Every packages/*/* README now carries a canonical '## Known Limitations and
Deferred Work' section: condensed, evidence-backed bullets for consumer-visible
gaps (unimplemented features, platform caveats, MVP cuts) and consciously
postponed work (TODO/FIXME/XXX markers, RFC deferrals still open). The ten
pre-existing ad-hoc variants ('What is NOT here (TODO)', 'Deferred',
'Limitations (MVP)', 'Known limitations (tracked TODOs)', ...) are normalized
into the canonical heading.
A new doc-sync gate, scripts/verify-readme-limitations.ts, enforces the shape:
exactly one limitations-like heading per package README, byte-equal to the
canonical h2, with at least one bullet; near-miss headings fail so variants
cannot creep back. Packages with genuinely nothing to declare (dsh-brand,
dsh-timeout, dsh-subagent-mock, dsh-app-boot) are whitelisted in the script and
must NOT carry the section; whitelist entries are validated against the scanned
package set so a rename fails loud.
Wired into the doc-sync chain (package.json) and the run-gates doc-sync leaf
set; the standing rule lands in packages/AGENTS.md and the adding-a-package
cookbook; decision record in
docs/rfc/implemented/process/2026-07-10-readme-known-limitations-gate.md
(RFC index regenerated).
Also fixes two stale '(deferred)' markers claiming dsh-compact-basic is
unimplemented (the dsh-compact seam README's package table and the seam's
module doc comment).
core/ — product API spine
The session log, system-prompt assembly, tool registry, agent vocabulary, and concrete loop that form the harness's default control spine. These are product packages — the stable surface plugins and consumers build against.
| Package | Role | ctx key |
|---|---|---|
scope/ |
Scoped-context registration primitive (scope tags, scope-filtered dispatch) | (library — no ctx key) |
session/ |
Event-sourced session log + in-memory store | ctx.sessions |
system-prompt/ |
Prompt-section + tool-schema assembly registry | ctx.systemPrompt |
tools/ |
Scoped tool registry + pre-policy, guards, around-dispatch, post-policy, and final-result observation | ctx.tools |
agent/ |
Agent interface, registry, agent/* event vocabulary |
ctx.agents |
agent-loop/ |
The concrete loop plugin: ReactLoopAgent + the loop driver |
ctx.agentLoop |
agent-core/ |
Bundle plugin: the default executor-less/UI-less spine as code | (loads the spine) |
scope/ is the one non-service package here: a dependency-free library (createScope/scopeOf/scopeTarget) the registries and the loop build per-agent scoping on — it sits below session/ and system-prompt/ in the module graph precisely so they can consume it without a cycle.
agent-loop is the one concrete implementation of the agent seam and lives here because it is the harness's default product loop; everything else in core/ is interface/vocabulary. Plugins depend on the agent vocabulary, never on agent-loop directly, so the loop stays swappable.
agent-core is the composition counterpart: one bundle plugin that loads the control spine plus selected default capabilities (timer + llm + sessions + system-prompt + tools + agents + invariants + the local skill family + tool-bash + agent-loop) and forwards agent-loop's agents list as its own config. App packages (ui/stdio-agent, ui/acp-agent) consume it and add only a front door; a leaf adds the swappable backends plus any optional product tools it wants to expose. It lives in core/ because it composes the shared control spine while leaving executors, LLM adapters, alternate skill providers, and UI front doors outside the bundle.