$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)" \
  --reviewer-verdict-ref ".harness-kit/traces/delegations.jsonl#<id>" \
  --qa-ref ".evidence/qa/<id>.md" \
  --demo-ref ".evidence/demo/<id>.gif" \
  --transcript-ref ".harness-kit/traces/transcripts/<id>.md"

If transcript evidence is unavailable:

cargo run --locked -p harness-kit-checks -- trace-record append \
  --backlog 056 \
  --branch "$(git branch --show-current)" \
  --commit "$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)" \
  --waiver-reason "No safe transcript export available from this harness run."

Smoke test:

cargo run --locked -p harness-kit-checks -- trace-record --self-test

Ship Handoff

/ship requires a final work record linking the shipped commit to trace evidence, or an explicit waiver when no transcript or trace artifact exists. The trace may be a .harness-kit/traces/work-records.jsonl row, a Git note, a PR body section, or another named durable store. Raw session logs do not count.

Bootstrap Exposure

/trace is a normal first-party skill under skills/, so bootstrap.sh installs it system-wide through the existing cross-harness skill scan. No special harness-native bridge is required.

Gotchas

• Trace refs are audit breadcrumbs; they do not replace commit trailers, PR bodies, backlog closure, QA receipts, or demos.
• Redaction happens before trace storage. /trace rejects obvious leaks but does not summarize or sanitize a raw transcript for you.
• Keep bulky artifacts out of Git unless the repo already has an evidence convention for them.