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Tracking Issue: make PowerContext work continuity reliable, explainable, and cross-host #1352

Description

@AlexStocks

Goal

Turn PowerContext's existing Memory, Handoff, Work Continuity, Experience, Skill, and integration capabilities into one reliable, explainable, cross-host product journey.

This issue is an umbrella roadmap and sequencing control plane. It tracks dependencies, owners, product-critical exit criteria, and independent child work. It does not replace the linked implementation, research, or evaluation Issues.

Roadmap owner: @AlexStocks.

The product center is:

PowerContext turns human-agent work into evidence-grounded, handoff-ready context.

The differentiator is not a standalone Handoff API. It is the combined lifecycle:

  1. exact Source evidence;
  2. history-preserving Memory and Artifact Revisions;
  3. bounded PreparedContext;
  4. exact-revision Handoff;
  5. exact evidence re-resolution;
  6. receiver-declared live-state, capability, and authorization observations;
  7. explicit Acknowledge;
  8. completion-aware Task Outcome;
  9. Candidate and human Review;
  10. approval, publication, installation, and execution kept separate.

Trust and authorization boundary

PowerContext validates exact selections, evidence availability, and schema invariants. It records receiver checks in a Handoff Receipt.

Receiver capability and authorization checks are untrusted self-attestations from the receiving host. They do not:

  • authenticate the receiver;
  • grant execution authority;
  • prove that credentials or permissions exist;
  • replace current system/developer instructions, the current user request, or live permission checks.

confirmed means the receiver supplied a schema-valid observation. It does not mean PowerContext performed authentication or ACL enforcement.

A Handoff Receipt never grants tools, network access, credentials, or permission to execute the next action.

Status snapshot

Last refreshed: 2026-08-26.

The linked Issue or PR is the live source of truth. This table is a dated roadmap snapshot.

Work Live state Owner / implementation Roadmap role
#1297 open PR #1303 open Memory Revision integrity
#1319 open assigned; PR #1344 open transport safety
#1320 open assigned existing OceanBase schema upgrade
#1321 open assigned bounded Memory capacity/latency
#1322 completed PR #1325 merged bounded Runtime scope caches
#1219 / #1238 unresolved #1238 open draft, review required Project sharing / Workstream isolation
#1298 open assigned local Server availability and service installation
#1301 open PR #1311 open multi-host Setup
#1313 open PR #1314 open Doctor integration overview
#1302 completed PR #1304 and PR #1334 merged Review Inbox, Skills Library, and docs
#1338 open unassigned integration capability alignment
#1328 open PR open immutable evaluation baselines

Scope dependency

Single-Workstream Work Contract, Handoff, Acknowledge, Task Outcome, and Work Continuity behavior can be audited independently of #1238.

#1238 remains a dependency for:

  • the final Project/Workstream product model;
  • Project-level context sharing;
  • cross-Workstream context composition;
  • Workstream discovery, grouping, and binding;
  • any acceptance claim that spans different Workstreams rather than continuing one exact Workstream.

The roadmap must not describe all Work Continuity as blocked by #1238, and it must not describe the unresolved Project-sharing contract as accepted.

Integration contract

“Priority hosts” is not a contract. Repository directories, README tables, released CLI commands, master-only integrations, framework adapters, evaluation harnesses, and open PRs can describe different sets.

The versioned repository contract is tracked in:

The manifest must distinguish:

Integration kind

  • agent_host
  • framework_adapter
  • evaluation_harness

Availability

  • released
  • master_only
  • experimental
  • proposed
  • unsupported

Capability

At minimum:

  • Memory read/write;
  • Source capture;
  • Context injection;
  • flush/checkpoint;
  • Work Contract;
  • Handoff;
  • Acknowledge;
  • Task Outcome;
  • Experience/Skill;
  • Candidate Review;
  • External Skill;
  • pre-compaction capture;
  • slash command;
  • persistent Workstream binding.

Minimal/Recommended/Full must be derived from, or validated against, the capability set. The first contract is a versioned repository manifest validated against implementation, tests, CLI registration, and maintained docs—not a new stable public HTTP API.

Framework adapters and evaluation harnesses must not be counted as Agent hosts. Released and master-only host runs must be reported separately.

