FKST Devbored

The loop is all the rage. Engineers at Anthropic and OpenAI now describe their day job as building the loop that builds the code. But most loop architectures are still too basic for complex development work — the interesting problems live in the harness around the loop, not the model inside it. Inspired by OpenAI's Symphony and the broader harness-engineering conversation, we built this: an easy way for developers to use Codex to experiment with their own dev workflows, in a loop.

Three design choices keep it approachable:

• Lean, editable architecture. Small pieces you can actually read and reshape — not a framework you configure from the outside.
• GitHub is the durable layer. Issues, comments, and labels hold the loop's business state — trivially readable and auditable by humans, hosted where your code already lives.
• The front end is an approachable web layer. The original submission used static pages and vanilla JavaScript with no build step. The current recorded console uses React, Vite, and TypeScript while preserving the same inspectable browser surface and the earlier static materials in the repo.

Why a harness at all

Harness engineering is about making the loop work the way you want. Something that runs 24/7 without staying aligned to your own judgment isn't autonomy — it's loop vibing.

This architecture goes after three concrete problems in agentic coding:

1. Context management. Split work into smaller issues and keep process state in the durable layer (GitHub issues + trusted marker comments). No single context window has to carry the whole project.
2. Verifiable judgment. Every decision leaves durable evidence, so you can check the agent's reasoning against your own — and reformulate your loops and flows when you disagree. The console's rule set is exactly this: markers are facts, labels are hints, unknown is never zero.
3. Provider independence. fkst-substrate is a durable loop engine that operates independently of any model provider. Together with the public devloop in fkst-packages, it is one of exactly two primary FKST dependencies; Workflow and Council remain the application's mechanisms for work and decision evidence.

Current implementation status

Honest scope: http://127.0.0.1:4173 is an interactive viewer for committed, sanitized fixture data. It starts no BFF and makes no connection to GitHub, Council, fkst-substrate, or the public devloop. Separately, the local development topology has served a real populated GitHub snapshot through its BFF and Vite /api proxy. A deterministic Chrome/CDP test also proves the browser-rendered Vite+BFF topology with a controlled fake GitHub projection. That browser test is not real-GitHub DOM evidence or full end-to-end proof: live Council acquisition, a successful public-devloop health run, and a deployed substrate durable root remain unavailable.

Current runnable state

The simplest demonstrable artifact is a React/Vite/TypeScript fixture viewer. The repository also contains a loopback Node/TypeScript BFF, a same-origin live-development proxy, optional local adapters, and the preserved earlier static/specification materials; none of the live components are used by pnpm demo. The fixture viewer needs Node.js 22.6–26 and pnpm 10.17.1, but no GitHub account, credentials, BFF, fkst-substrate, devloop checkout, or engine deployment:

git clone https://github.com/ChronoAIProject/fkst-devbored.git
cd fkst-devbored
corepack enable
pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
pnpm demo

Open http://127.0.0.1:4173. This is the reproducible recorded-UI path, not a live integration; there is no hosted demo. The candidate lineage and the repository's earlier static/specification lineage are preserved together on main; neither history was force-replaced.

Area	Exact status	Evidence boundary
Recorded UI prototype	Implemented · fixture-only · locally and CI verified	pnpm demo renders 2 issues, 1 PR, 3 Council seats with a 2/3 decision and dissent, 1 queue, 1 in-flight delivery, 0 dead letters, and recorded health output. The persistent Recorded demo data banner and example.invalid links prevent live-status confusion. It calls no BFF or external service.
Integrated live application	Partially demonstrated · controlled browser topology · not end to end	The BFF served a real populated GitHub snapshot and Vite's same-origin /api proxy returned it. A separate fake-backed Chrome test proves the browser leaves loading and renders the local live topology, but a real-GitHub-backed browser run has not passed. Live Council acquisition is absent, no deployed substrate durable root was available, and no real write was performed.
Workflow	Implemented · fixture-populated · populated live read demonstrated · contract-tested	At the July 22 checkpoint, an authenticated read-only query of ChronoAIProject/fkst-packages projected 5 current open issues and 1 open PR after trusted-author filtering. Those timestamped counts are live evidence, not permanent expectations or historical truth. Browser rendering is contract-proved only against a controlled fake projection; real-GitHub DOM proof remains outstanding.
Council	Implemented · fixture-only · contract-tested	The UI renders seats, outcomes, round, agreement, and recorded dissent from fixture evidence. Live Council acquisition is not implemented and reports unavailable.
Runtime	Implemented · fixture-populated · contract-tested	The adapter and UI are tested with fake/local contract data. A real binary was inspected; missing, invalid, and inaccessible durable state now degrade distinctly without leaking local paths. No root was initialized and no real substrate ledger observation is claimed.
Local BFF and SSE	Implemented · contract-tested	Loopback API, same-origin development proxy, snapshot/session/health routes, SSE, degradation, and denial paths are tested. pnpm start is API-only; it does not serve the frontend.
New work	Implemented · fake-write contract-tested · no real mutation	The sole positive write test uses a repository-local fake gh. Fixture and default live startup are read-only, and no real GitHub issue was created during implementation or verification.
Publication and eligibility	Candidate source published · remaining gates not verified	The public candidate branch is supplied. No hosted demo, public video, Devpost entry, /feedback Session ID, or personal eligibility evidence is present.

