P1 review finding: extractMeta timed only the literal's vm evaluation;
materializing the RESULT then read properties ordinarily on the HOST
stack, so a meta literal smuggling a getter (get name() { while(true){} })
could wedge the host outside any timeout — defeating the exact spin
isolation the worker thread exists for.
Rather than harden the evaluator (descriptor walks, AST validation),
delete the mechanism: the workflow's identity now reaches the seam as a
plain JSON field (WorkflowStartRequest.meta), carried by the tool as a
schema-validated `meta` object parameter the model fills directly. The
engine only shape-validates data (validateMeta, every violation named)
and pre-parses the body; the scanner, the vm evaluation, and the
host-side materialization are gone, and with them the hole. A body
still opening with a Claude Code-style `export const meta` statement
gets a pointed SCRIPT_PARSE message (the likeliest authoring slip; a
CC script's body stays drop-in, only its meta header moves into the
parameter). syncTimeoutMs now governs exactly one thing: the initial
synchronous slice inside the worker.
The RFC's decision section is rewritten in place (implemented-RFC
rule); the embedded-meta format moves to alternatives-considered with
the hole as the reason. Tool description, presentation (title now reads
meta.name directly — the textual sniff is gone), seam vocabulary docs,
and catalogs follow.
Pure mechanical rename now that the package's internals are the
worker-thread engine: directory, package name, spec/e2e filenames,
module tags and logger prefixes, tsconfig/knip/run-gates/AGENTS.md
references, example cordis.yml plugin ids, doc links; catalogs
regenerated and the lockfile refreshed.
The outer ring catches up with the engine swap (the package's own
README/JSDoc rode the port commit):
- Seam module doc and README name the worker-thread engine as THE
implementation, with isolated-vm/separate-process sandboxing as the
deferred hardening; the seam service doc states the holder-owned-runs
contract (engine-fiber disposal deliberately leaves live runs to
their holders).
- Seam contract precision: agentsStarted documents the termination-path
degradation to the host-observed count; the events section scopes the
agent-start/agent-end pair to calls that STARTED a child run;
WorkflowRun wording drops the vm-era abandonment language.
- The dynamic-workflows RFC is rewritten in place to the shipped
mechanism (implemented-RFC rule): why worker threads, the thread's
concrete buys, the in-process node:vm first cut recorded under
alternatives considered; the tool section describes the usage policy
as the tool's own prompt section.
- gen-doc-graphs: six workflow/* DYNAMIC_EVENT_DISPATCHERS entries (the
catalog no longer claims nothing dispatches them) and the seam-note
wording; core-data-structures gains its workflow.md index row;
packages/README + AGENTS.md layout line + example cordis.yml comments
say worker-thread; catalogs regenerated.
Two review responses that belong together — the same review argued the
engine was defending the wrong threat while a benign-input bug wedged
the product.
1) Drop hostile-value containment; state the trust premise.
Scripts are model-written — the same trust level as the model's bash
access — yet successive pre-push review rounds had ratcheted in defenses
that only matter against an adversarial author: trap-free proxy
rejection, accessor-never-invoked descriptor walks, realm-side
pre-rendering of thrown values, realm-built promises/arrays/error clones
with structural fatal recognition. That same author keeps a documented,
accepted, unkillable event-loop spin, so containing its error VALUES is
cost without a threat model — and the planned hardened engine
(worker/isolated-vm) gets value isolation by serialization and deletes
all of this machinery anyway.
What stays, because benign scripts hit it constantly: result never
rejects; dropped hook promises cannot become unhandled rejections; the
value boundary rejects LOUD everything JSON cannot carry (now a plain
recursive walk — getters are read ordinarily and their result is what
crosses; a throwing read fails loud); a "__proto__" key still copies as
a data property; the fatal-vs-null combinator discipline (now host
instanceof — unforgeable from the realm and simpler than clone-shape
recognition). What changes for scripts (documented in the engine
README): hooks hand back host values and host errors — in-script
`instanceof Error` on a hook failure is false (branch on e.name/e.code)
— and args are host-cloned once so a script cannot mutate the caller's
object. realm.ts drops 289 → 173 lines; the hostile-value test tables go
with it. The premise now leads the engine module doc, the README, and
the RFC's engine section, with the removed machinery recorded under
What was rejected.
2) result settles within the dispose grace of a cancellation.
Review finding (verified through the real registry + tool + engine): a
script parked on a promise no hook owns — `await new Promise(() => {})`,
`await Promise.race([])`, a returned never-settling thenable — could not
be settled by cancel(): hooks reject and children abort, but nothing
touches a promise the engine does not own, so `result` stayed pending
FOREVER (the previous cut even pinned that as intended). The tool awaits
run.result BEFORE its disposing finally, the registry awaits the tool,
the loop awaits the registry — one such script wedged the whole agent
turn past any abort, unrecoverable in-process; the mock engine in the
tool's abort test settles result on cancel, which is exactly the
behavior the real engine lacked, so no existing test could see it.