Delivery principles

  • Reuse existing Issues and PRs; do not create duplicate branches for assigned work.
  • Resolve data integrity, transport safety, migration, performance, and bounded-resource risks before expanding related public promises.
  • Keep Source, Memory, Handoff, Outcome, Experience, Skill, approval, publication, installation, and execution as separate authority boundaries.
  • Preserve fail-open recall behavior, but never treat authorization failures as ordinary fail-open recall failures.
  • Define success through observable scenarios, not tool counts.
  • Use common benchmarks and PowerContext-native continuity scenarios.
  • Do not present competitor self-reported benchmark results as reproduced evidence.
  • Keep changes independently reviewable.

Product critical path

The product critical path is separate from product feature, research, and evaluation child work.

Phase 0 — reliability and contract baseline

Target: weeks 1–2.

Existing implementation work:

These items are assigned or have active implementation work. New contributors must coordinate in the original Issue and must not start duplicate fixes.

Contract reconciliation:

  • Audit RFC 1223 against current models, OpenAPI operations, Server routes, Handoff Report UI, integration guidance, and tests.
  • Decide and record whether RFC 1223 is Draft, Accepted, or Experimental.
  • Reconcile only the Project/Workstream-dependent parts with RFC: scope model — Project sharing + Workstream isolation #1238.
  • Distinguish current master behavior, released behavior, and maintained documentation.
  • Create focused follow-up Issues only for verified gaps.

Phase acceptance:

  • Malformed Memory Revisions cannot produce search/read disagreement.
  • Runtime caches remain bounded under caller-controlled scope growth.
  • Existing OceanBase schemas are migrated or fail closed with actionable guidance.
  • Unsafe remote plaintext HTTP configurations are rejected by the owning transport surface.
  • Memory append/list operations have an explicit observable capacity contract.
  • Work Continuity status is consistent across RFC, OpenAPI, code, tests, and public documentation.

Phase 1 — reliable daily use

Target: weeks 2–4.

Related work: #1298, #1301, #1313, #1333, #1311, and #1314.

  • Surface content-free, bounded, deduplicated server_unavailable diagnostics in supported Agent hosts.
  • Implement shared personal-service facts before correlated Doctor logic.
  • Implement powercontext service install/status/uninstall through the accepted distribution/service-install boundary.
  • Qualify native adapters only after matching-runner lifecycle tests.
  • Keep unsupported and not_installed honest and advisory.
  • Provide one explicit Setup path for one or more detected Agent hosts.
  • Make Doctor report Server, integration, capture, recall, guidance, registration, manager, liveness, readiness, and recovery facts.
  • Define the no-inference-provider capability profile.
  • Document data, configuration, log, recovery, reconciliation, and uninstall boundaries.

Acceptance journey:

clean machine
  -> install PowerContext
  -> detect and select an Agent host
  -> install the integration
  -> install/start the local service
  -> Doctor reports exact status
  -> store one project decision
  -> a new Session recalls it

Suggested product target: first cross-Session recall within 10 minutes of starting installation.

Phase 2 — cross-host Work Continuity

Target: weeks 3–6.

Dependencies:

Completed supporting work:

Remaining product work:

  • Keep the default MCP tool profile compact.
  • Select the first host pair from the versioned manifest.
  • Report released and master-only host qualification separately.
  • Show exact evidence, Revision, delivery status, drift, and conflicts.
  • Keep Candidate approval and Skill publication separate.

Required scenario:

Host A creates a Work Contract
  -> Host A performs partial work
  -> Host A prepares and commits an exact Handoff
  -> Host B receives no Host A Session transcript
  -> PowerContext re-resolves exact evidence
  -> Host B records untrusted receiver self-attestations
  -> Host B acknowledges the exact Revision
  -> Host B records a Task Outcome
  -> Work Continuity shows outcome covered only for the exact Receipt
  -> an Experience Candidate may be generated
  -> a human reviews it
  -> an approved Revision is published separately

Product acceptance:

  • Host B does not depend on Host A's Session transcript.
  • Unavailable evidence cannot be accepted.
  • A diverged workspace does not silently execute an old next action.
  • Receiver checks are explicitly marked untrusted and do not grant authority.
  • accepted does not mean completed.
  • Outcome coverage requires the exact accepted Receipt.
  • failed, timed_out, unavailable, skipped, cancelled, and unknown are not upgraded to passed.
  • Candidate cannot approve itself.
  • Approval does not publish, install, or execute a Skill.

Independent product feature work

These features have their own contracts and acceptance. They remain visible in this roadmap but are not folded into one all-or-nothing core product exit condition.