This is an OpenAI Build Week demo candidate, not a production-complete FKST application, hosted control plane, Flutter/Dart app, Electron app, or Tauri app. Commit 9743cfe633b3415278a33fe1b3d02b7ac133a391 remains the accepted implementation baseline. The integrated tree adds the bounded quality pass and subsequent recovery tooling/evidence: configurable loopback startup, deterministic source preflight, a controlled browser-topology contract, explicit durable-state classification/redaction, and the Council authority decision. These additions do not constitute deployment or full end-to-end completion.

What the product does

FKST Console observes a GitHub-native development loop without becoming another source of truth. It brings three kinds of evidence into one disposable projection:

• Workflow business state and pull-request gates from trusted GitHub comment markers;
• Council decision evidence showing which independent lenses participated and what they concluded; and
• Runtime delivery evidence from the substrate ledger plus opaque devloop health output.

There is no console database and no engine control plane. Unreachable evidence stays unknown or unavailable; it is never turned into a reassuring zero.

Application structure

The top navigation names are Workflow, Council, and Runtime.

Workflow — the primary mechanism

Workflow is the main product surface. Its issue lanes project current work through Design, Build, Review, Ship, Complete, and Attention. Its PR lane projects Open, In review, At gate, Held, and Merged evidence. Trusted state:v1 markers decide business state; labels are displayed only as lossy hints. The same view carries accepted review-result:v1 and head-bound merge-ready:v1 evidence, but exposes no approve, merge, close, retry, or engine controls.

Opening an issue shows its current marker-derived evidence, Council summary when present, merge-gate facts, authority, and source age. The UI does not present polling deltas as an authoritative historical timeline.

Council — decision evidence

Council is a read-only evidence view, not a persona or prompt editor. In the recorded fixture it shows three independent seats, their verdicts, an admitted round-one decision, a 2/3 agreement result, and the explicitly recorded dissent. The decision ledger is a current projection and may miss decisions between polls. In local live mode, Council remains unavailable because no live Council acquisition adapter exists in this cut.

Runtime — delivery evidence

Runtime shows the current fkst.delivery.observe.v1 delivery projection: queue depth, dead letters, subscriber state, and current delivery rows. Those are engine-delivery facts, not Workflow progress. Acknowledged rows can disappear between polls, and at-least-once delivery can repeat IDs. The devloop health line is shown verbatim; exit code zero is not reinterpreted as proof of HEALTHY. The screen cannot retry, requeue, resume, edit topology, open the ledger, or control the engine.

The detailed authority and degradation model is in docs/ARCHITECTURE.md.

60-second fixture demo

After running pnpm demo, use this path:

1. 0–10 seconds — disclosure: confirm Recorded demo data and READ-ONLY at the top. The fixture uses example.invalid links, so its interactions cannot target a real repository.
2. 10–30 seconds — Workflow: scan the issue lanes and PR evidence lane. Note that state:v1 determines stage while labels are hints.
3. 30–40 seconds — work detail: open issue #42 and inspect the trusted evidence sequence and head-bound merge gate. Close the dialog.
4. 40–50 seconds — Council: open Council and show the three seat verdicts plus the recorded 2/3 decision and dissent.
5. 50–60 seconds — Runtime: open Runtime and identify queue/DLQ/subscriber values as a recorded delivery-ledger snapshot, not business progress or history.