The seam contract now says it out loud: once a run is cancelled, result
SETTLES within the implementation's bounded grace even if the script
never does. The vm engine arms an abandon channel in cancel(); drive()
races the script against it, force-settling 'cancelled' at the grace
(the abandoned settlement stays contained; a post-slice synchronous spin
remains the documented limitation). dispose()'s outer race now exists
for child quiescence only, and `workflow/end` again fires exactly once
per started run. The old 'result stays pending' pin is FLIPPED to the
new contract (the pinned behavior was the bug); new regressions cover
cancel-then-settle on a parked script, a never-settling returned
thenable, and the full composition through the REAL registry + tool +
vm engine (tool-workflow gains workflow-vm/subagent devDeps for it).
agentsStarted JSDoc clarified while touching the vocabulary (accepted
calls, including ones still queued at cancellation).
Six verified A-findings from the code-stage review, each with a regression test:
- parallel()/pipeline() resolved to HOST arrays inside the vm realm, exposing
host Array.prototype to scripts; combinator results are now realm-built
(in-realm Array.from bound at context setup).
- materializeFromRealm ran proxy traps (ownKeys/getOwnPropertyDescriptor/
getPrototypeOf) during the descriptor walk — realm code on the host stack,
outside the vm timeout, escaping as raw errors; proxies (root, nested, and
in the prototype position) are now rejected trap-free via util.types.isProxy
before any inspection.
- an already-aborted signal or an immediate cancel() no longer reports
'completed' for a hook-free script: drive() checks cancellation before
running the body and again when the script settles.
- dispose() now waits (bounded by disposeGraceMs) for stray agent() children
to FINISH disposing, not just for the script to settle: every agent() call
is tracked and quiesce() drains the in-flight set.
- workflow/* event payloads were live mutable aliases shared across emissions;
emitWorkflowEvent now hands each listener its own structural clone.
- the structured-output turn-continuation veto is now prepend: true, so an
earlier-registered force-continue listener cannot short-circuit it.
Docs updated in the same change (READMEs, core-data-structures/workflow.md,
the dynamic-workflows RFC, regenerated cordis catalogs).
A new capability family at packages/workflow/ in the bash seam shape,
modeled on Claude Code's dynamic workflows: the model writes a JavaScript
orchestration script (export const meta = {...} + plain-JS body), a runtime
executes it, and the script — not the conversation — holds the loop, the
branching, and the intermediate results.
- dsh-workflow (ctx.workflows): abstract WorkflowService + run vocabulary
(WorkflowRun whose result NEVER rejects) + observe-only workflow/* events
carrying data snapshots (id + meta, never the live run), per-listener
contained like subagent/*.
- dsh-workflow-vm: in-process node:vm engine. Meta extraction via a
string/comment-aware scanner (template interpolation rejected; literal
evaluated alone in an empty timed context; statement blanked line-
preservingly so stacks keep script line numbers). Hooks: agent(prompt,
{label, phase, schema, model}) over ctx.subagents, parallel(), pipeline()
(no cross-stage barrier), phase(), log(), args. Fatal-vs-null discipline:
hook misuse (unknown/deferred options, bad arguments, unsupported
schemas, tripped caps, seam start failures, cancellation) throws fatal
WorkflowErrors the combinators RE-THROW — never dissolved into the
per-item null reserved for child failures. Realm boundary: inbound values
materialized by descriptor walks that never invoke accessors (defineProperty
copies, __proto__-safe); outbound values rebuilt in-realm via the
context's own JSON.parse. Determinism bans (Date.now/Math.random/argless
new Date) kept so future resume support cannot break scripts. Caps and
timeouts are validated Config. Every hook promise carries a no-op
rejection consumer (app-boot exits on unhandled rejections).
- dsh-tool-workflow: the model-facing workflow tool, synchronous like
dsh-tool-subagent (start → await → try/finally dispose; abort bridged;
non-completed → isError). Generic render card titled by a textual
meta.name sniff. The tool description carries the authoring contract.
Wired into examples/{coding-agent,acp-agent} with explicit-ask-only
guidance. Coverage at every tier: unit (meta scanner, materializer incl.
counting-getter and __proto__ regressions, combinator semantics,
concurrency ceiling, caps, cancellation, no-unhandled-rejection abandon),
integration over the real spawn stack, with-key e2e (real two-phase run +
the tool through the registry pipeline), and a recorded ACP snapshot
scenario (workflow-run, 1 child session). RFC:
docs/rfc/implemented/feature/2026-07-05-dynamic-workflows.md (deferred
work explicitly listed). AGENTS.md budget 1575 → 1590 for the new group's
layout line.
Tianyi Cui
Ziya
imccyu