Explainable PreparedContext

The RFC owns:

  • Receipt schema and bounds;
  • policy version and output digest;
  • selected exact references;
  • omitted counts/reasons;
  • retrieval/rerank/fallback states;
  • non-determinism marking;
  • privacy and retention;
  • compatibility;
  • progressive inspection.

Context Inspector implementation requires an accepted #1356 RFC and a separate implementation Issue.

Independent research work

Research work has separate owners and does not block the product critical-path exit unless it discovers a correctness or safety blocker.

Source identity and immutable observation

#1240 owns the bounded validation Source integration. Do not open a parallel GitHub Source pilot while #1240 is active without coordinating with its owner.

Research acceptance remains in #1240:

  • logical Source identity versus immutable observation identity;
  • exact old evidence after external mutation;
  • Capture/Ref/Hybrid decision;
  • one bounded integration validation;
  • no Connector Marketplace or background sync in the first slice.

Independent evaluation work

Evaluation work has its own contracts, artifacts, and acceptance. A benchmark subset is never a product completion claim.

Report accuracy/task success together with latency, Context bytes/tokens, ingestion cost, exact citation availability, abstention, and failure categories.

Do not add persistent L0/L1 or temporal public schema fields before independent evidence and an accepted RFC support them.

Product critical-path exit criteria

The core product path is complete when:

  • all Phase 0 correctness and contract gates are closed or explicitly deferred with recorded risk;
  • one supported platform passes the persistent personal-service journey;
  • feat(integrations): publish a versioned capability manifest #1357 provides a versioned, validated integration manifest;
  • at least one released or explicitly master-only host pair passes acceptance: verify cross-host Work Continuity #1358 with exact version reporting;
  • receiver capability/authorization wording remains an untrusted observation rather than an authorization grant;
  • Review, approval, publication, installation, and execution boundaries pass focused acceptance;
  • no stale/diverged Handoff next action is silently executed;
  • no unauthorized automatic approval, publication, installation, or execution is observed.

Umbrella roadmap completion

#1352 can close when:

  • the product critical-path exit criteria above are met;
  • every remaining product feature, research, and evaluation item has an independent Issue, owner or explicit unassigned status, acceptance criteria, and current state;
  • unfinished independent research/evaluation remains tracked in its child Issue and is not misrepresented as completed.

Completion of #1356, #1240, #1300, #1263, #1328, or #1359 is not automatically required to close the product critical path unless that work discovers a blocker or is explicitly promoted into the critical path by a recorded decision.

Explicit non-goals

  • A complete Context Graph or mandatory graph database.
  • Team/User/Role/Agent ACL before a separate authentication/authorization design.
  • Treating receiver self-attestation as authentication or authorization.
  • An OpenAI/Anthropic proxy as the default integration path.
  • A built-in Agent Runtime or multi-Agent Orchestrator.
  • A Connector Marketplace before one Source pilot proves the contract.
  • Treating Session End or Stop as task completion.
  • Automatic Handoff commit.
  • Automatic Candidate approval.
  • Automatic Skill publication, installation, or execution.
  • Treating Branch, Session, model, or Agent identity as Workstream identity.
  • Exposing dozens of MCP tools by default.

First owner action

All identified Phase 0 implementation bugs and service work are assigned or have active PRs. The first non-duplicative owner action is:

Audit and reconcile the Work Continuity contract before starting another implementation branch.

Deliverables:

  1. Read RFCs 0019, 0028, 0048, 0051, 0082, 1223, and the scope RFC in RFC: scope model — Project sharing + Workstream isolation #1238.
  2. Inventory implemented Work models, OpenAPI operations, Server routes, Handoff Report behavior, integration guidance, and focused tests.
  3. Produce an evidence table: specified, implemented, released/documented, missing, or conflicting.
  4. Recommend Draft, Accepted, or Experimental for RFC 1223 with evidence.
  5. Identify the minimum docs/RFC fixes and genuinely missing implementation Issues.
  6. Do not implement bug: Memory commit accepts malformed revisions and search can return text that entries() rejects #1297, Tracking Issue: local Server availability and service installation #1298, bug: network transport policy permits unsafe remote HTTP configurations #1319, bug: OceanBase collation fix does not upgrade existing schemas #1320, bug: Memory append storage and latency grow superlinearly with entry history #1321, or other assigned work in parallel.
  7. Run make docs-test for documentation changes and focused Work/Handoff tests for code-contract claims.

Safe stop:

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