The longer operator checklist and BFF probes are in docs/JUDGE-RUNBOOK.md.

Fixture truth versus live truth

Capability	Fixture mode (pnpm demo)	Local live mode (pnpm dev or pnpm start)
Browser source	Committed demo/fixtures/snapshot.v1.json, copied into the demo build	GET /api/v1/snapshot plus GET /api/v1/events
GitHub issues, PRs, markers	Sanitized recorded projection	Optional bounded gh api graphql read when exactly one repository and trusted bot are configured
Council	Sanitized app-owned evidence projection	Unavailable: live acquisition is not implemented
Substrate	Recorded fkst.delivery.observe.v1 shape	Optional fkst-framework observe --durable-root … --json; missing roots/databases are specifically UNAVAILABLE, invalid shapes are FAIL, and inaccessible/unclassified failures remain UNKNOWN. The Console never initializes the root.
Devloop health	Recorded opaque output	Optional public devloop scripts/run.sh health; its first stdout line is the recognized verdict and the complete stdout is preserved verbatim
Writes	Impossible; always read-only	Read-only by default; one issue-admission write is possible only after every guard passes
Historical claim	Illustrative recorded sequence only	None; polling can miss acknowledged deliveries and repeated IDs are possible

The fixture is sanitized replay data, not current repository or engine status and not a byte-for-byte capture of the linked public history. It includes one untrusted forged marker to prove author filtering occurs before parsing. Unknown marker schemas are ignored. The replacement fixture IDs and invalid URLs must not be narrated as one newly completed console-created-to-merge run.

Exact commands

The following table covers every root script in package.json, plus the frozen clean-checkout install command.

Command	Exact behavior
pnpm install --frozen-lockfile	Install the pinned workspace resolution without changing pnpm-lock.yaml.
pnpm install:locked	Run the package-script alias for the same frozen install.
pnpm demo	Start the Vite app in fixture mode on 127.0.0.1:4173; no BFF starts.
pnpm dev	Start the live-mode BFF and Vite app with a guarded same-origin /api proxy. Defaults are 127.0.0.1:8472 and 127.0.0.1:5173; FKST_CONSOLE_PORT and FKST_CONSOLE_UI_PORT select alternate loopback ports.
pnpm build	Run each workspace package's declared build serially. The BFF uses Node type stripping and has no emitted bundle.
pnpm build:demo	Build the static fixture-mode frontend into app/dist/.
pnpm typecheck	Run each workspace package's declared typecheck serially.
pnpm test	Run each workspace package's tests serially. Tests use local fakes and must never make a live GitHub write.
pnpm start	Start the loopback BFF from documented environment values; it does not serve app/dist.
pnpm preflight:live	Probe GitHub, substrate-observe, and configured public-devloop health readiness without a GitHub mutation, engine start, or durable-root initialization. A configured public health script may still bootstrap/build/cache as documented; use pnpm --silent preflight:live -- --json for JSON-only stdout and see docs/LIVE-PREFLIGHT.md.
pnpm smoke	Alias pnpm smoke:fixture.
pnpm smoke:fixture	Build fixture mode, preview it temporarily on 127.0.0.1:4174, probe the schema/HTML/disclosure, and stop.
pnpm scrub	Read-only scan of current non-ignored text and the history reachable from HEAD for common secrets, plus current-file identity and developer-home checks. Unrelated remote branches are outside this release-tree gate.
pnpm check	Run typecheck, tests, build, fixture smoke, and scrub in that order.

The POSIX convenience wrapper is ./scripts/run.sh <command>, where <command> is install, demo, dev, build, typecheck, test, start, preflight, smoke, or scrub.

Live mode is optional. Export selected settings from .env.example before pnpm start or pnpm dev; the project does not source .env or execute it as shell code. console.config.example.jsonc is a reviewable mapping, not a loaded config file. A substrate/health BFF launch can use direct argv:

pnpm --filter ./server start \
  --port 8472 \
  --observe-bin /absolute/path/to/fkst-framework \
  --durable-root /absolute/path/to/durable-root \
  --health-script /absolute/path/to/fkst-packages/scripts/run.sh

--observe-bin and --durable-root must be supplied together. Without them, runtime data is unavailable rather than zero. The Console does not initialize durable state. If the health script is the public scripts/run.sh, pin BIN, export FKST_NO_AUTOBUILD=1, and review its cache behavior in docs/DURABLE-ROOT-LIFECYCLE.md. pnpm start exposes GET /api/v1/health, GET /api/v1/snapshot, GET /api/v1/session, and GET /api/v1/events; use pnpm dev for the integrated local UI. There is no one-command production/static live server in this cut.

