Run a recurring cron-tick babysit loop that watches a single AO worker driving a PR — observe activity, post concise status updates to the originating Slack thread, suppress noise via [SILENT]/HEARTBEAT_OK when nothing changed, terminate the loop cleanly when the PR reaches a terminal state (merged, closed, abandoned) or the worker is gone. v1.2.0 (2026-07-05) adds the **executable self-cancel contract**: every babysit invocation MUST pass `--cron-job-id` to `babysit.py poll`/`babysit.py babysysit` so the script can issue `cronjob action=remove` itself on terminal PR detection. Without `--cron-job-id`, the prompt-level self-cancel clause is unreachable from the script and the cron leaks until the watchdog catches it (≤30 min). v1.1.0 (2026-07-05) added Phase 0.5 self-cancel discipline + the `babysit-stale-watchdog` companion. Triggered by any "babysit wa-NNNN" / "watch PR N" / "tick loop on PR N" instruction or any scheduled cron job that follows the pattern.
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Run a recurring cron-tick babysit loop that watches a single AO worker driving a PR — observe activity, post concise status updates to the originating Slack thread, suppress noise via [SILENT]/HEARTBEAT_OK when nothing changed, terminate the loop cleanly when the PR reaches a terminal state (merged, closed, abandoned) or the worker is gone. v1.2.0 (2026-07-05) adds the **executable self-cancel contract**: every babysit invocation MUST pass `--cron-job-id` to `babysit.py poll`/`babysit.py babysysit` so the script can issue `cronjob action=remove` itself on terminal PR detection. Without `--cron-job-id`, the prompt-level self-cancel clause is unreachable from the script and the cron leaks until the watchdog catches it (≤30 min). v1.1.0 (2026-07-05) added Phase 0.5 self-cancel discipline + the `babysit-stale-watchdog` companion. Triggered by any "babysit wa-NNNN" / "watch PR N" / "tick loop on PR N" instruction or any scheduled cron job that follows the pattern.
babysit-ao-pr-loop
A scheduled cron job ticks every N minutes on a single PR + AO worker pair. Each tick observes (does NOT modify or push) and posts a concise status update to a pre-known Slack thread. The loop is finite — it must terminate cleanly when the work is done, and stay quiet when nothing changed.
When to load
A scheduled cron job is targeting a single PR + worker session (e.g. babysit wa-2403 on PR #7711).
A user asks you to "watch PR N", "tick loop on PR N", or "babysit worker wa-NNNN".
You are inheriting an existing babysit loop mid-life and need to keep its cadence without re-creating its contract.
Do NOT load for: one-shot agento_report aggregations (use agento_report), PR bring-to-green interactive loops (use drive-pr-to-green / finish-the-job), full-time babysitting of a launched dev server or browser session (different domain).
The contract (each tick)
Each tick has exactly five phases. Do them in this order, every tick:
Phase 0 — Pre-flight (early-exit; run BEFORE composing any output)
Run these three checks. If ANY short-circuits the loop, do NOT post, do NOT nudge — produce the single suppression token or the single terminal message and exit.
state == "MERGED" → terminal: post ONE single-line final message to the thread (e.g. ✅ PR <N> merged on <mergedAt>. Loop closing.) and exit. Do not run subsequent ticks.
state == "CLOSED" (not merged) → terminal: post ONE escalation asking the user whether to keep the loop alive or stop it (your call: which is more useful here is up to the operator, but default to "stop, ask user"). Do not re-tick on your own.
Is the worker session still alive?
ao session ls 2>&1 | grep -E "wa-<id>|<session_label>"
If the worker is gone AND the PR is not yet merged → terminal: post ONE final message noting the worker died, worker session no longer in ao session ls, and the loop is closing pending operator direction. Do not auto-respawn.
If the worker is gone AND the PR is already merged → terminal: post ONE final message acknowledging both ends and exit.
Did anything actually change since the last tick?
Compare current git log origin/<base>..HEAD --since="<last_tick_ts>" --oneline to the last-tick reading. If empty AND no new commit lands on origin/<branch> AND no new ao state change AND no CI rerun finished → suppress the full status update. Reply with the literal token HEARTBEAT_OK (the cron playbook contract) — do NOT post to Slack. If the cron also says "if absolutely nothing new, reply [SILENT]" and you have an empty commit delta AND no in-thread message is required → reply exactly [SILENT] per the cron playbook SILENT contract.
⚠️ Pitfall — duplicate closeouts. A common failure mode is two consecutive babysit ticks each independently noticing "work is done" and each posting a full closeout. After the FIRST tick posts the terminal message, every subsequent tick MUST short-circuit at Phase 0 step 1 even if mergedAt was already reported. Do not "refresh" a closeout. The first tick owns the close; subsequent ticks own silence.
