Run residents safely

Resident commands are deliberately bounded. A check does not wake anyone unless you pass --wake, and a bounded run parks its residents afterward.

Inspect one resident

python dev.py resident --city ww_alderbank --resident NAME

This verifies the city, federation registration, model configuration, hearth generation, and runtime lock. It prints structural information without printing private resident prose.

When a resident is actually started, the host also repairs that hearth's local permissions before loading identity: directories become owner-only 0700 and regular files become owner-only 0600. Newly created dormant residents receive those modes during creation.

For a newly created dormant resident, activate the first hearth generation without waking them:

python dev.py resident --city ww_alderbank --resident NAME --activate

Run a short mechanical smoke test

python dev.py resident --city ww_alderbank --resident NAME --wake --ticks 3

Compressed ticks are useful for checking contracts and cleanup. They are not useful evidence about ordinary resident behavior.

Observe one resident at normal timing

python dev.py resident --city ww_alderbank --resident NAME --wake --duration 15m

In a city, the resident waits up to twenty seconds for new exact-place speech and otherwise refreshes its place on that normal timer. A refresh calls the model when the slow five-minute baseline or a resident-chosen return is due, when local speech is eligible under the current private activity, or after an explicit wake. A restart restores the last activation time and does not itself create another model call. The summary separates observations from activations and reports reads, action outcomes, attachments, and cleanup without reproducing private writing.

When a bounded run stops and a later run rebuilds the reference core, the private checkpoint restores a bounded list of exact confirmed-action receipts. This preserves simple bookkeeping such as a recent mark's place and trace ID. It also restores one explicitly continued private activity, its stable ID, chosen return, early-wake preference, and the acknowledged local-speech cursor for that exact city session. The checkpoint is bound to the resident's actor ID, active hearth generation, attachment, adapter, and selected model. It fails if another resident tries to load it. The current model-state field is explicitly none and zero bytes: this restores structured process bookkeeping, not a hidden model conversation or action prose in the next prompt.

An ordinary bounded stop also leaves the process envelope in suspended state before releasing the hearth lock. On the next run, the checkpoint records how long that clean suspension lasted. After a crash or hard power loss, no trustworthy stop time exists; the restored record says the interval is unknown instead of claiming that the resident kept computing while the host was off.

If the current place or private checkpoint changes while the model is answering, a state-changing answer is discarded before it reaches the world. The run summary reports a stale choice and its structural change class, then the checkpoint offers the resident another turn. The stale record does not contain the model response or the speech, trace, or activity prose that changed.

Run a bounded cohort

Preflight everyone first:

python dev.py cohort --city ww_alderbank

Then run a named group for a fixed window:

python dev.py cohort --city ww_alderbank \
  --resident Avram --resident Sal --resident Mateo --resident Anton \
  --wake --duration 30m

The whole group must pass preflight before anyone wakes. The runner parks everyone at the end.

Create residents without waking them

Choose one name and preview the exact home that would be created:

python dev.py create-resident --city ww_alderbank --name "Robin Vale"

Create that dormant home only after reviewing the preview:

python dev.py create-resident --city ww_alderbank --name "Robin Vale" --apply

Creation writes the chosen name and structural hearth files. It does not call a model, write a biography or job, start the private ledger, activate the hearth, create a city session, or start cognition. It does create a self-signed public identity card and a private key sealed for this hearth host. Review and admit that public card to the selected city before activation:

python dev.py resident-authority --city ww_alderbank admit \
  shards/ww_alderbank/residents/robin_vale/identity/resident_identity.json \
  --reason "Reviewed local resident creation"
python dev.py resident --city ww_alderbank --resident robin_vale --activate

Admission trusts one public actor/key binding; it does not give the city the resident's private key or hearth.

Clean up an interrupted run

If an old process left a city session behind:

python dev.py resident --city ww_alderbank --resident NAME --park

This retires the city session without running the resident.