For a read-only live GitHub projection, first authenticate gh, choose two unused loopback ports, and configure exactly one repository plus trusted marker author:

FKST_CONSOLE_PORT=18472 \
FKST_CONSOLE_UI_PORT=15173 \
FKST_SANDBOX_REPO=ChronoAIProject/fkst-packages \
FKST_BOT_LOGIN=ElonSG \
pnpm dev

Open http://127.0.0.1:15173. Do not set FKST_ENABLE_WRITES=1; the demonstrated run was read-only. A successful /api/v1/snapshot response proves acquisition and proxy stitching. The controlled Chrome contract proves browser rendering with fake upstream data; the separate real-GitHub-backed browser evidence required to complete E4 remains outstanding.

Security and the only mutation

The BFF binds exactly 127.0.0.1, sets no permissive CORS headers, and invokes gh, fkst-framework, and the optional health runner with execFile plus explicit argv arrays. It never opens delivery.redb, touches an observe socket, starts the engine, or sets FKST_GITHUB_WRITE.

The only mutation route is POST /api/v1/issues. It may create one issue in exactly one configured sandbox repository with fkst-dev:enabled attached by the same gh issue create invocation. Admission requires all of these independent guards:

• explicit --enable-writes or FKST_ENABLE_WRITES=1, while demo mode remains false;
• exactly one valid OWNER/REPOSITORY allowlist and one trusted bot login;
• exact loopback Host and Origin, POST method, and the per-launch session token;
• a bounded JSON object containing exactly title and body;
• a resolved authenticated human actor distinct from the normalized bot login; and
• a returned HTTPS GitHub URL belonging to that exact repository and a positive issue number.

No issue edits, label-only writes, markers, bot comments, PR approvals, merges, closes, engine operations, config writes, terminal-goal resume, or arbitrary command endpoints exist. Demo mode cannot enable writes. The full boundary and safe pre-write checklist are in docs/SECURITY.md. No real GitHub mutation has been performed or authorized by this README.

Dependencies, provenance, and authorship

Exactly two pre-existing projects are primary FKST integrations:

Primary integration	Inspected revision	Relationship
ChronoAIProject/fkst-substrate	e38358a0552c4133414836bf52df6593908fe547	External local fkst-framework observe --json CLI; not vendored.
Public devloop in ChronoAIProject/fkst-packages	f6ad297c672c1d9d38c82e0a0ea50c96e2843e0b	External GitHub-native Workflow and optional opaque health source; not vendored.

The complete devbored product/specification and older devbored, github-devloop*, consensus, hosted, desktop/Flutter, and proxy materials are reference-only provenance. They are not additional primary integrations and are absent from this cut's shipped import/runtime graph. Node.js, pnpm, React, Vite, TypeScript, gh, and browsers are toolchain/runtime dependencies, not FKST product integrations.

The submission period began 2026-07-13. Work attributed to it is this repository's console UI, loopback BFF, normalized snapshot contract, sanitized fixture, tests, and packaging—not the pre-existing FKST runtime or devloop. The worktree began at 9308b5a018af28049c35517946aaae113e323c20; accepted implementation baseline 9743cfe633b3415278a33fe1b3d02b7ac133a391 added the demo candidate, followed by the bounded quality and read-only recovery work listed above.

Public historical issue #111 and PR #77 validated the issue-state and review/merge contracts. They are not one console-created end-to-end run. The sanitized fixture replaces their identifiers and content.

Codex sessions directed to use GPT-5.6 Sol implemented the Build Week cut and its tests/docs. Repository prose is not proof of model identity, /feedback upload, submission compliance, or personal eligibility. Those external proofs remain outstanding. See docs/PROVENANCE.md for the detailed prior-work, dependency, asset, and authorship boundary.