Phase 0.5 — SELF-CANCEL on terminal state (added 2026-07-05, v1.1.0)
After posting the terminal closeout in Phase 0 step 1 or step 2, the cron MUST also remove itself so no further ticks fire. The 2026-07-05 babysit-wa-2403-PR7711 incident exposed the failure mode: the cron reported MERGED every tick for 9+ days but never called cronjob action=remove on itself, producing 251 polls of duplicate closeouts to the same Slack thread.
Mandatory self-cancel clause — every babysit cron prompt MUST include this verbatim (the agent prompt, not just the skill):
After posting the Phase 0 terminal closeout, immediately call:
cronjob action=remove job_id=$CRON_JOB_ID
If cronjob is unavailable (legacy launchd-managed babysit), fall back to:
launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u)/<label>
If neither command is available, set Disabled=true in the plist template
and notify the operator to remove it manually. Then emit [SILENT] on
all subsequent ticks.
Executable contract (added 2026-07-05, v1.2.0) — the prompt-level clause above is necessary but not sufficient. The babysit MUST invoke babysit.py poll (or babysit.py babysit) with --cron-job-id $CRON_JOB_ID so the script can issue cronjob action=remove itself on terminal-PR detection. Without --cron-job-id, the prompt's "issue cronjob action=remove" instruction is unreachable from the script and the cron will leak past terminal-state until the watchdog catches it (up to 30 min).
Canonical prompt excerpt:
# Find this babysit's cron job_id once, then pass it to babysit.py on every tick
JOB_ID=$(cronjob list | jq -r '.jobs[] | select(.name=="<this babysit name>") | .id')
python3 ~/.hermes/skills/ao-babysit/scripts/babysit.py poll \
--session "$SESSION_ID" \
--slack-channel "$CHANNEL" \
--slack-thread-ts "$THREAD_TS" \
--task-summary "<task summary text including PR URL or PR #NNNN>" \
--cron-job-id "$JOB_ID"
Regression contract:skills/ao-babysit/scripts/test_babysit_self_cancel.py enforces the executable side — that babysit.py defines cronjob_remove(), exposes --cron-job-id on both subcommands, and poll() invokes cronjob_remove(cron_job_id) in the terminal-PR branch. 11/11 tests pass; any future regression to babysit.py that drops the self-cancel plumbing fails the suite.
Companion watchdog:~/.hermes/skills/babysit-stale-watchdog/SKILL.md
ships a launchd plist (ai.hermes.schedule.babysit-stale-watchdog)
that runs every 30 min and disables any babysit cron whose referenced
PR is MERGED/CLOSED, even if the in-script Phase 0.5 self-cancel is
broken, missing, or running against an old prompt version. The
watchdog is the safety net; the in-script Phase 0.5 is the fast path.
Both layers are required.
Audit recipe for existing babysit crons that pre-date Phase 0.5
(the v1.0.0 babysit cron registry may have un-self-cancelled jobs):
cronjob list | jq '.jobs[] | select(.enabled and (.name|test("babysit|wa-[0-9]")))'# For each match: gh pr view <PR-ref> --json state,mergedAt# If MERGED or CLOSED, run: cronjob action=remove job_id=<id>
Phase 1 — Observe (only if Phase 0 did NOT early-exit)
Run these and only these. Do NOT modify code; do NOT push; do NOT amend commits; do NOT call ao send or git commit.
git log origin/<base>..HEAD --oneline — what has the worker committed?
git status — any uncommitted work? (Untracked artifacts in the worktree like .beads/.write.lock, specs/skeptic-report.json, ADVERSARIAL_REVIEW_*.md are NORMAL residue from prior ticks, not new work. Do not flag them as "uncommitted work" unless they are fresh files on the fix-related paths.)
ao session ls | grep <session> — worker state (working / pr_open / spawning / killed).
gh pr checks <PR> --repo <OWNER>/<REPO> — CI state (only if Phase 0 didn't early-exit AND worker has pushed since last tick).
git log origin/<base>..HEAD --stat — only if there are new commits this tick.
Run these as a single parallel fan-out of terminal calls to keep ticks fast. NOT serial.
Phase 2 — Decide nudges (only if Phase 0 didn't early-exit AND state has changed)
If worker has NOT pushed in 30+ min AND state is still spawning or working → call ao send <session> "STATUS?" (the canonical nudge). Wait, do not inline-Enter; the manual Enter is the cron-playbook convention. After nudging, post a one-line note in the thread: Nudged wa-NNNN at HH:MMZ — no push in N min.
If CI is red → summarize the failing check name + run URL in one line. Do not propose fixes; do not edit code. The babysit does not fix.
