| name | overnight-worktree-Codex-noop-recovery |
| description | Recover overnight Codex worktree batches that appear to succeed but produce no artifacts; harden rerun prompts and launch commands. |
| version | 1.0.0 |
| author | Hermes Agent |
| license | MIT |
Overnight worktree Codex no-op recovery
Use this when an unattended multi-worktree Codex batch is launched correctly, exits with code 0, but expected planning/report artifacts are missing.
Trigger pattern
- Background
Codex -p jobs in separate worktrees
process poll shows exit_code: 0- stdout/log output is empty or unhelpful
- expected result files under
docs/reports/ / docs/plans/ / scripts/review/results/ were not created
What happened in the learned case
A 3-worktree overnight planning wave was launched safely from isolated worktrees. All three Codex runs exited successfully, but two produced no expected outputs and one only preserved pre-existing artifacts. The initial prompts were too easy for Codex to effectively no-op while still returning success. A first rerun also failed because the launcher used relative prompt-file paths that the shell did not resolve as expected.
Recovery workflow
- Verify the run really no-op'd
- Check the expected artifacts directly, not just process exit code.
- For each worktree, inspect:
- required summary/report file
- target
docs/plans/*issue* files
- target
scripts/review/results/*issue* files
- If none exist, treat the run as failed even if Codex exited 0.
- Keep the worktree isolation
- Do NOT rerun in the dirty main checkout.
- Reuse or create one worktree per terminal/lane.
- Preserve zero-overlap write boundaries.
- Harden the prompt before rerunning
- Make the FIRST mandatory action the creation of a unique summary/result file.
- Require a STARTED section immediately.
- Require a COMPLETED or BLOCKED section before exit.
- State explicitly: do not exit without writing this file.
- Reduce ambition: even if deeper plan edits fail, the summary file must still be produced.
Example requirement block:
docs/reports/2026-04-23-terminal-N-...summary.md- MUST include STARTED timestamp
- MUST include issues in scope
- MUST include blockers
- MUST append COMPLETED/BLOCKED before exit
- Use absolute prompt paths in the launcher
- Avoid
PROMPT=$(< docs/plans/.../prompt.md) in reruns.
- Prefer:
PROMPT=$(< /abs/path/to/prompt.md)
- This removes cwd/path ambiguity in copied worktree setups.
- Relaunch as background jobs
- Same
Codex -p --permission-mode acceptEdits --no-session-persistence ...
- Keep one process per worktree.
- Poll after launch to ensure the shell found the prompt file.
- Morning interpretation rule
exit 0 + no artifacts = failed/no-op runexit nonzero due to prompt path = launcher failure- only artifact existence counts as success
Recommended launch pattern
wt=/mnt/local-analysis/worktrees/ws-tier1-knowledge-overnight-t2
prompt=$wt/docs/plans/overnight-prompts/2026-04-22-tier1-knowledge-beef-up/rerun-terminal-2-engineering-core-and-utilities.md
cd "$wt"
mkdir -p logs
PROMPT=$(< "$prompt")
Codex -p \
--permission-mode acceptEdits \
--no-session-persistence \
--output-format text \
--max-budget-usd 20 \
"$PROMPT" </dev/null > logs/Codex-tier1-terminal-2-rerun.log 2>&1
Checks to run after a suspicious success
python - <<'PY'
from pathlib import Path
root=Path('/path/to/worktree')
for pat in [
'docs/reports/expected-summary.md',
'docs/plans/*2461*',
'scripts/review/results/*2461*',
]:
print(pat, list(root.glob(pat)))
PY
Key lesson
For unattended Codex planning batches, prompt design must force an observable artifact very early. Process exit codes and silent logs are not reliable proof of work completion.