License

This repository's console code is Apache-2.0; see LICENSE. That license does not relicense upstream integrations, GitHub evidence, package-manager dependencies, fonts, or third-party tools. Font notices, pins, hashes, and SIL OFL 1.1 text are in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md and docs/third-party/SIL-OFL-1.1.txt.

Verified evidence

docs/VERIFICATION.md records the settled local checkpoint without implying deployment or submission. Do not silently reinterpret its numbers:

• 127/127 tests: React app 13/13, loopback BFF 51/51, and black-box/integration 63/63 across 16 suites;
• both production and recorded-demo builds transformed 42 modules;
• fixture smoke verified the schema, HTML mount, persistent disclosure, and loopback-only preview;
• the merged release-tree scrub examined 258 non-ignored files plus reachable history;
• read-only UX and security reviews returned their recorded PASS verdicts;
• an authenticated GitHub read against ChronoAIProject/fkst-packages-testing returned a complete current-open set of zero issues and zero PRs, and a later read against ChronoAIProject/fkst-packages returned a populated projection of five issues and one PR, both with writes disabled;
• no durable-root substrate observation was possible; and
• the positive issue-creation path used only a fake local gh, not GitHub.

The recorded local platform was macOS 26.5.2 arm64, Node.js 26.3.0, pnpm 10.17.1, and Chrome 150.0.7871.129. The package contract is Node.js 22.6–26. The pre-merge 562a675 checkpoint passed GitHub Actions with 98 tests. Hosted verification of the 127-test merged tree must be attributed only after the workflow for its exact pushed SHA passes. Firefox, Safari, Windows, and a clean container were not verified.

Known limitations

• Fixture values are sanitized illustrative evidence, not live status, and fixture URLs intentionally do not navigate to real targets.
• Live GitHub reads require one repository and trusted bot. A populated read and same-origin proxy response have been demonstrated, but the current counts can change. Controlled fake-backed browser rendering is proved; real-GitHub-backed browser DOM evidence is still outstanding.
• The live GitHub command is bounded and can report a transient read failure even after actor authentication succeeds; retry evidence does not erase a failed attempt, so production reliability is not claimed.
• Live Council acquisition is unavailable. Council's populated screen is fixture-only.
• A substrate binary existed, but no deployed durable root was available; real delivery-ledger observation is unavailable.
• The integrated live UI is a Vite development topology. The BFF does not serve app/dist; there is no container or packaged one-origin production server.
• contracts/ is a preserved legacy Dart contract harness, not the application and not a pnpm workspace dependency. Its default dart test requires an external devbored fixture corpus that is absent from this repository, so it is not part of the accepted console release gate.
• Only state:v1, review-result:v1, and merge-ready:v1 markers are parsed. Unknown schemas are ignored.
• There is no topology panel, database, durable console cache, authoritative timeline, or engine control surface.
• Runtime health is opaque text; delivery observation can be unavailable while GitHub business state exists.
• No real guarded issue creation, Firefox/Safari/Windows pass, clean-container setup, or public-host secret scanning has been evidenced.
• The passing GitHub workflow carries a non-blocking runner annotation: the current v4 setup actions target the deprecated Node 20 action runtime and GitHub forces those action implementations onto Node 24. The repository's own verification commands still run under the configured Node 22 toolchain.
• This two-hour demo candidate makes no production security, availability, or eligibility claim.

External submission gates

Source publication is complete; every other row remains external and unresolved. A placeholder is not completion evidence.

Required artifact or gate	Current truth
Public source repository, or private repo shared with both judging addresses	PUBLISHED — candidate source and preserved legacy lineage are integrated directly on main; the earlier codex/build-week-mvp checkpoint remains available
Working judge-accessible hosted demo, sandbox, or test build	NOT PUBLISHED — only the local fixture path is documented
Public YouTube video under three minutes with required audio	NOT PUBLISHED / NOT SUPPLIED
Primary Codex /feedback Session ID with successful upload evidence	NOT SUPPLIED / NOT VERIFIED
Completed Devpost description, category, and entry URL	NOT PUBLISHED / NOT SUPPLIED
Real durable-root substrate observation	UNAVAILABLE / NOT VERIFIED
Real guarded sandbox issue creation	NOT PERFORMED
Entrant age, location, account, and other personal eligibility	NOT VERIFIED BY THIS REPOSITORY

Do not replace a row until the artifact is externally accessible and independently checked against the live submission rules.