If worker pushed new commits since last tick → summarize what landed (commit count + headline + one-line behavior delta), then run gh pr checks and post a 1-line green/red summary.
If state == pr_open AND CI fully green AND reviewer-ready (no unresolved CodeRabbit CHANGES_REQUESTED, no Bugbot error-severity comments, mergeable=true) AND no skeptic request on the current head SHA yet → post /skeptic to the PR (NOT to the babysit thread) per the project's skeptic-cron contract. Verify with gh pr comments first.
Phase 3 — Post the status update to the Slack thread (only if Phase 0 didn't early-exit)
Use the cron-deliverable template. Post ONE message per tick. Keep it under 12 lines.
:large_green_circle: _PR <N> babysit tick — HH:MMZ_
• Worker state: <ao_session_state> | Branch: <branch> | HEAD: <short_sha>
• Activity since last tick: <commit count> commits, headlines: <h1>; <h2>; ...
OR "no new commits in <N> min"
• CI: :white_check_mark: green OR :x: <failing check name> (<run_url>) OR :hourglass: pending
• Reviewers: CodeRabbit <approve|request-changes|pending>; Bugbot <clean|errors|skipping>
• Action taken this tick: <nudge / status-only / none>
• Next checkpoint: <merge-ready / awaiting CI / awaiting CR / awaiting user>
If the worker has gone silent for a full 30 min window with no commits and no state change → reply HEARTBEAT_OK and DO NOT POST to Slack. This is the cron playbook's silence contract.
If the cron delivery instructions say "respond with exactly [SILENT]" AND there is genuinely nothing to report AND no nudge needed → reply exactly [SILENT] per that contract.
Termination rules (loop closure)
When ANY of these are true, the loop is done:
PR state is MERGED (Phase 0 catches this).
PR state is CLOSED without merge, AND the operator has confirmed to stop.
Worker session is gone from ao session ls, AND the operator has confirmed to stop.
The cron schedule itself has been disabled (e.g. one-time cron fired + --delete-after-run completed).
The PR has been open > N days (configurable, default 14) with no movement AND no recent owner action → ask the operator.
When terminating:
Post ONE final summary to the thread.
Disable or self-delete the cron (one-time crons with --delete-after-run handle this automatically).
If the cron is launchd-managed and meant to keep ticking, set Disabled=true in the plist template and launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u)/<label>.
Anti-patterns (do NOT do)
❌ Reposting the same closeout message every tick after the work is done. One tick owns the close; later ticks own silence.
❌ Posting to Slack when nothing changed and the playbook says HEARTBEAT_OK / [SILENT]. Noise is worse than silence — the human inbox is the precious resource.
❌ Inlining Enter after ao send "STATUS?". The cron-playbook convention is the literal newline-less stream; the worker ITSELF consumes the manual Enter as a session-input boundary.
❌ Editing code, even to fix a CI red. The babysit is observe-only. Drive-to-green goes to drive-pr-to-green or finish-the-job, which is a different loop.
❌ Auto-respawning the worker when it disappears. The operator decides.
❌ Treating untracked worktree files (.beads/.write.lock, specs/*.json, ADVERSARIAL_REVIEW_*.md) as "uncommitted work" — they are harness residue from prior ticks, not the fix's scope.
❌ Post-merge commits on the branch tip are NOT the babysit's problem. Drift accumulated after mergedAt belongs to a different audit; ignore it for status purposes.
Tool usage notes
Use terminal for git, gh, ao — fan-out parallel, not serial. A tick should not take more than 6 sequential tool calls.
Use mcp__slack__conversations_add_message for thread replies. The cron invocation will pre-populate channel_id + thread_ts; verify before posting (per slack-reply-inherit-thread-ts).
Use mcp__slack__conversations_replies once per tick if you need to confirm whether earlier ticks already posted a closeout.
Do NOT use mcp__slack__conversations_history in full — paging through the channel is wasteful and may surface unrelated threads. The thread is the unit of work.
Verification
Before posting the first tick of a new babysit loop, confirm:
The cron is correctly delivering to the channel + thread configured by the operator. (The cron prompt usually specifies these.)
The branch name + base branch + PR number are correct. (gh pr view <N> --json headRefName,baseRefName.)
The worker session id is correct. (ao session ls | grep <pattern>.)
If you inherit a mid-loop babysit, READ THE LAST 3 THREAD REPLIES before posting — if a recent tick already announced completion, post [SILENT] (do NOT duplicate the closeout).
Support files
references/mid-loop-handoff.md — pattern for inheriting a babysit loop from a previous session and confirming the thread state before posting.
references/cron-prompt-anatomy.md — anatomy of a babysit cron task prompt (channel, thread_ts, branch, PR, worker session, beat) and how to extract them safely.
